Talent Show - Ohh Yeah!

Hey gang, what's happening? [pauses to listen] Sounds like it's been a blast! Unless it hasn't. In which case, I'm very sorry to hear about [insert event].

I was in my school's talent show on Thursday! As the astute readers may know, Stephen and I have been preparing to do a cover of "The Remedy" since November. We got a talented drummer, Jayme, to round us off, and rocked the house.

Right before we went on, we had a bunch of terrifying technical difficulties. When I set up my bass amp, plugged in, and turned it on, no sound came out. Stephen and I spent waaaaay too long trying to fix it, while the audience was waiting right outside the curtain. The teacher who organized it sent charismatic people out in front to keep everyone entertained, while she kept shouting at us "We're losing them!!!" We weren't, really, because they were getting louder and louder, excited. Jayme got sick of waiting, and started drumming loudly. when she did, the audience FREAKED! It was really awesome, actually.

Just as I was about to give up and cry, I adjusted a bolt thingy on my guitar and everything started working. It was turned up super-loud, and as a soundcheck I started playing "Blister In the Sun." I fixed my volume, and the curtains opened up. It was super-intense to be up there, with a full house of around 300-400 people. I was just trying to provide a strong foundation to the song by playing loud, which I thought I did. My amp wasn't as loud as it sounded on stage though, obviously, so a bit of the punchiness was lost. Still, I think I looked awesome up there, grooving and whatnot.

After we left, fellow blogger Tanner went up and played "We Are Going To Be Friends." It...was...AMAZING! He also had amp problems, but instead of panicking, he just moved up closer to the audience and played his acoustic unplugged. Also, because we were still tearing down our setup, he played in front of the closed curtains. The end result was a very emotional, beautiful cover of a song that's great to begin with. He took third, but I'm of the opinion he absolutely deserved first. After the show, Steve, Jayme, Tanner, and I all went to get ice cream at McDonald's and celebrate. Our performance didn't place, but it was so much fun that it didn't matter at all.

In other news, I got an incredibly awesome bag! It's olive drab canvas, and about notebook sized. Yes, it's a man-purse. So convenient! Plus, I feel more sophisticated by carrying it, so there's that.

One final order of business: I'd like to link to all the outstanding blogs I love, so expect that in an upcoming post. If you've linked me recently, fear not, I'm not going to be rude and refuse to return the favor. What kind of horrible person would that make me?

Well, friends...it's looking like we've reached the end of this post. Remember: stay in school!

Quizbowl: State Edition

Ohhh yeah!!!! Quizbowl's state tournament was the past two days!! Two days, in the college town of East Lansing, with tons of time to shop on Grand River Ave. Plus, a last hurrah for my favourite school activity.

We left Friday morning around 7, a little while before school starts. There was a coaches' meeting at 10, so we made it there just in time. Our first match wasn't til 12:30, so the entire team left campus and went to some shops. Actually, at that time of the morning, most shops weren't open, so we all hung out in a student book store. After some time passed, we headed over to a Barnes & Noble, where we rode the escalators for a few hours. It was our small-town version of an amusement park, actually.

Our first match was crazy-easy, with us totally dominating. The first 10 minutes or so I was nervous, with my heart pounding and whatnot, but I relaxed after I saw how easy everything was. We didn't play again until 3:30, so we headed back in. This time, we spent our entire break in Urban Outfitters, reading all of their various coffee table books. I was getting worried they'd kick us out, actually, because it was pretty obvious we weren't getting anything. Hey, if they had affordable prices...I made the team sneak out the back door, just to avoid a confrontation...I'd hate to have to have a rumble in Urban Outfitters.

Our second match was in a tiny, airless room, and it was a bit more intense. We won again, but it wasn't by the huge point margin from before. We played again fairly soon, so the team just sat in the student union hallways and goofed around. I brought my Gameboy Color, so I sat and played Pokemon Silver. Yeah, I was pretty much a total geek, with my old-school gaming system...it's actually the only console I still have.

We lost the third match, by a very small margin. It took place in the same room we lost in last year, and had a terrible reader. He made little comments between questions, and wasted a lot of time. regardless, we still lost fair and square. The tournament was double elimination, with one loss per day, so we were done. We stopped by our hotel, and then headed to a great restaurant nearby for dinner.

When we got back, everyone sat around for a while watching TV, then headed down to the pool. We all spent a lot of time in the hot tub, talking to people from other teams. There were actually some guys we knew, from a school in our Jr. High team's league. I'd also gone to summer camp with one of them, so it was cool catching up. When the pool closed, everyone watched Adult Swim until we fell asleep where we were (which got us in big trouble, but never mind that.)

We didn't play the next day until 1:30, so we went back to Grand River Ave. It was Record Store Day, and we figured it'd be cool to check out all the great deals. Wrong. I'm the only person in the group who listens to vinyl, and even I wasn't interested in records this time. Every store was PACKED, with lines full of hipsters everywhere. We left the first shop we went to, FBC, and checked out a cool little thrift store for a while. They had really nice clothes, including a leather jacket I loved, but I saved my money for another time. We headed back to FBC, and it was much less packed. I got a bunch of bargain used CDs, and a promo from Sub Pop. I also got my fill of amusing hipsters, standing around and competing over their respective knowledge of underground bands.

We headed back to the tournament...and played again in the same bad room, with the same bad reader. And lost. It was another close match, too, which was kind of a bummer. We took 7th overall, which was an improvement over last year. Still, the whole trip was awesome, and I had a great time. Now, all I have to do is coach JH quizbowl...my schedule is almost free!!

Guess What? Still Spring Break...

Day...five? of spring break. So far, I spent the first weekend ill. Now my mom's sick, with the same illness. I blame Gabby's mom's sister...that's as far back as I can trace it.

On Monday, Gabby and I went to the mall to find a shirt for me to wear to prom. It was kind of tough, because her dress is purple, and they don't sell many purple shirts. Furthermore, they don't make many shirts for Iggy Pop-sized people. Weird thing is, I always feel tall at my family reunions...

Eventually we found one, and it looks pretty freaking good. It'll look awesome, when I put it with my sparkley polka-dotted tie.

So...one last order of business: I feel the need to link to a pretty awesome blog I follow, The Nerd Archives. Actually, saying That Blond Guy's blog is "pretty awesome" is quite the understatement; I will regularly laugh until I cry after reading his posts. Nope, no real reason for my linking to his blog. It's not like he said he'd link to mine if I did...

Well, I must be off. I have a largish science project due as soon as I get back to school, so I really need to get crackin'.

Spring Break

Ughhh...I'm on the tail end of what is either a horrible allergy spell, or a cold. I'm more inclined to think it's a cold, but I hate to say so because that would mean I'm not invincible to viruses after all. Stupid immune system, man up!

In other news, it's Spring Break!!! What am I doing for it? Nothing much, just a bunch of music-related endeavors. I'm glad to be having a low-key break, because I've been getting kinda burnt-out at school. Not horribly, just enough that I needed a break.

Also, I'm glad not to be going on the huge community vacation my town seems to have planned. Seriously, about 50 people are all going to the same resort in Florida; they all have matching T-shirts about it and everything. What's the point of that? It's somewhat cult-like and sad. Actually, my principal, his wife the chemistry teacher, my superintendent, and his wife the French teacher all took Friday off because of it. 4th hour chemistry literally had no teacher...it was like Lord Of The Flies in there.

Is anyone else on Spring Break? Doing anything cool? Going on a cult-trip to Florida?

Wipeout! And, Free Songs!

Hey everyone! The musical is over at school; thank goodness! Actually, it was last weekend.

It went shockingly well, considering how the dress rehearsal the night before the premier went. The best part was a dance scene in which three of the funniest guys in drama sang a very innuendo-filled song about "Luau Love." Right before the song, they hid behind a curtain and changed into coconut bras, grass skirts, and those T-shirts that look like bikinis. Actually, here's a picture:

Anyway, while they were changing, they came up with some incredibly funny improv-ed lines. I was pretty impressed with their ability to think so quickly, because there's no way I'd be able to be that fast on my feet while onstage.

I had two personal moments of pride during the play. The first one I'll mention came on the second night, when I decided I wanted my own chance at some sort of unexpected joke in the play. You might think to yourself, "But Drew, you were playing bass in the pit band! How could you possibly get a joke in the play?" Towards the end of the second act, there was a scene where the comic book nerd (the guy on the left in that picture, by the way) got the girl he'd been pursuing for the whole play. It was a pretty funny scene, and I decided to spice it up by doing a slide on my bass that sounded like "Woow-woooooow." you know what I mean, right? I hope so...

My second moment of pride was my own little moment of rebellion, along with Stephen (who played piano in the pit band), and a dude named Scott (who was playing guitar). Our absentee band director had made all of us incredibly mad by showing up at the last minute and acting like she deserved to be in charge, usurping power from Steve, who had put in enough hours of work to be the undisputed leader of the band. Her most annoying last-minute change was telling us to wear concert uniforms to the play; you know, the stupid-looking get-ups with vests that we have to wear to band competitions. Keep in mind, this was a musical comedy about surfers. If we were there in button-up shirts, with floor-length velvet dresses on the ladies, it would look really stupid.

So, we decided to not wear them. It had been warm all week, so we all showed up in shorts and Hawaiian shirts. Boy, was she pissed. It was actually kind of scary, but in a good way. It might seem like what we did was out of line, but trust me when I say we were not in the wrong. I can't stand my band teacher, and it was so nice to disobey her and show our displeasure.

Anyway...

On a completely different note, both of the tracks we recorded with Stephen are now on Crush Of Society's Facebook page. Like them? If you do, you're in luck, because they're both available as a FREE DOWNLOAD, right here!!!

Okay. Maybe you didn't catch that the first time; perhaps you didn't hear me correctly.

Crush Of Society's two singles are FREE, for you to download!!

Seriously, click it. Please.

You could be my biggest hero, and all you need to do is make sure these songs get heard. Download them, distribute them, play them at parties...I don't care how. Thanks!

Anyway, I should probably stop there, to avoid seeming too insanely desperate. Too late? Darn. Have a good one!

In The Studio (Formerly Known As My Basement)

You know how I keep mentioning Stephen coming and recording Crush Of Society an EP? It finally happened yesterday! Well, the recording part. We only got 2 songs done, in 6 1/2 hours. But hey, it's a start! The one I've heard so far is absolutely amazing sounding - check it out! The ones we got done were "Gotta Get Out" and "I Don't Know."

Actually, I haven't heard the latter yet. It was the first one we did that day, and Steve was still working out the kinks in his new mixing board - purchased the day before, I might add! I played guitar, bass, and vocals on "I Don't Know," and bass on "Gotta Get Out."

It was kind of shocking how long the recording process takes. Each instrument had to be recorded separately, meaning we had to re-configure the microphones and amplifiers and whatnot for each song. Also, there was A LOT of down-time. Whenever someone else was doing their instrument's part, there wasn't much to do other than help set up the mics and sit around. Once we got all the tracks for "I Don't Know" recorded, Bobby and I just sat around and played table-top hockey while Stephen mixed parts of the song that had to be done right away. We would have played pool, but Steve commandeered the entire pool table, plus a large card table, with equipment and cables.

Ohh, the cables. The floor was covered in them!! Six 1/4 inch instrument cables, three XLR cables, and countless power cords for computers, amps, and pedals. PLUS, we had 5 different amps laying around, each in use. Two monitors (to play back what he'd recorded), an amp to run headphones through for the person playing at the time, and a guitar and bass amp. PLUS, two microphones and another thingy that looked and acted just like a mic, but apparently wasn't.

All in all, it was incredibly sweet. I can't wait to get more tracks recorded, and posted. Also, I intend to make these tracks downloadable, for all of you. They'll probably be free, so the music has a better chance of being distributed. It's getting exciting!!

Drew Morgan - Bass Doctor

[Insert huge sigh of relief]

Well, I'm finally to the point where I'm not freaking out about activities any more. Mock trials is over, band has happened, and Math Field Day was last Friday. No, nothing was won. I did have a good time though! Now all that's left is drama club and the pit band. That's all easy, and not at all a worry of mine. Plus, the play is next weekend!

Does anyone recall the hollowbody bass I rescued from an antique shop a few months back? Did I even post about it? Either way, I got a bass guitar that was in serious trouble. The neck of the instrument was so bent out of shape that it was unplayable, the strings were rusted and nasty, and the string-mute foam was rotting away. To top it all off, the poor thing was coated in old cigarette smoke.

Well, your hero saved it. I tore the whole thing apart, and used my experience in woodworking (read: my grandfather's experience) to set the neck straight. I also gave it a good, well-deserved cleaning, and was immaculate. Finally, I bought it some top-of-the-line flatwound strings, to give it that 50's feel. I haven't put foam in it yet, but that's only because I haven't gotten the initiative to find the hunk of foam I used to use in my other bass.

Now, I can use it for pit band! Which is pretty sweet, considering the play we're doing is an early-60's surf thing.

Anyway...I have a humorous post coming soon; you'll just have to be patient!

Activities And Clubs

Man...school has been exhausting lately. Between Quiz Bowl, mock trials, concert band, math team, and drama club's pit band, there's been very little down time. Fortunately, I finished concert band last Friday, and mock trials the day after.

Concert band actually went surprisingly well, considering recent conflicts I've had with my band director. *Fortunately,* rumor is that she is looking around to other school districts for a new job. Yeah, that's not something I should spread around; I really don't care when it comes to her though.

ANYWAY, we did extremely well. We got a rating of 2 on our rehearsed performances, and a 1 on our sight-reading tests. That's on a scale with 1 being best and 4 being worst. I like to think a tiny fraction of our good points came from the fact we had a double bass in the band, but that could just be self-importance.

Mock trials also went well, although the entire team was very sleep-deprived. Some of us from the band competition the night before, and others because of wild partying. Regardless, we performed well. I was only in one of the three trials, as a lawyer. I did decently, and our side (defense) totally dominated the other team. I was incredibly nervous when I went up to cross-examine my first witness, and it probably showed. When I approached her at the witness stand to hand her an exhibit, my hand was shaking and so was the piece of paper in it. To make things worse, she wouldn't take it unless I explicitly asked her to. The first time I went up, I had to quietly beg her to "Please take it..." Actually, it wasn't very quiet when I said that; my team, and some of the audience, say they heard it and found it hilarious.

Now, all I really have to worry about is math team and drama club. The math team's one and only event is actually tomorrow, so that won't be a concern for much longer either. Drama isn't for a few weeks, but I really love hanging out with my club members, so it's all good. I'm playing electric bass for the pit band, which is currently just myself and Stephen on piano. Supposedly a former high school student who hangs around my band class constantly is doing drums, but he's had yet to practice with us. We'd have more people, but my highly incompetent band director didn't come through on holding auditions for the various parts. The only reason Steve and I have gotten any practice is because we're with drama regardless of whether or not she holds practice.

In summary: my schedule is super busy, but it's going to free itself up pretty soon here. Well...I have to go get sleep. What kind of mathlete shows up deprived of his full 8 hours??

Words And Sentences

You know, looking at all the activities I do in school, I'm pretty much the pinnacle of nerdiness. I'm captain of the Quiz Bowl team, I'm a lawyer in Mock Trials, I'm doing the Math Club activities this year, I do technical stuff in Drama Club, and all my varsity medals are either from band, Quiz Bowl, or academics. Also, I own a pin that says "Alpha Nerd," for what it's worth.

The snow is melting outside! The sun has been shining! The days are getting longer! ...And there's a snow storm headed my way...arggg. Hey, at least the worst of winter is over!

So...I've had so much Pepsi Max today I'm actually enjoying, craving water. I need to cut back on that stuff. I don't know if you know, but that's my one vice...

Blog, Or Memoir?

Hey there, blog fans! How have things been? Actually, that's a redundant question; I've been reading your posts, so I already know.

Thanks for giving some feedback on those videos - hopefully, I'll soon be able to post some better versions. Oh, by the way, in response to your question That Blond Guy, Bobby and I are the only two in the band. We're hoping to go for a White Stripes- or Black Keys- type thing. Of course, when we record our fancy little E.P. - coming soon - we're going to use the wonders of technology to record more tracks than we have people for.

This blog is coming in handy for me - we have an assignment in English class to write a memoir about ourselves concerning a relationship that has been important to our lives. I've decided to write about my trip to Western Michigan University my freshman year, and the group of friends I met on that trip. I've written multiple blog posts about the trip, and the memoir is basically going to be an expanded, cleaned up version of those. Isn't a blog basically an online memoir, sort of, not really? That's what I thought.

So, I'm going to go get on that. That, and watching old Mock Trial videos - the team is having a court house practice on Sunday, and I need to get a feel for how lawyers need to act. Until next time - stay golden, blog-friends!

So Many Videos...

Well...you asked, so I've linked to all the videos we currently have on Youtube. Hopefully you enjoy!

As you may hear me say at the end of this video, this was the first time I ever sang in front of anyone other than Bobby. It was pretty awesome to do, and I loved the rush. I definitely want to be a rockstar!

This is based on lyrics from the book "John Dies At The End" by David Wong. It's a favourite book of ours, and I thought it would be totally awesome to show up to a practice with a song written around it. So, I did. The band that plays it in the book is supposed to be incredibly bad, but hopefully we gave it a bit of life. As a YouTube commenter pointed out, the sound quality is pretty horrid. Fortunately, long-time COS helper Stephen is going to record a better version, and make an actual music video to go with it. More on that later...

This is another video from my party, of us pretending to be Sex Bob-Omb from Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. As you can see, I'm totally Scott (despite the fact I'm not playing bass). Stephen is drumming, our good friend Tanner, from the band I Eat Stickfigures, is rocking bass and vocals, and a dude named Damien is (badly) pretending to play keyboards. I tried dancing like Scott Pilgrim while playing, which pretty much messed up my playing.

Last one from the party. This is an awesome song Bobby wrote, although I helped brainstorm additional lyrics. Steve's on drums again, despite the fact he'd only played with us on this song once before. the drums were really necessary, because the song sounds oddly empty without them. Also, Bobby's new 12-string adds a really great sound to the song, and his (improvised) solo is very fitting with the rest of the song.

This is a song we haven't worked on much yet. I wrote it a while ago, but I only really presented it two practices ago. I'm not terribly happy with this video, because for some reason I sound bored in it, and I slightly messed up the solo. However, I'm hoping to work with it a lot more, and I'll keep you informed about that!

This is a song that I wrote lyrics to about 2 years ago, and Bobby found in my lyric book. He recently wrote a guitar part, and gave life to what was previously a crappy poem. The two acoustics sound good in this video, but I'm hoping when we work with Stephen we can add the usuals, bass and drums, and a piano track.

Wow...mad props to anyone who has scrolled down this far, regardless of whether or not you've actually watched the videos. I'll probably post further concerning Steve's recording of our music, but for now I'll let you go, and recover from the length of this post.

Small Update

Hey there, everyone. How's it been? I've been keeping up with all your lives, reading your blogs - just not updating my own. Well, I currently have a bunch of videos being uploaded to JayCut (an online video editing site) and a huge chunk of free time. Blog post? I think so!

First things first, here's the press release sent out about my trip to the State Of The State. I'm not totally happy with it - excerpts like, "Runner-up, Yale High School sophomore Drew Morgan watched from the House balcony" don't really sound very glowing. More like, "We had to keep him there to make his school happy - normally, we don't let long-hairs in the capitol building at all!"

The videos I mentioned uploading, by the way, are all videos Bobby and I have made of us playing various Crush Of Society songs. Hopefully, I'll have them on YouTube by tonight. While you wait with bated breath for them to be posted, you can re-watch our old videos here.

Last week was exam week...meaning 3 half days! Exams don't really stress me...they're just a little break from learning, really.

Hmm...this blog post started out with so much potential...I apologize for the disappointment it has become. I'll leave it as is, to avoid furthering its horridness.

Observations Of Politics

So, last night was the State of the State. I took the day off school, and got to Lansing around 1 so I could do a bit of shopping before it. The governor's address itself was interesting, but everything else involved wasn't. I had to get to the floor (actually, the balcony) at 5:30, but he didn't actually start speaking until 7. I was advised to bring my phone with me and text, but no one would text me because they knew where I was and didn't want to interrupt.

I also had to deal with way too many politicians, all of whom were incredibly fake and smarmy. They all assumed I entered the essay contest because I'm interested in a career in politics, which just isn't true. Now I want that career even less, because of the horrible examples I saw yesterday.

Anyway, I took notes before and during the speech, mostly for the sake of this blog. Here they are, with my day-after comments underneath. And, photos!

This is me with the Senator who took me, leaning casually on the President Pro Tempore's desk

• "Woah, there's a dude with a hook-hand sitting up front down there!"

[When I re-read this, it seemed a little mean sounding. It's not intended that way, but in a "that's awesome!" way. I actually read about a politician in similar circumstances who ran with the slogan "Hooked on So-and-so!"]

• "I have the song "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails stuck in my head...not a good song to be humming while on the House floor..."

[I got the CD that song is on at a record shop earlier in the day, and was listening to it on the way there. I doubt anyone there would recognize it, unless they had to listen to it while trying to get it censored.]

The other contest winner, as well as our respective parents

• "State government's version of the secret service is way different from federal; for one thing, they're all wearing red jackets. Some are bright read, while others are a more subdued shade of burgundy...I'm guessing the shade has to do with authority?"

[All the security dudes looked like bellhops, other than the things in their ears...]

• "Apparently, the House is divided with Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other. I hadn't intended to sit on the Democratic side, but I'm kind of glad I did..."

[It was kind of funny, actually, considering the Senator who took me is a Republican.]

OK, that's pretty much it for notes and observations. There will probably be an article in the local paper about my trip, so when that is published I'll link to it. That way you can get all my opinions on the Governor's actual talking points, without me having to write them out!

Brand-New Suit

Guess who's going to the Michigan State of the State address on Wednesday? This guy! I got the call from my Rep's secretary today after school. I was actually runner-up, but the top two contestants both get to go. Here's the essay, by the way.

Naturally, upon hearing I'd be going to a fancy political thing, I headed out immediately to town with intentions to buy a suit. And boy oh boy, did I. I'm not going to lie...I look pretty snazzy.

Kind of a freaky picture, but you get the idea...I'll have better ones after the actual event.

I apologize for my lack of posts...yesterday, I was busy being a rock star and having a band practice, which was, of course, productive. If you go to Youtube and search "Crush Of Society," our videos come right up to the top. Currently there are only a few from my recent-ish party, but soon there will be two more. And they are awesome. Consider yourself warned. Also, we have a Facebook page, which can be found by searching our name. That has a couple demos, and some sweet fan art posted by our good friend Tanner, who is an amazing artist.

The day before that (Saturday, for those who are as bad with dates as me), Gabby came over and we hung out. We picked her up from the community college library she was studying at early that morning, and took her shopping with us. It was fun, and I really love the fact that we could just go shopping and seem normal and stuff. After that, we watched Sweeney Todd and made pasta (which was delicious). It was a fun way to spend a Saturday, all in all.

Well, I have to go to bed and hope it doesn't snow bad enough for school to be cancelled. Normally I'd consider that insanity, but because I'll be missing at least part of 2 days because of the Lansing thing, I'd like to be able to get all my assignments and not drown in homework when I come back...

Essays Everywhere

My dearest Internet friends, I've missed you all terribly. It's just that I've been writing various essays for the past few weeks, one after another. The most problematic is one I'm doing for my local state representative; the prompt is How To Reinvent Michigan, and the prize for the two best authors is a trip to Lansing, MI and a seat at the State of the State address. The prompt has been proving terribly hard to write about, because the rep is a Republican, and my solutions are of a more Democratic persuasion. However, I'm in it to win it, and I'm not above shaping an essay of my opinions to fit the judge's opinion. So basically, that's what the delay in posts has been.

On a completely unrelated note, I got a new bass guitar last weekend! I've been looking at it for about 5 months now, after seeing it in an antique shop over the summer. It's a hollow body Kent, and it needs some work. I'll be posting pics once it's all nice and purty looking, but it currently only has three strings and a wickedly bent neck.

Sadly, that's all I can really post about at the moment. I'm still finishing my essay to the Representative, so that has to go be done. Until next time...bye!

Well, You Look Familiar...

For the past two years, I've been getting bass guitar lessons. I go to a local music shop every other week for them, and I'm taught by the same guy every time. For the past two years...I've had no clue what my instructor's name is.

You may ask, "How can you carry on conversation not knowing someone's name?". Actually, it's shockingly easy. He told me the first lesson, but I was so nervous it completely slipped my mind. Since then, it has been too awkward to ask. As time has passed, that's increased.

I didn't even realize I didn't know it until about a month in, when my mom asked me his name. After my failure to remember, I began planning schemes to try and figure it out. Ask him the spelling? Too risky; what if it's really simple, like Bill? There's no way to misspell that. Of course, I could just ask the shop owner, but that would be like admitting defeat.

At one point, while scheduling a lesson, I was almost caught. The owner asked, "Who's your instructor again?" As I fumbled for an answer, he remembered and continued signing me up, but he didn't actually say it.

My lucky break came very recently, while the owner was on vacation. I was going up to the counter to pay after the lesson, and the temporary guy asked me if Kenny had given me a bunch of homework. Yes!! I didn't even know what he was talking about, but I caught on quick enough.

Of course, there was still the concern that I'd heard him wrong or he had the wrong guy. I ignored those worries, and made sure to drop his name often in conversation with the owner. I even discovered his last name, whilst getting his address to send him a Christmas card. What is it, you ask? Don't know, I already forgot.

Situations like these are way too common for me. Could that possibly be the reason I hate socializing? Too many names...

Vet Trip

Hey everyone! Welcome to Boyd's World, for all you new-comers. For those of you who haven't seen it, I have a guest post on Consumable Sarcasm that will be posted sometime today (Thursday). I'm totally going to blame my week-long silence on that, instead of plain-old laziness.

So, yesterday we took our cat Mozilla in to the vet's to be fixed. Our vet is in a town half an hour away, which is actually fortunate. You see, the town it's in was built around a sugar beet processing plant, which is really just a horrible concept. For those who don't know, the processing of sugar beets releases a smell into the air that can best be described as a combination of burning crap and stagnant, rusty water. And it will get in your car. And it will make you sick. And if you don't breathe, it will get on your tongue and you will taste it.

Anyway, we take him to that vet because the prices there are way better than anywhere else. It's a pretty old-school place, where they make no attempts at appearing to be a hospital-type place. They don't wear gloves, they don't sanitize the tables between animals, and they're incredibly laid back. That might sound like a turn off to some, but it's actually kind of nice. The place comes highly recommended by all the professionals in animal care, which also says something about him.

We picked Mozilla up the next day. As soon as I got inside the reception area, I was gagging with the smell inside. It reeked of cat pee in there, which let my mom to comment, "Wow, I couldn't imagine living with an animal that smelled like that." Yeah, I couldn't either, until we got to the desk and asked for our cat. "Oh, you're picking up the stinky cat? He's responsible for this smell." He sprayed in the office sometime after his operation, and it was horrible. To make things worse, the receptionist told us we couldn't submerge him in water to bathe him for a couple weeks. I don't know what would happen, but I assume he would start to turn inside-out at the point of incision or something.

Driving home, he sprayed again. By this time, between the smell of him and the smell of the town, I was dying. When we got home, my mother tried to get him clean with washcloths and disinfectant wipes, but it wasn't really working. He reeked, and refused to stay confined to the laundry room (the only room that could handle the stench). To make things even worse, my girlfriend was coming over in a couple of hours, and it would be the first time she hung out at my house. I wanted her first impression to be one of "hey, this is nice" and not "why, why does it smell so bad??".

We ended up rushing into town to buy some candles, and managed to cover up the scent pretty well. Mozilla helped out by constantly cleaning himself, which was actually pretty effective in stench-removal. He still stinks, but it's manageable now.

Well, I hope you all a happy Festivus and a Merry Christmas! Don't forget to air your grievances today, and to engage in feats of strength with your family!

Snowed-In Sunday

Lazy, snow storm day today. I woke up at 8 this morning, and I haven't left the house since. Shockingly, there's only so much time you can spend on the Internet before it gets really boring.

To make things worse, our DVD player is starting to break. Fortunately, we made it all the way through Scott Pilgrim before it did. I'm not sure what I would watch if it was working, but it would probably be better that the three channels I get over the air.

To make things worse, I'm at a loss for bookage. I have been reading the His Dark Materials series, but I finished them Friday night. Looking past the very controversial aspects of the series, they're incredibly captivating and great. I was completely sucked in by the writing, and now I can't think of anything that will be able to fill the hole they left. I seem to recall having similar problems last time I read them, although that time I didn't know how they ended and was even more crushed by the sad ending. I picked up Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman to read earlier, and I'm hoping the short stories will ease the transition back into reading again.

To make things worse, I loaned Bobby my only microphone, so I can't make any more recordings. I suppose that's for the best, considering my voice is completely shot. Mixing a persistent asthma cough, a possibility of tonsillitis, and about half a gallon of Arnold Palmer spells out serious issues for my throat.

To make things worse, now I'm disguising an average post about a lazy Sunday as a theme post. Hopefully, the ends justify the means!

Laptop Recording

Guess what is only a week away? Christmas break! Sadly, teachers are giving more homework than ever to compensate. Even worse, textbooks and notebooks are larger than ever, and it's nearly impossible to carry all of them home at once. Stupid pictures in textbooks...

Anyhoo...

Last Friday, I spent the evening home alone whilst my mother was volunteering at an event of some kind for some sort of organization. In an attempt to be productive during the 6+ hours I had to waste, I decided to move my guitar and amp into the basement, and set up a mic. I recently found out about a local youth center that has a complete, professional recording studio set up in their complex that is free to use for anyone ages 12-18; In preparation to go there, I need to practice singing into a microphone, and tighten up all my songs.

Anyway, I played in my basement with my guitar and the microphone for a while, and I was really happy with how it sounded. However, I couldn't be 100% sure I sounded good without recording myself and then playing it back. Instead of going and getting my mp3 player and making really crappy recordings like I would normally do, I decided to try and use my computer - and the mixing software on it. I recorded a guitar track, then layered on a vocal track, and finally made a really simple, generic drum track to go with. I mixed them all up, made them sound all pretty, and listened to the final product (link to our page; it's the one titled "I Don't Know").

It sounded really sweet. So sweet I had to take down the version of the song that was on COS's Facebook page and add the new one. When compared to the new one, the old version sounds like a whiny, off-pitch 10-year old singing a generic break-up song over a super-slow, messy guitar. Meanwhile, the new one has a fast, crunchy guitar, favorably distorted vocals, and...still sounded like a generic break up song. Well, two out of three ain't bad.

I'm really excited about re-recording all our songs in this manner, which will hopefully tighten everything up and make us actually sound like we know what we're doing. Maybe?

A Christmas Carol

The play went well! Sorta well, anyway. The lights went well every night, with only a few silly mistakes on my part. The hours of working were pretty crazy, but hey, it was for a paycheck, right? Yeah...

The final night, after the show was over, we got our checks. I made...[drumroll]...$30. For six nights of 3-4 hours each. That means I made between $1.25 and $1.67 an hour. I hate to complain about not making enough money, but that's not even enough to pay for the gas driving 40 minutes each way. Well, if I hadn't gotten a ride with Stephen, that is. My biggest complaint is really the fact that I could have been working in my grandparents' shop those nights, and avoided getting in trouble for getting home at 11 P.M. on a school night.

Well...at least I can say I'm a professional lights technician now, right?