Lenticular_J

That would be if the shoe needs entirely reconstructed. Which it won't. You probably won't pay more than the eight dollars or so at the store. You won't have time to ask for opinions, though. You'll just need to snatch the deal up. Bring someone with a fair style, or at least a good idea of your style.

Go to Goodwill. Look for good shoes. Allen Edmonds (pretty much THE American shoe brand) shoes can be found at so many stores because of how many people don't understand that shoes are an investment. It depends on what you wear to these formal events. I'd look for black or brown, simple oxfords (cap-toe, plain-toe, or wingtips because they are fun) depending on what your formalwear colors are. Generally these shoes need a polish, sometimes they will need a bit of handiwork, but a cobbler could rebuild one of those shoes (and give them an incredible shine) for 70 dollars or so. Paying a total of 80 dollars for shoes that look brand-new (and likely cost in the $300 range brand-new) is an invigorating feeling. I would replace the laces, though. They generally look too ... Just, bad. They also get covered with polish, which makes them nasty. Leather laces the same color as the shoe are a good idea, I bet.

I have a girlfriend.

I wish I could be sarcastic and cynical again. Wait. No, no I don't.

I have a date with a girl I liked a long time ago tomorrow. I saw her on Monday and felt really attracted to her again. Let's see how this works. First girl I've actually decided to go after since I've, you know, shifted all of my ideas. It will be fun, at the very least! Oh, and my two-cents on the sex thing. I am a virgin. I think it's kind of cute. Girls tend to be amazed by it, and some of them want to "ruin" me. I think I will stay a virgin until college, and try to stay one there, too. Resisting temptation (but not always avoiding it) makes me stronger, I feel.

Banana Republic is good at sweaters. And chinos. The rest of their stuff, you could do better with J. Crew. Sometimes the two are interchangeable in my eyes ...

Theater is fun. Good idea. The one thing I notice everyone lacks in (yet I excel in, apparently) is making the relationships between characters very obvious. Expressions. Be ridiculous and large and confident when you need to be, then head to the other extreme. Know your body language. Enunciate well. I'm surprised that they have you sing for theater. Ours is solely acting, choir handles the musicals (although both departments are very close to each other). But I'm bad at giving advice on how to act. You can really just do it or you can't. Then again, I don't care for so-called "method acting." Just make it natural, think "What would this character feel?" and feel it.

My town is pretty bad. Most things are stained beyond repair. That was a nice find. Of course, it was at the Goodwill on the ritzier side of town. Just have to get over the smell of that place ... Worse than when the stockyards would fill up! All the same. I bought a pink gingham/chambray two-sided bow tie recently. It might be here tomorrow. I'm also looking into some more rugged shirts. Not quite chambray (although I would like a few dark chambray shirts, but I think I can get those at Gap or somewhere, right?), but a heavier cotton. Is it oxford cloth that's fairly tough? I can never remember. And wool ties. I just got hit with the "I'm working hard but not so hard that I can't look good" thing. And I like it. Wool ties included.

Found my friend an amazing pair of Allen Edmond Byrons at Goodwill. They've barely been used (I think the inside said they were made in 2004 or 2006), and are a lovely shade of brown - kind of chestnut. They're cap-toe oxfords, for those that don't know. The have some perforating, but that lends to his style - sort of rocker. Eight dollars and 11 cents for what is definitely a $300+ pair of shoes. I should have kept them until my foot grew to size twelve, looking back ...

My friend found a girl he says is perfect for me. Trusting him, meeting her Friday. We shall see.

Looks like he's going to prom. He's probably going to prom. Or, I guess homecoming. There's lots "wrong" with it. But he looks like he's having fun. So, aye. The tie's probably clip-on anyway. They are a hell of a pair of boots. Red Wing also makes great boots, and I've heard different rumors about which are better - in a heavy work environment.

Yeah... Although I'd still say to get scholarships anyways just to have that much more cash in your pocket. Yeah, enjoy life, [bleep] the haters, and just roll with the punches. Oh, I'll be getting all the scholarships I can. The program I want to go into will be year-round, with little time for work.

So long as I have some land and a plow, I think I'll do alright. You're a pessimist. And education is hardly important. People who go through school are technically educated. You need more than that, because there is no education system that creates well-rounded men and women. They may excel in one area, but are generally severely deficient in others. Grades aren't very important at all. Once you're in college, what you did and who you were in high school means nothing. Once you leave college, it's generally the same way, although you probably had more lasting experiences (and better stories). There are bad people. There are always bad people. In the end, they live wholly unremarkable lives. Treat them the way you want to be treated, and your life is already that much more remarkable. Wait. Grades. Yes, grades. I'm in the top 6% of my high school class. Add to everything else I am/do, I can get into any college I want - not worried about that at all. But I'm paying for it entirely myself. Every single thing. I won't be able to have a steady job until ... Maybe not even this year. I have money put away. Much of it has been devoured by simple things I need. Primarily my car, even though I've begun walking everywhere. Yet, I don't worry. Things will work out. Calm down, my man. Enjoy life.

I don't feel that anyone has to sell me something for me to be happy. Although I would love to grow my own food and everything, so I guess you could catch me on growing things to be happy. The world isn't black and white, anyway. The higher you get, the lower you will at some point reach. I try to live my life at a constant climax, but it isn't quite possible yet.

You guys are right in ways. I like to change up whether I'll be the hunter or hunted on a given day. And the amazing guy part was nice, Zyg.

I think they do, but in their own way. We won't be able to understand it - at least, if we could it would be massively difficult. The same way they don't understand human morals. The same way some humans don't understand that other humans have different morals. But, I think in the animal's very different perspective, they have morals. And their morals are totally better than the stupid meerkats (or whatevs).

I wish I liked girls. Or, a girl. Is it so much to ask? For one? I refuse to lower my standards, and being alone is far better than leading a girl on just for the company (not sex). It's just, when a girl starts to like me, I lose interest immediately. It's bad. I want to like them, and I certainly would like to think I nonetheless leave them better than when I met them. I just feel like I should do better. Ah. Well.

Or there were far more hardasses back then. I enjoy that train of thought.

Get rid of all my pictures. This one is better, so put it in. Please. [spoiler=Here go.]

I do that sometimes while dancing. I like to see just how much sexual tension there is.

Hey, I kind of agree with you. I mean, once you started going into sexism and the Russian invasion, you lost my real support. But you get what I mean - and you're right about the history. The owner of a restaurant I frequent is Lebanese, and even he remembers the time when girls and boys played together happily. That it wasn't much different from how we act here (apart from the differences bound to come up). This is a stupid policy. I just don't understand why they would ban, of all things, something like that. It's childish. Are there not women who wear it because they feel it is right? If it's their view, and they aren't being forced, I see absolutely no reason to force them not to wear it.

Move to the music. If you look stupid, it will be fun. I mean, if you're awkward and uncomfortably bad, but don't make it obvious that you don't care, you're better off staying seated. But, yeah, dance. Let's see. How old are you? High school, okay. There'll probably be grinding. I can't help you there, never done it, never had any desire to. Simple concept, though. You can slow dance? Good, that's very good. I hope you mean ballroom dance, not hold her waist and move to the music. There's a time for that, but you're just as much showing off as you are enjoying each others' company. Girls love to show off how good their boyfriends are at whatever. Sounds like a good girl, by the way. Start out with learning how to move your hips to music. Circular motion. Guys do it much, much slower than girls. Work up to your shoulders, and your arms soon follow. Lose yourself in the good time, but not completely (don't want to do anything too weird, aye?). Just don't make it a big deal if you think it's stupid. Don't stop until the song's over. Good dancing is tiring - if there are a bunch of songs one after another, don't do more than three if they're all fast. Those group dances that everyone seems to know except for you? Learn them! It is fun. You can usually learn them by the time the first verse is done. Above all, wear comfortable shoes and an undershirt ...

So, today has been weird. Remember that girl that's a lot like me that I liked a long time ago? Well, I was kind of turned off from her because she'd spent too much time with her friend, who is a chore of a girl. She'd also completely lost her sense of style and ... Grace? Grace. Today, we experienced the most (sexual would probably be the right word, but I'd prefer to call it romantic) tension I've ever experienced. You know when you have your arms low around each other and then you lean back and look into each others' eyes? And it's about to go down? Well, that kind of freaked me out. So I jumped on one of my friends instead. Oh, and I think she was about to kiss me when we first hugged or whatevs. So I dig her again. Just wondering how she feels. I don't think she has her phone, and I rarely see her. The weirdest part was, she wasn't dressed particularly well today. The effortless chic I so admired once. Anyway, after that today was kind of downhill. People I don't like in classes I don't much care for. I almost left during third period. As in, left high school. I realized what kind of people were in high school. High school teenagers. They're awful people so much of the time. But, I need to look at the good things. No, not attractiveness, there is little of that. Very little. It was kind of a bad day at school, you know? Then, I went to my friend Travis'. Well, first we drove around with his dad for a bit, got him some food (his dad is one of the funniest men I know), then he fought with his parents (rare). The day was bad, definitely. But then we went to this college place called Fuzzy's Tacos. Oh, Fuzzy's Tacos. You see, we find places. Places that are ... Good. This is the most recent one. Something terrible always has to force us out of our prior good place. Fun, often attractive (I mean this in all areas, it's my way of saying someone is wholly remarkable) young people. Plenty are smart. Just a good place, you know? Good, cheap food. Amazing food, really. Like I was saying: this was a good place. We went outside, because there were more pretty girls and live music. The guy wasn't playing what he should have. His guitar style is very simplistic, and he has a pretty low, jazzy voice. But he was singing songs like Tiny Dancer. Uh-uh, bad. My friend Travis is an amazing guitarist and singer, and I'm good with my harmonica and a fair singer, too (I have such a low voice that my talking voice is man-harmonizing to most other guys). So, we eat, we talk to people, have some shenanigans. This is going to be our new place. We decided that Travis (and me, to an extent) needs a gig here sometime, seeing as it isn't quite open-mic but they still take anyone that brings their own equipment. We talk to the manager, he says he would love new folks. We go to talk to the guy that was doing the music. Turns out he's a really cool guy, and he desperately wants someone else to do it with him. He plays almost constantly for hours and hours on every Tuesday and some Thursdays, apparently. Travis and him are gonna jam on Sunday or Monday, because the Tech-UT game is Saturday, you know how it is. I might join them, just to see how it goes, and because it might be fun. I already know this is going to be very good. Very, very good. Oh, and I've proved to my friends that I know more about people than they do. But that's irrelevant. Hope you guys are having fun.

Nobody these days has the power to make a Constitution. Everyone would just argue about whether or not the writer's second cousin's ex-girlfriend posed nude in college. Gun crime, surprisingly, isn't bad here. Everyone and their dog has one, most families have a whole bushel. Knives are a big problem. Carrying a pocketknife is something I've been doing for a long time - it would suck to use in a fight, but much better than my fists. I used to be very ambivalent about the issue. Now I feel that brutally restricted arms are something I cannot allow. Even though I'm starting to feel that pacifism might be a good idea.

Yes, it depends on just how formal.