bete noire

The Second Twenty-One

2011-09-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, I couldn't wait. Here's the next twenty-one songs WMP played on random out of 22,491 songs:

22. Black Sabbath - Hole in the Sky
23. Aerosmith - Under My Skin
24. Rush - The Larger Bowl
25. Clutch - A Shogun Named Marcus
26. Bad Religion - A World Without Melody
27. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird (Outtake Version)
28. Johnny Cash - Busted
29. Killswitch Engage - Without a Name
30. Ill Niño - When It Cuts
31. Shadows Fall - Deadworld
32. Crowbar - ...And Suffer as One
33. Himsa - Curseworship
34. Heart - Heartless
35. Ice Cube - When Will They Shoot?
36. Carnivore - Inner Conflict
37. The Cure - A Thousand Hours
38. Cake - Nugget
39. Coolio - Fantastic Voyage
40. Mudvayne - World So Cold
41. Common - The Bitch in You
42. Doc Watson - Deep River Blues

This one started out all classic rock, went rock and punk, and then out of nowhere, someone yelled "FREE BIRD" and like Buttafüko, Windows Media Player said "Okay, you asked for it asshole." Then we went metal, threw in some more classic rock and some hip hop, and ended on bluegrass. Nice.

I have to give honorable mention to song 43, though: Basil Poledouris - "An Age Undreamed Of/Anvil of Crom" from the original Conan the Barbarian!

The First Twenty-One

2011-09-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

Well how the hell are ya? I'm dustin' off the ol' Blogger account, how about that?

This is something I've been meaning to try for a while. I took all 22,491 songs on my hard drive and put them on random to see what would come up. I was originally going to note the first ten, but when you're talking about 22,491 songs, I thought it more appropriate to ramp it up to the first twenty-one.

1. Whitechapel - Fairy Fay
2. The Beatles - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
3. Aphex Twin - Home Made Polysynth
4. At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
5. Buttafüko - I Don't Like You (Acousti-füko Practice 05-13-2011)
6. Violent Femmes - Good Friend
7. Destruction - The Price
8. Joni Mitchell - Trouble Child
9. Freddie Jackson - You Are My Lady
10. Fear Factory - Ascension
11. Dark Moor - Lovers
12. Lady GaGa - Poker Face
13. Anthrax - Hy Pro Glo
14. Deftones - Minerva
15. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Shipbuilding
16. Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive
17. Hall & Oates - Out of Touch
18. Arch Enemy - The Immortal
19. Cypress Hill - Cuban Necktie
20. Nobuo Uematsu - Those Who Fight Again
21. Exhorder - Slaughter in the Vatican

I'm kinda surprised I didn't get more random tracks like interviews with Eazy-E, theme songs to 80's television shows, or movie scores (although there was one track from a Final Fantasy soundtrack), but this is a pretty interesting cross-section. Maybe I'll see what the second twenty-one are...

Change for the Better

2010-11-15T11:11:00.001-08:00

I put the Heraclitus quote “The only thing that is constant is change” in an email today and one of the recipients told me that I should be more positive. I always considered this a positive quote. How uninteresting would the world be without change? I forget sometimes that there are those that cannot adapt or accept change. It sounds kinda silly, but I’ve always thought you should celebrate change. I think there was something in Heraclitus’ philosophy that said you cannot step into the same river twice. Even though it appears the same, it is always changing.

Seattle's Smarter Highways: Day One

2010-08-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

Well, Day One for me anyway. They went live yesterday and I drove home too late to see what happened. Today, however, I got to experience them first hand.

If you're asking what the hell I'm talking about, you're not much of a commuter. As my significantly darker left arm can attest, I am a Commuter. Seattle spent just shy of $29 million on a system of lighted signs on I-5 north that are supposed to help congestion south of downtown by giving drivers real-time info on traffic conditions like blocked lanes and slowing traffic.

Today, as I neared downtown around 6:45pm, traffic slowed to a crawl just before the West Seattle Bridge like it always does. The first set of signs at Boeing Access Road showed a speed limit for all lanes of 50 mph, except for the HOV lane which read 55. The limits went down by 5 mph at each new set until they read 40 mph around Beacon Hill. This was when I was going about 8 mph. Traffic seemed to be exactly the same as it always is when I head back to Seattle from my job in Fife, with the exception of the jackholes that would abruptly change lanes when they saw that the speed limit was higher on the left hand side of the freeway, then swerve back suddenly or in the middle of their lane change when they realized that the higher limit was for the HOV lane and, alas, they were alone in their vehicle.

These signs (and their funding) are part of the Viaduct replacement project. Damn, I need to start voting. Apparently, the idea is that the added congestion from the Viaduct closures will be lessened by these signs. So far, I haven't seen or heard of them being any better than the old light boards that they replaced that would occasionally read "Stalled vehicle ahead in center lane", "Olive exit closed, use Madison", or "Amber alert: Red Toyota Camry, license 773 4NI" or whatever. They're also supposed to help cut down on collisions, but I've been driving in Seattle long enough to tell you that the worst possible way to help Seattle drivers (that already can't be trusted to talk and drive at the same time) is to put bright, shiny, self-updating signs over the road.

I've been making this commute for a little over three years now and I've made it for many years prior to this at different times. Maybe it's working and traffic would be a lot worse if these new signs weren't there. I don't know. It just seems like $29 million could have been spent on something that would have been a lot more useful and helpful. Like fixing the real source of that evening backup: I-90 dumping into I-5 just as it narrows to two lanes and an exit to Seneca while vehicles bob and weave to get to the left for Mercer or to the right for Olive on top of the backup that stretches all the way from the 520 exit and the ship-canal bridge north of downtown. Or, my personal favorite, put that money into better traffic safety education and more stringent license testing so that if you're a fucking idiot, you're not on the road anyway.

Momentary Panic Followed By Happenstance

2010-05-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

While driving to Milton yesterday…

First off, you may be asking why on Earth I would be driving to Milton and the answer is that the city of Fife (where I work) does not have a grocery store. In the whole city: No grocery store.

Anyway, I was driving and talking on my cell phone. Oh, horrors, I know! Throw away the key with me, they will! I spotted a police cruiser coming from the other direction and panicked for a moment, not wanting to get busted since I heard that driving while on the phone was now a primary offence. I almost dropped the phone into my lap mid-sentence, but I noticed the officer driving towards me was on her cell phone as well. Haha!

I’ve always been against this stupid law anyway. I personally think that the DOL should tailor part of their exams to determine if you can drive somewhat “distracted.” If you display the inability to drive and talk at the same time, you should not have a license! Although there should be a special section of hell reserved for people stupid enough to text and drive.

Give Me $5!

2010-05-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

I was talking with a friend about how I was bummed that so few of my friends come out to see either of my active bands play lately. What she told me is that my friends probably feel like the only communication they have with me are my invites to my shows. This kinda bummed me out because the only time I have to hang out with friends is usually at my shows. I practice most nights of the week and on the weekends I usually have shows or if I’m lucky I will get time to hang out with my girlfriend. To me, those show invites are actual invitations for my friends to come and hang out with me. The argument was then made that I’m technically asking my friends to pay to hang out with me. I called Bullshit on that one. You’re going to have to pay some amount of money to go out with any friends and $10 is usually the highest cover any of my shows ever have, but 80% of the time they’re closer to $5 or free. Anyway, I’m not trying to bitch out my friends, I just wish they’d come and hang out with me while I’m doing what I love to do.

FFXIII - Chapter 9

2010-05-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally picked Final Fantasy XIII back up and doggedly advanced through a few more chapters. I have to say it is a bit more engrossing now that the parties are bigger and Hope isn’t whining so much. Now that the party is more powerful and there are more tactical paradigms to use, it’s much more interesting.

Disconnected

2010-04-12T15:51:00.000-07:00

I’ve had this weird feeling lately of disconnection from the things in my life that are usually so important to me. There are a couple of things that have happened that I don’t really want to go into on the internet, but this seems dissociated from those events. Maybe I’m wrong and it’s all about those events. It could be the defenses coming up. Could be that something disturbed the evenflow of day-in/day-out and now I’m paranoid.

I’ve been having an fairly crappy last couple of weeks, so I might just be a little drained. I don’t know. I could probably speculate all day, but the part I do know is that I’m not nearly as important to the other people in my life as they are to me and I am overwhelmed by feelings of loss and separation when I think about it. I used to think of myself as an island, but lately feel more like Atlantis.

Final Fantasy XIII - 3 Hours In

2010-03-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

I'm three hours into Final Fantasy XIII on the 360 and the main thing on my mind is: Man, I miss FFXII. I'm three hours in XIII and there has only been about five minutes worth a play where I didn't just have to press A over and over until it moves to the next cinematic sequence. I'm still going through tutorials and I don't really care about any of the characters.

It is damn pretty, though.

The story is pretty rough in the sense that they've introduced all these social aspects and hierarchies with little or no explanation (which is not really new to the franchise).

I'll keep playing, though, 'cause I know weird, jagged FF story lines make sense eventually and I still have over two discs to go. I just miss the sandbox of FFXII. I read reviews of XIII that said it's pretty linear, but in my opinion, so far it might as well be on rails.

operor vos agnosco?

2010-03-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

I’ve been having problems communicating with people lately.

I find myself wondering if there is something about the way I talk that keeps people from paying attention to me when I speak with them. Perhaps people just generally don’t care what I have to say and don’t think there’s any possible way I could be saying something worth their time. It happens to me at work all the time and now other people are doing it to me too.

I’ve noticed a lot of ex-military people have a tendency to (or at least seem to) only listen for keywords and then decide on their own what I’m talking about. I’ll start with my point, they will respond with something that is related but not in line with what I’m saying, I will try to restate my point, we’ll go back and forth for a while, and eventually they will state my original point back to me as if it were their own. I’m not trying to talk shit about ex-military people, but it seems to be unique to them. I deal with a lot of them on a daily basis.

It also brings to mind the fact that for a long time now, a lot of people are very quick to cut me off or try and finish my sentences. I can’t quite tell if it’s because they can’t wait for me to finish talking or they just think whatever they have to say is much more important.

I know this sounds like I’m just whining that no one listens, but it’s becoming a real annoying part of everyday life for me.

It kinda makes me feel like Joe in Idiocracy where whenever he tries to explain anything to the people of the future, they don't listen and call him a fag for talking funny.

Pulling the Feed

2010-03-09T12:09:00.000-08:00

The RSS feed, that is.

I’ve noticed I am writing blog entries a whole hell of a lot less and I think it’s because I linked this damn blog to my facebook page. As facebook has gotten more and more popular over the last couple years, I gained signifigantly more facebook friends and although everyone I’ve accepted as a friend on facebook is someone I know or have known in life, not everyone needs to know the stupid things I want to say. Also, my old blog was a good outlet for me. Since I didn’t think anyone was reading it, I didn’t feel so bad about complaining about anything and everything. I got things off my chest and it just kept me writing more in general. I don’t like being a whiner, but sometimes I need to whine. I guess I’ve lived in Seattle too long; I only want to be negative if I don’t think anyone will notice. Dammit, I’ve turned into a passive-aggressive douche.

Anytwat, I’m cutting the cord. If you feel compelled to visit my old blog occasionally, it’s at thebleez.blogspot.com. Hopefully I will write there more often now.

Customer Disservice

2010-02-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

I always thought that good customer service was making sure your customer is taken care of. From start to finish. Apparently all you really have to do is look to your boss like you gave good customer service, have someone supplement your inability to do your own job, and use that someone to blame if the customer doesn’t get what they wanted. Maybe all those years of providing good customer service has jaded me.

Got Email?

2009-11-23T09:56:00.000-08:00

I just cleaned out my work email account. I permanently deleted everything from the month of September that I did not want to keep. There were 2,101 emails to purge. For just one month. Damn.

Down With the Land-Line!

2009-11-18T15:20:00.000-08:00

So, this was the first land line I’d had in almost…seven years. I never had the need ever since I started using a cell phone, until my current apartment where I get T-Mobile signal everywhere I’ve ever been, except inside my apartment. Now I have a phone that lets me make UMA calls over my home wifi network. Time to give that home phone the boot! No more collection calls for John Baggett! No more paying for an extra phone line just to maybe get a legitimate phone call during the rare time I’m actually home. No more having to remember to forward my cell phone before I lose coverage when I get home. I’m freeeeee!

Umm...

2009-11-13T13:17:00.000-08:00

It’s probably not a good sign if you set your Quarter Pounder in its box down on your desk and it leaves behind a grayish fluid on the desktop after you move it, huh?

Hump The Best Girls

2009-11-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

No Pumps, surgery, and exercises!

Spam emails crack me up. The line above was the body of the email titled “Hump the best girls” that I found in my junk folder of my work email. It came about a week before another one telling me I could “Pound her more and more.” These emails all come from accounts with believable names: Monica Escobar, Marianne Bergeron, Saul Pearson…I think I might write a drama comic and use these names for the characters that have offers for each other.

No Parties! Or I Charge $200!

2009-09-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Buttafüko played a very fun show in Cashmere, WA at the Pioneer House. Cashmere, if you didn't know, is just west of Wenatchee in Eastern Washington. We played with long-time friends Headwound and some kids called Mothra and had a great time.

Before the show started, we got some local friends to point us in the direction of the town's only motel, the Village Inn. We walked the block and a half over and entered the office. A man appeared from the back room who spoke very poor English. I can usually understand some pretty thick accents, but even I had problems following this guy's heavy Asian accent. We asked for a room and he asked us how many people, so we said, "Three." He then told us we were not allowed to party in the room. We said that wouldn't be a problem and asked how much it would be. He said $109 and if that's too much there's cheaper rooms in Wenatchee. We asked if the rooms were non-smoking and he said, "Only smoking." at which point I turned around and counted two cars in the parking lot. We took a minute to decide and Jeff handed over his credit card. The guy then told us he was going to charge $200 now that could be partially refunded if we were not loud. I asked who decides if we are loud and he just repeated that he was going to charge $200. Jeff took back his card and we walked back to the club. We ended up driving back at about 2am (I slept most of the way).

Now, I understand we were each wearing various band t-shirts and shorts. Maybe we looked like we were in a band and would cause trouble, but it should be pointed out that all three of us are polite, early-to-mid thirty-year-olds. I've stayed in enough hotels to know that you sign a form that says if you trash the place, you pay for it. You don't discriminate against your potential customers and make them choose to take their money away from you. This ass was obviously a bigot and did not want our business (and he did not get it).

Star Trek

2009-05-13T06:48:00.000-07:00

I saw the new Star Trek movie last night (in IMAX). It ruled.

I had been assuming I was going to be disappointed, seeing as the ads all said to "Forget what you know" and whatnot, and I haven't been too impressed with anything J.J. Abrams has done since Alias and the first season of LOST. None the less, Star Trek was a damn fun movie. The casting was great, all the effects were good, dialogue was well written...Nice job.

There were a couple things that bothered me, though. [SPOILERS AHEAD!!] Uhura and Spock?! Please. The only thing I can even think of that would justify this in any way was that Leonard Nimoy was a consultant on the film. To paraphrase Sarah, "If Spock and Uhura were an item, just imagine the catfights once Christine Chapell comes on the scene." Ooh, now I am imagining it...Niiiice! The other issue I had with it was that the villians, the supposed Romulans, were nothing special. They have this giant, evil looking ship that was supposedly a mining vessel. I could probably come up with more holes to pick in it, but that really just makes it more true to the original series. :)

Follow-Up With PCP

2009-05-12T06:03:00.000-07:00

Well, for anyone that cares, I'm getting around without the crutches now, albeit very gimpily. I still get a chuckle from the fact that the discharge papers the urgent care clinic gave me told me to "follow up with PCP after one week." I think they meant Primary Care Provider.

So, $600 later and still limping (maybe that should be the title of this blog entry), I played a show last week with Buttafuko at Chop Suey that I played from a bar stool on stage. I'm standing better now, so I might be able to stand for the Central show on the 21st.

Anyway, I'm getting a little better every day. Gonna start some physical therapy for it soon.

My Leg and My Knee Go Separate Ways

2009-05-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

So, you may have heard already that I messed up my knee a while ago. Nine days ago while playing a show in Silverdale with Buttafüko, I sprained my right knee in the midst of playing Journey's "Separate Ways."

I have a wireless system for my bass so I can keep from tripping over my chord and generally have a bit more range of movement. This also allows my dorky nature to take control during live performances and finds me running all over venues during our sets. At the show in Silverdale at the Old Town Pub, I was running around the bar, trying to get peoples' attention and sprained my knee as I tried stop running. It felt like my leg had popped out of socket with my knee. It was unpleasant. I tried to get up and it happened again, so I crawled into a chair and finished the song. Hodgy and Jeff had no idea what was going on, they just knew I was sitting down and not coming back to the stage, so when the song was over they took a break and checked on me. I hobbled back to the stage and finished the set in a chair. It didn't really start to hurt until the long drive around the Sound from Silverdale to Seattle in Hodgy's van. Also, Jeff and Hodgy laughing uncontrollably was pretty awesome too.

We got back to Jeff's place on Queen Anne and I drove myself home, still being able to move my foot to use the gas and the brake. I got home around 3:30 in the morning, hopped a block and a half on my good leg, had to crawl up three stairs inside my apartment building on my butt, hopped a little futher and had to stop. I drug myself across the floor to my apartment door and made my way into bed. I had Sarah take me to an urgent care Sunday afternoon.

The doctor took a bunch of x-rays (still waiting for the bill), told me it was a sprain with no tears or breaks, gave me crutches and an immobilizer, and sent me on my way.

I had been on both crutches and the immobilizer until yesterday. Oh yeah, and I got sick on top of all that, too. I took two days off work. On the days that I did make it to work, I was beat all to hell because the immobilizer made it impossible to get comfortable enough to sleep for long stretches and sick to boot. Last night I started limping around with one crutch and feeling a little better (cold-wise). The part I've hated the most about all this was that while I was on both crutches, I could not carry anything. I had to ask for help with the smallest things. Very frustrating. Also, I know I'm going to catch shit at Buttafüko practice tonight for not practicing all this last week. I could not even pick up my bass and carry it to somewhere that I could use it, dammit. Whatever.

Through this whole imbroglio I realized two things:

1) Maybe I'm getting too senescent to be going at this band thing so full-bore. Either that or even more out of shape that I ever imagined.

2) All of my co-workers assume I am a drunk.

It's odd to me that I'm 31 years old and this is the worst bodily injury I've sustained (aside from all those head traumas as a kid).

The Wrestler

2009-01-20T08:58:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday, Buttafüko had a team-building exercise in the form of nachos, popcorn, and soda. We went to see "The Wrestler" in downtown Seattle.

Mickey Rourke played Randy "the Ram" Robinson, a fictional wrestling legend who has gone all the way from super-stardom back down to not being able to make rent on his trailer. It's a story of many wrestlers who have gone through pain and loss for the love of their sport (and some money mismanaging). It was a dark and fairly depressing movie, but I liked it a lot. I recommend it.

My Damnable Brain

2009-01-07T14:58:00.000-08:00

So, my plan for this morning was to wake up at 6, make myself some breakfast, get ready for work and leave by 7 to be to work before 8. I had a hard time falling asleep last night and fell back asleep at 6 this morning when my phone's alarm went off. I think I hit the snooze button at 6:05 when my alarm clock went off and then fell back asleep once again. At this point, I began to dream that I was getting up and ready for work. Since my alarm clock failed to go off again, this left me to continue dreaming that all was going according to plan. Eventually, I think some part of my brain realized that I needed to be awake and was getting deeper into trouble, so instead of waking myself up, my brain decided to change up the dream a bit. As I was making coffee in my dream, I was assaulted by a home-invader in the form of Nicholas Cage (I believe brought on by watching the Gone in 60 Seconds remake last night) in an ugly leather jacket and grey sweat pants with white socks. Now, if you know me, you know that a Nicholas Cage Home Invader is the worst kind of home invader. Luckily, this wasn't one of those jelly-armed, I-Can't-Fight-Anything dreams and I was totally schooling the son of Coppolla. Then, in a random twist, Nick Cage gained the ability to become invisible in the midst of the pain-dealing figure four leg lock I had him in. At this turn, I started to realize something was wrong, but I was still able to find Cage due to his overwhelming lack of talent. Apparently, he can't even act invisible when he is actually invisible. After knocking over some furniture, I had him by the throat when I suddenly put all of the odd events together and realized I was dreaming, though I'm not sure if it was from understanding how unlikely these events were or from realizing that beating the crap out of Nicholas Cage was too good to be true. I woke up and looked at my alarm clock which read in oversized green digital number that it was 7 after 7.

I was three minutes late for work.

My brain is wierd.

Laziness Enabler

2008-11-24T06:52:00.000-08:00

So, with the merging of two dwellings, Sarah's Netflix account and my Xbox Live subscription have combined their powers to allow us to stream Netflix movies on my HDTV. Sweet.

Now, granted, the selection is pretty much what you would find in the middle aisles in the rental store. You know, the old stuff. That's alright, though. There's some decent stuff in there...some TV shows too.

We've been watching Dead Like Me, and hilarious dark comedy that originally aired on Showtime. Sarah is also now in crime drama heaven.

Being a Tenant

2008-11-20T19:01:00.001-08:00

I fall short in the "helpful advice" aspect of my blog, but here's one area that I recently had a big headache in: Landlord-Tenant law.

Anyone that's renting or will be renting, I strongly advise reading up on the Landlord-Tenant Act. It's not complex like you would normally think legal documents to be. It's plainly stated and in your best interest to read.

The Washington State Bar Association has some good info on their website and the Attorney General's Office has a link to the actual document on theirs.

Anyway, there you go. I hope it helps someone save some of the hassle I went through.

The "Me" Update

2008-11-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

I haven't been doing much writing lately, but beyond my avid readers (my sister and my girlfriend), I know no one has felt too much in the dark. So anyway, on with the update:

Bands: Solace in Black has hit a snag for recording. We were about to start constructing the isolation booth when we started getting harassed by the management of the storage facility that we practice in. So, then we had to spend some time looking for a new place to practice and then I had two weeks of the night shift, so I was out of the loop. We're pretty sure we're going to have a new place by the end of the month, so things will start moving forward again shortly thereafter.

Buttafuko has been playing shows constantly. We had three in the last month and have another four before the end of the year. I have missed playing shows this often.

Section 34 and Who's Buying? are seemingly on hold. 34 hasn't gotten together in a while and Who's Buying? is probably on hold until at least after the Solace record is done.

All-in-all though, I've keeping busy and having a good time musically.

Life: Sarah and I just got a new place that rules (even if it is on Capitol Hill). We're almost completely unpacked and we get to see each other a bit more now. I'm through with my agonizing drama with the ex-landlords and all is well.

Work: Work sucks right now. I was fine for a while, but right now it's boring and monotonous. Plus, my "supervisor" likes to keep us all feeling like we could lose our jobs at any moment. Not great in the morale department. I would be looking for a different job right now, but that "training" my company sent me to last April (you know, the Chicago trip that ended up being a church service? see my old blog entry if you don't remember)...well, apparently if I leave or get fired within a year of it, I have to pay the company back for it. About $700. I could probably survive if I did, but I can't justify paying for that huge worthless idiocy out of my own pocket. So I trudge on, hoping that I don't get fired or laid-off before next April. Right now, I am on my second week in a row of working 4pm to midnight. Two weeks of this shift is enough to completely take me out of the loop of everything going on in my life outside of work and to completely screw up my sleep cycle. By the end of the second week I'm not falling asleep until 5 or 6 in the morning, then I get a weekend and then go back to work for the 5am-2pm shift. It's borderline inhumane, if you ask me. Problem is, no one at work cares enough to. Guess I should be happy just to be working.

For some reason, I've been thinking about the past lately too. Probably all the old contacts from high school that have been popping up on Facebook. I still have the stance that I would not change anything because I'm perfectly happy with the way I am, but looking back lately, I've kinda been wishing I hadn't been so serious when I was a teenager. Life could have been a bit more fun. I still would have not done drugs or alcohol (until I turned 21), but there were many other things I could have loosened up about. Oh well. Could have been a lot worse.

So, things are still good, with the exception of some friends that I haven't seen in a long time. The holidays are coming up and if there's one thing I'll be thankful for on Thanksgiving (besides my awesome girlfriend), it'll be not working in retail for another holiday season.

My Landlord is a Moron

2008-10-23T07:40:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness I'm moving.

I just need to vent about my landlord(s) for a minute, here. You may recall my post from a few months back about my hobbit hole and the new door with the knob at knee-level. That was apparently just the first in a series of ridiculous yet frustrating stops on the shortbus route through "I'm-a-landlord-and-have-no-idea-what-I'm-doing"-land.

When I signed my lease, I was paying rent and all bills by depositing a check into my landlord's bank account. No big deal, I just had to go to his bank once a month. Then he decides that rent now goes into one account on the first and bills go into a different account on the fifteenth. Ok, great. I'm now going to his bank every other week. Whatever. Now he is expecting a check mailed to him by the thirty-first for utilities starting with the end of the month.

When I first moved in, both Matt and Chris (my landlords) lived in the house and the internet modem and wireless router were in my living room downstairs. I moved them into my bedroom, because that was where I was going to set up my computer. Their router would lock up every so often, so instead of asking me if they could go in there and reset the router, they would go to the breaker box in the laundry room (which they have to enter my apartment to get to anyway) and just flip the breakers for my room. So I would get home sometimes and find that I had to reset all my clocks and that my computer was off. Annoying, not to mention bad for my computer.

In July I asked Matt what would need to happen if I wanted to ask Sarah to move in with me. He said she would have to be added to the lease (ok, standard) and he would raise the rent by $200 (Whaa?). I asked why he would raise the rent and he said that it was for the wear-and-tear of an additional tenant. I asked him: "Wasn't that why I paid a deposit?" He never replied to that email.

Have you ever heard of a landlord that requires the tenants to mow the lawn of his property and fine them $75 if it doesn't meet some arbitrary expectations? Most places I've lived either will hire landscapers to maintain the property and consider it included in the rent or give the tenants a break on their rent for mowing the lawn. It's in my lease that I am responsible for it. It's in my roommates' leases as well, except I just found out that at least one of my roommates has a $150 fine in the lease. Fuckin' money-grubbers.

When I first moved in, the lawnmower was kept in the laundry room. As I've described in previous blogs, you have to go through my living room to get to the laundry room. It wasn't ever an issue when Matt and Chris lived in the house, because no one ever mowed the lawn. When they moved out and the new tenants moved in and we started getting threatened with fines and thus had to start mowing the lawn, I stopped being cool with lawn clippings getting tracked through my living room. To digress for a second here, I find it hilarious that the ads that they're running on craigslist for my unit describe it as "private". Luckly, my roommates were also uncool with having to lug the lawnmower up a short flight of stairs to get it outside, so they got permission to keep the mower outside, as long as it's chained up. Now, the property does have a garage, but it's rented separately to someone that none of us (the tenants) have ever met. Matt tries to make money off any part of the house he can. He even tried to rent the shelves in the laundry room! No shit. So, back to the mower...We keep it under a tarp and chain it to the picnic table in the back yard. I put it under the table with the tarp on it when I'm the one that's used it last. When Chris took over managing the property, he told me that he was going to put it back in the laundry room. I told him No. He said the mower would get water in the engine and ruin it. I asked how water was going to get in the engine if it's under a tarp, under the table. He said the water would come up from underneath. Christ almighty. So he moved the lawnmower on top of the picnic table with the tarp on it.

The first time Chris brought someone to view my apartment, he stayed afterwards and told me that I need to provide him with my receipts for my security deposit, because he couldn't verify that I had paid it. I was so proud of myself...I didn't combust on the spot or punch him in the face. I found my receipts for the deposits into their accounts as directed by them, scanned and emailed them to him with a reminder that by law, it is the landlord's responsibility to provide the tenant with a receipt for their deposit, not the other way around.

When it came time for my lease to expire, Matt sent me a letter explaining the change in rent with a new lease. He said that because I had been such a good tenant he was willing to forgo the standard rent increase and then went on to say that because of an increase in costs on his end, he would be applying a 12% increase on my rent. Ok, a little confusing, but you're a greedy bastard...I get that. Then I did a little research and found that most places are not increasing rent at all or only doing a 3-8% increase, which got me looking at prices of other places and finding that the rent I was paying could get me a bigger place in a better neighborhood. So I'm moving.

I Could Kill Vampires

2008-10-09T05:21:00.000-07:00

Oh man! I love garlic. I learned recently how to roast garlic and gave it a shot last night.

I ate an entire bulb of garlic. Everything I eat or drink today has a subtle garlic taste to it. I would not be surprised to learn I smell like garlic.

Well, at least ain't no vampires gettin' anywheres near me! I could probably turn the undead at this point too.

I'm a Ramblin' Man

2008-09-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

Well, looks like I'll be holding the tradition for another year. Once again a year has gone by and I will be moving again. I thought I might finally be staying in one place for longer than a year, but I had to go and fall in love and want to be able to be with that person as much as possible.

So, that's the good news: Sarah and I are moving in together.

Now I have pack everything back up...again.

It'll be worth it, though. I'm excited.

God's Tax-Dodging

2008-09-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

Why do we give tax breaks to religious groups?

I saw a bumper sticker a few days ago, maybe the first one ever to make me actually think about something. It said "If religious groups want to get into politics, then they should pay taxes."

Generally not being overly interested with politics due to my mind's inability to function in a dimension where perceived facts originate from deception and self-importance, my brain all but shuts down when I try to answer this question myself.

Also, it's a little dated as far as news goes, but a month or two ago there was more outcry about separation of church and state. People were pointing out that the "separation of church and state" isn't actually in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. Who cares? Who actually thinks letting one get involved with the other could have anything other than disastrous results? Religious groups are generally corrupt enough as it is. Give them real, lawful power and we might as well go back to the middle ages. There's already too much of people's religious views that come into play in their political agendas.

Maybe they should be paying taxes so the government can finally openly take money from religious activists.

Oh, whatever. This makes my head hurt.

I Wish I Could Stab You With My Indifference

2008-08-29T16:26:00.001-07:00

edited for calming down

I've erased the entirety of the rant that used to be here. I am replacing it with a statement that I wish I could just be a dick and tell someone to shut up to their face. I won't, for the same reason that I erased this blog: I don't like being negative. Sometimes it's unavoidable, but it is entirely avoidable in blog form.

To sum up my issue, here's a quote from Plato: "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something."

My Broken Home

2008-08-22T12:57:00.000-07:00

There was a time when I used to call the Central Saloon my home away from home. I was friends with the employees, I could go there pretty much any time and know I'd be having drinks with friends and get to see some live music. I even met my girlfriend there.

Most of the people I liked there have either moved on or been moved on.

On my birthday, August 20, I may have had the final straw. Daniel, the soundguy who's been there since I first started going almost eight years ago, was fired by the new booking staff. They claimed that bands complained about him and the new bookers turned the owner against him as well. I will admit that when I was booking there, I got complaints from bands about Daniel, but it was only when the bands were complete idiots.

Anyway, without going into too much of the drama, the Central has been on a downward slide for the last year or so and I've finally reached the point of cutting the cord. I don't feel inclined to book any of my bands there anymore and it'll take a damn good line-up to get me to come to a show again.

I know Daniel will get work somewhere else, so I'm not too worried for him. It just sucks to see something you used to like (the Central Saloon) to make so many bad decisions.

Sesquipedalian

2008-08-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

I have a new favorite word in sesquipedalian. It's a long, multi-syllabic word that is used to describe words that are long and multi-syllabic. That makes me smile for some reason.

Oh My Goodness!

2008-08-11T09:24:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, the Seattle rock band, Goodness, had a reunion show at the Showbox Market. I was pretty broke, but there was no way I was going to miss it. They have two more shows coming up and after seeing them last Friday, I will be trying to catch those as well.

It did my jaded heart some good to see an actual good rock band from Seattle. Especially a good female-fronted rock band from Seattle. This will be a rant for another time, though.

They played every song I wanted to hear, they played tightly like always, and I had a great time. Carrie Akre just had a baby four months ago and was still movin' around and singing her heart out. Even if she has put on a little weight, I do wish she would've worn something other than the pillowcase she wore on stage. It was a bit distracting. I used to have such a crush on Carrie, but I guess she has a family now and I'll have to let it go... :)

The show gave me a flashback to the Seattle music scene in the late 90's and early 2000's. I had forgotten how much I miss it. Band quality was so much better. There are a lot of good bands in the scene right now, but the level of crappy bands that are actually getting shows has increased exponentially. Anywho, it was awesome to see one of my favorite local bands get on stage again. And now I can see them when they play bars!

"Hello, Police? My sandwich sucks."

2008-08-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

By now most people have heard about the douchebag in Florida that called the police because his Subway sandwich didn't have any sauce on it, and then called them again to complain they weren't getting there fast enough. If you haven't: AP article

This just blew my mind, but so gave me retail flashbacks. Working in retail completely ruined my faith in humanity. It's gotten better the last couple years since getting a job in the private sector, but just hearing this story on the radio sent my head spinning into a time vortex of encounters with morons and jackasses and I almost swerved my car into oncoming traffic.

One of the stories is the man (a grown man in his late twenties/early thirties) who started crying because Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was not yet out on the X-Box. This is obviously when I was managing a location for GameStore (name changed to protect the innoc--well, to protect the devourer of a retail niche) and GTA: San Andreas released for the PS2 and a release for the X-Box hadn't even been announced. Every ad, review, sign...everything had been for a PS2 version only, but this guy was so excited about a goddamn video game that he must have just convinced himself that it was coming out on the X-Box. He accused my employees of lying to him, threatened physical violence, racially insulted one of them, and was crying the whole time. Snot bubbles, clenched fists, streams of tears, sobs...the whole nine yards. Then this group of kids in line behind him started laughing at him. This guys was pretty big, too. Probably six-foot-three, two hundred fifty pounds. His little girlfriend ended up having to speak for him. They said they weren't going to shop in my store anymore and I told them that I sincerely hoped they wouldn't and that they were lucky I wasn't calling the cops. I told my DM about it and showed him the security footage. The guy tried to come back a month later and I kicked him out. He called corporate to try to get me fired, but because I had told my DM about it and emphasized the threats and racisim, they called him back and told him not to shop any of our stores ever again. That's a rare thing for a corporate management to authorize.

And that's just one story...

More Importing

2008-08-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

So, in efforts to get my blog to post on my myspace page like it does now on my Facebook page, I opened a WordPress account and imported my Blogger posts over there because they have a application that will import to a myspace page and Blogger doesn't. Now I have to wait until I get home to see if it will all work since I can't get on myspace at work. Sheesh.

Facebook Feature

2008-07-31T14:58:00.000-07:00

I just discovered a way to import my blogspot blogs onto my Facebook page, so if you have a Facebook account, and you're my friend, you can get a real-time update when I feed the beast.

Big freaking deal, right?

X-Files: I Want to Believe

2008-07-31T14:01:00.000-07:00

Saw the new X-Files movie last weekend. Even as a fan of the X-Files, I would say the movie is a rental. The story would have made a descent episode of the series, but I found myself asking why this story was being made as a movie. It had no bearing on the main story-arc of the series. Oh well. I guess I should just be happy to have gotten a new X-Files story at all.

Residual Self-Image

2008-07-08T22:08:00.000-07:00

There was a cursory concept in the Matrix movies, which was that how they looked in the Matrix was how they pictured themselves in their minds from when they were plugged in.

For whatever reason, the concept popped into my head today as I was thinking on someone's comment about how I look like I've lost weight. Sometimes when I look at myself in a picture or at my reflection I think I look alright, sometimes I think I look a little mongoloid, sometimes fat, sometimes not to bad...I'm just curious what I would actually look like if I had to look like my mind's eye version of myself.

Hmm.

Fort Buttafüko, Montana

2008-07-02T12:33:00.001-07:00

So, Buttafüko played the Snake Pit Motorcycle Connection rally in Clinton, Montana on June 13th. It was the first time I'd "hit the road" so-to-speak in one of my bands (I don't really count Portland, OR). It was a good time. Part band road trip, part camping weekend. It was so relaxing. If Sarah could have come, it would have been perfect. Great weather, camping, barbecuing, friends, booze, live rock and metal bands within walking distance...Freaking awesome!

The turnout was less than they predicted and it was a bit disorganized, but I still had fun.

Jeff told me last night that Buttafüko's been asked back for next year. I hope gas prices don't keep us from making it again, 'cause I'd love to do it again.

The New Bigotry

2008-07-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

I'm getting tired of listening to people's ignorant, racist jokes about middle-eastern people. Granted I don't know much about their cultures and I have been known to tell some very terrible jokes in my time, but I try to do it for shock value and crudeness. I have been listening to too many people who genuinely think it's okay and funny.

Life Update #3: Health

2008-07-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

I also have started the South Beach Diet.

I was worried about giving up pasta and bread and stuff like that, but it's been very tolerable. I've lost 25 pounds so far and have started working out again. I feel good.

Life Update #2: Buttafüko

2008-07-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

So, the fourth band I've joined is the ass-kicking metal machine that is Buttafüko. I'd been a fan of theirs for a while. Jeff from Solace in Black is their drummer and Hodgy is the guitar player. They have fun and catchy metal/punk/rock songs and often have hilarious lyrics.

Now Jeff is in three of my four bands and I am in three of his four. Good thing he's a good guy or we might end up killing each other.

Life Update #1: Freeing-Up Some Time

2008-07-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

I turned in the reigns to Monday Metal Madness at the Central. You may recall that I tried moving the metal night at the Central to Wednesdays as I thought after six years, local metal bands deserved a better night that Mondays.

Apparently not.

I still had a bitch of a time finding and confirming bands and they still did little to draw people in. There was a day where I only had two bands and they both flaked out on me and the owner decided that would be the day he would go in and check on things. Needless to say he decided that metal night would go back to Mondays effective immediately. I don't fault him for that decision, but I just couldn't do it anymore. I was going to take too much time and I just didn't feel like I could give it the time it deserved anymore.

So I quit. I'm re-focusing that energy into the bands I'm in and helping out friends. I've already been asked to do a few fliers and I'm trying to help Jackie Rome get a show in late August. It's also giving me time to do stuff for my bands like press kits and graphics.

I do miss the days of metal bands giving a damn and wanting to play MMM, but that's been soured for about the last year, so now it's actually really nice to be free from it.

Oh, hey! How's it going?

2008-07-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

Hey. I have been busy lately. I haven't forgotten you, beast of the void. I will feed you soon.

Fuck off, man! You don't know me! You don't know me!

2008-04-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

I hate it when people who don't know me use my name when I am wearing a name tag.

Yes, I know. The purpose of a name tag is so that people will know your name without having to ask. I don't believe that should give a person the right to use it if you have not given it. I get an odd feeling of violation when someone I have never met before in my life says, "Hi Josh!" or "Thank you Josh!" or whatever. I have only ever worn a name tag because I was required to. At work or at a seminar or organized meeting of some sort.

Just because it's there doesn't mean you should use it. It's rude and creepy.

I guess it's somehow similar to walking into someone's bedroom, seeing a handgun on their nightstand and shooting their dog. "Well, why did you have it out if you didn't want me to use it?" I know you're thinking that seems a little extreme and I would have to say that, no, I don't think it is. I say that because the way it actually makes me feel is like if I were to walk into your house and catch your sister asleep naked on her bed and decide to fuck her. "Why did she leave her vagina out if I couldn't fuck it?" Sufficiently creeped out? Good. That's how I feel about it too.

"Name-rape."

Maybe I'll just start yelling, "You don't know me! Get away from me you name-rapist!"

OMG! WTF! i can't believe what kind of things were going on!

2008-04-15T21:18:00.000-07:00

"OMG! WTF! i can't believe what kind of things were going on!" Is a text message I received from a co-worker during our company trip to Chicago last weekend and it seems to so amply sum-up the whole trip.

I'm not going to name the person who gave the seminar we attended last weekend just in case, although he/she pointedly stated that he/she didn't care what anyone thinks of him/her, ourselves included, just in case it could get my employer in trouble. I will call him/her Digressing Jesusfreak to protect the inocen...well, to protect this person.

So, to start from the begining, I was "asked" to come to a motivational seminar that my work was sending about twenty or so people to. After I agreed to go, I got another email that warned: "One thing to note, so that we are not surprised, is that [Digressing Jesusfreak] takes a Christian, Evangelical approach to [their] motivational message on success in business." Then I received a later email saying that the "Spiritual Equipping Bonus Session" was optional, so I thought I would be fine.

It occurs to me now that I may need to spend a little time explaining my belief structure. As far as I know, I have no name for what it is that I believe. Agnostic is the closest there is. Without going into a long explanation of all my beliefs, suffice it to say that I believe there could be a higher power out there, but there is no way that it is fully comprehendable by the human mind. I am more than happy to let others believe what they want as long as it doesn't take root in ignorance, forced or naiveté, or to persecution, and especially as long as others' beliefs are not forced on me or others as an absolute.

The seminar started out Saturday morning with some useful info. Nothing I didn't already know, but useful to see someone structure things I practiced. Every now and then "the One True God" and "My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" would come out, but it wasn't influencing the content of the instruction, so I didn't mind. The sermon...er...I mean: seminar continued with tips on getting out of debt, focus, and succeeding in business, all the while increasing the amount of God-stuff that would sidetrack our speaker. It was pretty much like being nine years old at church again by the time we got to the lunch break. After lunch, Digressing Jesusfreak had calmed down and was back on course. For about twenty minutes. Then we were reminded that our speaker doesn't care what other people think and that there is one true God and Jesus is the savior for the next couple hours, then things turned back to business. I got a few more good notes until I started to realize that everything we were currently talking about was a pyramid scheme. Our speaker would go through role playing examples and then say things like: "We got that person to be interested and got a call back to interview and the whole time we didn't tell them anything about our company, our product, or the job they are interested in. They don't even know the name of our company!" We were told that all of these tactics could be found in the book that was on sale at the back of the room and, who here has the book? Followed by about a third of the room holding up this book.

Anyway, we finally were done and all that was left was the optional part of the day after a two hour break. I was fully creeped out by all the religious goings-on and did not want to return for the optional part. The problem was that too many of my co-workers were talking about how their supervisor had said that it was not optional. My boss never said anything to me, but so many other people had talked to me about it that my plausible deniability had gone out the window. Finally my roommate suggested that I go for a bit and if it's too much for me, I could leave. That sounded like the best option available.

We got there and Digressing Jesusfreak said that for the purpose of everyone's spirituality, they were throwing out the idea of denominations in belief and that they would be seeking spiritualism in the One God that looks over all. I thought, "Okay, they're trying to make an effort to encompass everyone's beliefs (even though many religions don't even have a "god" figure, but anyway...)" until about two minutes later when she started screaming about being saved by Jesus Christ. I rolled my eyes, but stayed put because there was a live band that was about to play. Anyone who knows me knows that I will sit through some uncomfortable shit to watch a good band. The music was pleasant-but-average and the vocals (two women) were very good. The lyrics were, of course, Christian. I sat and watched the show even when some of my co-workers stood up in front of me and raised their arms in the air (never really been sure what this accomplishes...are they used for spiritual antennae?) finally I decided I would go out into the lobby and call Sarah. I talked to her for a while and as I was getting off the phone, my roommate came out and said that was all he could take and was going to hit the bar. He said our other friend that was still in there (the same one that later would send me the text that is the title of this blog) thought I had left. My roommate left and I went back in to see if our friends were going to stay. I hung out for a few more minutes and decided I had had all I could take and left. My friend decided to stay. It was about 10pm (remember that it was supposed to be over at 9pm).

I met my roommate in the bar, had a couple beers and some potato skins. It was about midnight and I decided it was time to sleep. It was a little earlier than normal for me, but I had jet lag and was ready to call it a day. Around 12:30am my roommate got a call from our friends that had decided to stay. They were still in the "seminar"! I fell asleep shortly after that and the now infamous text came in around 1am. Come to find out the next day that it had escalated into full-blown speaking-in-tongues, writhing on the floor, the power of Christ compels you, ...whatever you call it. Some of the speaking-in-tongues and writhing had even been done by our co-workers. Christ-on-a-stick.

I know I mentioned earlier that I am tolerant of other peoples' faiths. I am. I also said that I won't tolerate it being forced on me. I already have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth due to my company's integration of faith in the workplace. We have a company pastor and also have prayer at our company meetings. Nobody is outwardly intolerant of the fact that I do not participate in these activities, but the stigma is there. I was already feeling duped into going to a sermon in the guise of a business seminar (a wolf in sheep's clothing, if you will) and to find out that that sort of thing was actually required by some of the senior management...I was almost ready to quit. The kicker now is that when I was hired, I signed an agreement that stated that any training that the company pays for I will have to pay back if I quit or am terminated within two years. It hasn't been confirmed that this counts as that kind of training, but I'm not real sure how to ask at this point without making someone think that I might be trying to leave. Uhg. I actually want to stay if I can get the things happening that I'm trying to make happen, I just could really do without the Jesus.

Now, it's day two, I've heard about the happenings of the previous night and am in a totally different frame of mind. I decide I'm going to take notes a little differently today.

The "seminar" starts off with Digressing Jesusfreak's spouse giving a little bit of anti-propaganda propaganda. My notes try to follow the train of topics, the stream of subject matter, as closely as possible. Sometimes I paraphrase with a little bit of cynicism. Like, for example, there was one part of the day's seminar when the speaker saw herself on the screen from the side and stopped mid-sentence to pull her jacket over her enormous fake boobs. She acted for a second like it was embarrassing and then started to talk about them, then said at least we couldn't see her tattoo. I put this in my notes as: "I have big boobs. And a tattoo." Also, sometimes I would make a note of the overall tone of the moment, which you will see for yourself, because I wish to share my notes with you. I have seven-and-a-half pages, but I'm going to omit some of the things that are this speaker's signature concepts. I'm not trying to slander anyone, I just need to share this wholly bizarre weekend with people. The first half page is the spouse, then after that first blank line is when Digressing Jesusfreak came up:

Click to enlarge:

My notes were my way of coping with the weekend and I think it helped my traumatized friends, as well.

In retrospect, I don't really know why all the religiosity surprised me. I definitely should have seen it coming. Maybe I was too optimistic...Oh well. In summation, I think what I would like you to come away with is the disproportionate ratio of business topics to religious and anti-government topics and the rate of digression from the business topics. Reading my notes, the topic goes non-sequitur almost every other line. The actual business take-away knowledge could be summed-up in a three of five hour class. Everything else has no bearing on the workplace, in my opinion. Also, given that the CEO of my company and all of senior management had already attended this seminar, it makes me more than a little suspicious of why exactly I was sent there.

A Requiem for Juno

2008-04-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

Juno is a slut.

I really like you, Juno, but you're a dirty little whore. I liked you so much when we first met. We laughed. We cried. Now I see you all over town. On TV. On myspace. On facebook. I saw you today, whoring yourself out at Starbucks. When we met I felt like we had something special. Now I've found out that you're special to almost everyone in town.

To quote Great White: "My my my I'm once bitten twice shy baby."

I do miss you, though. I might pick you up next time I see you...for the right price.

The Music Update Update

2008-04-08T16:49:00.000-07:00

So I joined a fourth band. I'll say who it is in the very near future, but I'm pretty excited about it. They've been one of my favorites in Seattle for a while and it's going to be a lot of fun!

New Hotness:

2008-03-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

Chicken Caesar Salad with peppered salami!! Hell yes!

And I was surprised about my weight....

The Music Update

2008-03-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest in my various musical ventures:

Solace in Black: Our time table has had a setback. It took us longer than we thought to get the clicktrack up and running, Andy is still focusing on his life and family, and my schedule is still wacky. We've balked at the monetary issue as well. I think we're going to have Brian Valentino record just the drums, and maybe the bass. There were concerns that the guitars and vocals were going to take too long and we didn't want to have to pay that much. Mike's got a friend that has a full studio (ProTools, the whole nine-yards) and I think we're going to use him for the guitars and vocals so we can take our time with them.

99.9 KISW's Metal Shop presents: April 4th at the Central Saloon with Tasty Gore, Churchburner, Solace in Black, and Chokeout. That's the next show.

Section 34: We haven't gotten together in almost a month now. Can't remember if I've mentioned it before or not, but it's been officially stated that Section 34 has taken side-project status for all involved. I'm the only one with other projects, but everyone else is putting more time into their personal lives.

Who's Buying?: We're playing the Monday Metal Madness 6th Anniversary Show on May 5th. Some new tunes we're working on are: So What (Anti-Nowhere League), a Metallica medley, Alice in Chains, and maybe some Testament. Maybe some Queensryche. It'll be a good time.

Monday Metal Madness: The 6th Anniversary Show will be the last MMM. After that, starting May 7th, metal night at the Central will move to Wednesdays. "Brews and Brutality" I believe we'll be calling it, after the "Punks and Pints" Tuesdays that also happen at the Central.

Well, that's pretty much it.

I am Big Brother

2008-03-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

Not in the Orwellian sense. I'm everyone's big brother. Come to me for any help you need. You are family. You are loved.

I've had a draining couple of weeks. I can't really say why as it's not my place to say. I've just been helping.

I still have that feeling of disconnection I mentioned in an earlier entry. It's starting to remind me of growing up as an oldest child. People depend on you, you have friends, you just don't feel like you're getting back what you put in.

I've spent more than I had to give. Time to recharge.

Old Guy Rant

2008-03-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

Minimum wage is $8.07?! This is where I go into my "When I Was Younger..." tirade.

When I got my first job, state minimum wage was $4.90. I thought I was cool because I talked my way into $5 an hour. Several years later, I was working in a retail stockroom for something in the neighborhood $6 and I found out that my supervisor was making $8.25 an hour. I thought that was cool. I wanted to get paid that much. A couple years later, I was managing a triple concept destination specialty food counter in Westlake Center and getting $8.75 an hour.

Sometimes I think I should quit my job and get a minimum wage plus tips job. I know a few people who do and they make almost as much as I do only working three or four days a week.

I Think My Coffee is Trying to Ruin My Pants

2008-03-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

This isn't going to be as funny of a post as the title implies. I am largely a creature of habit. I have been drinking vanilla lattes from Starbucks for years with the only variation being an iced vanilla latte is the weather is warm. I've been drinking americanos lately, just for shits and giggles. There is something about the americano that feels the need to attack my pants. Every single time I buy one, something happens where a variable amount of the coffee drink shoots out of the lid and lands only on my pants. Sometimes all it takes is to be holding it when I get into my car. It acts like some volatile chemistry experiment that cannot be contained by my provided wax paper cup. My lattes never threatened my pants. Maybe it was the foam.

Mega!! Mega!!

2008-03-03T08:12:00.001-08:00

I bought a scale over the weekend. Uhg. Bad news. Or maybe good. Maybe (hopefully) motivational.

Real Magnetic Fields

2008-02-27T19:53:00.001-08:00

I read a short article today that I thought was cool/scary. There are apparently people who already knew this, but I was not one of them: The magnetic fields around high tension power lines are strong enough to light florescent tubes.

This is an art project by Richard Box. He placed 1301 florescent tubes in the ground (they aren't plugged into anything) and snapped some cool pictures.

I've also been told that the same effect can come from holding one in front of a leaky microwave oven.

Ennui

2008-02-27T19:07:00.000-08:00

"Hey, it's been a while." I say to the darkness. Blogging without readers is the norm for me it seems, but I still like to do it. Gets the moths out.

In actuality, I have been writing. I have another blog at quoteofcontext.blogspot.com that I call "Out of Context" that is basically just things that I find funny that I overhear or that my friends say. I also have been writing a blog for my Star Wars character...That's right, I've been playing a pencil and paper role playing game. It is moderate fun but I have really been enjoying the creativity that stems from it. I've been keeping my character's journal on a blog that has been more like short-story writing. I like it. I've even done a little bit of sketching...something I haven't done in many years.

I have been in a bit a funk lately. It's nothing big, but is identifiable. I haven't been doing much music-wise lately, I'm unhappy with my irregular work schedule, and all my friends seem distant. I have people that are fun to hang out with, but I don't really feel like anyone cares about what's going on in my life. Closed due to lack of interest. There are friends who if they were to read this would say, "Hey, I care, dammit!" and I know that when forced to remember I exist, I have many people who care a lot about me. I'm just feeling inconsequential to the other things going on in my friends' lives. I know this probably sounds a lot more whiny than I normally get, but that's not how I mean it. It's all very cope-able, I just feel discontented.

I think I'm going to have to let Monday Metal Madness die a whimpering death. Closed due to lack of interest. Metal bands can get better shows without even having to try at all...but this is a diatribe for another time.

Oh well. That being said, I'm going to go back to trying to look busy at work.

My Hobbit Hole

2008-02-13T17:53:00.000-08:00

So, I thought I would write about my new place, since most of my friends still haven't seen it. Well, that and to poke a little fun at my own situation.

Now, I am not a hobbit-sized person. My basement apartment is low-ceilinged and I do actually have to duck in two places. It leads to a small feeling of cave-dwelling. It works for me. I only have two small windows, so if I want it to be dark, it's pretty damn dark. The shared kitchen is upstairs, but I have a mini-fridge in my hallway so I can keep a few things closer (mostly beer). I'm good with it, except I have a couple friends that would not be able to stand upright at all inside my apartment.

My landlords are the other two people who live in the house (both upstairs), but they have recently decided to move up to Edmonds so one of them can be closer to work (the other works from home). When I moved in, there wasn't much to separate my apartment from the rest of the house and that didn't bother me much as I felt my belongings would be safe trusting my landlord would not take advantage of the fact that I'm not home very often. To get to the laundry room, they have to come through my living room. Now that they're moving, I suddenly had to deal with the idea that strangers would be moving in and would have access to my entire apartment. I talked it over with the landlords and they decided they would put in a door between my living room and the stairwell that leads up to the kitchen. "Great," I thought. No worries.

Two days ago I am woken up by construction noises. The handyman is installing the door. Cool. So Sarah and I mook around for the morning, I get ready for work, and then it's time to go. All set for work, I go to open the new door and I don't find the knob. I look around..."Oh, there it is...by my knees..."

The handyman bought a regular door and frame for a regular ceiling clearance with the hinge recesses and doorknob hole pre-cut and figured he could just cut off the bottom of the door and frame and call it good. I called my landlord to have him take a look at it and he called me back to say that it was acceptable. Don't get me wrong, I'm not actually pissed about it or anything, it just seems like that's how most things go lately. "Ooh! I get a new door so there's a bit more privacy and now all the heat won't escape...of course the doorknob is at knee-level. Where else would they put it?" :)

So now it is pretty much officially a hobbit-hole. I still like it, though.

The Seattle Symphony Dork-estra

2008-01-29T14:17:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday Sarah and I returned to Benaroya Hall for the Seattle Symphony's performance of "Play! A Video Game Symphony." It was amazing! I dorked-out so hard my eyes watered a couple times. They had three big projection screens hanging above the stage that would show either game footage or live footage of the orchestra. My only complaint was that they occasionally seemed to have some technical difficulty with the screens, but other than that, I thought it was fantastic. Sarah's complaint was that they didn't play the Chocobo suite that was listed in the program and opted for a new piece from Guild Wars.

Here's the set they played:

Opening Fanfare (Nobuo Uematsu)

Liberi Fatali, Final Fantasy VIII (Nobuo Uematsu)

Super Mario Bros. (Koji Kondo)

Shenmue (Takenobu Mitsuyoshi)

Battlefield 1942 (Joel Eriksson)

Aerith's Theme, Final Fantasy VII (Nobuo Uematsu)

Sonic the Hedgehog (Masata Nakamura)

Metal Gear Solid (Tappy Iwase)

Kingdom Hearts (Yoko Shimomura & Hikaru Utada)

intermission

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Jeremy Soule)

Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross (Nobuo Uematsu)

World of Warcraft (Jason Hayes)

Silent Hill 2 (Akira Yamaoka)

Halo (Martin O'Donnell)

Guild Wars (Jeremy Soule)

The Legend of Zelda (Koji Kondo)

One Winged Angel, Final Fantasy VII (Nobou Uematsu)

Super Mario Bros. They did a fantastic medley of various Mario tunes. My favorite part was they worked a little interlude/precursor of the Underworld music while on the screen they showed Mario running around in SMB3, he jumped on top of a pipe as they started the interlude and changed the music when he went down. It was pretty much the only time the choreographed the music to what was actually being played on-screen and it was great!

Here's a shot of while they were playing the Halo music.

The Legend of Zelda They surprised me a bit by starting this medley with the opening theme from Ocarina of Time, but did not disappoint me. They showed footage from Ocarina, The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II, and A Link to the Past. The Zelda series being pretty much my all-time favorite, I almost geeked right off the balcony.

If I Should Explode

2008-01-25T13:42:00.000-08:00

A Nashville teen tried to hijack a plane yesterday to commit suicide/crash it into a Hannah Montana concert. Besides being a comedic genius, that kid gave me a great idea! If I were to ever take my own life, I'm gonna hijack a Greyhound bus and crash it into Nicholas Cage! God I hate that guy.

Shutter to Think

2008-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

Not all that deep really. Just felt like taking some pictures yesterday.

This is just some brick building on Capitol Hill. It was a nice-looking day, too bad it was only about 30 degrees.

Heading down Denny towards downtown Seattle.

The intersection of 13th and John on Capitol Hill.

Sunsets and skylines are fairly overdone, but that doesn't make them less beautiful. This is from Sarah's balcony.

Rooftops on "the Hill." Also taken from Sarah's balcony.

Looking from outside my bands' practice space at the Park 'n' Ride. I thought it was a neat reversal...kind of a "from the inside looking out" sort of thing.

The Clover Witch Project

2008-01-22T07:58:00.000-08:00

So, I saw Cloverfield last Sunday.

First off, it is really hard for me to see a one-hour-and-twenty-minute movie and not complain about paying $10.25 to see it, a price that is supposed to be justified by the average movie length getting longer as time goes on as well as swelling production costs. The only thing saving you from an extended version of this particular rant is that Sarah paid for my ticket. Thanks Sarah!

Well, aside from complaining about getting my money's worth, it was an okay movie. I think I had higher hopes for it, being a J.J. Abrams fan. The creature was pretty cool, but I had my hopes up for a Cthulhu-esq monster, an idea I planted in my own head after sequestering my attention from the media so as to have completely zero idea as to what the monster would look like going into the movie. Man, I wanted a Cthulhu monster.

The story was pretty good. Abrams has almost as much of a penchant for killing off characters you care about as Joss Whedon. No one is safe. Heheh. I don't want to give too much away, since the movie just released last weekend, but they did do a decent job of developing these characters in a short time. You do get emotionally attached to most of them, although once the attacks start, things get fast-paced enough that some of the characters die just as you start to remember which one they were.

Cloverfield was touted as the definitive American monster movie and I may concede that label, but only because there isn't really much competition. I would almost call it a drama that has a monster in it. Kind of life how Armageddon was a drama that had some action elements. The main comparison will probably be "Godzilla meets the Blair Witch Project" and that's probably about as accurate as you're gonna get. On my way out of the movie, one of my friends was looking at the Cloverfield poster in the theater and commented that now they need to make the real Cloverfield movie and I said "Oh, you mean like the Blair Witch 2?" God I hope I didn't curse it.

Music Update

2008-01-17T19:03:00.000-08:00

Thought I might post what's going on with my bands since people are always asking. Although I suspect people ask me about my bands because they don't know what else to talk to me about.

Solace in Black: We are still in pre-production for the upcoming recording. We're working on the tempos and time changes with a click track and Andy and Mike are fine tuning their parts together. So far, it looks like we'll be calling it "The Gospel of Suffering" which is a good over-all header for the themes of the songs. We have 12 songs that we're working on and will hopefully all make the recording that will be done with Brian Valentino at his new studio. We have a couple tentative shows booked, one in March or April at the Central and one at a to-be-determined venue for our friend Kristi's Birthday in late May.

Section 34: We're getting our first practice going in almost three months this weekend. The 34's also planning on recording soon. We have three more songs on the books to teach Alika and some overall fine-tuning to do with all the songs. The jury's still out, but I personally would love to write a new one or two. We may pop out with a show this spring or summer. We'll see.

Who's Buying?: All we've got planned is the Monday Metal Madness 6th Anniversary Show at the Central Saloon on May 5th. We'll be working on some new covers and be doing our best to get other's involved, like always.

Monday Metal Madness booking: Monday booking is really tough right now. I've been told by various Central staffers that winter is always tough, but I've actually been there longer than most of them and don't remember last winter being this tough. There's new main booker starting soon (the fourth one since I started). I've changed up the format some and worked out a deal to hopefully get bands to sign up for a Monday show and actually try to promote it. Time will tell.

Covington Cross

2008-01-17T17:40:00.000-08:00

Oh the short-lived shows of my youth. I have this Blockbuster Online account and have been trying to think of all the shows that I miss from my youth (or even just a few years ago) that may have been released on DVD so I can add them to my queue.

I dredged up a show called Covington Cross out of the recesses of my faineant brain. I would be quite surprised if anyone I know remembers this show. It came on just at a point in my life when I was enamoured with Arthurian Legend. I had a copy of Excalibur I had VCR recorded off of A&E that I would watch as often as I could and was reading the Crystal Cave trilogy by Mary Stewart, T.H. White's The Once and Future King, and was even trying my hand at Malory's Le Morte de Arthur (I think I was 13 or 14...very difficult reading, that Le Morte de Arthur). It starred Nigel Terry and Cherie Lunghi who were both in Excalibur (Arthur and Guenevere, respectively) so I was immediately infatuated. I watched the show until it suddenly vanished.

Well, it is apparently too obscure a title for Blockbuster Online. And Netflix. And Amazon. I did finally find a place on-line that had the full run of Covington Cross available to purchase for a steal. I think it was a steal because it was never actually released on DVD...

So, the show is actually pretty good, although it holds no footing in historical fact. It's about a widower knight, his three sons, and daughter. It has a bit of teen drama and women's lib to it, both of which were popular themes for shows at the time. The sets and props are pretty decent too. For me, this is a jewel found with luck and I'm very happy to have found it.

It's Only Wrong If You Get Caught

2008-01-11T12:33:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I was en route to Sarah's place late at night and needed to get some gas. There are only a couple gas stations on the way to her place from mine if I take the West Seattle Bridge, one is an Arco, which I detest, and one is a Shell station. The overhead lights were out so I was unsure if they would still be open, but as I got close, I could see the displays on the pumps were on, so I thought I might still be able to get some gas there. I pulled up and swiped my card and discovered the display said to pump gas and pay the attendant afterward. There was no attendant. The mart was closed and locked up. I tested the display to see if I could actually pump gas. Free gas could have been had.

In this day of ever rising gas prices, free gas feels like winning the lottery, especially if you drive as much as I do.

I battled my conscience for about fifteen minutes. I must have looked hysterical on the surveillance cameras, if any of them looked down on the pumps. I repeatedly lifted and replaced the nozzle. I walked back and forth from the mart to the pump. I looked for cameras (I never found any outside the mart). I stood and contemplated. I got in my car and left.

I'd like to say that it was totally a battle of right and wrong, but it was more of an internal dialogue on whether or not I could get caught. My final thought before leaving, the thought that kept me from filling up for free, was that I had just been gifted my car that day and had not transferred the title. I would potentially be endangering the people who had given me the car.

Goddamn conscience.

I Love You, dictionary.com!

2008-01-11T06:56:00.000-08:00

Your Word of the Day email is my true respite from the inimical flaneur that is my work day. You ameliorate my woolgathering and allow me to abscond to the extant part of my thinking mind that reminds me that my head is full of hunger and not just a hirsute fruit jar.

Argh! I Hate Being Sick.

2008-01-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note: Whoever invented being sick, or illness in general, and I say "invented" because it feels very very malevolent, can eat the corn out of my shit.

My 2007 Retrospective

2008-01-02T15:19:00.000-08:00

Given that I have one of the worst memories out there, this may be a little disjointed, but hopefully I'll be able to capture the general zeitgeist. I look back at 2007 with fondness, for the most part. I met an awesome girl in early 2007. Learned more about life, got a new place, a new band, and some good times.

Let's see, I started out 2007 at the Central (as I did for 2008). I was single. I had a couple interests dating-wise, one interest I was finally getting a clue about, and was oblivious as to any interest in me from the fairer sex. I was still living in Renton (again) and working if Fife. I think that night I had a kiss from a random drunk chick. Very very drunk. I thought about being a guy and seeing if I could have some extra fun for the new year but decided it would be too much hassle. That's pretty much where I was with my love life at that point; The whole thing didn't seem worth the effort. I had been single for about two years, give or take. I had been through a couple of situations with a couple different girlfriends (girls who are friends) over those two years where one person wanted the other as more than a friend (once as the wanted, once as the want-er) and one occurrence where flirting turned into gaining a good friend, but that was all for those two years. I was playing in both Section 34 and Solace in Black. I think Section 34 had just started practicing with Alika again and Solace was gaining a little steam. I was still displeased with my job.

Well, now at 2008 I have an awesome girlfriend who rocks my face, I've added a cover band to my collection of bands (Who's Buying?), I'm still booking at the Central, I've moved back to Seattle (which is infinitely preferable), I still don't like my job, Section 34 has made almost zero progress since New Year's of 2007 but is still having fun when we do actually get together, and Solace in Black is preparing to enter the studio in a couple months. I spent the annual numerical change-over at the Central again this year, trying to spend as much of the celebration as I could with my girlfriend while she worked, this year dodging the kisses from drunk chicks and not having to worry about hassles or spending a night alone. My heart does not hurt for it is not in my care. It thrives in her possession.

All-in-all, I liked 2007 and I can't wait to see where 2008 takes me.

The Cautionary Whale.

2007-12-26T05:28:00.000-08:00

Sweet. Teen pregnancy is now hilarious!

I saw the movie, Juno, last Sunday.

I hadn't even heard of this movie before I was asked to go see it. I was very pleasantly surprised. It's a new dark comedy from director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking) that cracked my warped little mind up. Ellen Page (she played Kitty Pryde in the third X-Men movie) does an outstanding job of making light of a potentially dark subject and delivers whit and sarcasm perfectly. Actually, the whole movie is perfectly cast. If you're not uptight about tough issues and not too easily disturbed, I highly recommend this movie!

Filed Under: "You Live" or "You Learn"?

2007-12-20T18:18:00.000-08:00

Hopefully, "You Learn."

So, a little over a year-and-a-half ago, I became increasingly dis-satisfied with my job at GameStop and wanted more time for the other things in my life. Things were going well for me career-wise; I was making good money, I excelled at my job, I had entered the training program for district management...I should have been happy to continue on.

Part of it was that I was getting sick of retail, of dealing with the general public's pettiness. I used to love customer service. Helping people and making them happy. I guess it just wore on me after twelve years. Another part of it was that in the district manager training I was realizing that no matter how good or qualified I was, I could not kiss ass in the required volumes that would be necessary to advance. Unfortunately, my numbers would not speak for themselves and I would have to give up my pride to move forward.

Couldn't do it.

I realized then that the things I would have to give up to move up were more important to me than the significantly larger paycheck. So a then-friend and ex-co-worker of mine who has been happy with her current company for some time convinced me that I should come aboard. I took a good-sized pay cut and a longer commute in exchange for a regular Monday through Friday, eight to five job. I was told it would be practically no time until I was in management and making at least what I was making at GameStop. I could now more easily do all my extracurricular activities and be happy...after I learned to live making less money.

Cutting out the grit of the last year-and-a-half, in summation, I still make less than I did three years ago, there have been no open management positions, my schedule is not stable, and I dislike almost everyone I work with. I'm now considering going back into retail or a least finding a new job that I can be happy in (more money, of course, would be fine too). If I'm going to have an unstable schedule, at least I can be getting paid better.

So it brings me to thinking that maybe the last year-and-a-half has been a mistake. Nothing good has come of my time at my current job except for maybe one new friendship. In every respect I was better off at GameStop. I know I said I was dis-satisfied, but I would have gotten over it. Or I could have at least gotten a new job that was more logical.

There's an issue I've been skirting around. The friend that convinced me to come to her company is an ex-girlfriend of mine. At the time, even though we were broken up and she was seeing someone else, she felt like my only friend at that particular point in my life. I think we had been broken-up for about a year. I had no desire to get back together with her, she was just a friend that knew me pretty well. Currently I rarely speak with her (I actually get along better with her husband these days). Oh well, you live, you learn.

My Computer Makes Me Poop

2007-12-17T18:05:00.000-08:00

Viruses and trojans and all that are a pain in my ass!!

I've been working on upgrading my computer. I finally upgraded to XP from 98se, tripled my memory, added a hard drive, replaced a cd drive with a cd/dvd combo drive, added anti-virus software, upgraded my graphics card, and got a new monitor. After running the anti-virus software, it found a shit-ton of viruses and trojans. I had been getting ridiculous amounts of ad pop-ups ever since I installed XP, that's why I got the software. On 98, I ran a free anti-spyware program I had every so often and I always seemed to be fine. Now with XP, even after all the upgrades, my computer still seems bogged down on the internet. Progress...Bah!

Well Now...

2007-12-12T06:43:00.000-08:00

So, now I've got some down-time at work. I'll write about the last two movies I saw:

The Golden Compass:
Watching this movie for me was almost like a prolonged episode of deja vu. I read the book in grade school and apparently had completely forgotten the book even existed. I would recall the original story as it unfolded in front of me. Now that Hollywood has realized there is a great market for these fantasy stories (LOTR, Narnia, Harry Potter, etc.) and done a great job translating most of them to the big screen, there is quite a bar that has been set and it is no small height to have to make. I don't think this movie quite made it. I enjoyed it, but I also had escalating expectations as I began to recall more and more of the story. Maybe I'll read the "His Dark Materials" trilogy again before the other movies come out.

I Am Legend:
I'll avoid giving any spoilers, since I saw it as an advance screening and it doesn't come out for another day or two.
The main thought I came away from this screening with was that now I really want to read the novel. The movie was good, but I wanted more. More detail, more story. It felt a little more like a Ford commercial than a full-length movie. Will Smith did an okay job in his role, but I felt that at times where he needed to come off as a little bit disturbed, his delivery was somewhat too comedic. Don't get me wrong though, he did do a good crazy.

The "vampire" creatures were a little disappointing...and two-dimensional. I would've liked a little more background on them and maybe some more focus on the fact that they seemed to be "learning" and had a figure that appeared to be a leader of sorts.

Yeah, I think I'll pick up the book after the holidays.

edit: After seeing the movie a second time with a group of friends and listening to them discuss it afterwards (I hang out with a bunch of nerds that like to talk about what they would have done differently if they were the main character), it became very apparent that Will Smith's performance comes off as more comedic than disturbed. I now would definitely say that the movie would have been better if the main character, Robert Neville, would have been able to be taken more seriously and if we could have seen the developement of the "vampire" creatures, maybe in a flashback because I did actually like the way you see them for the first time in the movie.

So Here I Am...

2007-12-12T05:51:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to decide exactly why I've created this account. Partially, I think, for the links at the bottom, so friends and family can have links to my various projects in one place. Partially also, so I can write about more things than I feel I can put on my myspace blog. I have discovered over the last couple years that I enjoy writing...even if it is about nothing anyone would care about.

I've called my blog "bete noire" which is French for "black beast" and a term used for something that is to be avoided. Part of me can't believe that I am now a "blogger."