Uncharted Territory
Monday, September 16, 2013 - Saturday, August 2, 2014
Synopsis
On Monday, September 16, 2013, the entire school was originally scheduled to take a standardized test, but due to computer login issues that morning, it was cancelled. I wasn't feeling particularly well that morning, so I went to see the nurse and went home for the day.
Ever since the incident of October 17, 2012, I had been interested in a specific girl. I actually managed to talk to her that evening over Skype, and I told her afterwards that I liked her. Much to my surprise, she responded by saying it was mutual. And with that, I had my first girlfriend.
(more synopsis to be added)
Uncharted Territory enters a new phase in the summer of 2014. Whereas my sixth grade year had ended a week early in 2013, my seventh grade year ran over into June due to a very snowy winter.
Notable Tracks
West/East Bound and Down - Jerry Reed - 1977
While I first watched Smokey and the Bandit in 2011, and first encountered the songs then, the major memories I have for these songs comes from late 2013. For those of you haven't seen it, the premise of the film is rather simple: Coors beer was unlicensed for sale east of Texas in the late 1970s, and as a result, transporting it across state lines for commercial reasons was considered bootlegging. As the result of an $80,000 bet, the titular Bandit runs blocker for his friend Snowman's truck to distract law enforcement from the illegal shipment. They have to get from Atlanta to Texarkana and back in fewer than 28 hours to get the money. If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it enough.
Inspired by this film, we built our own version of this on the server: I built a long stretch of road that went about 1000 blocks west of the main city. The premise was to travel the entire road from the bar to the brewery in the time it took West Bound and Down to play, and to travel back in the amount of time it took East Bound and Down to play. I got the distance just right, because it was possible to do it.
We made this trek so many times just to listen to those songs it's unbelievable.
Lovefool - The Cardigans - 1995
Lovefool is my guilty pleasure. Hearing it first in late 2013, I have always loved it just as much as I hate admitting that I love it. I was sitting in the living room with my parents, as we were looking through YouTube for old songs to listen to, and they found the music video for the song and played it.
One of These Nights - Eagles - 1975
This is my favorite song. For as long as I have known about it, it has been my favorite song. I first heard it in late 2013, and there are several memories I can tie to it.
On the night of July 2, 2014, Wyatt and I were working on the tenth NosLabs on the NosPack server. I remember I'd often sit back and listen to the entirety of the Selected Works 1972 - 1999 album, and I remember grooving to it in-game as I played it, dancing in the pink/orange hall next to the lounge.
2014 was also the year that I began collecting vinyl records, and as the Eagles grew in importance for me, One of These Nights became the album that I spent months hunting down. I finally found a copy of it in January 2015, and I would play that LP rather often throughout the year.
Dreams - Fleetwood Mac - 1977
When I began collecting vinyl records in 2014, I had recently discovered Fleetwood Mac, and as a result, Rumours became the first album that I actively spend months searching for. While I never found one at the stores I visited, my grandmother searched her collection, and ended up having four copies of it, so one of them became mine.
On July 6, 2014, a cloudy, uncomfortably warm (but not outright hot) day, we visited the Bass Pro Shops location in Little Rock, and I remember that as we approached the location, I had Dreams playing on my iPod touch. When I hear Dreams, I think of both that record hunt as well as that journey.