So I'm 18. My birthday doesn't feel as exciting as it used to anymore. Maybe I've passed the hill of enjoyable birthdays. I remember being young and the night before my birthday felt like an early Christmas Eve. I wouldn't be able to sleep and I'd shake in my bed because I was that excited. Tuesday just came and went.

But at least it was a nice Tuesday. People at school were nice. People kept saying they would have gotten me cards or would have made me cookies had I told them it was my birthday. I know it wouldn't have happened anyway, but at least they're good at sounding sincere. (To her credit, though, Cheryl showed up at school the next day with a batch of tasty cookies. That's class.)

Now on to the business that I'm sure you all want to know about - the goods. I got:

$200 in cash
$50 to upgrade the computer
$100 to Banana Republic (I can already hear Steph sighing with relief that I'm finally getting some new clothes)
LotR Special Edition DVD's
DDRMAX (woo!)
$15 to Blockbuster from Kris (a damn good present from a poor music student)
A batch of cookies from Steph

Thanks to everyone who wished me well! I had a great day even with my weird mood swings.

More importantly, anyone who didn't watch the Rockefeller Christmas Tree special tonight on NBC really missed out. From this show, I am able to draw one very important conclusion:

Michelle Branch is a goddess.

I never thought it possible, but she was absolute perfection on this special. Not only did her cuteness surpass Ms. Rachael Leigh Cook, but her voice was utterly heavenly. And as a bonus? She wore cute little fuzzy clothes. Soft ones, the kind you want to roll up in a ball next to the fire in.

I will do anything for that woman.

Or, as Rach put it, "I wonder if she has a sister?"

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Yay for more teenage drama. Funny how the more mature you think you are, the more the stakes heighten whenever you get into stupid little fights like this. If this stupidity turns out the way I think it will, I think I'll take up piano.

I dunno. I just had this vision of myself playing mellow jazz music. I could probably feel the same sort of despair as the jazz musician. And I'd have a good environment - there's a baby grand downstairs with a gorgeous view out the windows.

Life is far too hectic for my own good. I've gotten the Blake form of senioritis which equals out to satisfaction with B-quality work since going for 5 A's on top of AP English is absolutely impossible.

Added Joshvar, my main man in Austin, to the amigos list. Removed Emily because her Livejournal is too damn boring. Stop moping and get back to the Seinfeld-style irreverence that we all came to know and love, bitch. =p Anyway, Josh wrote a brilliant rant on cell phones and some other stuff, so he's worth the click.

Added the birthday list up in the top corner.

I really wish I had time to rant. Alas, any spare time I get is going back to reclaiming my sanity between classes and the boredom that is Real Life� right now. I'm off to see if my girlfriend wanders over to wish me to get well soon and all that fun stuff.

Now I'm starting to sound depressed. I'm not as sad as my writing sounds. Really.

The Village Voice:You seem to have grabbed the slang of 'Get Your ----- On' right before it became ripe.

David Rees [author of Get Your War On]: I didn't have to think too long to come up with that title. I think 'Get your freak on' the song was already out there. Even before that, people within a certain demographic knew the phrase. I thought 'get your war on' was such an effective way to make the point. A lot of people were treating this as just another event that was about to happen. But it's a war. W.A.R. It's a war against terrorism. It's not a typical war, it's more a metaphysical war. It was a cool way to play up that a lot of people were not even criticizing this very important decision we had made to wage war in Afghanistan and more broadly against terrorism. It is still a war. If you knew enough about that phrase from hip-hop or whatever, it is just sort of jarring.

TVV: Most of these kids who grew up with that phrase also grew up during Desert Storm where 'getting your war on' only took a couple of months. Like a war is just a fad or a trend.

DR: That's a really good point.