Paths that Cross

I saw this on another blog... had to steal it because I’ve got nothing original to post.

1. Put your iPod (or media player) on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN, NO MATTER HOW awesome IT SOUNDS!

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY?" YOU SAY? Even Better Than the Real Thing (artist: U2)
WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY? To Sheila (Smashing Pumpkins)
WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL? Kingsize/Acid or XTC (DJ Micro)
HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY? Transfusion (Where the i Divides)
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE? 17 Ghost II (Nine Inch Nails)
WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? Stand Inside Your Love (Smashing Pumpkins)
WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU? Letting You (Nine Inch Nails)
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN? La Mer - 2. Jeux De Vagues (Claude Debussy)
WHAT IS 2+2? Rape Me (Nirvana)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND? Everybody But Me (Lykke Li)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE? My Best Friend (Weezer)
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY? Somebody Else’s World (Sun Ra) Ha Ha!
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? Yes Or No (Where the i Divides)
WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE? MLK (U2)
WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU? Here’s to the Atom Bomb (Smashing Pumpkins) Ha Ha!
WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING? Dreaming (Blondie)
WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL? Caution (Do Not Step On Tracks) (Grateful Dead) Too funny!
WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST? Traveling Riverside Blues (Led Zeppelin) That’s Right!
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET? Disillusion (7 Year Bitch) not really a secret
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS? Horse Sweat (Three Mile Pilot)Good one!!
WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN? Last Goodbye (Jeff Buckley)
HOW WILL YOU DIE? Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Nirvana)
WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET? Band of Gold (Frida Payne)
WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH? Intro (Cloud Cult)
WHAT MAKES YOU CRY? Exit Music (Radiohead)
WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED? Creep (Radiohead)
WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST? Near the Cross (Iris DeMent)
DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU? You Look At You (Rollins Band)
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE? Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)
WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW? Keys To Your Heart (The 101’ers)
WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS? Paths That Cross (Patti Smith)

Post show fatigues

Where the i Divides played an awesome set on Friday night. We tore up the stage with hammers and prybars. Actually, I was the one doing the work (according to attendees opinion.) I had my work holiday party earlier in the evening and decided to get an extra Christmas bonus in liquid form. Needless to say, I had a good buzz going when we took the stage. Nothing like the Klinic show last December where I spaced the end of a song and played terrible solos and sloppy chords and whatever. We dubbed that show "A Christmas to Forget".

I got home around 4 am. Got up at 10 and went out cross country skiing with a few friends. Gotta get out on my skis before I head up to the Birkie again (for another three-hour pain-fest). I'm looking forward to the race this year. I'm definitely going to try and raise the bar on my sister. If I could come in ten minutes ahead of her with limited training and lungs full of smoking toxin residue, I'm going to try to best her by even more. (and she reads this blog, so maybe she'll be the one upping the stakes on me. Eh?? Either way, the competition is merly friendly.)

Sunday was a yawn-fest football style. The Chargers managed to squash the Chiefs (the Lions of the AFC) and Denver managed to lose. The Packers lined up in their usual "fourth quarter failure formation" and subsequently lost the game. (They really should put that formation in the next Madden along with Wildcat.)

We also auditioned Dave from Know Boundaries to play guitar in the band. He approached me after our show on Friday and asked if we would be interested in a second guitar. I was excited. The jam session went well on Sunday. We were all a bit worn out so we didn't spend a lot of time working on stuff and he and I will have to sit down and work out different parts that work with the existing songs but it sounded fuller overall. I've been having some reservations pop up yesterday and today about the whole ordeal. Part of our sound is the delay-laden guitars (much like that one band from Ireland). I don't know how much I'll be able to keep working in that vein with a second quitar player that isn't as interested in the "delay" sound. It's all up in the air. I'm getting together with him on Thursday night to either work out parts or to take a stab at some new ideas. He and I will talk.

I also registered for an Intro Music Theory class for the spring semester. It'll suck for the first few weeks while I relearn some of the things I've forgotten since high school (and learn things that I never knew in high school or beyond). I've never been a fan of reading music. It's always just too much work. Yeah.

Lastly, my other sister (the non-ski race competition) is getting in from San Diego next Tuesday for a few weeks. She's going to sing some back-up tracks on our album (finished by the end of December. I swear to all that is unholy). She's also going to have me record some of her songs. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks for me. Holiday gatherings, relatives, music obligations.

Tis the season.

I just about crapped my pants when I read this.

Call it guilty pleasure, but I like to read Manga.

I also finally purchased my copy of Praying for Fire by Yovee.

It's missing Dylan's bass playing.

I'm also working on demo's of the new material with Trav tonight.

Gunna figure out how to edit some video and make some stuff in the near future. You don't believe me? Neither do I.

It does heal.

This just makes me laugh... through the nose.


So does this.


At rehearsal minus vocals tonight, we talked about Danny O.D.ing and what we would do if he did... drop him off at the hospital. He said he believed I would even if I was messed up. I said yes. Then Travis said there would be some way to pin it on Joe. "There's always a way to pin it on Joe." And that led to leaving Joe with O.D.ed Danny at the ER and telling him to sing him a "healing song." One of the things that Joe has said (out of many, many, many things) is that our music is designed to heal.... anyway.

I prefer laughter. And insomnia

Picture time!!!

I tried to take a picture from where I took the one from my last post but they have closed off the roof-top of the Monona Terrace. I would have just jumped the fence and gone up there but some dude with one of those golf carts with the ginormous pipe cleaner was scrubbing the snow off the side walk over there... meh. This was as close as I wanted to get.

Now that I'm fully prepared, here are some of those pictures I took on my trip to Lake Superior (sometime back in mid September.)

I-39 North of Wausau, WI

This is somewhere on the Lac Du Flambeau Reservaion

Little Girls Point, MI.  There was some weird shack thingy sitting in the water.  I didn't walk down there to see what the hell it was.  Figured they're'd be some meth freaks in it or somethin'.  (gotta love that MT paranoia coming through)

On the way to Little Girls Point is an artesian spring.  The only other time I have been on this road was back in 1995 on a bike trip.  We stopped here (in the middle of a long and annoying hill climb up from the lake shore into basically the foothills of the Porcupine Mountains (not really mountains) and filled up our water bottles.  I had a few water bottles in my truck that I filled up and took back to Madison with me.  Ah... memories.

Keepin' on the steady

I would just post some pictures but while my camera is here in my room, my adaptor is in my truck.   So too bad, you don't get to see a few pictures of my drive up to lake Superior.

Tonight I finished drum loops for demos on the last two new songs.  I'm in the middle of transferring the files to my laptop so's I can kick out some guitar tracks and have everything set up for Travis to toss on some bass lines.  Click tracks and instruments to Danny for him if he ever feels inclined to rehears to a click.  Joe gets loops, guitars and bass for the lyrics. 

We do have a show this coming Friday.  Tis with a few other bands that rehearse at our warehouse.  I'm not looking forward to it.  I can guarantee you I'll be tired and grumpy, craving some isolation with a few friends instead of being in a crowded bar talking to people about gear and bands and blah blah blah.  I can do that, but it's not my passion.  I really like working in the lab.  So yeah.

Bugger of a day tomorrow.  Lots of things to go down in such the way as that they don't actually go down but rather stay the same (apply for another job, get my affidavits/services/retrievals caught up, get to work on time, etc.)

And teh AG asked me if I have a facebook... 

Tri this on for syze

I'm at work. I'm listening to music. I'm drinking coffee. I have some severe lung congestion action that's totally rocking my world. Like that lady on the people's court corrected the judge by saying that she said to the Plaintiff at the time of the incident, "I told her I would 'Rock her world'". But not in a good way.

I'm sure glad we don't watch small claims court tv anymore in the office. Those were dark days of people arguing about their stupidity.

Yesterday I bought my ticket for a trip to Hawaii. I don't really want to believe that I'm going to Hawaii. Sure, I have been known to adamantly state that I will NEVER set foot in the state of Texas, but Hawaii always seemed like a place that I had no interest in visiting (I'm assuming there will be a lot of bugs. I don't like bugs. Except for Hobo Spiders. They rock my world.)

Anyway. The only way I'm going to Hawaii is like any other trip I ever take. I have a friend that lives there. I'm visiting and not paying for accomodations. I don't have to rent a vehicle. I just have to pay for food and junk I want to buy... pretty sweet. Pretty standard. One of these days I'm going to take a trip that costs me nothing. (the great beyond)

In other, band related news, whatever.... I "auditioned" for Know Boundaries finally. It didn't go so well. I'm not a great drummer anymore since I'm so far out of practice (and was I ever a great drummer? No.) I also haven't listened to any of their music in a month or so. And my understanding on the whole ordeal was that they weren't as interested in mimicing the drum parts for their old songs as they were finding someone who worked well with them. No no no. They want someone to ape those damn drum parts. So I have some work to do if I want to take a real stab at the gig.

Where the i Divides is in talks about doing all kinds of things and stuff and I'm pretty much out of the loop. I'm avoiding my responsibilities in the band as of late and it reminds me of the episode of Home Movies (the bestest show ever) when Brendon doesn't want to work on "The Wizard's Baker" anymore and Jason and Melissa are pushing it really hard. I can sort of see myself staring off at the clouds and saying things like, "That one looks like Hailey Joel Osmet. A little Hailey Joel Osmet," while Joe, Travis and Danny talk about video shoot ideas for the "soon to be happening" album release and "Singles" and blah blah blah. I still haven't taken the time to blast out a fifth pass (I've probably mentioned it in the last three posts now) of the mixes. There are other things I want to think about wishing I was doing besides all of that... like auditioning for a band where I'll be playing an instrument that I'm not as interested in anymore. Yeah! (I jumped in the air and raised my fist when I said that last yeah... in my head. I Did that in my head.)

Also. I ran into Laura Marling on All Songs Considered. She's British. Her album is called Alas, I Cannot Swim. I really like her. A few months ago I drove up to Lake Superior and listened to her (mostly). I was going to do a blog post about that trip and put some pictures up and yeah yeah but I just never think about it. So anyway. I was at Staryucks and their "hot music" sampler CD, featuring DeVotchKa and other (not-so) indie acts also touted Laura Marling on the sticker. That sort of publicity really makes me want to dislike her, but a credit to her music that I still listen to it. Wait till it gets overplayed like that one chick with the piano and the bad singing style.... (You fill in the blank.)

Also. I officially dislike Robin Hilton's taste in music. You reading this Robin Hilton? Your taste in music is DILDOS!!! (And your musicricitical analysistic "Rock" journalism could use some expansification. Not every lame-ass electro-pop or freak-folk singer/songwriter to take a dump in ProTools is putting out powerful, thoughtful, beautifully layered music.)

Where has that boy gone?

In response to a clamouring from my adoring readership, I've not been myself as of late. Incredibly tired and run down from spending far too many nights in the public houses every week, avoiding my responsibilities to the band and my work.

I've had a turn-around about this in the last week and it's felt nice to be able to get out of bed in the morning and not be late to work.

Travis and I are working on a new Christmas song for this year. We are also going to rerecord "I'm Gunna Use My Hands (for Christmas)" and potentially submit it to Triple M for their local musician Christmas showcase. I haven't gotten around to mapping out a drum loop for either song yet, but it'll get done probably Sunday morning before lazing about in front of football game after football game until the sky is black and Monday morning is lurking in the backs of all our minds.

The concept for last year's Christmas song was about being broke and not having any money to purchase gifts hence the use of hands to craft things to be given as gifts. It's not the strongest song by any stretch, but lyrics like "if Santa Clause could see me now, he'd smile a toothless grin and shout, 'You're not letting Christmas pass you by,'" make it good for a laugh.

This year's Christmas song will probably be about being alone on Christmas day and then going out to a Dance club on Christmas night and the emptiness of it all... (discotech style). Fun.

We've also started talking about writing a new birthday song and a song for lesser holidays (the ones that seem to be distressingly lacking in songs to sing their praises, like Thanksgiving. Why aren't there any songs about thanksgiving?)

Word.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, Joe will be joining Travis and myself up in Sparta for the Second annual "Shields Family/Where the i Divides Thanksgiving on the Farm." I believe that I said, "this is going to be the best Thanksgiving EVER!"

All for now. I've got suboenas to ditch on some suckers.

The degree

I made copies of employee files this morning and saw private, confidential details of people in a firm. It was sort of depressing... but nothing to get me down.

I googled "philosophy degree jobs" and came up with this.

At least someone is doing well with their pursued college interests. (Not that I'm doing so badly.)

I'm still kicking around several career directions that aren't really being acted on. Kicking ideas around in one's head isn't the same as just acting. I'm good at the first thing, not so good at the second thing. I'm trying to be more proactive about the second thing.

Where the i Divides has stepped it up a bit. The other members of the band are showing more interest in the future of the band. They are working on different projects, if ever so slowly. Joe got us booked into our residency in Milwaukee. As of October 26 we play at the Jazz Estate every last Sunday of the month. Next gig? November 30th starting around 8:30 pm. We are supposed to fill three hours (which we can do, just barely at this point.) so were learning a few more covers. That means the usual arguments have started again.

For the last six months or so, Danny has talked about nothing but playing "Stars" by the band Hum. You know that song, "She missed the train to Mars, she's out back counting stars." I started to figure out the guitar parts (drop D tuning) and then Joe started to say he wouldn't do that song. Danny than said he wasn't going to learn any more covers until we got that one into our song book. We finally had it out on that song and we all decided to let it go. Thank you Danny. My next pick is "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne. It fits nicely with our approach that we've taken to apply the Where the i Divides signature sound (delay-laden guitar and vocals, melodic bass, power drumming) and stamp it on songs that don't really employ those devices. "Bachelorette" by Bjork is a nice example of that. Our version of Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" is pretty standard and our version of "Running to Stand Still" by U2 flat out needs to either be played acoustic or dropped.

I don't know what other songs are going to be added. Joe and Danny are talking about Live songs, "Lakini's Juice" or "Iris". Travis refuses to pick another song. He claims his pick of "Bachelorette" was his last. Now all he talks about is covering Rob Bass and C&C Music Factory. Funny, entertaining, extremely open to interpretation, but I think Joe and Danny aren't entirely on board... Maybe I need to convince them to give it a shot. Look at what Ben Folds did with "Bitches Aint Shit".

Aside from that, the album is several hours away from a fifth pass at the mixes. I tacked on backing vocals on Monday night. I forgot to record the part I add live on "Do the Math." That'll happen Saturday morning. And maybe I'll have a fifth pass ready for the band to listen to by the time they show up for rehearsal at two. It's a good deadline to eastablish. The cover art is done. We need to establish the graphic design aspect but that'll happen in due time.

Once the album is complete (less some additional vocals from my sister over Christmas) I'm shifting my focus to two things. First, completing demos for the eleven new songs so the rest of the band has something to practice and write parts with. Second, I'm getting the beginning stages of our official website formulated and hope to have something (Anything's better than a bounce to the myspace page.) It's all up in the air as to how much depth and detail I'm going to put into it, but it'll be tasteful.

I would apologize to my readers for being away for a while, but I've been busy and stuff. You know, excuses. Once I get the damn wireless router set up at home, I'll have the internets in my room. That'll make things a little easire for me to get online and start spreading the Where the i Divides brand. (I hate marketing but I'm pretty much the only one who'll do it for the band. Yech.)

Word.

Again... and yet, I'm laughing

Travis has yet to actually watch any of this show... but every time the rag on Murderface I can't help but laugh at "the bass player."

Love the Double Douce reference!!!

phones are ringing

Phonin' it in again.

Too busy.  I should be doing stuff for work and where the i divides.  But instead, I'm searching for radiohead stuff and watching this.

40 inches!!!

That's a lot of snow

Another Leslie Night

ughh... 

So I stayed up late recording guitars for the song "Do the Math".

Since I'm a (douche) I don't know how to just embed the file to play here and I don't want to take the time to figure it out today,  (I still have to head off to federal court to get a copy of some brief and 30 pages of exhibits.) just stroll over to our (Leasure Suit) page... and listen to it there.  I also put up new 3rd pass versions of "USA #2!!!" and "Universal Quantifier".  I don't know how the band will feel about all of that, but then again, they've ignored my feelings for years.  

Like all things in my life, it's not how I imagined it would be.

In other news, I purchased a copy of Laura Marling's Alas I Cannot Swim.  I haven't yet listened to the whole thing, but I heard the song "Failure" on my new interest, All Songs Considered.  (Tip my hat to my insurance agent for that one.)

But yeah... Tonight is the beginning of Madison's first Forward Music Fest. I've got my wristband and I'm rearin to go (home and crawl into bed) for the Leslie & the Lys with Dan Deacon show.  I'm not a big Dan Deacon fan (who is? a lot of people I guess...) but it promises to be kick ass.  I may also slip on over to the Gusto performance as well.  

The Greatest nation on earth

This doesn't prove that this is just around the corner, but it makes me feel a little less comfortable when you look at the way bathtub drugs like meth spread.

I could go on about this but I'd be just throwing out ideas that other people can explain more clearly and accurately with more gusto and earnestness.

I'm being lazy today.  Sitting at work and not working is the best when you have other things you would much rather be doing.

Guitar work tonight... tweaking a bridge to smooth it out.  Redoing Do the Math.  That's about it.

Weekend update...

Andy Samberg did an nice job as Cathy, the stressed out cartoon character.

Yovee put a few new songs up on their myspace page.  They recorded these songs a long time ago.  We're finally getting to hear some of them.

I spent early Friday evening putting myself through third passes of the mixes for the album.  Then spent the later part of the evening getting drunk, the last three drinks being "Wild Berry Wine Coolers".  I could feel the sugary hangover before I went to bed.  

Joe and I recorded some vocals on my computer at the rehearsal space.  Then we listened to each of the new mixes and he decided to only record vocals on two songs next weekend.  (One of them being Jerkwater.  He probably had 70 takes on that song between February and April.  I honestly feel that he'll never be able to sing that song the way he thinks he should and will never be satisfied with it.  The trick then is to make mix good enough to get him to accept the way it is.

I'm going to re-record guitars on one song completely.  It sounds like crap the way it is now.

I also wish the humidity would go away.  It's never a good thing in my opinion.  (No one asked.)

It's not pretty...

I've been coughing up huge piles of phlegm in the mornings.  Not fun.

It's all because I'm not getting enough sleep at night.  Over the summer, I could stay up till five in the morning and then get up at quarter to noon and head to work... but not anymore.  Gotta make money sometime.

With that said, I'm low on energy.  I keep thinking about the line from the classic movie, Wayne's World, where Wayne says to Cassandra, "I once thought I had mono for an entire year.  It turns out I was just really tired."  Shaa...  I have been trying to get sleep this week but football last night (Packers and Bronco) made sure I stayed up for a while.  (And what was that guys deal with the "Zappa scored everyone's part.  He was a genius!!!"  I get it, you like Zappa and your lonely and you don't have anyone to talk at... leave us alone dude!)

I'll eventually get caught up this week.  A laundry list of things to take care of in the evenings... thanks to the band, and laundry.  Always gotta make time to get to the gym, too.  Especially on Tuesdays.  Love my Tuesdays.  

And I was telling Alison and Leah about this on Saturday...

Strait up Sewercyde

The picture that this article paints makes me think that McCain should be her vice president.

It would make for a more interesting election.

This thing called "blog"

It's what been only ten days sense that last post. Chickity checkity... got some new old music last week.

Bum stiggedy bum stiggedy bum, hon, I got the old pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
But I can fe-fi-fo-fum, diddly-bum, here I come
So peter piper, Im hyper than pinochios nose
Im the supercalafragilistic tic-tac pro
I gave my oopsy, daisy, now youve got the crazy
Crazy with the books, googley-goo wheres the gravy

Superior rhymes there is not.

Summer is coming to a close with teacher friends returning to work. No more Wednesday nights till five in the morning watching movies I've never seen before, like the Rose or Coal Miners Daughter or listening to music from the seventies that I've not had the pleasure of being overly accquainted with... what you have and so forth.

But this week has shown itself to be a test in longevity. Longevity in the since that I've had two nights with only three hours of sleep (mostly by choice) and my eyes still manage to keep open. I started filling in at the old part-time job again on Monday also. This means that I don't get to sleep in after a weeknight out. Up and dizzy and out the door. A dark cloud covers my eyes as I avoid the people on the sidewalks in their gaze and their stride. Students are back. State street has become more unbearable than ever. god bless this town.

(More late summer madness descent may be posted later... who can really know?)

Where the i Divides Wear

Over the weekend we listened to the latest versions of the mixes I've lovingly (hatefully) crafted.  Things are moving along quite smoothly as far as I'm concerned.  Joe still wants to rerecord songs.  I don't want to try.  He also wants me to add some more backing vocals.  I might be doing that tonight.  He said he doesn't want me doing all of my backing parts that I do live but I'll probably end up doing all of them if I think the quality of the recording I can do is good enough.  That way, if he says "add those other ones as well," it's already done.

Early, early this morning, Travis and I were interviewed on student radio with a friend of ours from our days of playing shows at the Klinic.  I don't know if it's possible to get a copy of the show in podcast or archive streaming or what have you as of yet.   If I find out any more info, I'll be sure to post it so all of the band's adoring fans (with fangs?) can listen to Travis and me divulge where the name of the band came from and how I convinced Joe to start the band with my by giving him a bag of Fritos. 

In the end, the damn flies that keep landing on my arms and head are driving me crazy... like everything else.  Bugger.  Can't wait till "this" is all "done."

I've picked up some new music recently.

Blue by Lucinda Williams.

Tears Are in Your Eyes by Yo La Tengo

Strings of Nashville by Pavement

These have made it onto the new playlist entitled I Like This Song.

Three days from now, I'll not want to listen to it.  I'll be demanding something with an overcompressed breakbeat and some tweaky moogs or whatever.

But in the end, I'm really just trying to keep my head down during the week.  Getting all of my weekending done on Friday night/saturday morning and then floating to Monday morning study jam...  Already done with that... now just killing time until work.

Wishing I could just keep playing guitar since it takes the swirl of unfocused thoughts and squeezes them into the moment.  Something I'm never fully a part of generally speaking.

I'm being lazy this week... big american party!!!

I love the fact that the dream ends when the guy runs out of bananas.

Edgar Winter

Where was I when someone was talking about Muppet Babies?  Hmm... I want to say it was at Travis' apartment and he was talking about some messed up story involving puppets that were a rip-off of the muppet babies... and no not the MST3K Edgar Winter Babies.

Ha ha ha... I had forgotten about the indoor funny car.  And Killer Shrews!  Absolutely the WORST MOVIE I've ever watched.

Atruckalypse

"Fruit don't talk, fruit just listens."

Many thanks to my sister for the squidbillies for my birthday.

...and "Rocks are boring".

So it's someone elses fault

This article caught my eye as I was checking my email.

" President Bush, on a campaign to open offshore waters to oil drilling, said Wednesday that the Democratic-run Congress was letting down the American people by refusing to allow votes on the matter."

I guess I'm not part of the "American people" since I'm not let down about the vote not happening yet. The president should stop assuming he knows how I feel. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a complete picture.

"'The American people are rightly frustrated by the failure of the Democratic leaders in Congress to enact commonsense solutions,' the president said."

This statement is hilarious. It implies that the blame for high fuel costs is now the fault of Democratic leaders since they can't fix the problem by snapping their fingers (or better yet, counting a show of hands on who wants to draw oil from off-shore wells ten years from now.)

The solution to this puzzle isn't as easy as casting a vote and then letting oil companies dive on in. It seems that the President (and many others in certain political camps) thinks it is... but he's one of those oil men himself (if not a very good one.)

Now, I'm not very confident in my political acumen, but it would seem to me that rather than listen to another word the president has to say about anything, the Democratic led congress should sit tight and wait until a new, less incompetent executive is elected (that may never happen, and if so, good.)

two long weeks

It be long time since I posted here. Busy. Went to Bloomington, Indiana for a weekend. Had a birthday last week. Being Semi-employed keeps me away from locations designed for onlinery.

I almost posted something last night but decided to take care of some small things around the house.

Word. Word is on the street.

Madison is going to seize an apartment building because it's owner doesn't give a damn if the renters sell drugs as a profession. Good for them.

And the homeless guy on the radio is drying out my brain with his theories.

Dear Photo Diary

I just finished the first pass mix of Believe.  It's an Effin' Masterpiece.  While I was bouncing the mix, I went and took a couple pictures around the rehearsal studios.

"Squalor Alley"

This is where Travis and I come to throw rocks while Joe and Danny smoke inside.  It's very reminiscent of the days when we jammed in the barn.  The best times were when we would grill turkey dogs.  We don't do that anymore.  'The alley' doesn't lend itself to grilling good times.

"The Magic Room"

If I had Photoshop on this thing or a way to network with my PC here, I would splice these two together.  Anyway.  The chair in front of the drum kit is where I've been sitting, with my Mac on the stool in front of me.  Notice the Leslie Hall autographed sticker.  That wasn't cheap.

"Mixing with Headphones!?"

I know, I know.  But like I've mentioned before, I don't have quality studio monitors and I'm not about to run out and buy some.  

"Future Ethanol"

I took this a few days ago.   I love the fact that I can still drive past fields on my way home.  If the economy hadn't taken a huge dump, I would only have given these fields three years before they were track homes on roids.  (Actually, these fields are testing new hybrids and their resilience to herbicides and pesticides.)

"4:30 A.M."

I have turned Wednesday nights into my new Saturday for some reason.  I think I'll remember this summer (if I remember it at all) as Wednesday Nights with Tom.  My friend Tom runs Karaoke on Wednesday and I usually show up right after he's done.  Then we drink and talk.  Last week, we went back to his place and listened to some of his songs from his Opera he's writing.  Then we watched the new Hairspray movie twice, followed by highlights from the second half of the Les Miserables concert DVD.  (He's kinda into musicals.)  I drove home as the sun was coming up.  

I think this is the only benefit of being semi-employed in summer.

I'm not a salesman

I've discovered my photobooth program.  Now I can document my mixing time with a photo of myself every fifteen minutes.

If I looks bored, it's probably because I am.  Mixing isn't usually done with headphones.  A nice set of studio monitors and a quite room are the ideal set up, but I'm working with what I got.  Only two songs left.  One of them I will have to return to the studio to pick up the tracks.  For some reason that folder didn't transfer with the rest.

Other than that, I've been going ridiculously crazy trying to solve "the next big step in the evolution of me".  I go to the rehearsal space (where I am right now)

 and sit and import a spindle

 of CDs into iTunes while drafting re-re resumes about how awesome I am and etc., etc., vomiting all over myself with negativity and disillusion.  I'm not a salesman.  Never have been, never will be.  If you asked me poi

nt

 blank if you should hire me in an interview I would respond, "There's probably someone more qualified in 

your pool of applicants, but you're getting predefined character if you choose me."

In the meantime, friends and others are tossing their ideas my way.  Most of it is nice to hear, but I'm always on the brink of loosening my tongue to give thems the what-fer bizzness of "keep yaw i-dee-yuhs to yaw-self"  (as C&C Music Factory kicks into gear.  It's just such an infectious groove, so smooth... I can't help but dance to it.)

that's what I call prime distraction.  What was I complaining about??? oh yeah... nothin'.

But I've "hatched" a new plan that requires some serious work in the next few weeks (right after I get the damn album finished).  The new job will be nothing more than a temporary endeavor while I put the pieces into place for the next big thing in fried pine booby dance tracks... or my life, what have you...

And AG what are you Muwaaah-ing about?

With high regard form heavy metal country

I used to listen to this album while driving 191 south to West Yellowstone through the park. Whenever a song off of it plays on my 'MONSTER JAMZ' playlist, all I can think about is winter elk at midnight with the full moon by the side of the road while I'm driving in my Hyundai Accent. Good memories of better, less responsible times.

I read this article a while back (in paper form when it originally ran) and the idea of a one man project has been simmering on the backburner ever since.

The reality of the situation with Where the i Divides is such to keep me locked walking in a circle while looking down at the ground. I feel like what I'm doing right now is enough to keep me moving (in a circle) but not quite enough to pull me out of that path.

So couple that article with recent acquisitions from bands such as Poster Children, Norfolk & Western and Three Mile Pilot and I'm left with my head pulled up and my eyes agazin' at the curved horzion of the earth.

Yesterday I finally figured out how to track guitars on my new computer. I'm guessing I'm going to be stuck working with drum loops for the time being. That's not a bad thing. If anything, I'm just not locked in by convential drum set rock drumming or the lack of punctuality of a real drummer. Auto-Trav is interested in bringing his signature bass sound to the mix and I've got a second guitar player willing to give it a try as well.

Once the Where the i Divides album is completed (four songs left), I'll have some time to devote to crafting some "instant hits". And then Joe can spend all of his time doing whatever it is he does best (read: PROCRASTINATE) and it won't bother me as much since I will have one iron in the fire (read: Solo Project) and a side project with my friends (read: Where the i Divides).

All that's left is figuring out a career direction for the work-a-day real world version of myself that hates being semi-employed.

Title this "Whatever"

If you can release a new album roughly 20 years after you were hot, and have hype surrounding it, there has to be something up.

Starting around 1996.

I don't listen to radio.  I'm sure this song will be on it.

And if I'm lucky, when I stream the student radio station, I might actually hear something that I like instead of college-age exploration of music that they've never 

heard before.  "Here's some terrible stuff that I've never heard before but since I've never heard it before, it's got to be cool?  ::Lenny Kravitz's Stop Draggin' Around plays::"

I suggest you seek out Junior Citizen.  

connections

Not really... so I made a totally cool post about how "cool" I'm playing it...

Whatever.

Go see "Lars and the Real Girl" at your local DVD player.

I dare you to ball your fucking eyes out as much as I did.

Loneliness is the most powerful force that drives human existence.. Try and argue with me. I FUCKING dare you.

Chitty Chitty

In case you didn't know...

I don't really remember what it was I said in my last few posts.  I'm pretty sure there was a thanks nod to B.Pilgrim and maybe some whining and complaining about whatever.  I've got a lot of that to spread around.

No progress on the mixed bizzness yet.  Tonight promises to offer a few free hours post workout baring any sort of chaotic mindriot that will most likely swell up sometime this evening.

I had one of those while I was making copies at the court of appeals today.  Standing at a copier with hot-glue bound briefs.  All glasswork.  It's the easiest.  Their machine is also coin-op.  It takes bills, but only singles.  So every ten pages, I have to put in another dollar.  Let's just say I was perturbed by the situation.  There have been times when I've made over 2000 copies at that location.  It takes a long time.

Anyway.  My brain started making a checklist of things I wanted to get done today.  That set me off since I was standing at a copier instead of getting them done.  And then I remembered that I was getting paid like a king to make those copies.  The checklist could wait... which it did.

I have two things left on that list.  One of them will be taken care of tomorrow since the post office is closed.  The other thing will be taken care of after the gym.  The interim?  Listening to Three Mile Pilot's Na Vucca Do Lupo.

Many Thanks

It's always a strange event playing a live show.  I'm not the kind of person who enjoys standing on a stage in a small room with people either not paying attention or paying attention or something in between.  I guess I'm not comfortable with recognition as much as I think I crave it.

We did have a well received performance.  Even the legendary Billy Pilgrim (Or is it the sinister Bulk Petroleum?)  made the effort to come and give his two cents.  The title will repeat itself here "Many thanks."  I swear I'll get the album mixed by the end of next week.  With the scratch from our last two shows, we should be able to cough up the remainder for mastering and sometime later this summer actually have something that some people have been clamoring for for a while now.  (If they haven't already lost interest and gone back to their collection of hot wheels and vintage mustards.)

The job hunting continues as well.  I've tossed my name into a few more pools with the University.  Otherwise, I've got to get some motivational tapes on job seeking outside the easy avenues of state employment websites.  Something about them don't sit right with me.

And last but not least, I'm continuing my exploration of San Diego indie by listening to more and more Three Mile Pilot.  I used to have one of their albums on cassette back in the day ("I have all of your cassette tapes!") and I would play it while working at the gas station.  People would be paying for their gas and getting sludgy bass and weird vocals and noise for free on the side.  Ingrates.

What hasn't happened?

Or "What IS up with that?"

In the last week I've learned a lot about a lot of things.  I "fired" myself from my new job during training.  Got home and have been scrambling to get (scrambled eggs? NO!) resumes out the door.

It will be a good decision since I wasn't felling like the new job was the right direction.  Sure, the travel benefits would have been nice, but I've had "travel benefits" before (via a credit card and a lot of free time) and I'm still paying that back.  I need to focus on certain things and have a schedule I can agree on and they weren't really talking when I asked what my schedule would be.

So throw that on the pile with the canceled reservation for my initial intake flight and the statement "You have to treat this job like it's your full time job"  (when it's part time?  fukyu) and I had a lot of unease keeping me up at night.

I also realized last week that I had forgotten why I decided to study Philosophy in the first place... and have been kicking around the notion that I may have finally discovered (or remembered) what it was that I really wanted to get at when I started at MSU.  It got lost in the shuffle of Epistemology and Kantian Metaphysics or more likely was diluted by all of the lack-of-focus binge drinking.

But perhaps what I should realize is that "Binge Drinker" is a job title that some people carry like golden apples.  Mayhaps that is truly where my strengths lie...

And the band continues unabated.  Show in Milwaukee tonight with "that girl" doing some backup vocals.  If you've talked to me about this, you know how I feel.  If your a bit intuitive, it should be relatively obvious how I feel.  Solo project idea becoming more like a storm cloud hovering over the midwest.  (Speaking of which, they evacuated the hospital I was born in in Cedar Rapids last week.  My grandma's house is on one of the highest hills in the city.  No worries there.)  Flood a'commin?  Maybe.  The mixing is moving along.  I've been pushing this week.  By the weekend I want to have twelve songs done.  I've got six done right now (with just a few minor tweakings that I think need to happen.)  It gets easier each time I do one.   I just hope the band is cool with my refusal to actually use any of their suggestions once I'm done. 

Travis: "Can you drop the bass in this song just a hair?  It seems loud."  

Me: "No."

And I've been wondering about the connection between "On the Road" and this blog.  Someone (awesome) made the suggestion that there was a correlation.  

Plane Awesome

It has been a wonderful day of waking up with a nightmare hangover.  The "party" was still in high gear in the back of my head.  Good times.  Instead of going to watch the Indiana Jones movie after band practice, I went out... and got stupid.  So the first thing I did after I got up was not pack, but rather go watch that movie.  It was a nice little flick.  I took it in as best I could with a pile of pretzel bites and some cola.  The movie itself was alright.  It's a franchise and it's been years since the last one so of course there was a lot of cheesy crap.  It reminded me of when I went to go see that one Star Trek movie on opening night and people were clapping at the opening credits.  (Eyes rolling.)

I did finally get packed and to the airport this evening.  A storm blew through so I didn't get to MSP on time... Surprise, surprise.  I should have been here at 9 instead of 11:30.  Oh well.

I've gotta turn in.  There will be plenty of time to be "witty" tomorrow...

My Profile pic is 120% accurate right now. "Fuck Miller Brewing Company!"

totally wasted... got wasted downtown... probably going to sleep it off on the couch at work.. (That's mispelled?.... drunk!)

Got 2 B "Funky"!

Redrum finger s3yz "Redrum"... dreunk... this is wayyy tooo mjuch work... Maybe I'm better off running home. The're s magic in that. Running home d4runk. No one one undergsatnsadss that ... gets that... whatever. I'm used to no one getting muxch of anything I say...

Tota, Bullshitt... fuygk that. Asssholes3esss.

(Hea4rt) Z

But I don't know how to dance...

Um...

I would put up a bunch of pictures and crap from my trip but I've been kicked around by the monsters of time. (they're a band.)

Um... Yeah.  Maybe tonight I'll get geo-physical about it all and start sleeping it off in a cardboard box with a scraggly beard.

Or I could make up an excuse along the line of the friggin' humidity.  It's one thing I can't stand.

So in the interim (whilst you sit with shortened breath and smints) I will direct your attention to this.

Pre-flight check

This was sitting in my inbox after I sent a short (and somewhat incoherent message to trav after finishing reading "Ham on Rye" at work this morning.  Something to the effect that C. Bukowski reminded me of Travis a little bit.  Reminded me of myself a little bit, too. He's an influence even if I'm unaware of it.  Just like Hamson.  In many ways it's a lot like music.  For example, the day I realized that there is a huge Clash influence on the Dead Milkmen.  (or there seems to be...) which in effect afforded me an appreciation of The Clash before I started listening to them (beyond the standard London Calling Rock the Cashba Combat Rock crap that everyone seems to think of as Clash.)

******************Trav Wrote******************

yeah...i read "post office" (loaned to me by joey v.) in one day...it was pretty entertaining. "time to write"...there's something to be said for setting the time aside per day to do it...a routine...but then one needs things to write about...

i guess i have those as well...

i need to do it. i know that i do. the world needs to know. about me. whatever.

do you depart this eve? have you already departed? i hope you enjoy your trip...i need to go to the treasure mart tomorrow for betsy's annual creepy gift...i wasn't even thinking about that the last time i was there...i'll affix your name to it as well. hopefully they'll be some girls in bikinis washing motorcycles again this time 'round...never a dull moment at "buck's"...remember joe falling under one of their "spells" last time? something about how she wanted to be a nurse and blah, blah, blah, she was a "good spirit" (like "casper", though per his title he was more "friendly"); and i said something to the effect of "you do realize that before you got here she was washing a motorcycle while wearing a bikini? that should tell you all you need to know..."

i'm so stuck-up.

trav

***************************************************

I had completely forgotten about the bike wash last summer and the girls in bikinis, etc... Too much cycles of consistent patterns make the aberrant events fade into the mundane.  I've been here before.  I've done this before, a million times.  The special events scattered throughout fade due to the layers of weeks piled on top of them... or something.  Whatever.

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic about the fact that I've got three days left at the copy shop.  I've been "working" there for close to four years now.  (yeah?  yeah.  time flies.)  It's a bit weird to think back to when I started working there and the progression from paranoia of being fired every day to slipping into a comfort zone of being "the 2nd shift" crew (since when did 2nd shift start at 8:30 AM and then run till 9 PM?) consisting entirely of myself and my thoughts.  I also proved my worth in the "hickory danger smoke pit" when I started diggin up my old adobe software knowledge.  Suddenly I was known as "the computer guy" as well.  (Yeah right.)

There's a part of me that wants to list that job as "Unskilled Labor".  It didn't take much to do it.  Just the patience to take a box of paper and turn it into two identical boxes of paper while you stare at the bulletin board of ideas and thoughts in the back of your mind and plan out the scant few hours in the evening to tackle a project or whatever.  (Watch TV.  Eat popcorn.  Skateboard.)

But as I sit here and write this, I really don't feel sadness at leaving.  It's more just a uncertainty of leaving the established rut for the untested track that leads somewhere else (probably just another dead end so what's the worry?  Not much really.)

Other than that, I've got a few more hours left and then I'm out of this dirty town for a few days to relax and kick it with my adopted niece (and her family).

(Ugh... '85 Metallica?  Terrible!)

Uh... I got stuff to do.

So watch this instead.



I started work on the first pass of Mt. Hindsight. Mixing is going to take me forever it seems. If I just went with the simple rule of one guitar track or one track per guitar part instead of layers and slicing of parts for panning and sustain overlaps and whatever else I think might sound cool but won't matter since not many people will listen to it anyway and the few who actually do won't even notice the subtle textures I've spent hours crafting.

St. Vincent refered to those hours as the invisible hours. I'm fading by the second.

Or if you're in MSP tomorrow evening at the airport and you see a dude with a laptop and a set of Sennheiser headphones, buy him some coffee and tell him that failure comes in a bowl now.

Word.

Where tha yawn....

I went to a bookstore yesterday and purchased a Bukowski book.  At the counter, making my purchase, the clerk said, "Tomah."  I was kinda confused.  Travis had taken off on Sunday to head up to Tomah/Sparta to kick it with his parents and I was wondering if this guy knew more about me than I knew about him.  I was buying a Bukowski book and Travis reads Bukowski and Travis was up in Tomah and that's why the guy said, "Tomah."  And then I realized I was wearing my where the i divides t-shirt.   It's like the time I was wearing my Milli Vanilli t-shirt and people kept saying smiling at me.  I had forgotten I was wearing it and couldn't figure out why they were smiling.  

Over the weekend I was able to get my midi capabilities set up and ready to record.  On top of that, I also went out to the studio and dumped all of the session tracks onto my external drive.    That took about an hour of sitting there while the drives chatted.  I started working on one song... spent four hours adjusting and tweaking and modifying.  I figured out the output/send confusion I was having so now I can set the drum mix to an Aux fader and then pull them down or boost them if I want.  I also did some of my studio tweaking that our engineer seemed to be unaware of... opening a duplicate track with the same file in it and giving it a nudge to take it slightly out of phase to expand the sound... thicken the mix, if you will.  And the biggest surprise was the fact that I may not have to use pitch correction on the vocal track on that one song... (I'm still going to use it.  Joe doesn't quite have the ear to cover that himself.)  If I keep hacking away at the project, I should have rough mixes done in a week or so.  Then I'll let the band listen to what I've done and make their (pathetic) suggestions and then do whatever the hell I want.  Yeah.  That'll show them.

And there was a big tornado that took out my Aunt and Uncle's house in IA on Sunday.  Frickin' crazy.  There was a lot of phone calls on Monday in re: people being okay.  If you watch this clip at about 0:44 you can see what's left of their house. 

 No one in the family was hurt or worse.  This, of course, happens the week before my cousin is getting married.

And my friend with cancer had surgery today.  I haven't heard what the news is yet...  but my thoughts are with her.  

Wings

Yesterday's post was born out a lot of apocalyptic thoughts.  I'm better now.  Sleep is a nice little thing I've not been getting enough of as of late.  Stupid vintage gaming consoles and their long playing games.

It's that time of year when the band has a long-assed meeting.  We're going to discuss stuff and stuff and then nothing major will come from that.  I will mention that I'm going out to the studio on Sunday to get the track files dumped onto my new drive.  Mixing... well.  I'm hoping that while I'm training in MSP in two weeks I'll have some time to sit in the hotel room and adjust faders, tweak EQs, set pans and listen to songs again and again and again.  Tis the dream of anyone with no soul.  Most likely, I'll be so tired and weary that I'll watch some boring regional cable and eat some fried chicken from the nearby 7-11 before passing out in a grease stained t-shirt and grimy workpants.  

Good times.

But seriously, we may just actually discuss the first video we'll shoot.  The ketchup one... I'm not looking forward to actually shooting that in the middle of summer.  Pores filled with tomato condiment product at 90 F with a swarm of flies and mosquitos... that's ABBA Gold right there baby.

Shoot.  

I'm gunna have to grow some damn wings next Tuesday.   I'm gunna have to hold myself to it as well.  Lots of big things going down next Tuesday.  Maybe this universe in chaos thing that seems to be hitting right now (and the last few weeks) will come to a head then.  Like a big ol' pimple ripe for plucking.  (Sexy (or not))

Ever feel like your being watched?

When I saw 28 Days Later, it scared the be-jebuz right out of my shortpants.  Zombie movies generally aren't all that scary.  They're more often that not a farce featuring dimwitted characters giving in to their baser instincts and failing to think things out.  28 Days Later changed that by giving the zombies the upper hand in that regard.  If you couldn't outrun them, you had to be smarter.

So every once in a while, I look at my basement window on the ground floor before I crawl into bed and wonder if there's a "Rage Zombie" out there waiting to bust through.  It's a lot like being on a camping excursion in bear country and thinking that you're safer if you put a thin layer of Nylon between yourself and the rest of the world.  (Well, you're generally protected from mosquitos and wet weather.)  Same as in the house scenario.  It's a matter or perceived security.

I get the feeling that there's something lurking off in the near future that's waiting... waiting for what, I don't know.  Conditions just haven't become prime.  The chaos of pattern hasn't hit just yet.

Bowie and Cobain?

I am kickin' at a nice little haunt on Willy Street where the hippies used to prowl, listening to a song off a CD I purchased in Boulder in 1996 with my sister and a friend.  Imperial Drag.  What the hell ever happend to them?  I don't really care.  They're not that good.  They're not that bad.  Before it I was listening to a Horde song called "the Day of Total Armageddon Holocaust" or as I would call it "Steel Snow Shovels Dragged Behind a Dump Truck, Take 13".  It's an musical tour through my past with me going through the collection of discs that have been sitting on blank CD spindles in a box.

I took some pictures of the pieces at the gallery.  This is one of them.  I don't know.  

I thought the cropping would make it clever and whatever... it sort of does.  Like I'm a David Bowie here... and then Mitch Hedberg kicks on.  He's great to listen to while you're stuck in traffic.  Before you know it, you're laughing at him and not even giving a damn about not getting where you need to go in a hurry.  

And this was just yeah, what can I say?  I'm a gen.exer.  The sunburn is going away thanks to the aloe.  It wasn't that bad.  And AG, It didn't occur to me to use protection but as soon as I sat down and the whole deal started, I looked at my pasty-white forearms and knew what I was in for.

Other than that, I finally started the airport flash cards and realized I knew more than I thought I did.  XNA = Fayetteville, AR because you'll need Xanax if you're headed there.  One day I'll scan some pictures of when I lived there.  But yeah... I'm distracted.  I'll post something else later. 

Comedy Wind in a Can, Chicago Style

I went to Chicago just like I said I was going to do.  Kristin graduated as planned and things were as they should be.  I found this neat art installation in Millennium park before the two hour ordeal.Unfortunately, the chains weren't velvet.

It was a great day to be outside.  The ceremony was dry at times but there were also moments that were enjoyable. A Mr. Jerry Saltz was the speaker and he managed to make me feel smug about my educational choices.  See, at one point in my life I thought I wanted to get a BFA or something like that until I actually had to interact with other art students and realized that I wasn't comfortable with the whole thing and stuff, like I didn't fit in and I shouldn't be in that department?  And of course I transferred to the most usefulest field ever!!!  

The smugness came on when Mr. Saltz told the kids that went to school to study art that they were artists and as artists they were different from the hoi-polloi seated behind them (their family and friends of assumedly non-art persuasion.)  I muttered under my breath, "You don't know me," in my best Jerry Springer guest impersonation and then made the argument in my head that since I was already an artist, I didn't need to go to art school to have someone show me how to do that, ergo my switch to Philosophy to understand the world and universe as where I was getting my ideas from.

I also got a sunburn.  (Not noticeable in the picture.  This is after commencement.  Hot, sweaty, grumpy.  Waiting for Kristin to finish her latest Installation.)

Afterwards we went to a reception at a gallery associated with the school and I milled around the grad student exhibit.  There were some nice pieces.  There were some great ideas, but overall I wasn't that impressed and when I informed Kristin how I felt about it she said that SAIC was more about the conceptual approach to art rather than the classical fundamentals of art.  They teach you how to focus your ideas and communicate them through your medium over teaching you to master you medium and then be able to deftly and superbly communicate your ideas.  Now that seems backward to me, but I'm like that with my music.  I'd rather not take the time to be able to play Eddie licks up and down the neck of my guitar as much as I would like to be able to communicate something through sound waves that don't involve the symbols of spoken language.  So I don't know where I was going with that but yeah...

We also had dinner with her family in Wilmette up in the north suburbs.  I had a blast trying to make my way back to i-94 since my planned route didn't include a west-bound on ramp.  I ended up driving around Wanettka (it was spelled something like that) being reminded of living in the further north (and not so affluent) suburbs in the mid-eighties.  All of the streets sort of look the same, matching what I remember from the superbowl shuffle days and that sort of bummed me out.  I don't want to explain why.  It just did.

I also bought a Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks disc at the Barnes & Noble and listened to that on the way home.   It wasn't quite what I was looking for when I went to the music section (originally, I was going to pick up some early Bob Marley but decided against that after looking at the stacks of CDs and knowing full well that none of them would contain music so mind-blowing-ly awesome that I would have to stop driving to give it my fullest attention.  I honestly wish there was such a thing these days.  Bjork's Volta may have come close at points.  Sigour Ros does at times as well, but they're still working in a realm of the familiar.)

And it rained for most of the drive home.

Is it Monday yet?

Nothing quite says it the same.  This weekend can only get worse... hell, the next few weeks are going to be very busy.  A trip to Chicago this weekend for Kristin's graduation.  (Finally.)  It's about damn time.  I thought I took my time getting my B.A. but spending the last 3.5 years after being a semester away from a MTA at Montana State at school is just crazy.  Or not.  In all honesty, I would love to be back in school again.  I just don't know what to study.  Philosophy ain't the bag of tea it used to be these days.  The work week next week promises to be more of the same.  Sane.  Back to the weekly schedule with only the addition of flash card review.  That's not going to be fun, but learning never is.  

With the new job on the horizon, the old jobs (both of them, including the one I'm keeping) seem like complete douche-baggery.  These tasks are the repetitions of my life and they have been for the last several years.  It didn't take me long to figure out the pattern.  I just had a lot of extra-curriculars, etc.  But that isn't what it used to be either, or rather it feels more like hope dried up.  Optimism scaffolded with hot air.

And speaking of optimism, the whole California Supreme Court dealie... spare me the political circumstance.  Just one more thwack to the hedge to rustle out more scared pheasants during this prime election year.  I'm really sick of politik.

And speaking of sick and politics, someone close to me has got teh cancer.  I'm not going to go into the details.  It did give me an opportunity to discuss modern medicine and the cry for universal health care.  If you check out Dean's post about the boomers  and the echos it brings to light so much of that general feeling of being utterly screwed over by society simply because everyone in this goddamn country thinks it's their God-given RIGHT to live for-fucking-ever.  Don't get me wrong.  I think it's great that my friend with teh cancer will be able to get super awesome medical treatment and possibly a long life after the next few months.  But the truth is that we are not entitled to these sort of contract extensions.  (And when I can finally see a doctor under a health plan provided by my employer, I'll have all of the things that worry me checked out.  Stupid pre-existing condition clauses and whatever... at least I finally kicked tobacco to the curb.)

"best summer ever"

What's up with "Sally"

First off, I did get the job.  I did take the job.  I start training on either June 2nd or June 9th.  I would prefer June 9th since that date wouldn't interfere with my trip to ABQ.

Speaking of which (airport codes that is.)  I now have to memorize a laundry list of airport codes in the next two weeks.  I really don't want to do this, but I'm going to just have to sit down with index cards and a couple of sharpies and start making me some of them flashy cards they used on me in that learnin' facility.

I'm pretty excited about it all at this point.  They flew me up to MSP for processing yesterday.  That was a fun little challenge in and of itself.  I was scheduled to be on a 6:50 flight out of MSN so I was up at 4:30 getting myself prepared (business casual and A SHAVE!!! along with some breakfast) and I didn't sleep much during the night mostly because of nerves.  So I was that feeling amphetamined-out tired buzz as I prepared to meet some of these people who(whom?) desired to hire me.   

At this point I would like to explain that I was feeling edgy about the whole trip because they were shipping me off to do some pretty basic post hiring, pre training paperwork/orientation stuff that could have been perhaps just as easily handled by the manager at MSN.  (Or so I was thinking.)   It felt as though they were sticking extra steps into a process that didn't need extra steps and said steps only added to the "risk of failure" that would mean I wouldn't be where I needed to be at the required time.   So I wasn't sleeping well.  Worrying that I would oversleep or something else would happen to make me late and miss my flight.

When I finally got through the line to check in (mental note - from now on, e-check in) I entered my reservation number twice and was told my reservation didn't exist.  The totally awesome clerk at the counter told me to enter my res. number and make sure I got the entry right (which I had done twice before he instructed me to do it again.)  So I complied with his instructions while muttering under my breath,  "It's not going to make any fucking difference the fourth time as the first.  It's still going to say the same fucking thing, ASS!"   I was told by the console to speak with a clerk so for the second time I told him it wasn't working.  He then looked up my reservation and said that it was canceled.  Of course!   Why wouldn't it be?  I was supposed to be flying to a meeting at hub and the airline that set up the meeting and the reservation was now telling me to sit and spin for getting up at 4:30  (that and taking a day off from work.) 

I managed to get a hold of my HR contact at seven when she rolled in to her office.  She didn't seem to know why I didn't have a seat on that plane but she was awesome enough to get me on a 9:15 flight.  So I had a few hours to contemplate if I even wanted to go through with the process since I had felt like I was being treated with disrespect (and after about fifteen minutes of indignation, I decided that it wasn't anything personal and that I shouldn't take it as such.)

So I left MSN at 9:15 or so and was back by 2:30.  And I'm still really tired.

In other news, I'm writing this post on my new laptop... the one that I'm going to be doing the mixing of the album on.  (We're also going to use it to track everything but the drums for the next one in the fall.  If nothing else, we're ambitious in that degenerate slacker sort of way.  More on that later.)