Best Friend

You are the person I spent 2 weeks at camp with.
You are the person I can talk to for hours.
You are the person that can make me smile.
You are the person who I am most fond of.
You and I are pretty chill.
You and I both think that we are totally awesome; and furthermore:
You and I both know that we are totally awesome.
You are fun to be with.
You can sometimes make me angry; but:
You always make me smile.
You don't really judge me.
You and I hardly get to spend time together.
You and I have both seen each other naked.
You and I both realized that we are the the same person.
You and I can stay up until morning just talking.
You can keep all my secrets pretty well.
You make me want to hug you half the time; and the other half
You make me want to hug somebody else.
You make me want to be just like you.
You are the kid that makes life bearable.

You are my best friend.

-Matt

2008 Hits and Misses

So here is my top and bottom of 2008.

MUSIC:

Best Album: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend


Best Song: Time To Pretend - MGMT


Most Overplayed: I'm Yours - Jason Mraz


VIDEO

Best YouTube Videos: (Explicit)

Communitychannel: "Joggers Dead Body Theory"


Johnnyboyxo: "I Hate Stanky Pussy!"


Frezned: "Phone Call"


Most Annoying:

"Let Me Borrow That Top"


Magibon: "無ｘピザ" (translation: who the fuck knows?)


VISUAL

Best Photography:
Coming soon!

My art is on TV!

So a few days ago I mentioned that a TV station in Australia asked me to use one of my artworks for an intro to a segment on a breakfast television show. They just emailed me notifying me that a version of the intro has been put up on youtube, and you can see it below. I dunno if it's the final version or not yet. Look fantastic though. This is some pretty exciting stuff. They're going to send me a DVD of a high quality version and some other stuff; like a full episode of the show where it is shown. I'm really excited, maybe this will give me some exposure?

The show is on C31 in Melbourne, Australia and is on the Student Youth Network (http://syn.org.au/tv).


http://www.c31.org.au/new/

Wahh! *_*

Big day for me. I have been recognized quite a bit lately about my artwork that I posted on deviantART. It's called ONE PLANET, and I recently got featured by one of the really high up people and I logged on today to fine 50 messages. WAH! Then a about a week ago someone asked to purchase a high res version of so that he could make a super huge print of it; and a man from Australia has asked me if he could use it as a part of an intro in a breakfast television show. This could be big.

www.harajukumatt.deviantart.com

New Obsessions

I think I have some new unhealthy internet obsessions. Some are reoccurring, rekindled ones, others are new and have been taking up most of my time. I have become the opposite of whatever a troglodyte may be. What is the name of that that girl I have a romantic relationship with again?

LISTEN: (sterogum.com)


WATCH: (youtube.com/communitychannel)


OBSERVE: (lolokoi.deviantart.com)

Dear Life. . . Sincerely, Matt

Dear man who came through the Tim Hortons Drive Thru in July,

You were a real prick, you know that? A class "A" asshole. You asked us for a Ham and Swiss BLT sandwich. When we kindly asked you if you wanted a Ham and Swiss OR a BLT (after all, those are two different kinds of sandwiches) you so rude yelled "TELL ME THE SOUPS! WHAT KIND OF SOUPS?!". You're a fucking jerk, I hope you realize that. I would enjoy nothing more than watching you choke on your Ham and Swiss BLT.


Dear other man who came through the Tim Hortons Drive Thru in July,

Your world views were just astonishing. I'm amazed you were able to string that sentence together, the one where you said; "the aviation industry makes so many greenhouse gases, imagine the footprint they are leaving on our planet, I wonder what the footprint drive thrus are making...". Go home, stop talking to us like we give a shit. Take your coffee and leave; do you realize that we have to serve you under 35 seconds otherwise we will be working for minimum wage the rest of our lives? SHUT UP.


Dear my girlfriend,

You bring new meaning to my life. EVery morning is a new day where I wake up and feel even happier that I am with you. I have been in love with you for the past 5 years, and I'm glad you've realized that you love me too. I've waited for this for a long time, and now that we are together I will do everything I can to never change that. I love you. That you for marking my life brighter every day.


Dear my cousin from France,

Thanks for making my summer bearable, thank you for encouraging me to take the net step with You-Know-Who. I immensely enjoy your company, me and you buddy, are two of a kind.


Dear lady who had a pillow mark on her face at the mall today,

How long did it take before you realized you had one... or did you already know, and if you did know, why did you stay out in public, and where the fuck did you sleep that made it so easy to get to the mall so fast before the pillow mark had time to fade?


Dear anyone that gives a shit,

I have more to tell you about, however am too lazy to go on. This is where I've been all summer. Dealing with all of the above. I miss you internet, I hope to see you around more often. Or like the bedrock of the great falls, you are slowly starting to erode beneath me.

Life After Potter

After an intense four days of reading I got to the ending of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I was filled with a lot of emotions. A part of me never wanted this whole thing to end because it's been a part of my life for nearly ten years (Merlin’s beard! Has it been ten years?) now. It was like saying goodbye to a best friend who you knew you'd never see again. I feel like there is a void in me now. A big gaping hole where Harry Potter should be; I suppose I will feel this way for a while.
I wrote that first paragraph nearly nine months ago, or at least according to the affable robots at Blogger.com. Just days prior to that I was running through every possible emotion that my mind can handle. There were so many things running through my head to the point where I was going batty. Wow, I wish I felt that way about everything (and I’m sure that my parents do too). That is just the thing that J.K. Rowling has done for millions of people across the globe. Some of us have started reading because of her, and now it’s all over. Life after Potter.
I, being so induced in the saga, had pre-ordered my copy months in advanced. And from that point on every day leading up to it was just as crazy as the last -- up until the last night where ten years of waiting had finally come to an end. There was a midnight jamboree at Chapters book store. The night when the adventure that propelled me into literature was the adventure that was about to end, and in a sense it was the end of an adventure for me as well.
The night air was cool. Temperatures had been in the mid thirties all summer and there was finally a lovely breeze in the air to relieve the citizens of Sudbury from their buzzing fans and energy wasting air-conditioning habits. It was crisp and pellucid. Refreshing. I was with one of my best friends, who often said “Oh my God, I can’t believe we are here! I am even more excited than I thought I would be!” This was quite antithetical to what my mum had said; “Oh my God, I can’t believe you are that obsessed over a book!” Indeed it is just a book, but maybe something more to me. Once inside I had noticed that children were running around left and right clutching wands and spell books in their arms. Some muttering incantations as they flailed around their arms in the hopes of a nonexistent wingardium leviosa spell to jump out from the tips of their plastic Wal-Mart brand wands. Everyone was dressed as their favorite character; everything from Merlin to Rita Skeeter -- and of course unless you read the books you wouldn’t have a clue what I am talking about. Even the adults took part in the costume soireé. One lady in particular looked as though she had just stepped out of chapter seven of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. She was dressed as the fat lady in the portrait. She even had a picture frame. Oh the sights, the sounds... the smells? The store smelled great, like really great. It smelled like books (and I love the smell of books), but I think my dear friend Ray Bradbury described it best when he said books “smell like nutmeg or some spice from a foreign land”.
The glare from the lights were starting to affect me. I think my insides started to turn. Everything seemed echoed. My perception of reality became somewhat distorted. The air was getting thick; the carbon dioxide that everyone was exhaling was starting to sit at the bottom of my lungs. Before I knew what I was doing I was standing in line at Starbucks Coffee. Coffee makes everything better. Damn you clever marketers! It was a thirty minute wait. Just top notch!
The lineup began at 10 p.m.. Then more than ever before I felt the rush of excitement. It was almost overwhelming. Knowing that millions of people all across North America were doing the same thing at that exact time was mildly amazing. Two hours to go.
The mini Harrys, Rons and Hermiones were starting to get tired. But c’mon kids! They were minutes away from receiving their very own copy of the very best book ever. Suck it up kiddies. Naturally, I was tenth in line along with mi amigo. “That means we will be the 10th and 11th people in Sudbury to receive our copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!” After an hour of sitting in line I decided to grab a book that attracted me and started reading. The cover was red and then I had realized that those marketers had won another battle. Retrospectively, waiting in line for this event was half the fun. I can’t see it have been done any other way. That night will always stay a part of me. And then after alienating myself from mainstream media for the weeks following up to the event, out of the paranoid thought that the ending of the book may be revealed, it dawned on me that I was so close to finding it out for myself. The ending to an epic saga (17 years in the writing, I may add) that has changed my life.
Then it came. People were starting to count down the seconds. Tension was building up.
“Ten, nine, eight...”.
Like when you see the insincere smile of an aging Tim Horton’s employee, all my feelings gathered in a lump at the bottom of my stomach. I felt that I never wanted that one moment to ever come. But it came. Perhaps it was an irreparable blight feeling at that moment, but soon the excitement returned and the line started moving. Just like that ten years of waiting was annihilated by a few quick steps and then out the doors I went and I finally had that book in my hands, the one I had been waiting so long for. I was at the end of one chapter in my life, and I was about to turn the page and start a new one.
Within hours of the announcement of the release date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it became a #1 bestseller on every bestseller list for the first time in literary history. It also became #1 on the New York Times top ten bestseller's list, selling more than all of the top ten combined. Amazon.com reported over two million pre-orders for the final installment of the series within the first month. Three-hundred and sixty-five million copies were sold in sixty-five different languages before the book was even released. In the first twenty-four hours it sold 2.65 million copies in the United Kingdom and 8.3 million copies in the United States. That’s over seven thousand copies a minute. It is now seen as one of the most influential book releases in history. It was kind of a big deal.
What readers find at the end of this tale is a story about the redemptive power of love. For ten years Joanne Kathleen Rowling has kept people’s attention, such as me, from all around the globe. I, like many readers, have clung on to the pages of a fable that has affected us deeper than words can describe. It’s the power of words that has captivates us. The power of words, isn’t that remarkable. Every few years something special happened; people turned off their televisions and computers to actually sat down and read. J.K. Rowling is the reason I started reading, the reason I love reading and the reason why I love to write. To create a universe where my imagination can take over and make some sense of my place in this world.