All I want for christmas is my two front teeth. And a ps3!

During Thanksgiving I finally had "the talk" with my parents. Its something that has been bothering me for YEARS but I never knew how to bring it up. I hate to be wasteful! So I finally told my parents not to buy me any more clothes for Christmas! My dad shops at BJs for gifts. And its not just that, its the styles they pick out. And while I appreciate the thought its just wasteful to let someone keep buying things you will never use! So I gently mentioned to them that if they were thinking of buying me any clothes, I'd prefer if they not! lol. Didn't go over very well. We came to a compromise that they could get me work clothes, if they wanted.

SO I started thinking about it and I'm going to compile a short list of things I want Santa (or anyone else!) to get me for Christmas. Nothing too fancy, but just a few things I actually need. I'll probably end up buying them for myself if Santa lets me down again. :) I've also attached a Christmas song I wrote a while ago. I REALLY wish I could either re-sing it, or they would have auto tuned it! lol. I cringe a little hearing it but what the heck!



Click here to dl it directly if it doesn't work.

My list:

Head phones - any non in-ear headphones. Not too bulky!
Digital TV Tuner w/Antenna (link)
Apple Keyboard (link)
Set of Dumbbells (link)
Ties (no paisley, plx)


That's all I can think of right now! Feel free to get me a ps3 tho! or this watch in black. haha. ;P

Denial is my enemy

I need to face things head on and eradicate problems in my life! I give in way too easily to denial. Its very juvenile to think problems will just go away on their own. I'm striving to be more proactive and search them out.

I have a lot of things I want to accomplish, and I need to start working towards them a little each day. Not much going on at work today so I'm going to work on a list of long term goals for myself. You have to dream it first, before it can ever come true! Putting it on paper will hopefully make it clear what I want out of life.

There are two goals I have that would make me very proud, and happy when I accomplish them. One, which has been a LIFETIME goal I've had for myself, is to be in exceptional shape. I've been going to the gym about 3-4 times a week for the last month or so and I can see some results starting to take shape. My workout is usually 30 minutes of cardio, preferably on the tread mill, and then I hit the machines and focus on key areas of my body like chest, abs, arms, and back. The goal would be to lose about 30lbs and keep lifting to tone up. A big part of this is my diet. While my diet is generally good, I need to cut down on my portions at dinner.

Someone asked me recently if I had hit my goal weight, which kind of shocked me! To me, I'm still far from my goal body. But realistically, I could be 3-4 months away from realizing this goal! It is attainable!

When things get me down, I try to remember that every day is a new opportunity. Gotta focus on today to make tomorrow great!

I'm a water snake

It's hard to believe its been almost a year already that I've been living in my apartment! Which also means it was a year ago that I sold my house. I spent 4 years living in the ghetto and fixing up that house, and I kinda miss it! Sure my neighborhood is way better now, and my comute is super easy..but I really liked living in a house over an apartment. Privacy, space, and actually owning something can't be beat! Plus I like doing projects, and working to improve things. I'm a DIY kinda guy.

Just briefly, Here's a list of things I did to that house (with help, of course!):
totally new kitchen (cabnets, floors, appliances, drop ceiling)
New hardwood floors in dining room
Sand and finish hardwood in living and dining rooms
Drop ceiling in dining room
New floor in bedroom
paint
built a tool box/seat

Crazy! I honestly don't know if I'd do it again. The end result was definitely positive but so much of my time and energy was spent on the house in those first few years. And the neighborhood totally sucked! The sad thing is none of the projects needed to be done, because the new owner plans to tear it all down.

But now that my lease is coming up, I'm looking at moving into a new apartment. I love the location of my place, but the layout has become very annoying. Its a railroad style apartment, which by itself isn't bad, but its very narrow. makes it hard to have people over. The other issue is that its freezing cold in the winter!

I'm going to call a real estate agent today to talk to them about looking at some apartments, but I'll never forget the first house I ever owned!

I really like the beatles, but...

..they are totally the "Kiss" of '60s rock and roll. Don't get me wrong, they are great..but I feel like a lot of the credit and accolades they get, is because they were the first to do things. Which by itself, is a big accomplishment. You definitely give them MORE credit because they took things to the next level, and inspired a generation or musicians, etc etc etc. but they sell every piece of junk they can slap a Beatles logo on! Sheesh!

Anyway, in honor of the Beatles ROCK BAND (I really think it wouldnt have happened had JL not been assasinated..) here's me singing a song they covered.

I hate being a Gemini

Well that's not totally true. At times I hate it..like now! I'm very wishy washy. I guess you can say I'm a dreamer and eternal optimist. I jump from idea to idea, and I'm kinda sick of it. A positive spin would be that its good to keep your options open, and have a lot of interests but, it sucks to be so into something one day, and then lose interest, or divert that interest to something new when an idea comes along. I want to master EVERYTHING! Oh well, all I can do is keep trying.

Example:
Last night I watched a bunch of video tutorials on iphone app development. I was all about flash, and I still do want to learn it as a career, but iphone apps are where the money's at! I've never paid a single penny for a flash game, or app, but I've spent plenty (not really) on iphone apps! I think I originally gravitated towards flash because I thought it was going to be easy to work with, and while they do make it relatively easy, its basically like learning a programming language anyway. So I'm planning on taking some courses at some point this fall/winter. I also found a company that will build your iphone app idea, and share 25% of the profits with you! I might send of an idea or two and see if they have any interest. They said really hot apps can generate $10,000 A DAY..so that would be $2500 for just having a cool idea.

Another Gemini trait I have that's annoying is that I'm too available, and try too hard to make things work. gotta stick to my schedule, and if it works out, it works out!

One day soon I'll write about all the wonderful gemini characteristics I have! hahah.

The Week that was.

Been doing a lot of thinking recently about my future, and where I want to go..makes my brain hurt! For all the successes I've had in life (and I've had a few!), there's still so much more to do! Which is cool! I'm always optimistic about life, and the future because its open and limitless. So anyway, I got one of those retirement papers your employer sometimes sends out? Basically they spell out when you're eligible to retire, and what kind of salary you'll be receiving when you do retire. Its sorta depressing, and highlights the importance for me to get the eff outta here and do something BIG. So according to this paper, I'll be RELEASED from my job/prison to DIE an old man in 2042. TWENTY FRAKIN FORTY TWO!! That's sick!

I was off last week, and did some pretty cool things. I rarely go away on vacation, but as I just told someone here at work, any day away from the office is a vacation..

On Tuesday we went to 6 Flags Great Adventure! I love roller coasters! Introduced to me on last year's trip to 6flags, the Flash pass (or Q-bot) is a little on the expensive side (an extra $50 on top of the cost to just get in the door), but make NO mistake about it..it is COMPLETELY worth it. $50 buys you the most valuable thing you have in life..your time! You significantly reduce the time spent waiting on lines! You can ride every roller coaster you want (and ride them multiple times!!). Definitely get the Flash pass if you go to 6flags.

Anyway, we had a great time. We did the Safari, which I don't think I've ever done before. I enjoyed it! We saw elephants, bears diarrheaing in the woods, tons of birds, and my personal favorite the ostrich. Ostriches have crazy eyes, and really look like they could fck you up.

As far as rides, Nitro was tops..no question! It's long, fast, and has awesome drops. Esp at night, Nitro is KING! Probably the new Bizarro ride (Medusa) is probably my 2nd favorite. They added some new features (fire and mist!), but its basically the same. Kingda Ka is awesome..I actually opened my eyes this time! But its so short, and crazy fast its over before you know it.



Other than the rides, I had a great time just walking around and hanging out with friends.

Then on Wednesday I saw Weezer and Blink182 at PNC. I have to admit, I'm a big fan but..I was kind of dreading this concert.. But overall it turned out pretty cool. We got lucky and someone gave us their seats so we moved all the way near the stage. This was AWESOME for weezer, who were really great, but Blink182 was so horrible most of the time. They can't sing, and were super loud. They were rambling and trying to be "cute" between songs, and their guitars were very metal zonish. We also missed the opening band Taking Back Sunday, because someone in our party got caught in bad traffic on the parkway. I love going to concerts, but traffic, parking, and the abundance of frat boy assholes really takes away from the experience. When we win the lottery, I will only take a helicopter or limo to concerts. Or pay bands to play in my backyard.

I forget what I did on Thursday.

Friday we had a gig at Connolly's in NYC. Personally, it was one of my better performances..ever! Overall the band sounded great as well! Going into friday, I'd been working on some things, and my goal was to really be in control of my playing, and be focused on my place in the song. It's such a good feeling to challenge yourself, and then accomplishing your goal! I was on a high Friday night!

Saturday night I had the chance to go see District 9, but decided to stay in and watch the Jets. Although the jets won, I wish I had seen the movie...I hate staying home on weekend nights! blahhhh.

Sunday I went to the gym, walked a couple dogs at the shelter, and then had band practice down in Neptune. Driving back traffic was hectic for a good 20 minutes, but then cleared up. I hate when there's no reason for traffic! If I have to go 2 miles per hour, there better be some horrible accident (with no one being hurt, of course!) or a brush fire!

One issue I have right now is that, as I've written about previously, I'm attempting to raise my personal standards as far as what's acceptable in my life, and what I expect of myself..and unfortunately not everyone has the same outlook or standards. Or they just don't see things the way I do.. So I have to really think hard about what to do, but one thing I'm sure of, is that I will not compromise or go backwards!

Good times bad times, you know i had my share.

I'm in a glass case of emotions! haha. I went from high to low to high this weekend! Friday I went to the who wants to be a millionaire audition/test and unfortunately didn't do well enough to win a date with Meredeth! the test was multiple choice and a general knowledge quiz. Very similar to what you see on the show, but here's one of the questions I remember:


Bora bora and Tora Bora are how many miles apart:
a. 9.6 miles
b. 96 miles
c. 960 miles
d. 9600 miles

Of course I didn't know, but when in doubt I chose b. Overall, I think I did fairly well (maybe 5 wrong), actually, but from talking to some of the other hopefuls, you can only get about 3 questions wrong to pass. The room was full of about 100 or so people, and only about 5 made it. I have a tendency to assume the best, and when it doesn't go my way, i get a lil emo for a hot second or two, but by the time i got home I was feeling better.

Then I get a call from my brother and he needs my help ($). Of course it comes at a time where my finances are struggling..still waiting for that big bag of money to drop from the sky! grrr. but being the proud asshole that I am, I have to help him. I think subconsciously it makes me feel superior, and in general I just don't like showing weakness to people. After meeting up with him, I really didnt have anything else to do. And I really hate doing nothing on the weekend nights. It makes me feel like a loser, which is one of the worst parts of being single. if only I could be like so many other people out there and learn to settle. boo (not really!) for having standards.

Then Saturday I spent most of the day doing some chores and some exercising. During the night time we played a gig at a bar in jc, which was a lot of fun. I realized something recently about my playing, and that is, for me at least, mistakes don't come from not knowing what to play, because I certainly practice enough and know the parts..they come from a lack of focus while playing. I have to really work harder on concentrating on what I'm playing, and realize where we are in the song, and what comes next. As well as break down all the songs and really tear them apart. In general I was pretty happy with performance, but its those 4 or 5 notes over the course of 10 songs that screw with my head. Eliminating these mistakes will really go along way to feeling better about myself. I've been reading a lot on general music theory, and I feel I've made a lot of progress in putting together the missing pieces, as well as just getting a better feel for playing. I'm not the type that can just believe something works, I like to know how and why they work. knowledge is powerrr!

Then today, I made the trek down to south jersey to visit my parents for a few hours prior to Run Robot practice. My brother was also down there, and the tension was running hot! I commented at one point "is it always like this when you come down here?" it was pretty unpleasant to be around the bickering going back and forth between my brother and dad. guys are stupid! So I said something totally gay like "we should try to enjoy our time together." haha. burrrrn. things got better after that. Its not easy dealing with my bro, he is a know it all (who really only knows a little.) My dad and mom are also not easy to take when they start with the questions and suggestions, but I'm more well adjusted then my brother and usually do a better job at not starting WWIII.

Practice was a lot of fun. We haven't had the chance this summer to practice much, so its been awhile. I was happy to see that on most of the songs we had trouble with, I was the only one who was unsure of what to play. As the writer of the song, I am less inclined to practice because its my creation! but I do need to devote some time to practicing these songs as well. we added a few old songs back into the mix, and have about 8 total now, so that should be enough to play an actual gig! Hopefully by late September that can happen. Afterwords we ate Vietnamese food, and I was sooooo happy there wasn't much traffic coming home.

Anyway! One of the songs I really like playing is called "thanks but no thanks!" Lyrics are below annnnd a clip!



here's a link if the player doesn't work:thanks but no thanks

She's all over me online
and i dont know how to stop it
without her crying

so please
leave me alone
no more text messages on my telephone

so thanks for your time
another victimless crime

and i'm taking steps to untangle
this tidy little mess i made
has really blown up in my face

i'm really not that bad
i know we'll keep in touch
but i cant see you anymore
once u walk out that back door

so please
leave me alone
no more text messages on my telephone

so thanks for your time
another victimless crime

***

oh yeah, we wound up at the Coach House diner, and a group of extremely loud and stupid people who were at the gig, also showed up to eat. They were all over 40, but acting like they were 17. It was so obnoxious and painful! White trash at its finest, really. I think the combined IQ of their group was -123. Trashy old chicks who are butterface AND butterbodies, are only beaten on the lameness scale, by middleage jersey guidos with bad tans (and grammar). this groups had BOTH in abundance.