The Twentieighth One

The advent of the past year concludes with the customary New Year's Eve post, where we reflect on the choices and events of the past year...and my blog is no exception. It's only been up for a few months, but already it seems that the blog is taking on an unusual direction as far as content goes. Originally, the blog was meant to only be a public anthology of my writing, but I've also posted updates on my first semester in college, as well as trying to create continuous segments such as "The Presenters" and "Ideas That Will Never Happen". The blog has been very challenging to update and maintenance, but it has also been such a pleasure writing up each post(unless, as this post shows, it becomes painful to write about anything) as I've been able to see the development of my writing as the year progressed. The next year will bring about other challenges...
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With the impending end of 2011 comes the impending start of the numerous blog posts that "reflect" on the events of the past year. I will continue the tradition with my own customary post.

2011, like it or not, was a terrible year for your fellow blogger. Many challenges and experiences have threatened to ...yada, yada, yada.
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2012 is almost upon us, as well as 2013, 2014, and the impending invasion of Bigfoot and his many siblings.
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Things to look forward to in 2012: Hopefully, by February or March, my short film, Semaphore, will be completed and I'll post the screenplay. In other news, a pet project I've been working on since 11th grade will finally have its proper debut(Here's a hint as to what's coming). Sides that, I'm not sure what my blog will have. At this point, the blog is shifting from a showcase of my old projects to a showcase of...well, anything that comes to mind. I know from reading other blogs that most of them have a central theme that the blog revolves around, and admittedly, even if my blog claims to be about "simple words from a complicated man-child", even it has a central theme: my imagination and how overrated it's becoming to me. When I talk to friends and colleagues about their interests and intelligence, I always tell everyone that my creative thoughts are what differentiate me from everyone else, but as the first semester of college has shown, realistically how far can that take me? Course, other people say that one semester of college cannot define what you'll become, and for others, not even the first year will do that, so again, I'm at a loss at what I'm supposed to believe or think. Nowadays, any outside thought influences more than my own...or so I think. Course, sometimes, even the outside influences can be more damaging than helpful. How complicated does the world have to become that a simple post about reflection wraps itself around endlessly as I've allowed to be? AGH! Seriously, what did I just type? Can anyone explain it to me? Let's try again.
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This year has taught me that writing things is really f*cking hard, and yes, I will censor it this one time since even the f-word doesn't completely envelope the countless struggles I've suffered in writing essays and blog posts, and as this post continues to show, even a blog post about reflection and revision demonstrates just how much more I will have to go through before I feel comfortable with saying hello and goodbye. Happy New Year and much luck in your...damn it.
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Merry Christmas and happy...wait, hold on...
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Another year has come and gone, as all of them tend to do. I'd like to say that for those have been following the blog that I greatly appreciate your support and will try to be more active with the blog in the following year. Also, it's been somewhat unusual seeing the difference between my older posts and newer ones and noticing how even with simpler ideas that slowly but surely I am progressing as a writer. With 2012 coming very, very soon, I'd just like to say that the blog will improve in the following months, and hopefully, I will become more coherent and understandable, and less of an annoying man-child as I currently still am. One of the biggest changes to the blog is the inclusion of more personal, update posts, much like these, as occasionally, the numerous complications of college and life demand those kinds of spontaneous posts. Rest assured, there is still a lot more of my past works left to be posted, and I will start working on the episode descriptions of the Presenters if the shorter ones don't completely explain the intent of the episode. I'll admit that whatever difficulty the blog has given me, it's been completely worth it in trying to have my voice "properly" represented in the middle of a seemingly brilliant universe. One thing I will try to do is highlight other people's projects so that they will also have an opportunity to bloom within this cynical spectrum of internet users. As my patient readers, if anything is going to happen, I'll be sure to tell you all about it.
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Sorry for the spontaneous rambling in the beginning.
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I hope you have all have a wonderful New Year's Eve, a fantastic New Year's Day, and a great year. With the amount of complications the world keeps presenting, a positive outlook could only help us further.
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Stay safe. Give hugs. Be nice, be kind, be good.

Your confused, yet enlightened friend,
Arley Harold

You're Not Gonna Open With That, Are You?

You are never supposed to go beyond your bedtime, especially when you're a mischievous 10 year old. Mine was at 10pm, but I was just too invested in professional wrestling to respect the 10pm curfew. I'll admit that I never paid any attention to the intersecting storylines, I just loved watching The Rock kick ass. He was my favorite wrestler, and I remember I bought one shirt that could be more suitable as bed covers or a duffel bag; I knew my parents were waiting outside, watching the seconds cross into the forbidden zone of 10pm, waiting to whip out the belt. PHEWCHA! At 10, I always turned off the TV, dove into my covers, and hid under my pillow, watching from a small opening to see if my parents were coming. One night, I forgot to turn off the TV. I heard their footsteps coming closer and closer to my room. With the most stealthy silence a 10-yr old can make, I  jumped towards the television and silenced it. The steps shrunk in silence. Wait a minute, what is this? It's a man, holding a microphone, red suit, very clean, and quite the hairdo. I rose the volume up just a bit out of curiosity of wanting to hear what this strange, and well-dressed man was talking about. No longer was I interested in the exploits of half-naked men and women putting themselves in unusual positions. This was my first exposure to a show that became my obsession for countless months, a little program called Seinfeld. The night Seinfeld was introduced into my life was the night I saw "The Parking Garage", one of the show's most famous episodes. I didn't understand most of the jokes, and I didn't know why the characters were in the parking garage to begin with, but for some reason, they were compelling characters to look at. I know, I know, what the hell could I be talking about? Well, all I understood was that the four guys were looking for their car, with no luck. When they found the car and started shouting and dancing, I applauded them for their efforts, the four guys with no name. When they got into the car and it wouldn't start, I knew I came upon something special. Every night at 10, right after my parents would come and go, I'd watch Seinfeld back-to-back, and though I sacrificed a good night's sleep, it was all worth it to see Kramer sliding in and out of Jerry's apartment. With more episodes came more characters: the eccentric billionaire J. Peterman, the diabolically nnnyehehh postman Newman, the incorrigible Frank Costanza, as well as the almost impressive catalogue of failed relationships. Despite the praise, I found other experiences, curiosities, and Seinfeld became a dormant interest for nearly 6 years. High school, life became ever more complicated, I fell in and out of love, and schoolwork began to grow exponentially. YouTube became yet another escape from reality as I preferred to deal with being Rick Rolled than with another goddamn English paper. Seinfeld bloopers, what could this be? From season 1 to 9, I saw this seemingly perfect group of actors break apart in unprofessional giggles and yelps as their scenes hilariously collapsed into something incomprehensible. One of my favorite bloopers was Kramer's unused take of ...check it out yourselves and bloopers from The Tape. After having nearly fatal giggle fits, I decided to watch two documentaries on the conception of Seinfeld, and it was truly fascinating to learn about how drastically different Seinfeld was compared to other shows airing in the 90's and it made me appreciate the series in a more profound way than I had when I was 10. Recently, I wrote a paper on George Costanza's effect on pop culture, and later on, I hope to demonstrate my appreciation towards this wonderful and groundbreaking series in many other ways. I've recently had difficult experiences to deal with, and revisiting Seinfeld has rekindled my appreciation for life, even if life treated the New York Four unfairly most of the time.

Thanks for reading, if you did. Below are episodes I would recommend above all others, or as an introduction to the series.

"In No Particular Order"
-The Limo
-The Tape
-The Chicken Roaster
-The Parking Garage
-The Contest
-The Marine Biologist
-The Mango
-The Pitch
-The Hamptons
-The Deal
-The Opera
-The Outing
-The Heart Attack
-The Cafe
-The Sniffing Accountant
-The Opposite
-The Yada Yada Yada
-The Library
-The Trip(Pts. 1 and 2)
-The Boyfriend(Pts.1 and 2)