The Joy of Roommates

It’s strange coming home for the summer and having a room to myself again. Last school year, I shared a room with Chris Baran in J. Alvin. We had some good times, played computer games, talked about classes and girls, and often ate meals together. Of course, living in close quarters with another person breeds tension at times, but we rarely had serious conflicts.

I decided that maybe having a roommate isn’t so bad; at least there’s someone to talk to and hang out with. Since I’ve been home, I’ve missed having the close bond that roommates share, so I decided that even though Chris lives far away in Arkansas, he could still be my roommate:


Chris plays Unreal Tournament 2004 (vehicle invasion, of course)


Chris and I eat lunch


TV is great, especially the commercials


Weezer songs remind us of the good times


Chris plays with Spanky


Oh no! Spanky plays too rough!


Noooooooo! Christopher! Why God, why?

Oh well, roommates are easy to construct. Next week . . . Claudia Schiffer. Now that ought to be quite interesting.

Ovlovteen: a Legacy of Groundbreaking Rock and Roll
Bob Wabidia, The Minnesota Gazette




Like most bands, Ovlovteen had a humble beginning. Cobelrie Letebob and Telson Wedsonday, two friends from Colorado, were driving down a busy street in Guatemala City in 1998, and Telson happened to notice a new Volvo dealership. At that particular time in their lives, they greatly enjoyed reading billboards and store names backwards. Telson pointed to the dealership and said, "Ovlov!" They both thought that that was the funniest word they had ever heard.

A few weeks later, they filmed a commercial with their friend Nialp Repap for a drink they called "Ovlovteen," a rip-off of Ovalteen. Cobelrie and Telson soon afterward decided to form a two-man band and call it "Ovlovteen." The band worked in a meager recording studio: only an old Power Macintosh, a microphone, and a copy of SoundEffects. Telson wrote the lyrics and provided the vocals, and Cobelrie worked on electronic sounds and tupperware drums. They began experimenting with guttural sounds and unorthodox rhythms. Cobelrie later told David Letterman that “we didn’t have much to start with, but I think we benefited from that fact. By not having real guitars or drums, we were able to perfect our skills with non-traditional instruments. That helped us to create a sound that no other band has ever successfully emulated.”

Their first CD, The Dance of the Duck, debuted in 1999 but received poor reviews and deplorably low sales. Cobelrie and Telson were crushed at first, but their disappointment soon faded in the light of new inspiration. Telson started writing new songs with more complex lyrics, and Cobelrie learned to play the guitar. They hired their old friend Nialp Repap to handle the cowbell and the glockenspiel, as well as other percussion instruments. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Telson Wedsonday said, "having Nialp in the studio with us made me realize how important it is to work together. All three of us have a sort of electro-magnetic-bi-polar psychic energy that flows between us when we jam, and we can feel the music calling to us." This new energy culminated in The Dark Wanderings of a Fellow, released in 2002. The style of their second album was drastically different from anything they had attempted before; the electric hums and screeches and reversed lyrics were replaced with drums, guitars, and powerful vocals. The singles “Walter as Can Be” and “Oh Well” hit number one on all of the music charts. Critics and fans alike lauded the album as a major achievement in modern rock.


Cobelrie Letebob ready to rock


Telson suggests a different chord


Nialp Repap mixing a song

Ovlovteen began their first tour soon after the release of The Dark Wanderings of a Fellow. They opened for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Matchbox Twenty, Steven of the Drunk Girl Song, Zero Angle Assumption, and Taproot. Soon Ovlovteen graduated from opening band to headliner and began their world tour, playing in venues as diverse as the Citadel Dome in Melbourne to the Kasdifficama Temple in Oramu, India. After a particularly wild concert in Berlin, Todd McShandin from the opening band Peace My Violent Friend told news reporters, "Ovlovteen rocks like no other band I have seen in my f****** life. Forget the Beatles, forget Led Zeppelin, forget Van Halen, forget the f****** Backstreet Boys. Ovlovteen is here to stay." The Dark Wanderings of a Fellow was nominated for a Grammy award, but it lost to Brittany Spears. During the awards ceremony, Cobelrie became so angry that he tore off his clothes and attempted to attack Brittany Spears, but security guards managed to restrain him before he could run onstage.


Cobelrie Letebob showing off the triple platinum Dark Wanderings of a Fellow album


Cobelrie practices




The band returned to Colorado after a long year of touring and immediately set to work on a new album: The Timely Death of a Famed Wiggle Worm. For their third album, they decided to work on a deeper philosophical plane. Nialp Repap told Entertainment Weekly that "Wiggle Worm is basically a search for the answer to the existential questions that plague us all. Does life have meaning? Why am I here? Can true communication ever take place between individuals?” On a similar note, Cobelrie stated: “I believe that God wants us all to be happy. I mean to say that if there is such a thing as “god,” I bet that he wants us to enjoy life. Which is to say that perhaps “he” is really a “she,” or maybe an “it,” or maybe a “them.” I really don’t know, but I have a sincere belief that this possibly-existing divine entity loves rock and roll music. Anyway, our album is dedicated to God: just look at the ‘thank-you’ page in the CD booklet.”

While they worked on Wiggle Worm, they found time to support numerous new bands. They helped them book shows, TV appearances, and gain publicity. The most popular of these bands included Nomad Demon Brotherhood, Red Red Matt, Mystical Love Playground, The Laura Wilson LSD Orchestra, St. John Gathers Golddust, and Six-Fingered Lord Mustache. Matthew Keyes, lead singer of Red Red Matt said, “I can’t thank the guys from Ovlovteen enough. Now I have a record deal and enough money for skin treatments.”


Mystical Love Playground


Red Red Matt


Nomad Demon Brotherhood


Six-Fingered Lord Mustache

Money and fame were finally theirs, but behind the scenes the band was quickly breaking down. Cobelrie's heroin addiction reached a dangerous peak, leading to a near-fatal overdose in a Burger King restroom. Telson began battling writer's block after his second wife left him, and he feared that he would never write another hit song. In addition, his third wife attempted to murder him, but luckily a neighbor heard the shooting and rushed him to the hospital. Nialp had a nervous breakdown and spent several months in the Ickia Institution in Dallas, all the while wrestling with nightmarish hallucinations of “rusted nails and bananas speaking to me, telling me they want to hurt me, knock me unconscious.” Tension mounted within the band, especially during rehearsals. Cobelrie, fresh from rehab, was still too shaky to reach all of the chords. Telson’s lyrics degenerated into clichéd love songs and insipid ballads. Nialp was often too afraid to show up to practice, and when he did he invariably attempted to crawl under the studio’s grand piano or hide in the heating ducts. In 2003 they collectively decided that it was time to lay the band aside and concentrate on repairing their personal lives.

They played their final concert at their first venue: the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. The show was sold out, and thousands of fans who could not get in mobbed security guards outside. A few special guests showed up on stage to bid Ovlovteen farewell, including Paul McCartney (The Beatles), Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Dave Matthews (The Dave Matthew’s Band), Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, Audioslave), and Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins, Zwan). They ended their concert with Telson reading “The Endless Dawn of the Day,” an eloquent poem that embodies the purpose and ideals behind Ovlovteen. After the show, Telson told reporters: “we’ve had a rough career, but we’ve also made tons of great memories and incredible music. A lot of tears, a lot of years.”


Matthew Keyes and Nialp Repap make bracelets to give away at Ovlovteen's final concert


Ford Center, Oklahoma City

Currently, Telson Wedsonday and Cobelrie Letebob live in Colorado and are working on demos for an as-yet unnamed band. Nialp Repap is studying filmmaking and fine-art painting in east Texas. Rumors have been circulating in various magazines about the band possibly reuniting for another album. When interviewed about this, Telson said, “we are not prepared to make a statement right now. Personally, I would love to get back in the studio with Nialp and Cobelrie.” For now, the future of Ovlovteen remains uncertain, but anything is possible in the world of rock & roll.

Spanky pretending to be innocent

We had a bit of a scare last night. My Dad was trimming grass with a weed-wacker in our backyard, and Spanky watched with her usual intense fascination. Suddenly, she lunged at the weed-wacker (no doubt believing it to be a strange creature). My Dad immediately turned the machine off, but Spanky had already injured herself. Her mouth dripped blood all over the place, but she didn't yelp at all and she appeared fine otherwise (she's a stoic). We were all worried about her, because for the rest of the night she only rested on the floor and seemed to have no energy. I gave her some puppy pain medication, and this morning she seems to be back to normal. Sometimes she's too brave for her own good.

A few weeks ago, Jared posted on his blog about how his e-mail writing style has changed dramatically over the past few years. He used to be immature and annoying in his writing (his words, not mine). He noted his use of all caps, insane number of exclamation marks, and made-up words. Anyway, I was digging through some of my old junk, and I found a few e-mails that I had sent Jared a few years back. This is an e-mail I wrote to him on April 2, 2002:

Hey MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!

Hey, hey, and a triple hey to you over there!! YEAH!! I just got your e/amil, and all my homework is done, so I thought, what the heck-en-el-mundo, I might as well e/amil you!! YEAH!! So how have you been? I'm okay. Reality hit hard Monday morning. School, work (i.e. Hell). Not fun!! AGH!! Let me say right now, very much and a lot, thank you for my presents!! They just got here this morning!! YEAH!! What a surprise! On both counts!! . . . WOOHOO!! Daghormit!! Do you realize how big my "to read" list is??!!?? DO YOU!! DO YOU???!! AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!! Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast: I MY FREAKING GOWSH!! AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! AAAAAHHHH!!! AIIII!! YEAH!! YEAH!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! JARED, JARED!! THIS GAME IS INCREDIBLE!! IT IS AMAZING!! IT IS SUBLIME!! IT IS . . . WOW!! YEAH!!AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! YEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Okay, okay, enough elated outburst, now on to the facts: I got JKII yesterday. I have only had about 1.5 hours to play it since then, but let me tell you . . . it flips!

Ouch. The e-mail actually goes on for another full page and a half (I suddenly switch the subject from computer games to girls, predictably). Amazingly, even after years of inflicting this kind of trash on each other, Jared and I are still pals. Um, right Jared?


Jared taking a break from the Wheel of Time

Reading News

I finished reading No Exit, a play by Jean-Paul Sartre, this afternoon. I had been wanting to read it since Cambria and I saw it performed at JBU last month. Basically, the play takes place in hell and tells the story of three people who are forced to spend eternity together. It's a fascinating concept, and the dialogue is witty and at times humorous. I highly enjoyed it. My parents both commented on the play (they saw me reading it yesterday), and they made it clear that they are both anti-existentialist. I can see their point, but so many existential works are brilliantly written and exciting to read. When my mom asked me why I would even want to read "depressing stuff like that," I explained to her that I am an English major, and therefore I enjoy all types of literature, and to further my education I must read works from authors whose viewpoints I do not necessarily agree with. She didn't buy that. Oh well.

Music News

Last night I bought tickets to see A Perfect Circle in concert at the Colorado Springs City Auditorium on Saturday, June 12th. This is their next-to-last venue for their 2004 tour (the last one is in Denver on June 13th). I had planned to attend both concerts, but my brother has no money (because of prom, mostly). I decided that I really want to go to at least one of their shows, because they are a band that I have loved for a few years, and this could be their last tour ever. In addition, James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins has joined the band, and I have to see him live or I will never forgive myself (yes, it is that serious). Since my brother is currently poor, I bought his ticket for him, and I'll take him to the concert for his birthday (his birthday is June 1st, so it's close enough. He'll be 18). The only downside to this concert is that the tickets cost me nearly $100, which is a huge sum considering that I do not have a job yet. I know that it will be worth it, because to put it simply, A Perfect Circle rocks.


A Perfect Circle, "Thirteenth Step"

I had the strangest dream last night. I know I say that often, but I've had some very odd ones. This particular dream, however, was truly frightening:

I was in Arkansas, and I decided to attend a female stand-up comedian's live show. I wanted to go with Chris and Cambria, and they said that they would meet me there. When I arrived at the concert hall, I noticed that there were thousands of people everywhere. I sat down on the front row with my suitemate Robbie and some of his friends and the show began. The comedian did her routine, but I didn't pay attention at all because I was looking around for my friends. At the intermission, Chris and Cambria walked up to me and told me that they wanted to leave. We hopped into an SUV and drove deep into the jungle. It began to rain, and suddenly inspired, I started to compose a rain poem in my head in trochaic hexameter (an appropriate 'falling' rhythm). Chris and Cambria sat up front and talked, and I sat alone in the back, trying to think up words that rhyme with "drop."

At that point I woke up. I'm really glad that I awoke when I did, because finding good rhymes is frustrating. Yeah, I guess some of my other dreams are more exciting . . .

Josh and I had planned to go hiking yesterday, but the weather was so bad that we decided that we shouldn't risk running into a storm 10,000 feet up a mountainside (a wise choice, I'm sure).

My family and I had a garage sale today. It was a nightmare! Well, it actually wasn't too bad (I sold $80 of stuff that was just sitting in my closet), but it was a huge amount of work. I'm just glad it's over. I would give more details, but it was so painful that I think my subconscious has already managed to suppress most of the experience.

Tonight I saw Troy with Josh and his friend Drew. The movie was quite entertaining, but for some reason I had a difficult time recalling events from the Iliad. I knew that the movie departed from the text in places, but I wasn't exactly sure of the extent. Also, I kept wanting to call the characters after the names of characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream, for some utterly unfathomable reason (Oh! There's Theseus . . . er, Agamemnon). I need to re-read the Iliad and the Odyssey soon (and evidently A Midsummer Night's Dream as well, because it isn't even similar to Homer's epics). I thought that the acting in the movie was surprisingly good (even Brad Pitt, whom I normally dislike), and there were plenty of intense action sequences. I was somewhat disappointed by the numerous neck wounds portrayed in the film. For some reason, I can't stand seeing slit throats (if I believed in reincarnation, I would say that I was killed in a similar manner in a past life). I wouldn't recommend it as a love story, however, unless you find misogyny romantic.

It's snowing right now, and it is just above 30 degrees outside. Colorado weather is odd.

My computer arrived via UPS yesterday. I shipped it from JBU last Friday (It cost $60 to ship all of the boxen! AAGGHH!). I opened up the boxen and began setting everything up. After a few minutes, I was ready to power it on, but I noticed that my monitor wasn't working. When I press the power button normaly, it catches inside a recess in the case, but now I press it and it fails to catch. Basically, there is no way for me to turn it on. When I shipped my computer to JBU at the end of last summer, the case for the CPU was damaged (the computer still worked, though, so I didn't file a damage report). My suitemate Robbie told me that I really need to buy a laptop. I agree completely. So I spent awhile on the phone talking with UPS about the monitor. They lady I talked to was very helpful, and she told me that someone would come over to our house and inspect the monitor and the box I shipped it in. I insured the box for $300, so hopefully they will pay for the damage.

I hate computers. I really do. And when I say that I hate them, of course I mean that I love them, but they irritate me . . . or something like that. My family PC (which we have had for about 3 years) has suddenly decided that it no longer wishes to live. It takes five minutes to boot up and about two minutes just to load Microsoft Word. During these loading times, the computer makes a noise like a jet preparing to take off. Last night I tried to plug my printer USB into the back, and that somehow shorted out the two USB ports on the front, causing my mouse and keyboard to cease functioning. After I pulled the printer USB out of the back and restarted, everything seemed fine again. So, I managed to convince my parents that our current computer is dying and we must buy a new one. They really didn't want to spend the money, so I decided that I would buy it for them and they could pay me later. I went to Best Buy and bought an E-machines PC (henceforth referred to as Crap-machines). It was a superb deal and had everything my family could need in a PC. My brother and I brought it home, set it up, and turned it on. Immediately, a screen popped up saying "your PC has encountered a serious hardware error," and it gave a list of files that were irreparably damaged. My only option, according to the tech support guy I called, was to reinstall Windows. After I reinstalled Windows, it worked fine, except that every time it booted up it would tell me that it had just recovered from another serious error. In my experience, this is a very bad indication for a new computer. Of course, I was angered by this, and I may have even said a bad word or two. I took the Crap-machine back to Best Buy, and they gave me my money back. This afternoon, I ordered a Dell that looks a lot better (3.06 Ghz. P4 HT processor! WOOHOO! 512 Mb. RAM! WOOHOO! 128 Mb. GeForce FX 5200! WOOHOO!). I hate computers.

Yesterday was my first hiking trip of the summer. My old pal Josh Dorr picked me up at 7:30 AM and we drove about half an hour to the Cheyenne Mountain area (specifically Cheyenne Canyon). We've hiked in that area a few times together since last summer, although we've almost exhausted all of the good trails. As usual, we had trouble finding Cheyenne Canyon. We've been there numerous times, yet we can never remember which streets to turn on. Eventually, we found the canyon and a good parking place. We hiked two trails:

Columbine Trail
Over Christmas break, Josh, Yvette, and I hiked in this area, but we didn't follow the trail (don't tell any park rangers). We saw some impressive cliffs, and we decided to check them out (a detour that took most of the day and nearly cost me a nice pair or gloves). This time, however, Josh and I vowed to stay on the trail. At first it was extremely easy, but after awhile we reached a series of switchbacks that had both of us gasping for air. During the hike, we talked about school, what we want to do after school, and girls (or the lack of them in our lives at the moment). Soon we reached Helen Hunt Falls, a huge waterfall, and a major tourist attraction. I am awed every time I see the falls, but Josh does a lot of backpacking in Yellowstone, so he wasn't as thrilled (understandably). Literally no one was around, however, which was nice. The falls were very strong due to the snow melt. We stopped and ate lunch by the water, then we headed back down the trail. Once we got back to the trailhead, Josh pulled out his water filter and filled up his bottle with 35 degree mountain spring water. It . . . was . . . wonderful. The round trip on that trail was a little over 8 miles.

Captain Jack's Trail
We drove a few miles to another trail we've been wanting to check out. Captain Jack's is a trail on High Drive close to Sentinel Rock (we trail-blazed up to Sentinel Rock last summer in search of quartz crystals and nearly died from the almost 45 degree gravel/pine needle-covered slope we had to ascend). Captain Jack's is definitely my favorite trail in Cheyenne Canyon that I have hiked so far. At one point, we found a cave a few feet off the trail. Josh tossed a few rocks inside to make sure that no bears or mountain lions were hiding in the shadows (I'm not really sure if that was the wisest thing to do). When we didn't hear any growls or see anything jump out at us, we decided to explore inside. The air was thick with gnats and the ceiling dripped water all over us. The cave went about 50 or 60 feet into the cliffside, which surprised me, because most of the caves I've seen around here could barely hold two people. Josh had to head back early to go to dinner with his mom and some friends, so we did not finish the trail. It's 12 miles round trip, and we did about 6 miles. Someday we plan to return and complete the entire trail. On the way back, we peeled off our socks (literally) and dropped our feet into a stream. I waded out to the middle, but I soon noticed that the water was a little colder than I had expected. My feet began to hurt, and soon they became completely numb. Josh could barely stand to keep his feet in for ten seconds. We decided that the water had to be just above freezing. There was actually some snow on one side of the bank. The only people we met on the trail were a few guys riding dirt bikes.

So, we hiked about 14 miles yesterday, which is pretty good for the first hike of the summer. I was so exhausted when I came back home that all I wanted to do was sleep. Surprisingly, I'm not very sore today!

I arrived home Friday night, and since then I don't feel like I've even had a chance to breathe. We bought a new house in the Pine Creek area, and we plan to move in on May 27th . . . or some day close to may 27th (it's still under construction). My parents are frantically trying to pack, fix up the yard, and work with the people building our new house (I had no idea that choosing tile was such a big deal). Our realtor was unable to sell our current house, so my parents decided that we will keep the house but rent it out. In a year or two, once I have a stable job, I'll be able to rent the house from my parents. That will be quite awesome. Of course, I doubt that I'll be able to come up with $1,000 per month on my own, so I guess I'll have to find some friends to live with me (which would actually be pretty cool).
Every day, random people stop by to look at our house to see if they would like to rent it. This is extremely irritating. For one thing, we have to keep the house super-clean at all times (an exceedingly difficult task since we're trying to move). This afternoon, I was taking a nap in my bedroom and someone knocked on the door and woke me up. I mumbled a few expletives as they opened the door. It was our realtor with a family wanting to inspect my room. It's an interesting experience to be awakened in your own room by strangers.