What ever happened to the community.

So today i created an account on ubuntuforums.org and something sparked my interest. I reallized how strongly regarded the sense of community was in this online forum. A sort of unity between all of the members and the cooperation between them for the better good. In these forums, you can go and ask simple questions, and you can discuss possible solutions to such problems with people who just might be more knowledgable than you about any one subject. Now, mind you, this is forum for Ubuntu Linux, a computer operating system, and the majority of these exchanges are computer related, But i made a sort of contrast with the music industry while exploring this newly joined community.
From what ive gathered, the music industry is nothing at all like a community. Everyone has their own agenda, and they will do whatever they can to achieve their goals. This sort of cut-throat attitude becomes a problem when the sense of unity is destroyed by it. Now, i have been in and out of bands for about 5 years now, and i have experienced quite a bit, not the most, but i have seen some things, good and bad.
I do see how some similar bands do stick together, play shows, share fans and such. Hell, i was there, ive made friends and played numerous shows with them. One situation that comes to mind was back when my old band played with Anomaly all those times (hell, i eventually joined the band), we met, became friends, stayed in touch somewhat, and played a few shows together and it was all good. We were both really small bands, but we kinda helped each other out.
I do notice where competition does get in the way of community. Especially now in the new age of the internet and the social networking revolution, all i see are bands that just want to get famous by any means possible (now where have i heard that before). But if you know anything about history, "by any means possible" never works. So its almost as if something needs to be done.
I have been thinking about this all day, and ive come to the conclusion that there should be some sort of online comunity for musicians. A place where they can go and exchange resources, collaborate on projects, and work for the betterment of the community. We already know my views on the music industry, but i think that by building something like this, it might help to make the situation better.
So that is my idea, it seems to be a great idea to me. I have no idea what other musicians might think about it. I just think that by borrowing on the ideals of community that has been so heavily emphasized in the open source world, that it can be used for the betterment of a different form of creative expression, because seriously, computers and music may be two different things, but the ways of creating both of them requires creativity and a willingness for progress.

They actually make money off of that.

So, as i look around everywhere, there is something that ive been starting to notice. More and more, people are using our feeling of nostalgia, and profiting on it. Just take a look around, movies, clothes, video games, and tv. In some way or another, its there. Ninja turtles, transformers, pokemon, power rangers, and a bunch of stuff i cant even remember.
So whats the problem with this?
Well i dont see too big of a problem, but sometimes people can take it too far, and when that happens, its almost as if they are living in the past. When the transformers movie came out, i didnt want to see it, at all. People thought this was weird, transformers were a big part of many people's youth. The problem with me was that i simply did not remember any of it. I actually didnt even remember who optimus prime was.
So now, I always say that its dumb that movie studios are profiting off of our feelings of nostalgia. I do still think this. I will say that directors and producers have done quite some creative stuff with it, but its all been very overplayed.
And now that i am downloading and watching old episodes of power rangers, does this make me look hypocritical? This may be so. But i am doing this on my own agenda. I am not doing this on the agenda of movie studios, television studios, or clothing companies. Also, the power rangers were a big part of my youth, i remember being enamored by them, unlike the transformers.
So what is my final conclusion?
Nostalgia can be a good thing. It must be used in moderation. You cant live in the past. Strive for the future, but never forget your youth.

Its that time of year again...

...its barely just started and already im frustrated with it.
Now that you are all thinking "wow what a scrooge" i guess i should explain why i detest the holiday season.
There are a few reasons, so ill try to cover as many of them as i can.
First, Christmas has become a capitalist holiday, and in this wonderful country, it has been turned into an american capitalist holiday. So these are some terms that i have made up in my head. "American Capitalist" what is that supposed to mean? Well, ill tell you. To me, american capitalism is a system in which people will use cut-throat methods to stay ahead, the main focus is to be better than the rest. And to put that in the context of christmas, just take a look around, go to the mall for more than five minutes and try not to want to kill someone. Christmas can turn come of the nicest people into complete assholes, just because they will do anything to get their shopping done, or to get that perfect present for the right person.
Second, the holiday has lost its meaning, not completely, but mostly. For me, christmas used to be a time to go and visit with family and friends, and to just enjoy their company. Now its a time where it almost becomes a competition to outbuy said family members and friends. So now, what am i, one of those people who thinks that Christmas is just one big corporate consumerist holiday. The truth is, i really dont think that, well, i do, but not to a full extent. The way i see it, most people do see the real reason for christmas, the only problem is that it seems that everyone gets so wrapped up in the consumerist end of it all. I guess my problem is that i dwell too much on the negative side of the issue, i dont see the fact that people really are in the holiday spirit, its just that it is harder to see this.

Maybe Tomorrow, Maybe Not At All

"Have you ever been a part of something
that you thought would never end?
And then of course it did."

Oh jeez, there is al ot i can write here, and i cant think of a place to start.
So i will start with the begining.
Well, it all started with me and my bass. Sitting, waiting for my bass lesson when i saw it, an ad looking for musicians for a "punk band" i figured i would check it out. So i did.
I do remember the first practice quite clearly, I had my dad drive me to Andy's house and i brought my bass and my amp. I remember meeting Jordan. I remember the first few songs we worked on. Little did I know what I was getting into. The coming years would be years of change, good times, bad times, and even more change, drastic change.
So i guess this is the part where i describe the way i was at this time. I was a junior in high school, just got through a real tough year the year before, and i didnt have very many friends. I had no social life, but i was starting to get into computers, starting to fiddle with them, started learning some stuff, and eventually i delved into the wonderful world of Linux.
But i digress. I eventually was happy, i was in a band who was actually able to write their own stuff. I had friends that i made through my band, I actually had some self esteem, how bout that. I met quite a few people through the band, and i even rekindled some old friendships. I met matt and eric, the two gentlemen who would eventually adopt me into their band.
I am now starting to remember the summers we spent together, gallivanting.
There were two summers spent doing this. Each of these summers were completely different. There was the first summer which was spent the three of us, Me, Andy and Jordan. There was however the times where i had to sneak around my parents just to see Alex (girlfriend at the time). We had fun times, listened to music that we thought was actually good. This was a great summer.
And now on to the second summer, this is where the most drastic change occurred.
So for this part, I will begin from the winter before.
Or should i even bother. Honestly, why should i still dwell on this, something that happened two years ago, something petty and stupid. I dont need to write this down, yes, it is a major changing point in the whole story, but its not good for me to dwell on it, so im not writing about what happened.
So now, there is talk of reuniting this band, my first real band. When first confronted with the idea, i had no idea what to think. I first thought it would never work out, but then i took some time to think about it. And truthfully, i am still thinking about it.
And this brings me to right now, I am with Death to the Modern Monster, and i have given them my full dedication, and i think "How will this all work out?"
I guess I will just play it by ear until something happens, thats the only way i can think to do this.

Why Being Really Lonely is Sometimes Super-Awesome

Yes, this title was inspired by an episode of scrubs.
When i first made this post, i figured i would just joke around and not make it much of anything (much like most of my blogs). But then it dawned on me, i am seeing, more and more, that the single life seems to be the way i am enjoying myself.
Now, i guess i should put this out first. I am constantly looking for companionship, and i very much do enjoy the female companionship that i do have right now, and given the chance and circumstance, i would take a serious relationship. But, i have also taken notice to how some people dont even look happy in such a serious relationship.
This is the main point to my argument, people may think they are happy, or even worse, fake being happy, just for some selfish reasons. And of all places to see this going on, being in college is a great place to just observe. And that is what i sometimes do, but seriously, not in one of those creepy ways. As i am walking through the halls of my dorm, i see many things. And aside from people talking on their phone, sitting on the stairs and blocking my way, i see people who are in relationships and who are in various stages of their relationship.
And next to people having sex (which is frankly annoying and kinda rude) the most frequent thing i see people who are in what seems to be an awkward "im happy but im miserable" sort of state. This usually consists of the couple sitting or standing really close to each other, talking in a soft, low, and quiet voice, and they usually dont look very happy.
Since i'm not creepy, i dont listen in on what they are talking about, but from what it looks like, it doesnt look very good.
Now dont get me wrong, this might be just one case of a few bad relationships that i happen to walk by as im walking through the halls, but it does tell me something about what i want from a relationship, and that is someone whom i can have fun with but also be able to have normal conversations with (and by normal conversation, i mean conversation with some ammount of content, not just random bullshit). But most of all, what i am looking for is a meaningful relationship with someone, the only problem with that is that i dont know how to do that.

Why do they Insist on Destroying Music

By this, I mean the recording industry. If there is one way to destroy the art, and the beauty of what music is, the recording industry seems to be taking all of the right steps. So how are they destroying music, and are there any options that we have to reverse its horrendous effects. In my opinion, i do believe that there is seriously a problem, but there is still hope, both of those i will go over.
So what is the problem with the music industry? Well first of all, by calling it an industry, this creates competition, people lose touch with who they are, the distribution of money becomes involved, this brings in politics, personal politics that is, and this just takes it as far away from the music as you can get. Major record labels are just businesses that use bands. They use them, they use the creativity of the band, give them a few resources, and if the band does one thing that the label doesnt like or if the music climate changes, they are either sued, dropped, or they lose funding. So where does the creativity and the art come in. Well that is last in line. And if the label things the band is doing that wrong, they can step in and take control. Just as the situation with Thursday on their War All the Time album. When they said they were finished with the recording and writing process, they were basically forced back into the studio because there were no songs on it that were "radio worthy". So now why does this matter so much, and it basically boils down to the money. Money runs a business that used to be run on art and creativity. This is what makes it so hard for young newer bands to enter the music arena, because there is such a large gap between where you start and what is consitered successful, and what is consitered successful is whether or not you are making money. Now, it goes without saying that money is a part of life and that you need to make money to feed yourself and to make a living, but where is the line, why is this "rock star" lifestyle so glamourized and why do people keep buying into the bullshit that it is.
So now that i have described my issues with the music industry, i will explore a few ways by which i think that the people within the music industry can better it. First off, I really would like to commend that artists out there who are working for the better good, such as how Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are working from the top to help change thing, so too must the independent artists work from the bottom to help make a change as well. One thing that the already successful independent artists can do is to help promote the not-as-successful artists. Much like how The Lawrence Arms or Against Me! always take bands on tour that some people might not know so much. The best scenario i can think of was when i saw Against Me! play at Headliners in Toledo. They played with Matt and Kim, and i must say, for a band that i have never heard before, i think that i was still able to enjoy their set and their music.
So with the new age of free music from the internet, what is next? The way i see it, musicians will give their music away for free, much like some independent bands that i know already, hell, i remember downloading the Defiance, Ohio album straight from their website. I think this is the way music should be done. When i like a band, they play shows, and that is what i remember most, the music is a catalyst to remind me of the great times i have at shows. More musicians should realize this, this is why they should have gotten into music in the first place, because of the intimate experience of going to or playing a live performance.
I am in a band now, and with my theory on music, i feel that it is almost our responsibility to at least try to make a change. By this i mean that i want to offer free downloads of our music from the internet. I want to as well offer sale of cds, but i dont want to be an ass about that. I want to design merchendise and sell that. That way i can see my art expressed in a multitude of ways. I want to become somewhat successful with my music so that i may somehow be able to influence someone to beleive the same as me and to also try to make a change. Because it is our music, and our art, and it is us who should be the ones who control it.

The Social Interweb and its effects on the Ego

So we have all seen it, all these fancy new social networking sites that have been ravaging their way through the internet, almost in the same way that a plague would ravage its way across a countryside. So now some of you might be wondering "What's with this kid's hostility toward social networking??" and I would have to answer by saying that I truly do believe that these sites are wonderful things, there are many things that i do see that are problems with them though.
I will start by saying what i find great about these sites. First, I see great potential for people to express themselves to a certain extent. By this i mean that self expression is a great thing, and these sites do allow for self expression in many ways. The one fault in this aspect is not the fault of the programmers who create these sites, the fault is universal, you can not truly express yourself in terms of just text alone. People's personalities are a product of intrapersonal interaction as well as what your likes and dislikes are. Second, the whole networking aspect of these sites that deam them the name of "social NETWORKING" sites. This is the part of the industry that is the most bastardized (yes, I love this word, I use it to describe many things, ranging from holidays to politics to industries). The way that these sites create a huge network out of all of its users, two of the greatest examples of this is Last.fm and Facebook. First, with Last.fm, the network is created by the listeners, all you have to do is run a program and listen to music, that it. Of course you can do more by editing artist's biographies in their wiki-style editor. And second, facebook, it has been getting a little heat in recent years because of some of the upgrades to their software and the decisions made by these upgrades. The one thing good about it though is that you can decide to not use these updates. But back to the networking aspect, with Facebook, you are grouped based on your college, or your hometown, or your workplace. With this, you can meet other people who could potentially live right next door to you who have some of the same interests as you. And as a very introverted college student, this is a good thing.
So now here is where I go with my issues I find with some social networking sites. First is that it almost feeds the ego, sometimes to the point where its not healthy. People whore themselves out for "friends" or bitch and complain cause someone didnt go read and comment their blog. This is one of the many reasons why I left myspace, I would sometimes find myself checking it many times a day only to find nothing, and then I would get frustrated about it. It's never a good thing.
My second issue with social networking sites is a problem that has been taken into account by the many wonderful programmers who create these sites, and that is the problem with spam and obnoxios advertising. Upon getting a secondlife account (which I plan on deleting as soon as I can figure out) I recieve an email in my gmail inbox notifying me of a friend request or something like that. I take a look at it, and from the first sentance I know it is spam. It is very much the same with myspace, there was a period over the summer where I would get about 5 friend invites a day from people who all have the same information in their profile but they all have different pictures. Its getting pathetic, if you are really that desparate for money and are a programmer, please, put your talent toward the good of the internet, not toward being a pervert who just annoys the fuck out of everyone.
So in summation, I think that the social network phenominon is a great thing, people come together thanks to the hard work of many programmers and good things can come of it. There is however the downsides which are caused mainly by the ignorant masses of people on the internet, but given enough patience, it is something that can be overcome in order to truly enjoy the perks of the social internet.

We are all human, its time to prove it.

As some of you may notice that line from and Anti-Flag song, you might guess that this post will be something about the nature of my political thought, or my interest in punk rock music.
If you guessed the latter of the two, you are right.
I am a guy who enjoys his punk music, and it can almost be attributed to the Anti-Flag song that I referenced in my title. For those of you who dont know the song, it is called "911 for peace". When I first heard the song, I was probably in 7th or 8th grade, I heard it on a mix cd I got from one of my friends. It didnt really do much for me until I bought the cd that the song was on. Mobilize is a great album for someone new to Anti-Flag. First, it shows off the nature of the band and what they are all about in terms of wanting peace, and political freedom. Secondly, it is able to showcase some of their other songs from earlier albums in the form of a live section at the end of it.
This was the album that got me into punk rock. Of course, I was also plagued with what many people would find as an abomination to music, I listened to mainstream pop-punk bands such as Blink-182, Good Charlotte, and Simple Plan. This was part of a phase I went through while growing up, it happens to the best of us (at least thats what i tell myself).
But back to my first "real" punk rock experience. The other things that stuck out to me was what the band had written on the last page of the booklet that came with the album. They wrote about how the record came into being. How they had originally intended to write a full album with fresh material, but then came the defining moment, 9/11. They explained their reaction, which was very different from the rest of the nation at the time. Instead of buying into the bullshit the media and the government was selling us, and which my young mind easily grasped on to, they took a different approach. They wrote the song 911 for peace, and quickly got it out there, they played live shows, they did all they could to get people to see what was really going on, and that it was a bad thing to make rash decisions on a whim.
By seeing this, and how they handled the situation, and hearing the music, Justin Sane's intense singing and wonderful lyrics, Chris Head's great guitar playing, keeping the song together, Pat Thetic's amazing drumming, giving it a great beat, and most importantly, hearing Chris #2's amazing bass playing, to me, was a great experience. It allowed me to look into a part of music that i had never really experienced before. It gave me something to strive for musically (being a terrible bass player at the time, Chris #2 really helped me push myself). I really owe a lot to the band.
I have since changed a lot of my musical interests, although the majority of what i listen to is punk, I still tend to mix it up at times. But the band that i will still go back to, time and time again, will always be anti-flag.

You know you're a computer nerd when...

...you spend your weekend helping your friend install Linux.

Yea, thats right, that would make me a computer nerd. Does this worry me? No, that's who i am.
But i do feel it is necessary that people understand how to use computers. Maybe it is the nerd within me that is saying this, or maybe it is the truth.
I have been working in jobs in one form of tech support or another. I had my job at my high school where my responsibility was to fix just about any sort of problem with people's computers. The thing about this job was that it was quite easy now that i look back on it. The reason for this is because i always had something to fall back on, I could always just re-image a computer and that would be the magic solution, but, the problem with that was that more people were saving their personal stuff on the local drive of the computer. This caused me to have to look for different ways to fix problems. This is where i learned the most. At least, until my job at RCC.
My job at RCC is just wonderful, I get to go and fix people's computers, and they love me for it. It does have its downside thought. There are the times where people have such a bad problem that they need to have Windows reinstalled, or a hard drive crashes and they lose some big important project that they didnt back up. I really do hate when i have to tell people that they just lost everything due to the imperfect nature of some computers.
But this brings me to my main point. The fact that i think that more poeple should at least try to learn more than they know about computers.
Computers have been around for the past 30 years or so, and since then, they have rapidly advanced to the point where they can simplify a large majority of people's lives, but only if they knew how to do it.
This is how I use computers to my advantage.
I no longer need any form of newspaper thanks to both my rss reader and digg.com. These are the two ways I can get the news that I am interested in, and filter out what i dont care about.
In order to keep in touch with people, i of course have an aim screen name, who doesn't? But who uses AOL's shitty aim program to use their aim? Thanks to the world of open-source development, i am able to enjoy the social benefits of aim, but i am also able to stay away from all the shit that is packaged with the AOL software. This is the beauty of Pidgin (and Adium on my mac). If i am making plans for the future, such as a possible party, or something i need to do, i use the power of the almighty Google to keep track of my daily events including my work schedule, and my classes as well. This gives me a visual representation of what i am doing during the day, and it can even send me a text message to remind me to go do something.
Now that i am on the subject of text messaging, I wonder how many people know how amazing and powerful Google SMS is. Check it out, it has saved me in times of hunger.
How why do people not actively look for these types of technological time savers? I havent figured that out yet. It could possibly be from the lack of motivation, or just the ability to be able to make due with what you have without a computer. But, what i see living on a college campus, (just about) everyone has a computer and all those services are out there for the discovering.
I dont know, it just seems strange to me when i go on appointments and people tell me that all they use their computer for is aim, facebook, word, and the internet. There is so much more to discover.
So i shall try to make a good list of links of stuff that i use to help use technology to make life more productive.

• Digg - a great social news site, by making an account, you can vote on news stories that you like and possibly make them popular
• Last.fm - a wonderful music networking site, think of it as a mix of facebook with music, you use their software to keep track of the music you listen to, and then you can make friends online based on your musical compatibility (which is calculated for you). And dont forget to add me as a friend!!
  
• Google Calendar - the online calendar program i use, very nice clean interface, some alternatives to this are Sunbird, the Mozilla Calendar Project, and iCal for those mac users
• Google SMS - I covered this earlier, its great to get quick results when you arent by a computer
• Google Reader - subscribe to online feeds with this, you can stay up to date on blogs (like mine!) and other news sites.
• Lifehacker - a great site that has a slew of great tricks and techniques to use technology to make your life more productive

There, i hope that maybe someone will come across this and use it to some sort of benifit in making the world more technological. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you realize that it is not your entire world. Computers are a convenience, not something to be completely reliant on.

Ladies??

"So hey, how them ladies treating you lately???"

Oh, a question i hear far too often, and every single time i have the same exact answer for it. So now, if i am in any sort of online conversation with someone and they ask me that, i can now direct them to this blog post.
So how are the ladies treating me lately?? Well, they haven't really been treating me very much at all. And, to tell you the truth, i really dont mind anymore. Does this mean that i am no longer interested in girls? No, it is far from that, hell, there even might be some special someone whom i have my eye one, but would you like to fucking know.
I have looked back on my (two) past relationships, and have had the chance to talk openly about them, and i have come to terms with the fact that they were learning experiences for me. I have not been in a relationship for almost two years now, and i have seen many ups and many downs in terms of relatinoships.
This is a prime example of how these "ups" go to "lows", it is a very interesting process, but i just cant seem to figure out why it happens time after time. First, i meet a girl somehow, i dont know, from somewhere, sometimes they magically appear, i find her to be interesting so i try to strike conversation with her somehow. This kind of conversation usually consists of pointless small talk and mindless flirting. Next, after sort of getting to know this girl, i try to show her a little bit about who i am, and mind you, if you dont know already, i am quite an interesting personality. It usually rarely makes it to this point because said girl will somehow be turned off by something i may say that might be misunderstood in translation, or something about who i am and how i act. This "Cycle of Infatuation" has been going on for over two years as i have tried to create meaning relationships with the lady-folk. I have always been met with disappointment.
So now im sure someone is saying "Oh woes is you who cant have any luck with the ladies." I am not one to ask for sympathy, and if you think i am, then you have greatly misunderstood me. I am writing this as a way for me to attempt to catalog the events in my life as well as try to understand why things happen to me the way that they do. The day that i do write a blog that is whiny and over-dramatic, i ask you to write me a comment calling my a hypocrite, please, for my sake.
So now that i have taken a look into my past, i shall wonder about the future. What types of things does it hold. What kinds of awkward circumstances will i find myself in. Will i really find true love, or is it just a myth. I really dont know. I feel that if i continue to live out my life the way that i am, that i will maybe, hopefully find someone who has the capacity to understand me, and to whom i will fill some sort of possible void in their life as well.
Ok, that was kind of strange, but i dont know, that is kind of how i think, there might be someone out there who might be somewhat similar to me, and also have the feminine parts downstairs, its a possibility. And a possibility at that, one i hope that will become a reality.

great weekend or the greatest weekend??

so this past weekend was quite possibly one of my favorite so far this school year
it starts off just like most fridays for me, the typical friday meeting for my job at rcc, even though we are trying to have these meetings every other weekend, i have always seen them as being sort of a begining point for the weekend, after that, im free for the next 72 (or so) hours to basically do whatever i want. so like the typical computer nerd that i am, i start it off by playing a computer game, more specifically, starcraft. now, what makes this even more interesting is the fact that i have finally figured our how to get starcraft up and running on my linux computer (a major feat for me at least) so after a few hours of playing that, i get an instant message asking about going to someone's room to see a movie. i think the first movie they were watching was something that i wasn't interested in so i passed on that and went back to my game. a few hours later though, i got another instant message saying that they were going to watch "Lucky Number Slevin" (i think thats how you spell it) so i decided to go see that, ive never seen it before and i have always wanted to. and talk about an amazing movie, this was the type of movie that did not stop until the very end, i was sucked into it from the first 2 minutes where someone gets shot, its one of those movies where you can try and figure out what is going on, but you never will be able to, it was great.
so before i went up to watch the movie, i figured i would bring one of my own to share and see if they wanted to watch it afterward. the movie i brought, "SLC Punk" one of my favorite movies. unfortunately, after Lucky Number Slevin, everyone was pretty tired and everyone went to bed, so no SLC Punk for me that night.
saturday started off typically, i woke up at about 12, i showered, sat in my room playing on the interweb for a while, and then katy asks if i wanted to go to breakfast with her and her roommate and some other people, i figure that i havent had breakfast and i was quite hungry and also contimplating on going anyways, i figured id go and enjoy a nice sundial breakfast. the only problem though was that the sundial stops serving breakfast at 2 now, instead of 3 from what i remembered, so i was quite upset about that.
so when i got back to my room after my lunch which was supposed to be breakfast, i went once again into a battle for survival in another mission in starcraft. i was doing quite well also, but i got to the point where my eyes were glazed over so i had to stop. and what more to relieve myself the eyestrain of a game like that?? web design!!
from trying to first figure out virtual hosts in apache (which i was able to do) to then trying to get my design to fit my css layout, and then realizing that it would not work, it was quite a fun experience . so after a few hours fiddling with that, i find out that kelly is watching blades of glory, so i went up there and watched the end of it (i missed my favorite part tho)
so after that, i come back to my room and play around with some stuff, watch tv, check out digg, and then check my facebook, i find that roseann wrote on my wall, and it was a quote from SLC Punk (the movie i was wanting to watch the night before) so i got all excited and replied back. then when i see she was online, i make plans and go off to her apartment to watch the movie
as always, it was a great time with a great movie and great company. after that, me and her pretty much talked for nearly 2 hours, about everything from grade school to friends to relationships, it was really nice, i never really have many friends whom i can talk to like that, and its always nice for someone like me to be able to have decent conversation with someone, and to know who i am talking to actually cares about what i have to say. ive realized that we have been through so much already, and its all been for the best because we are such good friends now and that is a good thing.
so after the kinda scary walk home at 2 o'clock at night, i came back to my room where my roommate was asleep, i really wish i didnt wake him up, i always get paranoid like that when i come back late and hes asleep. but i got on my computer and talked to roseann even more over instant messenger. and when she decided to go to bed, i got an invitation to go upstairs and see queen of the damned. so i went and watched that until like 4 when i got way too tired to do anything more
so i went back and went to bed, once again hoping to not wake up my roommate. i didnt get up till like 12:30 maybe and i got up and showered. when i was getting dressed, i got an instant message from chris saying that we were prolly gonna be leaving at about 3 to go to columbus to see strike anywhere. the reason for this was because dustin had some stuff to do on the way and we had some other people to pick up
so after a few hours of running around the columbus area and picking up people and eating food, we finally got to the venue and let me tell you, it was a quaint little joint, i dont know, thats the only way i can think to explain it. it was kinda small but it was big enough. it reminded me of a mix between the HiFi in cleveland and Howards in BG except a lot nicer than the both. thats the thing i noticed about columbus, everything is just nicer than cleveland, it made me kinda jealous in a way. but thats beside the point cause strike anywhere was amazing!
the show was seriously wonderful. everyone in the band was just really cool, thomas, their lead singer was walking around talking to everyone before and after they played
there were three songs that they played that stuck out to me
the first one was Chalkline: the song is sort of a womens issues type of song, more or less being about how women today are expected to be and act a specific way. i dont know, it was really nice the way thom introduced the song, it struck me how amazing the song is.
the second song that stuck out to me was Allies: this song is about matthew shepard, didnt even know that. upon listening to the chorus of words that was being screamed at the top of everyones lungs, the true meaning came out to me. i also figured that it might be starting to become a sort of cliche to write and sing songs like this (gay rights) because the gay community has started to get just a little bit of much deservered acceptacnce, but nothing near what they should have, and thats what songs like this try to achieve, they remind people of the tragic things that have happened out of the ignorance of others, and they keep reminding people of that so that they are forced to learn from it. i find nothing wrong with that, being forced to learn from other people's ignorance.
the third song which stuck out to me was Sunset on 32nd: of course i would say this, its just an amazing song, i have already written why i love it, so i will not try to repeat myself. it was just nice to be there singing along with everyone and enjoying myself during that song and all the rest
well, after the show we stuck around and talked to the band a bit as they were breaking down their own stuff (no roadies, very noble) and then we enjoyed a 2 and a half hour drive back to BG.
so there it is, a great weekend. first for me in a long time, i just wish that the next few will be just as great, but that will be almost like asking too much, so i will still be satisfied with what i have coming my way.
so for one of my longest blog posts on any of my previous blogs, i will leave you all with that, hope you had as much fun reading it as i had writing it

My mind is blank

wow this is weird, whenever i sit down to write something, i am always lucky enough to be able to write at some length about some obscure subject that is on my mind. but the only thing now is that i cant think of what to write. i guess i can write about my present situation in my life.
well, its raining right now, ive been anticipating this rain for like all day now, thunder too, very nice.
so i am very happy to be starting reading a new book, "IV, A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas" by Chuck Klosterman. i really love his writing. it is not only informative, but entertaining. the way he writes is just ingenious.
im going to see Strike Anywhere on sunday, im super-excited for that although i dont know exactly what to expect but im still totally excited. i dont even know who is opening for them, or whatever. I do hope, however, that they play the song "Sunset on 32nd Street" thats a great song. It has become one of the songs that i listened to at just the right time to make me feel better about the situation i was in (this time, it was about my experience with the police and still getting in trouble for something i didnt do) It's very similar to over the summer when i stumbled upon "Bryan's Lament" over the summer. It's strange how music seems to find me at just the right time. Oh well, im gonna go watch the office, which is on TBS right now, and season 4 is starting on Thursday for which I am super-excited.
Until next time, I shall write again soon.

The first post in yet another blog

so as i sit here, looking down the familiar form that is most common in nearly all blogs that i have written, i am wondering how this one will be different. i created my google account thinking that it would be a good way to organize my life, from the calendar to the rss reader, i was amazed at the innovation that i saw in what i was using. with just one account, one username, one password, i was able to control so much of my online life, my calendar, and the way it notifies me, my rss feeds, my search history was saved so that i can go back to it, i got a free instant messanger, and not to mention nearly 3 gb of email storage. so my only logical step would be to create a blog.
now that i do have this blog, i wonder what kinds of subjects i will write about. my high tech interests, my political ideologies, my personal life, or anything in between. i find myself to at least be a somewhat interesting person, but who knows, maybe im just another person who has ideas about stuff, i dont care, im still gonna try and keep this up to date, and im gonna try and promote this so that people can hopefully start to understand who i actually am, and the way i think
ok, that is all for now, i will be back to write some more in the near future hopefully