johnnie_raines's Xanga

Friday, June 05, 2009

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:58:57 GMT

I'm an Old Spice guy. I don't know if it's because there's a picture of a ship on it, or if it's just the way that it makes me smell all old and spicey, but I like it. I think Old Spice Original is how guys should smell. And I don't even care what girls think.

So. I'm all moved into my room in this big empty house. I've been assured that by the end of the summer there will be at least 2 other tenants here. I'm quite happy with solitude for right now, though. I bought a million candles. And I hung huge prints of Andrew Shepherd's photography on my walls. It's June and really cold at night. This is where I live now.

In Harvey, Elwood says that "one can never have too many friends." I think it's true. But, today I thought about trying to make new friends, and I just thought, "ehhh, who needs 'em?" Of course, I think I felt the same way when I first got to Ouachita. So anyway. I suppose I'll try to make some friends here. Even if it's just for the purpose of having people to go to restaurants with.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:53:25 GMT

Andrew Bird and I were in Dallas. I saw him. I'm not sure if he saw me. He was playing a... well, he was playing a large portion of the stage it seemed. He is a genius. He is a genius. He is Andrew Bird. I listened to him for about 5 hours on the way back.

I'm in Russellville now, and will be so for about 2 months. Real-life interaction with some humans would be wonderful.

After that I'm going to Chicago, or really to a little town just outside of it called Wheaton, to study Greek, Hebrew, Bible, and Ancient Near Eastern culture. I'll be there some years? Visitors will be welcome, I'm sure, after I figure out where I'm going to live. Feel honored: I'm giving Xanga this update before Facebook.

I'm still getting used to this America thing. Mixed feelings. Andrew Bird live is a good selling point for it, though.

I twitter all the time now. The inanity!

I'm going to write a children's novel before I die. Probably.

Letter From Across The Sea

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:28:16 GMT

Dear Xanga,

I'm coming more and more to the conclusion that "home" usually feels most like the place that I last lived at, and rarely like a place of present tense.

When I first left this most recent home of nearly 2 years, I went to Cairo, and had a lovely time. I saw pyramids (and went in one), I went to an Egyptian soccer game (which was ca-raazy), and I ate kosheri. It didn't even feel like I'd really left home, I guess because it was still African and Arab all at once, which is what home felt like these last 2 years.

I then went to Beirut, and saw the Mediterranean Sea for the first time in my life (although in Istanbul I'd been quite close). I spent a day in the mountains, and several days in the city. I went to Baalbek and saw the most impressive Roman ruins in the world. I saw a couple of movies in the theater and had Coca-Cola from the fountain for the first time in too long. I watched about 15 episodes of Arrested Development at my friends' apartment there. It was like returning to the West without quite leaving the East behind.

Then I came to Paris. I saw the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre (and most of what it holds), and my favorite thing was the Musee d'Orsay. I didn't see everything there was to see, but I had a few very Parisian picnics by the Seine in spite of all the coldness and I got caught up on LOST thanks to the blisteringly high-speed internet in my friend's flat. It has been a wonderful time, but in this leg of my travels I have said goodbye to nearly all remnants of the East which have pervaded my life these last 2 years, and it was as if I re-entered the West starting with the very roots of the Enlightenment as displayed on so many buildings and monuments in this fair city.

Tomorrow I will leave for London. I've seen the last very familiar faces until I arrive in Arkansas again. The rest of my travels will be conducted in English, a language in which I haven't been immersed for almost 2 years. Almost everyone who understands this period of my life is getting farther away, and it's not that I don't want to return home or give other people the chance to understand... but I hate having to leave so much and so many people behind.

Anyway, that is where I am now.

Peace,
John

Johnnie Raines Tells You What's Up

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:40:27 GMT

I have 8 more full days in this country before I leave it without any definite plans of returning. I feel strange. I don't expect people to understand what this has been like. I imagine that these last two years of my life are going to be reduced to a fact about me. Johnnie Raines, he spent some time in Africa. To be honest, that's probably better than actually trying to explain it all. Wow, Debbie Downer.

So, my plans for when I return. First order of business, and this is important: Re-read the Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series. I've felt my nerd-life draining out of me lately, and I need a serious recharge.

Second business item... finalize school plans? I'm applying to schools. I should know what's up admissions-wise by mid-march. Decision to pursue higher education will depend on financial aid, gainful employment, and... student loans? From what I've been seeing on the news lately, that all seems a bit fantastic. Sammy Williams may need to find me a job in the crime lab.

Third order of business... road trips? Little Rock doesn't count as a road trip, by the way, since I intend to be there so often that my physical position can only be described by a Schrödinger wave function with a node at Morrilton. But back to the road trips. Dallas seems certain. Chicago and Philadelphia loudly call my name. Los Angeles, CA and Lynchburg, VA are ambitions. But I can't do it all. I need to save some money in case the economy goes crazy and murders everyone. I'm really not worried about myself. I can live on salty rice and beans. But some of you guys might be in trouble.

Fourth thingy... get a job? I won't be doing this until mid-May at the earliest, and it's possible that by then I'll have plans for the fall which require relocation. So we'll just have to wait and see how that works out.

I really like N. T. Wright. If you've never read anything of his, then you should. I agree with approximately 99.987% of all that he says.

J. D. Raines

I Google.

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:55:52 GMT

So, short of things to discuss (and thinking this was an interesting idea) I decided to compile a list of the things that my Google toolbar remembers me having searched for in the past few months. For letters with lots of prior searches, I chose one interesting one. The only letter without a prior search was x. I suppose I haven't been that interested in xylophones or x-files or xenophiles or Xtreme sports or xhardcorex in a while. Here's the list. Enjoy.:

Agamemnon
best ideas ever
Can you dip pipe tobacco?
Dwarf
Eastern University
Farmer Giles of Ham ebook
Gandalf
Handlebar moustaches
Intelligence squared
Josh Lucas
Kill lyrics Sufjan
Little People of America
megamouth shark
Not a girl not yet a woman
Ohtis lyrics American Christians
Philip Glass
Quin Mallory
Risk strategies
Smith of Wootton Major text ebook
Tony Shalhoub
US Universities North African Studies
Vicks
Wool Sweaters Yachting
[No X's!]
Yosimite
zero-sum game

I keep having dreams

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:46:42 GMT

Last night I dreamed that someone came into my dorm room (yes, back in college) and stole a hip-flask full of whisky. After recovering the flask, I found the following engraved on the side:

This flask is perfectly shaped to fit into:
1. Your hand
2. Your hip-pocket
3. Ladies' boots

So. There you go, ladies.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:14:26 GMT

If Facebook had a "Favorite Actors" section, then I would definitely list "Daniel Day-Lewis's Moustache" as one of mine.

I just had a dream that I was presiding over the US Senate, but that I was doing a terrible job because I didn't know any of the Senators' names. Luckily, Hillary Clinton, who was just a couple of chairs away, kept telling me their names, which was really nice of her, I thought. The only piece of legislation that got passed in Dream Senate was that the left-handed Senators voted to have new club photos taken for the Left-Handed Senators Club.

I wish it felt more like Christmas here. I fear that says as much about me as it does about this place. I've been following the readings of the Daily Office, which has helped. Isaiah is a book of terrible pathos when you keep in mind the story behind it, and somehow I've always known that's how one should feel during Advent. No one really taught me that Advent was a solemn time, but I think the music that we always played in the house taught me. And the dimness of the house lit by Christmas lights and candles made it clear that some part of Advent was about being in darkness and seeking light. So, I don't know. Maybe it does feel a bit like Christmas here. Still there's a lot I miss about Christmas at home. Next year?

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:56:45 GMT

I don't know if this is something I should be embarrassed about or not (which means not, I guess), but until tonight, I'd never listened to more than one White Stripes song at a time - and that usually whenever the universe aligned itself such that I was listening to pop radio and their music played. That said, I listened to Get Behind Me Satan tonight from start to finish and found it clever and enjoyable. For what it's worth.

I also watched Wall-e this evening. I think I'm going to start an annual most adorable robot contest so that he can win it this year (and also because I like robot contests?). The movie got a little cheesy when all the fat cartoon people showed up, but the first half of it more than made up for those parts.

I have been applying to schools all over our great United States. Pretty soon I'll be done, and then I have to wait until March to find out who will take me. 4 different schools, 4 fairly different programs. An irresponsible desire for continuing higher education drives me onward. Careers are for the elderly.

Captain

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:50:26 GMT

I've had some powerful moments of self-determination lately. They've been good. And a long time coming. I think it has to do with listening to lots of Sufjan Stevens recently, but I can't be sure.

I think if I used tags on my Xanga posts, it would be obvious that I mostly write about coffee, beards, and Sufjan Stevens. It may be obvious anyway, but I think tags would really drive the point home. That said, my beard usually smells like coffee in the mornings because I dribble. There.

I've already busted out the Christmas music, and in addition to the usual fare (see paragraph 1) I downloaded quite a few choral songs that I think are beautiful. They remind me of singing in Ouachita Singers, and I miss that a lot - especially this time of year. You can keep up with my listenings these days on my last.fm page. I know you've all been dying to do that. It shows my play counts from the last 4 months or so.

I have a plane ticket home to arrive in Little Rock at 5:50PM March 4.

Johnny

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:37:24 GMT

I read the online versions of the NY Times and the Washington Post regularly - I actually probably spend too much time doing it. I also keep up with the headlines from the BBC and CNN in my Google subscriptions. I can't wait until the election is behind us. I am tired of being annoyed by the news. I'd rather just go back to being shocked by it. [Edit: This Harvard test of subconscious associations informed me both that I am a little racist and that I prefer Barack Obama to John McCain. Go figure.]

So. I bought the Coconut Records cd Nighttiming. I like it.

I read Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton [again] last week. I find him terribly clever and convincing. Granted, if you don't already agree with him, you'll find him terribly nonsensical. But, he devoted a good long chapter to that very thing, which makes him all the more clever, and also more relevant to post-modernity. (Crap, I broke my "don't say 'post-modern' or any of its cognates in a blog" rule.)

When I was a little boy, I had an outie belly button. It's still kind of an outie, but the more belly-fat I acquire, the more it starts to resemble an innie. (It was always just a mild outie.) Did men used to be proud of having a gut, or has it always been about washboard abs? I'd like to see a marble statue of a guy with a beer-belly, I think. Granted, I'd laugh at it if I saw it. I wouldn't say "my, what a fine specimen of the human form" or whatever you're supposed to say.