of transmogrifier discoveries and experimentation

Summer officially began for me on Wednesday, April 30^th, around 4 in the afternoon when I walked out of my last final. Since summer began, several things took place. Firstly, I saw Iron man on Friday. Secondly, a ton of people graduated Saturday morning. Sunday, I moved almost all that I own into a dorm room in Davis hall. Throughout those days and the next few days, most of the people I had spent the past 4 months with slowly trickled away, on to bigger and better summer adventures.

As I settled into my new dwelling, I looked out the window. At this point, I realized what an incredible adventure this would be. In addition to a striking view of south Longview, I also have a prime view of the dumpster. Lovely. So today, with my window open, admiring the beautiful weather and awesome view *cough* I noticed a treasure in the dumpster. A genuine, full sized, transmogrifier. Originally, this exquisite contraption housed a craftsman tool chest. Filled with curiosity, I hurried down the stairs to further investigate this newly discovered treasure.

I rounded the corner and peered over the edge of the dumpster. I was vastly disappointed to discover trash in the transmogrifier. Trash!! Who would put garbage in such an incredible contraption? Then I realized what had happened. This transmogrifier has a trash setting. Imagine it! Some poor, unsuspecting victim crawls in the device, thinking what a great new plaything he has discovered, and ZAP! He is now garbage. “Not so bad,” you say. “Just transmogrify him back.” Hello, clueless, we don’t know what he was to begin with!! Ok, so transmogrify him into something that can talk. Bad idea! What if he has violent tendencies? What if I couldn’t convince him to go back in the transmogrifier? And this brings up another question… Does the transmogrifier take age into account? So if we transmogrified a really old dog into a human, would it be a really old human? What if this thing I transmogrified was too young to talk? Then the whole purpose of transmogrifying it would be completely defeated. Transmogrification is always an incredibly risky business. Sadly, I walked away from the transmogrifier. I didn’t know what to do! The trash was intent on remaining inside, and any further transmogrification could result in disaster.

Yes, this summer brings two things into my life: a) lack of sufficient people around to keep me sane and b) lack of things to do to keep me sane. Therefore, the imagination takes over, and things like commonplace dumpster items become something extraordinary. Oh wait, the extraordinary one is me.

summer symphony

So I confess it has been awhile. If you haven’t noticed, you probably aren’t paying all that close attention.

So the semester ended, and I now find myself in the throes of summer school. Huzzah. For me, that means lab from 7:30 in the morning until 11:30, then class from 1-3 in the afternoon. All in all, it isn’t bad. I am just so burnt out on school right now that I think I am going insane. For those of you who know me, you would argue that a) it’s a really short trip for me, or b) I arrived there a long time ago. Plus campus is extremely dead. Like, no one around, nothing to do, dead. Enough about life though…

So it is TSRA right now. With a temperature of 75, it is an anomaly I never experienced growing up. Warm rain? Weird. But I love it. One of the few things to love about Texas is the weather. So, being crazy, I am sitting here on my bed, window open, observing the storm. The only thing that would make this better is if I had a view of something other than the Davis dumpster. And yes, I am being a pilot nerd and watching the storm on the radar.

I close my eyes and listen. A continuous, deep roll of thunder takes the bass line of this summer symphony. The gentle patter of raindrops fill in the underlying countermelody. The constant drone of the big metal thing with fans on top reminds me that I am not out in the middle of nowhere. Occasionally, a sharp crack of thunder provides accent to the unfolding harmony, reminding the other elements they are not chief. The deep thunder continues to roll; its crescendo reminds the sharp cracks of lightening who is providing the foundation and rhythm. It is a summer symphony, but where is the melody? My eyes fly open as a sharp flash of lightening draw their attention. More rolling thunder. Rain patter persists. Suddenly, an accelerando! The intensity of the rain increases as the sky darkens. My eyes dart back and forth, scanning the sky for electric trails. This is my symphony, of which I am the melody.