Just A Bit Of An Update

My apologies about the downer post concerning my bass. I took it to a shop and they're fixing it, and it will be done in a few weeks. The damage is $300, which I'm working my butt off to pay off, in addition to the money I already owe my grandparents for buying the instrument.

Somewhat related to that topic, I've discovered I'm addicted to guitars. Despite being $700 dollars in the hole currently, I almost bought a new electric bass today. It was very cool, and I had it all justified in my mind, but I had a bad feeling in my gut about it. Maybe it will still be for sale in six months or so, and I'll get it when finances aren't as bad. It was in an antique store anyway, and a bit of a fixer-upper, so it shouldn't sell too fast.

Tomorrow, I'm going to see Paramore with the environmental organization Reverb. I'm taking a friend who really likes Paramore, but I'm starting to regret it. She's been really, really irritating and negative about the whole thing from the second I asked her. She complained about the lawn seats, which made me want to say, "You know what? Buy your own tickets, and don't forget to pay for the $40 pavilion ones!" But, I'm just keeping a smile on my face and looking at the bright side.

Anyway...just wanted to give you a bit of an update. Next week is band camp, which will be *awesome*! See you then...

Double Bass

You will never guess what I got yesterday! Oh...yeah, it does say it in the title of the post. I got a double bass yesterday! Pretty sweet, eh? And it was only $350, a total steal!

Since I got it, I've learned a ton about them already. For example: did you know the neck is designed to snap off from the body when you drop them? Neither did I until I leaned it against a box and turned my back on it.

Seriously, when I heard it start to fall, I felt like someone had punched me in the gut while burning $350 in my face. Once I got it all secure and out of the way of more harm, I just wanted to curl up in a ball and not get up.

We're taking it to a luthier tomorrow, who will hopefully not completely screw us on repair prices. Once it's fixed, I'll post a happier post about it and why it's awesome, but for the moment I'm pretty upset and don't really want to talk about it until it's working again.

While I Was Absent

Gaaarrr, I haven't posted in over a month!! Well, we'll just have to pick up where we left off.

Since my last post...

• Bobby and I had a great band practice, and I got to use my new bass amp in a recording for the first time!
  
• Leah and I went to the mall, and I got Golden Harvest by Beck and Rust Never Sleeps (the movie) by Neil Young. Both are totally awesome! Although the Beck CD is seriously creepy...
• I started my summer job of painting my grandparents' house. After three weeks of working, I still haven't touched a paint brush.
• I got a keyboard! I've been wanting one for a while, mostly so I can learn to play the song "Sam's Town (Abbey Road Version)" by The Killers. I totally can already, although not exactly well.
• I went and saw 34bliss again, this time with my parental unit and her friends. They were part of a 4th of July festival, but they played at the same theatre. The show was way more packed, and they played very well.
• This weekend is our town's "Bologna Festival". As my friend pointed out, how odd is it our town celebrates processed meat with a weekend festival? All I know is that Yale Bologna is manufactured by C. Roy's Inc., a company owned by my great-aunt.
• Next week is our county fair, in which I'll be taking three trophies for shooting. More on that once it actually happens.

Hmmm...I'd say we're about up-to-date again. I've got to go; I'm headed to the Bologna Fest, because I'm marching in the parade with the band this evening. Hey...let's not wait so long next time!

34Bliss Concert!

Does anyone remember me mentioning I would be going to a concert by my friend Jared's band 34Bliss? Well, tonight was that concert! They played at the Emerald Theater, in Mt. Clements, MI. It was a really amazing show, and I had tons of fun.

Jared had me go as his "bass technician", which is a fancy word for "roadie that carries my amps". Hey, I got in to a $10 concert for free! Plus, I got to go onstage to set up his amps, which was sweet. I'd love to do it again (at the concerts without a minimum age), but some circumstances I'll mention further on might keep that from happening. It's nice because it's a chance to network a bit, and get to know some people that could help me with my own music. A bunch of my friends went as well, including Jared's sister and our mutual friend Leah (who I'm sure I've mentioned on here before).

34bliss...played...amazingly. I have their E.P., which consists of 5 tracks, 4 of them original and the fifth a cover of some Alice Cooper song I don't know. The E.P. (Scream) is pretty good, but live they are exponentially better. Their singer, who has had 5 years of opera singing lessons, was much more intense and passionate onstage than in the studio. The guitarist had a bunch of great solos, as did Jared. They also played a cover of a blues song that isn't on Scream, and it is definitely my favourite song of theirs.

They were opening for another local band, Steven Who?. They were not great. They should have opened for 34Bliss, not the other way around. They had two bassists, one guitar and one drummer, and were a (very sloppy) cover band. Actually, I probably wouldn't have minded them too much, except for the fact the main bassist dissed Jared's soloing, saying "Anyone could do that...". Trust me, he couldn't have. Jared's an awesome bassist, while the guy who criticized him looked more like he was going to accidentally stab himself with his ridiculously pointy guitar than play anything exceptional. They were also very young, around my age - and the singer might have been younger.

So, although it was an awesome concert and an awesome night, one thing did go quite poorly. I rode over there in Jared's car, with Jared driving. I had promised my mom his parents would drive, but I opted to ride with him so I could show up at the same time as the equipment. I made a really bad choice, and I regret upsetting my mother's trust. I wouldn't have done it if there had been even the slightest chance of danger, because I'm very cautious and good at worrying, but doing the exact opposite of what I said would happen was wrong. As it is, I'm grounded, and there's a good chance I won't be able to go to another show for a while.

All in all, a great concert, with a bunch of good friends and some great music. I'm glad I went, and I had a lot of fun.

Fear Not, I Remember You

All apologies for the lack of posting. Really, nothing very fascinating has been going on around here lately.

Studying for exams, basically. School gets out next Thursday, but in pretty much all my classes we're doing nothing important anymore. Studying...Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday next week are the actual exam days, with an hour and a half period for each class, meaning two classes per half day.

I've got lots of partying to do for the next little while, though. Tomorrow, I'm going to a dude's house for an end of the year party. Next Friday my friend Tia is having a pool party, followed by the band lock-in. Th Saturday after, I'll sleep off the lock-in, then go to a 34bliss concert (my friend's band). On the topic of 34bliss, the aforementioned friend is going to have some of his CDs for sale at school tomorrow, $5 each. I'm totally getting one!

And now, I must head over to the High School to start six hours of glorified study hall. Have a super day!

Epic Rave Birthday Party

I went to an amazing party this evening! You may recall (but probably not) a bassist friend of mine named Jared. He's only a Junior, but he's in a band, 34Bliss, who are already playing paid gigs. Anyway, his birthday was yesterday, and he threw a sweet party today.

Now, Jared's a bit of a frightening character. It's not that he's a bad guy or anything, he's just a very hardcore metal fan and dresses that way. I wasn't too worried about his party though, because he has a sister in my grade who is semi-preppie and quite nice. She invited friends as well, so she wouldn't have to hang out with her brother's friends all night. Also, Jared hangs out with some "normal" (because who really is?) people, and a lot of them would be there. In the end, both he and his sister's friends mingled and hung out together.

When I got to his place, I headed out to his shed (featuring an all-out studio for his band), where there was some intense guitar hero playing was going on. Some of my friends were there, and one whom I hadn't seen since he graduated. For a while, we just hung out and drank a ton of soda and listened to metal at insane volumes (did I mention he has most, if not all, of his band's stage speakers?). After a bit of time, some pretty awesome people showed up that I got to meet.

Lets see...there was Izzie (I assume that's how it was spelled), who was a guitar player. When he showed up, he was wearing a skeleton face-mask and a duster jacket with flame embroidery, complemented by his waist length hair. I knew he'd be a cool dude right away, because anyone who can wear that and have a sense of humour about it has to be pretty sweet. There were also some people from school I'd seen before at the party, and it was nice to get to know them.

Before the sun went down, the party was pretty mellow. They have a pond in their front yard, where most of his sister's friends were, and one of my good friends (Leah). They begged me to come in, even though I had no bathing suit or a change of clothes. Eventually, I decided to go out to the platform they were on in a paddle boat. To make a long story short, Jared's sister (Taylor) cannon-balled into the water right next to me, getting my clothes soaked. I had to walk around the rest of the night with no shoes, my flannel shirt off, and my pant legs rolled up like a hipster. It was refreshing, though.

After the sun went down, the real fun started. You see, Jared has a lot of money (did you pick up on that yet?) and he had his shed completely decked out for a rave. There were 8+ strobe lights, the huge speakers I mentioned before, a smoke machine, and 68 glow sticks. Everyone grabbed a ton of glow sticks, the lights went out and the strobes went on, and we started dancing. Let me tell you, rave-dancing is my kind of dancing. At school dances, you're always goofy looking when you jump around like crazy and flail your arms about. Not at a rave, with a glow stick in each hand and music made to jump to. I was full of insane energy, and probably danced the most.

After one song, Jared turned down the music and said, "[so-and-so] requested we moshed to this song. If you don't want to, go outside." Well, I wanted to, despite the fact I was barefoot. Moshing is...intense. It was totally fun, too. Everyone was slamming into each other, bouncing off the person next to them and knocking each other over. All my fellow mosh-ers had to pause a few times to catch their breath, but I kept on jumping and waving my glow sticks around. I knew doing it barefoot would be a horrible idea, but I felt nothing the entire time I was dancing. Afterward...well, let's just say I had to use a flashlight to make sure my feet weren't bleeding. Still, it was amazing.

In between rave-sessions we went and hung out by the fire. Jared played some of his band's songs, which were awesome. They're a great sound, which is really hard to compare to another band. The best I can do is say they have semi-mellow, almost acoustic sounding verses, with punk or grunge-ish sounding choruses. I was a bit surprised, because they sounded nothing like what I would imagine Jared playing. Anyway, I'm going to see them next month, on the 19th, with Leah and a few other people who were at the party.
All in all, it was an awesome party, possibly the best I've ever been to. I had a ton of fun, and for those whom I wish to inspire, all this fun was created purely through my own mind and no "chemical influences". I think it was a great way to spend a Saturday night, and I really enjoyed hanging out with new people, as well as my tried and true friends.

Shopping Trip

Today after school I went to Utica and went shopping! If you'll recall, Utica is the odd city made up completely of suburb-hell and retail stores. Despite the suburbs, it's a great place to go shopping. Shopping may not seem like a huge event to some, but it's been quite a while since I've been. Trust me, I'm not a bubble-head who's obsessed.We went so we could visit Dick's Sporting Goods and see if they had any roller skates. Notice the emphasis; I want nothing but the most vintage of items. Long story short, they didn't have them. It looks like we'll have to order them online...hey, what's one more week?

However, there was a huge thrift store right next door. We headed in, and spent about an hour and a half just looking around. Apparently, my pant-size is very uncommon (30-32). Furthermore, those that are in my size are never in any style I like (boot cut or skinny). They did have a few Oasis CDs, a band I've wanted to get into for a while now. I also got something else very awesome: non-prescription glasses! They look totally real, too.

The only problem is the fact that they pinch my head after a while. Oh well...it's not like I can wear them to school anyway. Why, you ask? People would constantly say, "Oh Drew, I didn't know you wore glasses." I'd say, "I don't," and be all witty and sarcastic and whatnot. Then the person who asked would continue asking stupid questions, like "Wait...so why are you wearing them then?". What isn't clear about the first answer? People don't think enough and talk too much sometimes.

After we left the thrift shop, we headed to dinner at a cool Italian restaurant who's name I know I cannot spell. We had a thin crust pizza, which was delicious. Their cannoli was really expensive, so we went to a local grocery store and got some bakery cannoli.

Eventually, we headed to our final destination: Old Navy. I needed a new pair of jeans (my reason for looking at the thrift store) and I figured they would have what I needed. They did, and more. I got a sweet pair of boot-cut jeans, as well as a button-up shirt that's made of corduroy.

All in all, I'm happy with today's trip. We didn't actually spend too much, which was nice, but it was fun. Someday, perhaps I'll even post a picture with me wearing any of the three items I got today! (Of course, I'll be playing guitar in it.) Did you have an awesome Friday? Please, do share!

Trip To Cleveland

As many of you know, I've been training for yet another half marathon - since the last one, actually. Well, it was yesterday, in Cleveland. We drove down on Friday with my mom's friend Juliet and wandered around on Saturday.

When we got to Cleveland, we set up in our respective hotels and then walked down to the House of Blues for dinner. Our waiter was a really cool dude, who took his time conversing with us. He approved of my Velvet Underground T-shirt, and supplied an anecdote about seeing Lou Reed in concert recently. The food was pretty good, as well. I got one of my standards, a bacon cheeseburger. After dinner we visited their store, which, despite having a cool denim jacket, held no special appeal to me.
During dinner, I had approximately five diet cokes. I visited the bathroom once or twice while we were there, but obviously didn't take care of the liquids in their entirety. My foolishness quickly became apparent while walking about the town, which seemed to close down around 7 P.M. I could find no open stores with public restrooms for me to use. I became very agitated, and was probably a pain to be around. We finally made it back to the hotel, and just in time. I was very angsty/depressive for about ten minutes after, lamenting my stupidity and complaining that "I'll never be as awesome as I could be because I'm such a stupid idiot and have such a small bladder." I stopped after my mom started crying, because she was upset to see me upset with myself.

The next day we went to the race expo, where we got lots of free goodies and listened to an inspirational speaker. After the expo, we checked out a cool submarine tour, which featured the USS Cod, a WWII sub. It was shockingly tiny, but it supposedly housed 97 men. Crazy...
Sunday was, of course, the marathon. I had a goal for my time, which was 2 hrs 10 min. My actual time, measured by the chip located in my bib, was 2:07:45. Basically, that means I rock. I ran the entire race, only stopping at a few water stations because I'm unable to drink and run at the same time. I had a great run up until about the sixth mile, and after that it was just mildly uncomfortable. The worst were the last three miles, because they were on a freeway. I saw the tenth mile marker and thought, "Great, only 30 minutes left!" After 30 minutes passed (or so it felt), the eleventh mile arrived. Yes, they were very long.

After I finished, I was able to head back to our hotel that was a block away and take a shower. My mom texted me at the twelfth mile, and I had just enough time to limp back to the finish line and take her picture. A bit after that, I got a terrible, splitting headache and was forced to head back to the hotel for a long, long nap. When I woke up and my headache was gone, we went to eat at Fat Fish Blues, a great Cajun restaurant that let us sit right next to the sweet blues band that was performing.

Today, we visited the best part of Ohio - The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. I actually got to see props from The Wall concert!! We also saw U2 3D, which was sweet. Walking around hurt (a lot), but it was worth suffering through. I also got to see cool stuff like Jim Morrison's Cub Scout uniform, and one of Kurt Cobain's custom guitars. At the gift shop, I got the CD Rust Never Sleeps, by Neil Young. I've started to really get into his music for some reason, probably because it's fun to play on guitar. I also got a sweet poster of Kurt Cobain playing guitar, which will look great in my room.

All in all, it was a really great weekend. I'm proud of myself for running the entire 13.1 miles, and I had a lot of fun doing tourist-type things. Now I have one question: when's the next one?

COS Show, And My Party

The party was great! Bobby and I played a show, I dominated at pool, and we rocked out to records and told jokes the whole night.

Obviously, the show is the main thing I want to talk about. Okkayyy, maybe it was more like us saying "Hey, we're playing a song, so shut up!" in the middle of a much larger and longer jam session. Five of the eight people there play guitar, and we were all making tons of noise and banging on the drums and what-not. Fortunately, my awesome bass amp totally overpowered everything else, so I could be star of the show whenever I wanted. Don't worry, I wasn't too much of an attention whore.

The songs we played were "Basement Song" and "I Don't Know", plus an as-of-yet unnamed acoustic song by Bobby. The first two, despite having lyrics, were sans-vocals. The third did, but they were almost impossible to hear if you didn't know they were there (Bobby sang them). "Basement Song", which Bobby wrote and I penned lyrics for, went OK-ish. We've never played it 100% perfectly, because we both seem to have slightly different mental concepts of how the rhythm should go.

"I Don't Know", which I wrote in its entirety, was a bit better. I was on guitar and Bobby was on drums, and we put on a good performance. We actually had to play it the whole way through twice, because during the first time through someone else had a guitar plugged in and they were standing right in front of their amp, causing terrible feedback towards the middle of the song. We were recording the show, otherwise I wouldn't have cared. The recording is our first "official" one, because we played the entire song through without stopping for mistakes and we were in front of real people.

The rest of the night was pretty chill. We sat around and told funny stories while listening to "Hunky Dory" by David Bowie, then a live album by the Dropkick Murphys. After all the funny stuff we could think of was exhausted, we employed George Carlin's "Class Clown" to keep us amused.

All in all, it was a great party. I had a ton of fun, and I think everyone else had a great time too. In fact - let's do it again real soon.

Daily Anecdotes

So, interesting anecdotes from my day.

My mom and I went running today, because the half marathon is in nine days. I came home from school, changed into my running shorts and crappy T-shirt, and packed clothes to put on after (because I wanted to go to Barnes & Noble). I knew my mom wanted to go pick up some new shoes, but I thought she would go to a stand-alone sporting goods shop. Turns out, she intended to go to the mall.

"What are we doing here?" I asked, somewhat panicked. I did NOT want to go into a mall full of my peers while wearing shorts that come up to the middle of my thighs and act nonchalant. However, she was very insistent. I swallowed my pride, got out of the car, and headed in. It was pretty early in the afternoon, fortunately, so there weren't too many teens yet. Still... To make matters worse, my shorts had severe static cling and were sticking to my legs, accentuating my odd-looking quadricep muscles.

I managed to make it out alive, thankfully. The run went pretty well, and my mom's new shoes worked great. I changed into my casual, not obnoxiously short clothing, and got all excited about going to B&N. Sadly...as we went down the main road, my mother observed a lack of working traffic signals. The power was out all across town, and the store was closed. We had to go out of our way to get gas for the car, but were fortunate in that our house (25 min. out of town) had power.

Although these stories seemed much more relevant in my head, they don't look it written out. Still, it's my opinion that a crappy post is better than none at all. And who knows? Perhaps you, the reader, will find relevance in my day-to-day activities.

Concert, Basement Practices, And A Birthday!

Hey hey, what's up? The concert, as well as band practice, as well as my birthday, went great. In order? Okay!

The concert was actually somewhat non-eventful. I played my two songs for jazz band perfectly, "Green Onions" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". I had intended to get video of me playing, but my mom and I forgot the camera, so no dice. My friend Nick played with me on 'Green Onions", and it was cool sounding with two basses. A guy name Jared, an amazing bassist at our school who is actually in a ''real" band with a record deal, played an amazing bass solo that just showed why he's a professional. Of course, he had thousand-dollar equipment and pedals, but still...what he played took some skill.

Band practice was very awesome. Turns out Bobby can sing! Well! He had a few new songs to show me, and one of them we worked on quite extensively. He's described it as sounding very much like Neil Young, which I agree with. I made a sweet bass line, and we recorded it a few times.

He also took a look at my new stuff, and at some lyrics I've been writing. Some of my songs have both lyrics and a guitar part, some are just guitar, and a lot of the lyrics are without music. He came up with a melody for one of my songs, Zen Stereo (mad props to the blogger I borrowed that name from!). We also just chilled and played video games while listening to George Carlin records, which was really fun. It's been a while since I've just chilled and hung out with someone, so it was nice.

Have I mentioned that today is my birthday? Well, it is! Woohoo! I didn't tell anyone, but a lot found out through that darned facebook. My mother got me a pair of old-school roller skates, but the store was out of my size so they are a bit delayed. Ah well, no matter. she also gave me a $25 discover gift card to use when we go to Cleveland for our half marathon in 2 weeks. Keeley (my girlfriend) made me 3 mix CDs and got me a bunch of really cool guitar picks. They're really nice, and very thoughtful. Joe got me a Barnes & Noble gift card, which is great considering I really need something new to read.

My grandparents got me exactly what I requested, which was a really big bass amp. It's 100 watts, and it has a bunch of effects built in (that I can't seem to get to work yet). My uncle got me a new gig bag for my bass because my old one is broken, and a pack of new strings. Those, along with my new amp, are making me sound better than ever. Seriously, the amp is intense. I can out power pretty much any guitar amp, and when I use it in our living room ant about half the max volume, the house shakes and pictures wobble threateningly. it's sweet.

So...I've talked about me; how are all of you doing? Hopefully well! See you soon, but I have to go to bed now.

Quiz Bowl Tournament And Touring With The Band

Weekend Ho! (like "Land Ho!". Ya know, pirate stuff.) I've been looking forward to the weekend for most of the week, mostly because a) the high school band has a concert on Saturday and b) Bobby is coming over on Sunday for a band practice! Woohoo!

This week has also been a bit of a downer, but things are looking up again. For a bit it looked like m girlfriend and I were going to break up, but it seems as though things have resolved themselves.

This last weekend, I went to Lansing with the Quizbowl team for the state championship. Although I'm a freshman and played JV all year, I'm getting moved up to varsity next year and they thought it would be a good idea for me to go so I could get a feel for things. Of course, it helps that my mom is a coach, and that the other freshman going and being moved up is my girlfriend.

We had a lot of Western - style antics at the hotel, but this time instead of hanging out with a bunch of band geeks, I got to hang out with a bunch of quiz geeks. Surprisingly, the two groups don't overlap much. Of course, we had to stay up until 4:30 in the morning, watching fancy hotel TV and having deep, philosophical discussions. A few of the topics were: how every character in Batman can be diagnosed with a mental illness, the various representations of good and evil in Stephen King's assorted works, and of course a discussion of various bands and their quirks.

This past Wednesday, the high school band did its yearly tour of elementary schools to put on a show for them. It was a great reason to spend the day skipping class, and we got to eat at McDonald's for lunch. I was curious as to whether any of my old teachers would recognize me; they did not.

Well...this post has been a rather quickly typed but lengthy one. I'm in a great mood, so I figured it would be a good idea to post now. I'll make sure to report back on the two musical events of this weekend!

Album Review: Pinkerton

This album is really freaking awesome! In the last few months, I've really been getting into Weezer. I especially like their earlier stuff, because it's the perfect mix of grunge and emo. Pinkerton is my favourite of their albums, and I can easily say it's my all-time favourite album. I listen to it when I run a lot, usually on longer runs.

The reason Pinkerton is my favourite is because it is just dripping with raw emotion. In the very first song, Tired of Sex, Rivers Cuomo starts out mumbling, whining, and is soon screaming to be heard over the guitars. The beat is heavy and the guitars are droning.

As the album goes on, the songs tend to have the same qualities as the first. It's basically 35 minutes of how it is to be a rockstar but still be terrible at talking to girls. He wishes for a meaningful relationship, pines after a girl he's afraid to talk to, reads us his love letters, and falls for a lesbian.

The lyrics are very poetic, with a lot of dark humour. The guitar and bass compete for the top sound, and every solo is screeching and dirty. Each song fits what's being sung about perfectly in tone and mood.

Really, how can I describe it any more? Go out and find it. Listen to it. It's my favourite, and there's a reason. Obviously, I give it five stars. Oh, and the picture of the album cover? It was labelled "Buy It!" on Google Images. Trust me, it's worth the money.

Lansing, Pt. 2

If you don't know what I'm referring to with the "Pt. 2", here's part one.

So, as mentioned in my previous post, I went to Lansing this weekend for a 5K. It's the same 5k I ran last spring break, and let me say, I've improved quite a bit. Last year my time was 34:42, this year my time was 29:11.

The really cool part is that I took third in my age group, 14 and under. I'm 14...and 11 months. The award wasn't a medal, but a steel bookmark. Honestly, it will get used more anyway. I'm just surprised I did so well. Woohoo!

Of course, while in Lansing, we also did the obligatory money-burning. We went to a cool store that we visited last year, a "vintage clothing" store. "Vintage" is a good thing to call a selective thrift store, but their stuff is sweet. They had a sweet cardigan that looked just like Kurt Cobain's on MTV Unplugged, and it had a pin on it featuring Kurt's face. I wanted a bunch of stuff there, but I was wise with my money.

We also went back to FBC, where I spent approximately 5 minutes, 4 of which were checkout. I simply walked over to the "B" section, saw Hunky Dory by David Bowie sticking out, and grabbed it. When I did, Ziggy Stardust followed it up. I've been wanting both, so I saved everyone some time and finished there. I'll be going back in 2 weeks, anyway.

My mother's friend, Anne, took us to Urban Outfitters. I was initially wary, fearing a store similar to American Eagle or something. However, I was delighted to find a ton of really cool clothes, plus some cool novelty things and books. I tried on a pair of cool corduroy skinny jeans, and they looked so awesome on me my mother had no choice but to get them. They are incredibly comfortable and soft.

The band practice I mentioned in the last post fell through, by the way. I have to have one soon, though, because I got a great new amp at the pawn shop. I'll post more about it later, but this post is already getting tedious.

...And the last sentence would be my cue to finish the post. Stay safe, internet!

The Beggining Of Spring Break!

Hey blogger community, what's up?

The weather has been freaking amazing lately. I wore flip-flops to school on Thursday, the first day of April. Normally in Michigan, I'm still trudging through snow to get to school in April. The windows are open, the AC is on in the car, it's beautiful out.

I know I emphasize the flip-flops in the previous paragraph, but they weren't just because of the wonderful weather. I hurt my foot running last Saturday, and wearing shoes hurts. It wasn't too terrible after the first day, but then I went running on it again on Monday. Come Tuesday, I was walking with a terrible limp and was very whiny.

Fortunately, my chiropractor is a miracle man and healed me. Well...not completely, but he did identify the problem and made the pain much less severe. It doesn't hurt at all when I'm barefoot, but shoes put pressure on a swollen nerve and make it sting. Therefore, flip-flops.

It's spring break! So far, it has been completely uneventful. I've gone to work both days of it, and nothing else. We're going to Frankenmuth on Monday, where we will eat chicken and ice cream. I'm trying to plan a band practice sometime this week, which will be nice because both Bobby and I have come up with some new stuff. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) my girlfriend Keeley's parents will let us go to the movies, but it's a bit unlikely because they don't seem to want to let her go on dates until she's 16.

Our mini-vacation will be going to Lansing (our lovely capital city!) to run a 5k and go record shopping. I haven't ran in a week, because of my foot, so it will be interesting. I know it will be fun, however, so it will be great.

Well, this post has flown forth quickly from my fingertips, and it seems to be done. I'll update you on the band practice, so I'm sure you'll be waiting with bated breath!

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, And Other Happenings

Wow...I need to blog more. All apologies, I've been very bored, boring, and tired lately.
I do have something incredibly epic to spread the word about, however - Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's a short film that started out as a web mini-series created by Joss Whedon during the writers' strike. It's a musical, and it stars the incredibly gifted Neil Patrick Harris as the title character. I can't really think of much to say about it, other than the fact that I've watched it three times in 24 hours, and I've been annoying the crap out of my friends by singing the songs from it constantly.

I finished my Anthem essay I recently wrote about. It was due at 11:59 PM on the 20th, and I hit the "submit" button at 11:49. I had the entire thing written by 11, but I wasn't happy with it, so I delayed sending it. At 11:15, I had a flash of brilliance, and set to fixing my paper at once. I added a paragraph that outlined a second thesis, and then went through what was already there to make the new stuff fit. The new, improved paper kicked the old one's butt, and I'm very happy with it. If you want to read it, here it is. The awesome last-minute paragraph is the second one, by the way.

I passed driver's ed! I went to the Secretary of State's today, to get my permit, but I didn't have all of the necessary documentation. They would have been closed by the time I went home, got the stuff, and came back, so I am license-less.

Well...The spark of writing that caused me to start writing this has passed. Even typing a closing paragraph is incredibly tough, all of a sudden...goodbye!

Netflix

Has anyone ever watched the show Freaks and Geeks? Probably not, since it only ran for 16 episodes in the 90s. Somehow my mom heard about it, and we've been watching the series on DVD for the last few weeks. It's hilarious, but I can totally understand how it got canceled. It shows two very distinct groups in high school - the burnouts, and the completely socially inept losers. Both groups seem to demand you completely immerse yourself in their lifestyles, and I don't think that has been reality to most people. Furthermore, the characters do things that are so weird it makes you uncomfortable. Example: the main "geek" character's gym teacher is forcing the class to all take showers. There's a long struggle where he tries to rebel, blah blah, eventually he takes one. The bullies in his class shove him into the hallway, naked, and lock the door. A montage of him running through busy hallways with nothing but a blue dot follows. See what I mean? Uncomfortable.

By the way, the way we're getting the DVDs is Netflix. Since we don't have satellite or cable, and movies are too expensive, it's a pretty good deal. However, I seem to end up wanting to own a lot of the movies we get. Namely, Empire Records - an epic film - and more recently (we got it yesterday) Blades of Glory. I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for Will Farrell movies. He's hilarious, and I think I like every movie he's in. Plus, in Blades of Glory, he seems to be channeling Jim Morrison. Between his hair and his constant drunkenness, he reminds me a lot of Val Kilmer in The Doors.

Well, I have to go get ready to go shopping...it's a Saturday, and that means new food in the house!

Driver's Training

Wanna hear something that seems to have adults around me, especially my mother and grandparents, in a panic? Next Monday I start driver's training. After three weeks of that, I'll have my learner's permit.

Mildly frightened to being sharing the road?

A Quick Update

What has been up, bloggers? Nothing much happening over here.

We had another snow day on Friday; it was much better than the last one. My mom and I went shopping for what had to have been the first time in weeks, because it was a paycheck Friday and the previous one we had to pay the propane bill. It was a lot of fun.

The even better news: we finally got our gym membership back! My mom's coworkers organized a corporate discount, and we had been planning on it anyway. It's too nasty outside to go running, and our half marathon is approaching rapidly. I've felt rather un-athletic lately, and I've lost a bunch of muscle. We've already been there 3 times in four days.

There hasn't been much else going on. I've been playing the guitar a lot; I found out that even though it annoys my mom, turning my amp way up makes the guitar sound better. The notes seem fuller, or something along those lines.

Well...this has been a good update post. Short, succinct, and a nice reminder that I'm still around. What more could you lovely readers ask for?

Wreckess Eric Covers And The Rest Of My Weekend

Hey hey - what's up?

I got my class ring on Friday! It's pretty sweet looking. For those who don't recall, it's silver metal with a garnet stone in the middle. It's also huge and somewhat garish, which is exactly what I wanted.

I spent most of Friday night learning to play a song on guitar. It's not just any song - it's one I can sing and play! At the same time! It's "Whole Wide World", by Wreckless Eric. It's in the movie Stranger Than Fiction, in which Will Ferrell's character plays it on an acoustic guitar.

I intended to videotape myself playing it and put it up on here, but the camera seems to be out of batteries.

On Saturday, I had solo and ensembles for band. My trio group had only gotten our music the day before, so we didn't expect to get that great of a rating. However, we hadn't counted on not getting one at all; our song was not long enough, and they couldn't give us our medals. I was only doing it for my varsity letter, and now it seems like it'll take me another year.

Urggg...my mom is sleeping on the couch and snoring, loudly. I'm going to go get headphones, and tie up the post with that.