Since I'm a Japanophile, why not take my obsession and make it a creative outlet. Expect to be seeing of fiction writing very very very SOON!

So yea, I'm at Columbia, its awesome, expensive, full of hot skinny jean wearin' emo guys and gorgeous girls of all types. All the Asians hide and go everywhere together which is very bad for me! My appetite needs to be fed. I'm crazy. CRAZY for JAPANESE!!! Oh yea did I mention I'm living at home? Thats right I was never able to get a loan and the one I did try was fuckin retarded but its okay cause at least I'm a full time student I mean of course I don't mind not being on my own and living at home with three annoying siblings (only one I can tolerate) and still being controlled by my mom The only good thing I can say is she doesn't give a shit when I come home it's all good really, of course I'm not upset to not be in the dorms why would I? PSSSSH!

So yea thats my newest post.

So I just talked about more college crap...but I wanted to end things on a high note and well, I didn't want to compile everything together and sound incoherent or anything.

Since my birthday/graduation, I've been swimming in money. The other day while my family was at the Shedd Aquarium, I was out at Borders hoping to spend at least something because I mean, my money had been rotting away in my wallet for about a week. I ended up buying Eyes Set To Kills new album The World Outside. For any post-hardcore fans out there they are definitely worth checking out. It doesn't sound too different from their first album, but there is a little metalcore from their screamer Brandon, vocalists/guitarists AND sisters Alexia and Anissa never sounded so hot (not to mention they shred), and also heavier alt-metal guitars in a select few of the songs. Track #3 features Craig Mabbit, woo hoo =)

ENOUGH of my fanboy rants! I also bought Twilight for DVD, not Blu Ray, DVD. I'm not cool enough for Blu Ray. So yea Twilight, I don't care how many people hate it and think it killed the vampire, I liked it and I had the money to spend. I will say that there are plenty of vampires that could kick the asses of all the Cullens. Like say...Deacon Frost from the first Blade movie. A fight with him against Edward results in Deacon Frost the winner, hands down. Whats also funny is that a majority of the fans, and the fans I'm referring to are the screaming girls who worship Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, don't seem to be familiar with the sort of "all star" cast. For example, Cam Gigandet, the guy who played James the evil one? He was Kevin Volchok...aka the dude who killed Melissa in The O.C.! Yea. I wonder how many people know that...Peter Facinelli...the guy who played Carlisle? Recurring role in Six Feet Under, star of 2002 Fox series Fastlane...married to Jenny Garth, I figure people know that. I'm done here, just an small testament to the other talented actors in the movie.

As much as I wanted the movie 21, Borders apparently sold it to someone who is probably on their couch enjoying it right now!! So I got Fired Up instead because I really wanted to see that movie and everyone was saying it was really funny.

And that concludes my trip to Borders...

What further put my mind to rest for awhile was a nice outing with my mom. We shopped at Target, I bought some shirts, shorts, a really awesome jacket and a pair of shoes...I was very tempted to buy two games and the Underworld trilogy, but going with my better judgment decided I can get those things any day. That aside, it was a really good day, damn hot, but very good. My mom and I haven't done anything in like, forever so it was nice.

Now that's what I call ending on a high note. Ooh and before I forget, I'm changing my layout. Yea, your looking at a die-hard Bleach fan.

edit: Okay...my layout did not work, turns out it wasn't compatible with livejournal or something...so for the time being, enjoy my unstyled...style!

Hello loyal friends, forward slash followers ;)

I'm sorry I don't post very much, but if you haven't guessed I'm a very busy dude. Or at least I am now given recent developments. Most of my time since high school graduation (which was awesome by the way) has been spent on long and tedious phone calls with Columbia Colleges financial aid office. According to them, I'm getting 8,000 per semester, but in my award letter it says 10,000! Of course I have no choice but to assume that their 8,000-dollar estimate stems from the fact that my mom can't afford the parent loan or whatever the hell it is, all of the stafford loans and shit. Just thinking about how insecure my financial plan is in gives me the feeling that I'm about to have an aneurysm. It's fucking suffocating >=(

So to give me SOME peace of mind...I've applied for the Chase bank student loan that I'd been going on about to my mom and sister for what seemed like ages. Given that I'm getting 8,000 per semester, and tuition for this year looks to be around 17,000 plus my housing which will run another 8,000, I've calculated that I'm short by around 19,000. I forgot the exact numbers but in that area around the middle. So I applied for 20,000 just to be sure. This so called "peace of mind" however is merely adding to the stress as I wait in silence for the email that I hope will change my life as I know it in varying degrees. Please cross your fingers, wish me luck, let the lord know I'm in your prayers...(if that's your thing)...your support I greatly appreciate

So our senior retreat was held at the wonderful Damien Hall at Loyola University. I met up with two people as soon as I got off the red line, go figure...we don't see each other until we get there! Then we run into a shitload of people, well that's exaggerating a bit, but there were quite the number of people loitering around McDonalds and elsewhere around the block. So I use the last 3.29 to my name to purchase some greasy, high in cholesterol goodness to hold me until lunch. Then me and a new formed group attempt to find Damien Hall. We get there, chat it up with everyone. Then the retreat starts...

For whatever reason I was forced to go up to the podium and read opening prayer...which was NOT fun!!! So we were put into groups...we did stuff, had an awesome buffet for lunch and did some more stuff...That's mostly it...

I did learn, however, via a blindfolding exercise that apparently there are people in my class who: admire me, think I'm courageous, Believe I'm a leader, would be a suitable candidate to be stranded on a deserted island with, love me (well obviously, no shocker there), think I'm funny (again, no shocker), among other things. Wow. I'm flattered!!

p.s. Does anyone here have a tumblr blog? I wouldn't mind some followers =D
http://danldaylightbaldwin.tumblr.com/

Mothers Day wasn't particularly fun. Considering I had a very low budget with which I was taking into consideration when I got her gift(s), I suppose I did good. A nice Office-themed audio card, even though she doesn't watch the show, and a little teddy bear with candy hearts in a heart shaped container in the center. My mom finally acknowledged to my oldest sister that my youngest sister and I subconsciously compete with each other over stuff like Mothers Day and birthdays, so that was a nice conversation.

That's about all the Mothers Day conversation I can afford...I'm actually really excited about this project I'm doing for music class. The teacher let us choose our own topics so I'm going to be focusing on rock music around the world. Specifically rock music in the U.S., France, Japan, Australia and Russia. Those are the countries whose music scenes I pay attention to, not including all of the metal bands based throughout Europe. I'm actually just getting into Russian music so if you got any bands you wanna share feel free to drop me a link or two. I discovered a nice alternative/nu metal band and they're pretty good. I mistook them for another band in the picture I was looking at and it also took me forever to decipher what the name of the band was...eventually I discovered just who "Slot" was...they make awesome music. So on that note, I leave you to check them out in these two songs. The second one is a live video.

It's been quite a while since I last logged onto my livejournal. Quite a few things have happened, but not a whole lot.

Over the course of the last two weeks, I was insanely sick with the flu. It was not fun at all. I missed four days of school. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday. So if you include Saturday and Sunday I basically had myself a six-day weekend. It was a real pain in the ass being sick as I'm sure you all know, but I was growing rather used to staying home in bed watching tv and drinking all the hot honey lemon tea my mother could afford. She went full out this time with three cartons of orange juice to myself, at least several 24.0z liters of diet sierra mist, a whole two loaves of bread for toast because I don't like soup, and two boxes of saltine crackers. So as you can see I had a nice little vacation. Through my my misery I started missing my friends which added to the misery. I missed school too, ya know it's just too bad classes have to ruin it. I'm doing a lot better for whatever reason my cough won't go away. Sometimes I choke on them, lol.

I received my award letter from Colombia College showing how much money they can give me for education but get this: They took a map grant that was supposed to cover my housing and they applied it towards my education! So now I'm looking for scholarships and I'm also looking into gov. student loans. One of my friends thinks I'm, and I quote, "dumb as hell" for wanting to live on campus when the school is downtown and not too far from where I live. She's a good person I love her but she doesn't know what my life at home is like. Not many people at school do because I don't usually talk about it. It's not as bad as some people, I'm not fighting with my mom 24/7 or being abused, no nothing like that. It's just the environment that is the problem. I would have to deal with trying to live with two brothers who have FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) and ADHD, and my youngest brother has those, and Autism. And it's gotta be like the highest level of Autism because he is just crazy! I wouldn't be happy living at home and plus I just wouldn't feel like I was a part of the school community at Colombia. I would basically be reliving high school if I just went to class and then went home. It wouldn't be the same leaving my own house to hang out with people on campus as opposed to living with all those people. So yea...

I actually got back from Colombia about three hours ago. I went for a Bridge Program preview session. It's basically summer school at Colombia for students who weren't accepted to demonstrate that they can succeed at Colombia and do college-level work. So I went and some dudes talked more about it, handed out schedules so we can see what it is we'll be doing. It ended rather quickly. So I decided to stick around for the campus tour. An hour and a half of walking around Colombia's campus looking at all of the different departments. We also saw a suite-style dorm in the University Center, we couldn't see the apartment-styles for some reason. So yea, it was a lot of fun. I'm determined to go to Colombia and live on Colombia. We'll see what happens.

More crazy shit happened in school! There was slang, racial slurs and explicates thrown in every which direction!!!

It all started in 4th block French class. Everything was normal, people including myself chatted amongst ourselves while learning, well, French! This is really dumb. Francois, a junior, was joking around with Caleb, a sophomore, about how his pants were flooding, right? We all know what flooding means right? It's when your pants rise up past your ankles a freshman, Araseli was messing with Caleb too and see Caleb thought that flooding was some sort of racist term so he threw out a comment and I quote "at least I didn't come from the ghetto and cross the boarder"...by then it wasn't dumb anymore! Araselie went through the roof she was cussing his ass out and telling him about how hard it is for immigrants to cross the boarder. Then she said "This is why I fucking hate white boys" ...Oh dizam to the nizam!!

So after she stormed out the room, Francoise and Caleb got into another fight because Francoise was pretty pissed off that Caleb said something so offensive and was apparently oblivious to that. Our loveable assistant principle Mr. Sieve took them both out of class and Caleb was not a happy man....

Soooo much drama in my school! We need to relax, just chill! Check out Bright Eyes!

Coach Scott started some weird thing where we do 15 jumping jacks, mountain climbs (whatever they are called!), squats and push ups and other excercises. Then we'd repeat do 25 of them, and then 30 of them! It was murder!

Of course that was nothing compared to the personal training he started. He picked me and some freshman girl to go first while everyone else did workouts in groups! All I'm going to say is Ever since my arms feel like they are about ready to just fall right off! I swear to god I better be pumping iron, all the crap he has us doing!!!

You guys like Alesana and their cover of What Goes Around/Comes Aroung by JT?

The craziest thing happened last night!!

I had no plans for Friday Evening right? So my friend Mary calls me and complains how she wanted to go to the movies but can't because her friend bailed out. I offer to go with her and she tells me to meet her at Loyola when she gets off work at 8:00. I went through Hell to get out of the house. I ask my mom if I can go to the movies. At first she gives me all this bullshit about how it's too late--hello, you consider 8:00 too late??--to go out so I have to basically give her the "I'm 18" speech because really she treats me as if I don't have a clue of the world. Eventually, after telling her where we're going, what theater and all that, she releases me into the great outdoors with some money. So I hop the Red Line train and keep in mind that over the course of everything I've said that Mary was continuously calling me asking if I'm going and to hurry up. So I finally reach Loyola and I'm calling Mary over and over...

And over and over...and over....and....over!

So she eventually calls me back and I'm like "where are you? are we doing this?" And get this! She tells me she is about to go home! SHE'S ABOUT TO GO HOME!

As I try to assess the situation, she reveals that she had been calling for like 30-minutes while I was on the train. My phone never vibrated though so I never got any calls and in addition to that I didn't know it took me thirty-minutes to get from Chicago to Loyola :o !!!

So I'm asking her why can't we just go anyway she tells me her dad is like right across the street and he isn't going to pick her up anymore...so that's the story.

This isn't my greatest moment, in fact I imagine this is something that would happen to a loser...therefore, I'm a loser? =( Waaaah!

It's all good though because we hung out today downtown at the Water Tower. After some shopping we ate in the food court and I begged her if we could run back into American Eagle Outfitter but she was insisting on going to H&M...so we went to H&M. I ended up buying something there actually, to my surprise. Except now when she and I go to the movies next Friday I'm going to have to ask my mom for more money!!! A feat which is next to impossible! Wait, no it is impossible! Aiyah!

Now that I think about it though, maybe I shouldn't go with her. She wants to see Fast & Furious but I want to see The Haunting In Connecticut? If your reading this, is there any reason why you would choose one over the other? I just don't see what is soooo exciting about some tricked out cars, drug lords and FBI pursuit shit :\ The Haunting In Connecticut is without a doubt much more intriguing!

Thanks to awesome people, I've found new music to listen to, granted some of those things I've already heard of. I love Emilie Autumn and Deadsy and The Birthday Massacre! I hear TBM has had a new album out since February and I heard this from wikipedia which is not always a reliable source. Anyways you guys are the best. Thanks for everything =D
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So today in music class we started watching the original Blues Brothers. I've never seen it or the remake but it's so far epic! I do have one problem with it however! Tell me why the hell Princess Leah is trying to kill the brothers!!! WHY!? I never would have even known that Princess Leah, a.k.a. actress Carrie Fisher, was even in the movie if Mr. Sieve hadn't pointed that out! It's crazy though! She randomly pulls out a rocket launcher and fires it at them; she blows up the motel where they are staying and THEN while they're making a phone call in a booth she comes up with a flamethrower and blows up like a gas tank that is conveniently right by the phone booth! And get this, they aren't dead let alone aware of the fact that some crazy woman is trying to kill them! R A N D O M ... AS ... H E L L ! ! !

Today for the first time I played the amazing game of Cranium!!! That game is really fun and I think I might just go out and buy it =) Looks like Scrabble has some competition for my #1 favorite game.

So that's actually all I have to say tonight. I couldn't help but notice that my last journal wasn't read I guess and thats cool but friends if you read this please! If you know of any industrial music (rock, metal, electro-industrial, synthpop/rock whatever!!) then gimme something to check out! I'm on a high right now!!!!!! HELP ME!

I got my jeans from Hot Topic a few days ago. I'll post pics of em soon they're cool. One pair is definitely owning all my other jeans :\
===

So check this out. I've been digging industrial music lately and I can't figure out for the life of me why. I guess it's because I just wanted to listen to something different that isn't on my iPod. I'll never know. Sometimes I question how the hell I got into all of the shit I listen to today. I remember a long time ago I used to despise all forms of metal as well as post-hardcore with a passion. I thought it was just loud screaming, definitely not music. If you had asked me three-years ago, "Hey Daniel, do you think you'll ever listen to like, metalcore or deathcore and screamo shit?" I would have said "HELL NO!" ...of course now I can't get enough of it. I'm liking this song a lot. It's by this industrial trance band called Delta-S.




If you guys know of any industrial shit you should definitely gimme some links and whatnot!

I've recently set a goal for myself: To taste every Quiznos Torpedo! Until then, I won't know my favorite =(






So far I have tasted Turkey Club and Turkey Pesto...I believe I have two or thee more left. It's easy because I have a Quiznos right by my house. It is of course somewhat awkward when every time you want to go in the same two workers are always there. Even more so when neither party, in this case the two employees and myself, takes initiative to make some sort of conversation. The wait for a sandwich at Quiznos is at least 5-minutes. So that's five minutes of awkward silence.

They really do need to get some more employees. It is like deadwood in that place. Deadwood with a calm and soothing vibe...That's about it for tonight. I hope you enjoyed this Quiznos-themed entry :\






One of my favorite indie bands. They are very well on par with Bright Eyes =)

I'm soooooo sick right now. At approximately 3:00 AM on Wednesday, March 25, I woke up feeling extremely congested and I coughed up something but I was too weak to get up let alone fully gain consciousness. So I skipped out school that day, only to resume the following Thursday. My mysterious and sudden cold has not left me yet. I am just glad I don't have..what is it, strep throat or something? That's been going around throughout the school like a roach infestation.

So today was pretty uneventful. Since I missed Wednesday I had my first day in the gym for P.E./Health class. Everything is as I remember it: Daily routine consists of running laps for 10-minutes, stretching and various exercises at different stations. The stations were unaccounted for however since Fridays are free days, and that's only assuming the class does good with the routine. I was actually late today because my bus chose to arrive before me at 7:25 sharp so I knew I was screwed. I could have taken the train but I would have been late either way. So my five-day record was hopelessly shattered before my eyes. Hey, Before Their Eyes is a good band! So anyway, it was particularly embarrassing when I had no idea where the gym class was. The juniors were doing a practice A.C.T. and Coach Scott had mentioned a movie so I assumed we'd be in Ms. Krymski's room. We weren't. Soooo, our assistant principle had to announce for "a representative from Coach Scotts class to come up to the main office you have a lost student." Actually it was more like two students. Michelle was late too. Huh Sammie? MICHELLE! FUN FUN FUN! Turns out they were in the cafeteria the whole time; something I didn't expect since the juniors were all down their about to begin the practice exam that would determine the fate of their lives! For whatever reason Michelle didn't do anything whatsoever in the gym. After the routine the Coach had us do these random races and the last person to finish had to do something like 50 crunches, 20-50 push-ups and so on. I went straight for about nine races then I caved and just flunked the next race. My punishment was 100 jumping jacks. Afterward I was rewarded with use of my iPod. Something my friend Rachel was very jealous of especially when the Coach announced that Michelle and I were seniors (she had her iPod on too) Soooooooo, yea. Aside from that and a freshman girl who gets on my last damn nerves, all was good.

Don't get me wrong, the day was very uneventful I am just narrating a detailed account of what went on in a gym class. Obviously that stuff all went by very quickly as opposed to the length of which I went to explain the activities.

There IS a 30-hour famine happening as we speak at my school and I was hoping to participate and knock off like basically the rest of my hours, but I didn't have the money from donations so I can't go. It doesn't matter if your raising awareness in the greater community, my school STILL CHARGES YOU MONEY! $35 of donations minimum and three canned goods. >.> What the fuck ever! >.>

Enjoy this song by The Enemy (UK band)

The Business office is a place you never want to pay a visit too! In my school, whenever they call you to the office, it usually means they want money. I can't possibly imagine what else Geneva--a.k.a. the head honcho of all money-related affairs--could want. So this morning she calls a load of people down regarding ring payments and tuition! When I encounter her she claims I haven't payed tuition in months! Fucking months! Well...that's a fucking joke! My mom is the one who pays tuition and if that woman is gonna stand in front of me and lie to my face then I hope she is going to Hell for what I can only assume is conning people out of their money. Then she is gonna say you can't order a ring if your not paying tuition? What the fuck should they care for? It's coming out of our own pockets! We're talking about someone who loves to bring suffering to everyone with cash in hand, so it actually makes sense that she would want to wait until AFTER people have already been making payments to start saying "your ring will be on hold you cannot participate in the ceremony!" I swear to god that bitch is running up my last nerves! And my moms for that matter! >.>

Enough of that...my brother woke my mom and I up at like 4:30 in the morning so I couldn't get back to sleep and therefore I slept through half of English. By the time I woke up, a documentary on who killed Julius Caesar had just ended and my friend Julia is telling me class is over in five. I also dozed in and out during French. It was pretty annoying! I tried desperately to stay awake but my head just kept jerking back and forth as I dozed...well, in and out of consciousness. Other than my deprivation of sleep and more pissy fits from the office, my day was good.
No video today...I'm off to work service hours at the cat shelter. Bye, bye bye
Take care

I finally started watching Heroes again!! I missed the last two episodes but thankfully I wasn't really that confused. Contrary, I kept up at an accelerating rate.

Stage 4 has officially started! Lemme tell you, health sucks. Sammie, if you wanna talk about teachers that suck lets talk about Coach Scott!! Really, if you had to choose between him and Ms. Krymski? Come on!! So yea, that class is really not gonna be fun. Thank god I have at least three friends in that class. The rest are just immature freshman pricks who laugh at everything! I mean literally, EVERYTHING! Someone says something even remotely funny, they crack up like it's fucking Adam Sandler. It's very sad. On a more interesting note, someone was kicked out of class for disrespect and tried to pick a fight with a guy because said guy was supposedly in his way. Coach Scott lost it and was all "Thats it! you outta my class I hope they expel you" and shit! I have to say that's a little unfair because the Coach barely knows this sophomore. Then again, this kid was high as fuck and it's been like...what, five strikes now? He should be expelled but I suspect his family has money and they're all hush hush about it!

Oh, and Music isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Although I''m gonna miss my 3rd block math class just because I've barely had classes with any of my fellow seniors. My new third block is bustling with them though. Still, I'll miss my pals in 3rd block who are moving on without me =( ...On the plus side, I don't have to sit behind someone who smells like cow shit anymore! That is where I leave...I end my journal with this goth-industrial song =D
If you listen, PLEASE...comment on it!

So far, my weekend has been for the most part, uneventful. I had no school on Friday so my mom, who says we never do anything together, takes me to see Madea Goes To Jail. Yeah, it was a funny movie but I really want to see The Haunting In Connecticut. That movie looks bad ass and I'm pretty sure it's not a remake ;) Whoopee!

I called my friend Mary last night who I haven't really talked to in a while. I begged her with every last ounce of breathe in me to go shopping tomorrow but she's right now visiting NIU. All the way in Dekalb, IL. =( but whatever. We can chill another time. Right now I'm actually revising some essays I posted on another blog for class. I had a quesadilla for breakfast and I discovered a girl who is slammin' with those growling vocals! Here she is and her band!
Take care =D

Exams are finally over!! Yes!! This celebratory fashion of crying for joy is bittersweet however, for you see, I was a nervous wreck during my math exam. Despite me turning in mass amounts of homework and two major projects, I was still at an F! So I stayed after school and did some MORE work for my teacher and he said the best he could do was a D-!!! Crap! Then came break, lemme tell ya my school is thirsty for money!! They were giving out lunch but they charged $2.50, even for the people who get free lunch! I was all like, "Damn y'all extra thirsty to make some money!"

French was soooooooo damn frickin easy! I didn't even have to study for that shit! It's just that easy! I'm not worried about French at all! I expect at least a B =)

I ordered all of that stuff from Hot Topic tonight. Cost me about $130 and it will be here by next Thursday. I'm excited!

edit: Oh! I almost forgot! Thanks to all the people who added me and thanKs Sammie who suggested I check an add me community in the first place =D

God Save Me and My Plastic Cash!!!




So today was exam day!! My 1st block was a piece of cake, mainly because our teacher posted the exam online. We are to have three essays on our blogs we created for his class up online by 9:00 AM Friday! So basically, all we really did was watch a movie. 2nd block was pretty easy too. I have to retake sophomore english because I failed that class. You think I'm dumb as dirt, right? Not the case. It just so happens that my school has this terrible rule that could very well make the faculty appear as money grabbing bureaucrats. This rule states that if your tuition is not paid in full, your not allowed to take your exams. It's called tuition suspension! It fucks any student finding themselves in the situation. It happened to me my sophomore year and again my junior year. So I failed my sophomore English class and now I'm taking it with a bunch of pricks, set aside three or four people who are actually cool. Then again, my school is full of many unintelligent pricks! There are only a handful of people who are actually down to earth. Mainly my friends :\ And even then, some of them are a bit iffy...

Also, as you can see, there is some shopping I want to do. Scratch that, there is some shopping I will be doing within the next few days or so. Whoopee! ! !

I've been talking to my friend Sammie who is currently in a heated dispute, or rather was in a heated dispute, with another dude I'm cool with. So this dude, Anthony, was gonna room with Sammie and her friends in some snazzy hotel while they attend Acen (Anime Central), but Anthony backed out at the last minute. So now Sammie hates Anthony! As we speak she is launching a full scale slander of bad gossip about him!! Mwuahahaha! Personally, I would just kick his ass for screwing me over, which I'm sure she wants to do herself. Whatever, everything will work out in the end, in Sammies favor of course!