At the urging of a very helpful authoress, I am posting this for your enjoyment. This is sixth grade me wearing a fashionable CIMI t-shirt. CIMI stands for Catalina Island Marine Institute. It was kind of a summer camp, but during school. We learned about sea cucumbers and starfishes-es and barnacles and how to light a fire with sticks and bison and that you can always tell a mint plant because its stalks are square in section.
What’s interesting to note about this picture is that the year before, my hair was straight as a board. It’s like I hit pre-puberty, and my hair went ape-shit. Then, as I was going through my twenties, the hairs that were tired of being drunk-crazy-fucked-up-party-girls started falling out one-by-one. I distinctly remember in my senior year in high school a friend saying to me, “Your forehead is really big.” So it must’ve started then.
karlwinslow | 27-Mar-07 at 4:34 pm | Permalink
napoleon dynamite before its time
alex | 27-Mar-07 at 4:42 pm | Permalink
I guess I never talked about my love of Napoleon on the boards, but yeah. I relate.
sodajerk | 27-Mar-07 at 10:28 pm | Permalink
You look a little like Shia LaBeouf in that picture. Also, I went to space camp. Mercifully, there are no pictures.
crumpet | 28-Mar-07 at 5:18 am | Permalink
Bah @ Napoleon Dynamite.
Also, I didn’t know you had a Flickr account — hooray!
MagnusFromBerlin | 28-Mar-07 at 6:13 am | Permalink
one can learn something from a sea cucumber? i never knew…
anyway… to show that i sympathise with the cause and all… (on the right)
alex | 28-Mar-07 at 6:34 am | Permalink
Wow, Magnus. The one with the glasses? And you can learn all sorts of things from a sea cucumber…like how to throw up your guts when being attacked by a predator…how to give pre-pubescent children the creeps by being a little too much like a tumescent penis…how to sit and do nothing. Amazing creatures, those.
Crump, I’m working my way up to the twentieth century. I hope to add a little flickr dealy to my sidebar.
Soda, I’m pretty sure Shia is/was much, much more photogenic.
MagnusFromBerlin | 28-Mar-07 at 6:50 am | Permalink
yes, center right, white shirt, glasses… that’s me, 16 years ago…
throwing up when attack by a predator: must give that a try sometimes…
Junior | 28-Mar-07 at 10:51 am | Permalink
Hi. My name is Alex. I, too, have no shame. So, to those who have not seen it, I submit this
alex | 28-Mar-07 at 10:54 am | Permalink
Magnus, thanks for supporting the cause, as you say. But if I knew you back then, I’d probably throw rocks at you. For all my nerdiness, I was also a real shit at times.
1) I was brought up in a household that didn’t understand Jewish people. I didn’t understand that there was really anything outside of Christianity, even if we didn’t practice. It blew my mind the first time I found out an object of my affection in high school was Jewish. I probably made him uncomfortable with all the questions I asked him about his faith. I honestly was struggling to figure him out, and I had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that someone didn’t worship Jesus. Hopefully you understand that I don’t have that perspective now. I’d more side with a Jewish person over a Christian at this point.
2) I’m ashamed to admit this, but I beat up a kid when I was exactly the age I was in this picture because he was the only kid in my grade that was a bigger nerd than me. I was cool - or cooler than usual - for about a week.
alex | 28-Mar-07 at 11:05 am | Permalink
Junior, I have a little bit of a crush on that fella sitting behind you.
Junior | 28-Mar-07 at 11:31 am | Permalink
He was my physics teacher. He may have a crush on you back, we could never really figure it out….
MagnusFromBerlin | 29-Mar-07 at 2:19 am | Permalink
So, because 15 years ago you would have jabbed stones at me, I can not support your cause?
Now, I don’t want to belittle your adolescent pains, I’m sure it was hell, but 2/3 of the people I know experienced likewise situations and will tell you those once they are sufficiently drunk. The other 1/3 btw tell you on those occasions how extremely sheltered they grew up and how they really fucked up once they could make decisions of their own…
And then there is this other matter, now, how do I start this… I’m not Jewish. I grew up, as you did, in a non-practising christian household. My religion is atheist (or as I normally put so eloquent it in questionnaires: “—–”), my sibling btw are all agnostics (even thou they went to “the Evangelical grammar school of the grey monastery” - it’s not as bad as it sounds I’m told - btw Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck director of “The Life of Others” also went there).
Now you probably want to know why I’m wearing a cap in that picture, since that is a bit misleading. It’s because in the background you can see the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and you’re impelled cover your head (this is why I’m wear a paper cap and not a cool “Knight Rider”-picture cap). And it was the only picture form the period that I had handy.
All that said, I’m sure you still would have thrown stones (and worse) at me back then… so what
alex | 29-Mar-07 at 1:36 pm | Permalink