So over the past month or so my parents have been cleaning out my room at home. I guess they're turning it into an abbitoir or war room or apocalypse bunker or something. Anyway, they've had me go through a bunch of my old shit that they've pulled out. I am tasked with deciding what to keep and what to junk.

This past weekend, I came across a bunch of CDs that I haven't seen or heard in years as well as my yearbooks from high school.

It was this crazy rush of shit that I forgot, as I sorted through these things. Flipping through my yearbooks was crazy. Looking at what people wrote in it (people that I haven't seen in over 5 years) was kind of wacky: in jokes that have been forgotten, requests to keep in touch, people telling me that i am(was) crazy, etc.

I seem like a completely different person than I was back then... I certainly got uglier.


Going through the CDs was pretty intense. It was this rush of nostalgia and memories. Listening to them just heightened those sensations. Let me get two immediate talking points out of the way:

1. What the bloody fuck happened to AFI?! I dug up my copy of "Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes" and it still rocks just as hard as it did back then. What the fuck did they do to themselves?! They're absolutely terrible now. They used to be this super intense melodic hardcore band now they're just....I don't even know.

2. I have a soft spot for MxPx. As much as I despise any kind of Christian metal or Christian punk rock (well, any kind of music that clings to a religion for some useless reason, really)...I just can't get mad at these guys for it. Ok, let me revise things. Everything after "Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo" got pretty terrible by these guys. But Sweet Jesus ( and He is pretty sweet in this case) I love love love "Life in General." It's just so fast and so awesome.

Some other honorable mentions are: Spazz, Bad Brains, Rufio, Fenix TX, Green Day's Insomniac, and The Ataris.

It was a rush of summer vacations, hang outs after high school or on the weekends playing Goldeneye on N64, or even my first year or so of college. They reminded me of people I haven't seen in years and all the times spent together.

It is crazy to think of how things are so different. I've been alive long enough to have my life be able to be divided into sections. This past weekend was a visit to 1998 - 2002.

I guess everyone goes through shit like this. And I bet a lot of people inevitably get so caught up in the nostalgia that they eventually utter something like "things were so much easier back then" or "I wish I could do that all over again." I think there is both some intelligence and some foolishness in thinking like this. I know that there are things I wish I could have done differently. Sure, there would have been some people, places, and things that I would have steered clear of. I would have maybe approached my academic career quite differently. But all this really comes down to nit picking. I like my memories. Even a lot of the bad ones are worth having. It's cool to be able to look back...but I think you can do that to a fault.

I think I was more susceptible to be swept over by nostalgia because things are pretty stressful at the moment. I guess you have even more of a selective memory when it comes to remembering more of the good ol' times than the bad ol' times when things are kind of poopy right now. But there was stress then, bad times then, shitty people then, so it's really just some edited scenario your brain is making.

To keep this post from getting too long in the tooth, my point is: it's pretty amazing that so much can rush back just by hearing a song or looking at a picture. It's quite the experience where you start thinking one day about just how much things have changed and you can't really pinpoint when this change happened. It kind of kicks you in the ass.

My next section of bed room to go through is the stacks upon stacks of video tapes that have been made over the years. I predict:

-Pubescent voice changes suffered by Conor and Jordan

-Footage of sketches or bits that we thought were hilarious at the time but are things that would have cemented our virginity/got us institutionalized had anyone outside of our circle of friends gazed upon our lameness (this is still applicable to anyone viewing them today).

-Insufferable attempts of Conor and I to understand our respective musical instruments.

-Glen getting hit by things...hours and hours of footage of Glen getting hit by things.


I'm sure I'll have a whimsical, teary-eyed post for you soon about "the best years of my life making videos with my friends...the glory days...you know."

Watch out.