the postal service

has failed me. not sure how, but theyve taken the ol' acoustico and now its pretty much gone. i dont even know what to say about that. i mean, it was the first 'real' bass i bought after realizing that i did actually like playing. and pretty much my favorite. the stingray is nice and all. great sound, plays well. but the acoustic...just had something about it. and a hell of a lot of memories.

ive sent so many things through the mail and nothing ever actually has been lost. so that kinda lead me to thinking that things getting lost doesnt really happen or something. either that or i have really good luck and i dont put much stock in that. on the other side of things, i kinda look at it like if you send enough stuff, eventually somethings not going to make it.

i didnt send this myself, but kinda wish i did. at least then i could put the bulk of blame on myself. unfortunately when other people are involved, you want to put at least some on them. i try not to, but things are hard sometimes.

the way the wind shifts

recently jason howell of tnt and other things, posted about how a small coincicdental meeting on irc turned into a marriage. i had just been talking to robert about something like that. as i type this, it feels familiar and im wondering if ive covered it already.

so yeah, its funny how a small event came have a such a big impact. sometimes just as much as the big things. from the perspective of the former, if the tokyo van hadnt happened to break down in florida they wouldnt have stayed with chris. and had one of chris' friends not happened to be in the band that would have skewed these results that much more. but as things played out, the did break down. chris offered to help his friend. and later suggested i check out said friends band. which i did. and this gave me a reason to actually talk to them after the show. more than the usual, "let me get the cd" and "nice set." and that kicked off a friendship that ended up opening my eyes to all kinds of things and a trip to russia. crazy, huh...

jasons post also reminded me of some other things that ill touch on later...

on a somewhat related note, on an episode of tnt (the one where they unveiled facebook home), they brought up an article about an angelfire page that may have been a project of marky z sometime ago. its something to think about how much crap from back then is still floating around somewhere.

this got me to thinking about my own crap. my geocities sites went away long ago. same goes for hypermart (which took some custom perl scripts with it). and my tripod account...hm...wait a minute. tripod never really went away did they? and if so, there certainly wasnt much talk about it if it did.

and off i went to find tripod which seems to be under lycos now. im surprised both of those are still things. anyways, i was able to get back in and see the crap that was my page.

like the pills in your hand

today i saw side effects. i remember seeing the preview and thinking, "this could be all right." and it was. a nice change from that string of action movies that started to all run together.

memories in the corner of my mind

i pretty much sat around and got nothing accomplished today. just a lot of borderlands 2. definitely missing that more active life i had in the past. now i feel like i settle for almost anything to get some form of entertainment...

and so its off to songkick to see if anythings happening that i may have forgotten about, overlooked, or find mildly interesting. well, i found something that actually kind fit all 3. beth orton at the junction.

i remember seeing the email and thinking, "who is beth orton?" as i pressed the delete button. well, turns out shes whats going to give me something to do today even though her music didnt really grab my attention it seemed decent enough. and it turned out to be all right. not pretty all right. just all right. a few catchy riffs here and there, but not much that was like, "wow, im going to listen to this more often."

as i was getting ready, i put on a pair of pants (my mustard plug pants) that i hadnt worn in a while and in the pocket i found a folded up napkin. it was from a night at winstons. the last time i went there actually. march 31, 2011.

flashbacks. i was laughing all the time..

charge it up...

plastic is the american way...as it to 'celebrate' things without question by buying things.

id been thinking about getting a new bass. though i have enough as is, ive been wanting a semi-hollow for a while. i justify that by telling myself that it is different enough from what i have now and as it goes would have a different 'application.'

well, there was something of a sale which brought the price from 499 to 399 ($100 off orders $499+). i was all set to make that purchase, then i noticed another color that i liked just as much and possibly more. so now theres the same dilemma as when i made the amp purchase. buy the one i was originally going to buy, but at a discount that hadnt been factored in when i planned the purchase. ORRRRR buy a better one that happens to be more expensive, but with a coupon that pretty much just brings it to the price of the original.

as the story seems to always go--the money had been spent in my head. so why not. i went with the more expensive one after realizing i did like that color more.

hard to believe this picture is 8 years old

thats obviously not the bass. its one i saw back in 2005 and thought sounded good. at the time, it was expensive to me though. looking back at this picture now i see two things. 1) i didnt think twice about spending that amount of money now...and (2) in the background you can see two semi hollows that i never noticed before.

my crazy asian...

not sure what kicked it off, but i was trying to remember that guy that did some sort of tricking around the time it was getting popular. i say that, but thinking back at it, he probably wasnt doing all that much really. maybe some double legs and back/front tucks. but anyways, he was somewhat popular on the internet. not the tt forums though. at least not in a good way. getting back to where this was going, i ended up finding the guy after searching for something like, "asian backflip 2003." and it came right up. joe eigo. people probably thought he was a crazy asian, but he was not.

for a long time i thought they were saying, "crazy asian" but they arent. its angel.

down where its wetter

today the b-dub and i went off to london for some good ol' fashioned sight seeing. that was pretty much just big ben, an aquarium, and then a bit of walking. there were some street performers out doing all that, but none particularly interesting. id say the highlight of the day was probably seeing part of the tony hawk london stage. i feel like i should make it a goal of mine to see all the real life based parts of the game.

going back to cali

but this time its for comic con. im still not even sure how much i want to go, but given how hard it was to get a slot i kinda feel like i have to.

i had two systems up using chrome on one and firefox on the other. the chrome one never seemed to get anywhere. the firefox at least got me into a white screen that would refresh from time to time but only to another white screen. after a while i closed out the chrome one and was going to say screw it. for some reason i decided to refresh the firefox system (which is usually something of a kiss of death in these situations). suddenly i get a screen telling me im in line at around 13000. interesting.

the number dropped. and dropped. and again. and again. then it went to an order screen. i was in; i was going to comic con. maybe.

phase 1 was done. phase 2 would be a place to stay.

i liked you better before you were naked on the internet

you know all those things that you thought were pretty great or are at least associated with some good memories, but dont get any regular thought? well for me stickam is one of those things.
back in the trickstutorials days we would have some pretty good times on there. thinking about it now, there really isnt much to say about it. i mean, when youre hanging out with friends, whats there to say about it later? maybe you recall some jokes or something funny someone said but thats pretty much it. and thats what stickam was. and now its gone. wait. lets try that again...now its........gone.

out came the sun...

but didnt dry up all the rain. afterall, this is england i suppose. but maybe its a sign of things to come?

little pig, little pig, let me iiiin

there was a thing on tv today about the tornado that ran wild through joplin. ive never had to really deal with one despite my time in iowa. anyways, it really did a number on that city. and apparently it took my dex drive as part of its trail of destruction.
i had a point for writing about this...had. past tense.

london bridge

so today i was on the phone with my mom

mom: olivia asks if youve seen london bridge
me: i heard it fell down?
mom: *speaking to olivia* he thinks it fe--hahaha

i like those moments

in the house of cards

netflix put out 'house of cards' this week. id heard about it a few months ago, but as usual i had forgotten about it. part of the reason i dont care for previews at movies; i know ill forget about it. anyways...turns out its a pretty decent show. i dont care so much for the subject matter or plot environment, but the point of the plot seems to be doing all right for itself. im holding real judgement until ive taken in a few more episodes or maybe to see how the season ends, but for now things are looking good

throw away your television

theyre useless.

the b dub was kind enough to let me borrow his tv because he wasnt using it. turns out it wasnt of much use to me either since there is no way to pick up a signal just yet. until then looks like its going to be more 'big bang theory' and twit podcasts.

game related

the ol' superbowl was last night. that never has, and likely never will, done anything for me. as far as sports go, id probably put football slightly above baseball. dont confuse that with me liking them...just racking and stacking. i dont care for any sports.

as far as i can remember, ive never been much for sports at all. i remember being on a basketball team and a baseball team in my younger days. both of which were a waste of my time and a waste of someones money. and may have hurt the team too. its just never been an interest or a strongpoint. though i did do fairly well with the wrestling and seemed to have a decent amount of potential for the trickings.

i do have some good memories of basketball with the fourteen thirty-five guys though. that may have something to do with a slight bending of rules though. while im not too knowledgeable on them, im pretty sure fence jumping and tackling arent normally part of the game.

the closest thing to me doing sports

a party in the middle of the street

today in tristan stewart history was a trip to london for the kooza cirque du soleil show. it was pretty all right. and we had a solid view of the event; premium boxes are the way to go.

those guys were on to something

the area seemed pretty decent, but a little heavy on the shopping. given that i do all of my shopping at old navy and concert venues, that does me little to no good. im sure somewhere out there are other worthwhile things though.

royal albert hall

dangerous face and illegal taste

today we went out to the bird in hand to kill some time. there was some kind of going away for some people, but i didnt really know them. there was some girl there that seemed to be giving me a little more attention than i wanted. she looked to be a solid 15, so had to say the nay no my brutha.

given the title of this, im reminded of warped tour 07. justin snuck in. chris team us smashed some dude. and nice relaxing sits. looking at the line-up that was one of the last good warped tours. they still have enough highlights to make me not mind coming out, but the overall listing hasnt been so great lately. though it does make it easier to see everybody i like.

team us is too big

little boxes

and so begins the box deliveries...

essentials

bang! bang! shot ya dead

i had a pretty strange dream today. i was in a park with my grandmother and something happened; cant recall what. whatever it was, it ended up with me looking for some guy it something similar to an underground parking garage. eventually i found him and shot him. then i went back to hanging out with my grandmother.

from there, the scene shifted to me being at some small home my mother lived in. while she made dinner, i sat back playing borderlands with torres. then dinner was ready and my old friend rodondo came by.

then i woke up. i wouldnt mind knowing whatever happened with that rodondo guy.

sign that contract

big decisions dont overwhelm me, but part of me thinks they should.

welcome to the show

april 29. 1992. wait? no. october 14. 2003. yeah. thats right... i cant think of a lot of days that really changed my life, but that is definitely one of them.

sometime back in 1998, the wwf brought the insane clown posse in along with 'the oddities.' im pretty sure id heard of them at the time, but that was the first time i actually "experienced" them. from that point i was a fan. a juggalo as some would say. i bought some cd's (with money orders) through amazon and even got the vhs tape. shockumentary maybe? the one thing missing was to see them live.

in 2003 i started going to concerts. before that i thought they were big events that only people with lots of money could go to. not sure where i got that idea, but thats how it looked to me at the time. anyways, i saw that icp was coming around with kottonmouth kings and bone. icp? kmk? btnh? all in one show. whats not to like about that. plans were made. tickets were bought. and off to atlanta we went.

the show was everything i expected from what id heard. however, i found out once i got there that my expectations were quite low because what they delivered was something amazing. the faygo showers and glitter guns and the energy of the crowd made for quite the slew of memories. one of the biggest parts that i remember of the night was crowd surfing and then stopping atop the crowd and violent j spraying me with faygo. that was probably the point where i was like, "yes. this."

i wish i had pictures of the aftermath of the show. rocking the glitter-fro, brandy's pink panther sweatshirt that was a couple sizes too small, and winders ultra stiff camo pants. it had to be awesome. i had glitter in my hair for days even after multiple washes. even got called out for it at work. and we picked up a hitch hiker. thats my life. and im ok with that. 

the drive back kinda sucked. it was around 4 hours back to south carolina and the only cd i had access to was 'open your eyes' by goldfinger. it clocks in just over 37 minutes. so yeah...it was repeated multiple times.

why dont i have this?

gotta make that motor hum

well, the motors actually fine. we just had to do some stuff with the thing that shoots out the windshield stuff. that statement accurately displays the depth of my car knowledge.

still cant believe we found that thing...

i fell asleep playing the 'wraith' album. that brings back some good memories. im thinking ill hold that little gem for the next day when i dont have anything to write about.

its the end of an era

for years ghetto rainbow has been a staple of comedic entertainment for eds. from, "just the other day..." to "clapping" it has never gotten old. every once in awhile we would check out the site to see that it was still there, the same as it was back in '98. i should have downloaded some files from the site since i kinda knew it wouldnt be around forever. well, i checked it today and it was gone. excuse me. it was...(wait for it)...gone

and along with other things that have gone away this week would be x-play and depending on how you look at it, the screensavers. the screensavers went away a long time ago and was replaced with attack of the show. a horrible show. just a barrage of crap. a trash can full of poop as a penguin might say. anyways, the subject matter changed. the hosts changed. even the network. so it really wasnt even what it was anymore. but at least they were kind enough to end it how it began (with leo and patrick). anyways, what it changed to is gone now. im kinda glad about that. not so much x-play though.

i have been watching xplay for about 10 years and after so long it kinda gets to become a part of your life. not in the sense of taking over, but more like you keep up with it, notice when its not around, and catch up when you can. it also saved me from having to read a lot of reviews. when i got back from overseas adventure #3, i found out that adam sessler had left and i was all like, "dang." part of me assumed the show was going away; he wasnt so far from right. and now it has.

swerve on 'em

yeaaaaaah

and im down from 236. what?!

tonight was a trip to norwich for 'big black cadillac.' they sounded pretty decent for what/where they were...then the sound got fixed. some of the not so great qualities were a bit more noticeable then, but still not bad.

on the way back, i looked up and saw what looked like a semi in our lane and coming right for us. in that moment my first thought was swerve out of the way. luckily i wasnt driving. but im thinking that if i were, i probably would have been more used to that sort of thing and i wouldnt have thought twice about it.

i really wish i could remember the significance of "thinking twice."

the boys are back

i got word today of a pinball locomotive show coming up. its great to hear that, but do wish i could be there. as i said before, they are a talented group and i hope they truly are 'back' even though they were never really gone...

creeping like a hungry cat

interesting enough, today nothing happened worth talking about. i went out and did stuff, but it was all pretty worthless.

much like the milkman, i too had a dream. so i was in some house in what was believed to be indiana. i didnt know anybody there...but apparently i knew the cat fairly well. or maybe we had just established a relationship over the course of making dinner. he was guiding me through what to do and i was just going with the flow. it seemed a bit odd to me though because he was telling me to boil cinnamon for the crackers. yeah, i know...odd, right? boiling cinnamon for crackers? he seemed pretty sure about it though.

anyways, at some point i wanted to pick him up to check on the food or whatever. as i do a woman yells not to pick up the cat. she kinda startled me and the way she said it made me pretty sure that i didnt want to pick him up. so i dropped him. he lands on the floor and claws come out of his paws. not the normal type of claws though. these were more like the blade style claws that wolverine has in some comics.

*things that i dont recall happen* and the cat almost falls into my lap. i tried to move out of the way and at the same time push him, but being careful not to let his wolverclaws get me. then i woke up.

my first and only thought was, "why were his claws so long?"

hours later while out walking around it hit me that of all the things in that dream, his claws were the only thing i questioned. i dont know how i should feel about that.

i miss my dawgs

i do like the feeling of getting up and going out to get stuff done. i just dont like the execution of it.

get this. comet from full house. air bud from air bud...same dog!

and not to spoil zero dark thirty, but he was in the house. holy plot-twists, batman!

give it back

its often a hassle when things go changing around. there was that whole work email thing and now this myspace thing. i guess technically, or chronologically, the myspace thing was actually first, but still.

from yesterday

for the 'take action' related post, i had wanted to use a specific picture but couldnt find it anywhere. in the end, xanga came through

the same old trip as before

last night i fell asleep listening to 'take action vol 6' from the 2007 tour. it got me to thinking about all those bands that ive seen over the years and how im trying to get things here like they were in va. then i started to think...why? why bother making this adventure the same as that one but with different scenery? i think it would make more sense not trying to kill myself making a new thing into an old thing. and instead take it for what it is.

today i saw jack reacher. not too shabby.

cambridge

it feels like i put no effort into titling this.

tonight we ran off to cambridge for a little show in the lawrence arms. the venue was a little different than im used to, but then again so are a lot of things here. we had to go through a pub, down a hall, into an alley, and ended up in what was more like an art gallery. even so, it was a good time.

after that was some walking around the city to find something to do. being mostly a 'college town' there was a lot of pubs and dancing places. im cool with those things, but they arent on the top of my to-do list. when i end up in places like that its generally more of me following the group. if we get a few more in our party that may make for a better time there.

muntjac...not munkjack.

call to posts

tonight was another playing night. we switched it up a bit this time and got another guy involved. it was good to have someone around thats pretty good for the sake of getting better. i do wish i had a bass with me though because my guitar skills seem quite limited. 

it would have been nice had the guys back in va been more up for playing. i cant blame them though, it was mostly a matter of lining up our free time. had that been easier, we probably would have started up something a little more solid. there still would have been the impending 'expiration date' on that though. 

anthony mentioned to me that he had pretty much been burnt out for one reason or another and was more or less done playing. it was my somewhat consistent requests to get together for sessions that brought him back around. now pinball is practicing a bit more and getting shows together. im glad for being able to do that because those guys have a good thing going and should keep it up. hopefully i can get/keep that ball in motion for brett too.

the dirty glass

yesterday the topic of concerts came around. ten minutes later we had tickets for dropkick murphys. the drive kinda sucked because it was long (its crazy to think that i used to do that multiple times a week) and the windshield cleaner wasnt working.

in the end, the show was pretty all right. ten years ago i never wouldve guessed id be in nottingham with wilburn to see dropkick murphys. life can sure take some interesting paths sometimes.

on the way back, i had this. it was doing a lot of things right.

and in reference to my yesterday post...how did it go? not well.

take me to my best friends house

today i went and checked out a place to live; its the place next to ol' bw. its pretty nice by local standards. what i mean is, homes here are just made differently and definitely smaller. in the end im pretty sure ill take it though.

and tomorow i have this going on...

we'll see how that goes.

in other news, this is the first post ive done on time. 11:59. heck yeah.

strange terrain

today a friend posted this story about a guy hiking and dying. tis a pretty unfortunate series of events. apparently he missed his path and got lost. then it got dark. then the weather turned on them. the dog survived, but dogs are usually good for that kind of thing.

in lighter news, ive been on one of those 'buy a lot of music' things that i do whenever amazon has a big sale. i think last year they got me for about 26 albums. no final count this time around just yet... anyways, today i was going to pick up the deluxe version of 'blue sky noise' because it has the acoustic version of 'get out.' well, it does...but it also doesnt. they decided to skip that on the digital release. dang. this is why piracy happens (sometimes).

walking in a winter wonderland...

...sucks

i do not like snow. it gets in the way. i had to wear a jacket. and it sounds just awful...

straight from the underground

mom: they wont some kind of underground contest
me: oh, the harriet tubman award

i was thinking about that little exchange today. imagine my amazement when i was watching 30 rock later and she was a main point of the episode.

everybody plays guitar

ol' bw decided he wanted to learn how to play guitar. as it turns out, im the closest thing to a guitar player that he could get so im helping him out. it wouldve been nice if i had some sort of structured learning when i started playing. im thinking if i had, i would be better than i am now or at least would have progressed faster and known more things.

dont start a band

for a long time, part of me has thought itd be cool to be in a band. what held me back was mostly me because i always thought id have to be a lot better of a player than i am. after that was the fact that id need more people than just me for said band and i dont usually work with the most reliable crowd. so i settled for occasionally playing with people and let that be that.

after a bit of playing with anthony and the rest of the guys, we kinda saw that we had a good thing going. i actually could have joined them "officially" and done all that. apparently i was better than i thought. or i was just wrong in that you really dont need to be all that good. anyways, i had to pass on account of me moving. 

while all this was going on, james had expressed an interest in being a two man cover band. at first it seemed like just a passing fancy of sorts, but it came back up a few more times. next thing you know we're at our practice space, roberts house, going over songs. and again, i had to pass.

so there you have it. two opportunities came up, two opportunities passed up. three if you count their neighbors that wanted someone to jam with. but at least i got in two performances before everything was said and done.

work sucks, i know...

so i got a new jorb. somewhat. and its looking pretty promising.

maybe its time to change

ive had a lot of time for thinking lately. one of the things thats taken the most of that time was my latest overseas adventure. i got on this briefly a few entries ago, but now im going to finish those thoughts.

my virginia days came to be pretty routine. work/school stuff during the day. norva and/or roberts in the evening. it was a fine life, sure, but over time it got a little monotonous. luckily i had some hang out time with evan and the occasional trip to tonys to mix things up a bit. though i did kind of want something more. maybe not necessarily more, im thinking "fresh" would be more accurate. theres a lot of other stuff out in the world, right? i mean, thats what ive heard. maybe id like some of that stuff. maybe i wont. maybe i should just find out...

jumping forward a bit, now im going to be moving to on. that will give me something new to freshen up my days a bit. naturally that means leaving all that va stuff behind. initially, its like, "got what i want, thats cool. ill kinda miss some of this stuff here..."

as time goes on and things get closer you get all those other feelings. like that one where you start to see that the end of an era is coming up soon and all the things that youll be putting on hold. or just flat-out ending. leaving your friends and the life youve built up behind isnt a great feeling, but sometimes it is in your best interest. the one thing that helps is knowing that im doing this because i want to, you know? i was going to have to move on at some point, and at least doing it (more or less) on my terms, its easier to deal with. i take a bit of comfort in the wisdom of the bouncing souls:

nothing gold can stay.

so there it is. its time to change and leave it all behind. after all, nothing stays the same so lets see what else is going on out there...

here i go again

up early. flying. walking. waiting. walking. moes? no? donuts...walking. flying. flying. sleeping. still flying. walking. walking. walking. waiting. walking. waiting. driving. waiting. done.

here i am. back at the cross roads again.
let me stand on top of the mountain again...

get back up and do it again...

i had joked about this before, but didnt think it would really happen. i should have known better. i mean, my luck with planes and such leaves a lot to be desired.

so mechanical delays guranteed id miss my connection to london. that lead to me being moved to a flight the next morning. as dw said, nothing for me ever goes smoothly.

luckily a few things played out in my favor or the delay would have just been awful. and having someone to go through it with made it a little easier of a pill to swallow. despite how jagged it may have been.

and on an interesting note, its funny to see just how long it may take paths to cross. a guy i never talked to or even knew in high school ends up being a key part of getting through a trip to england. i wont say its a small world, because its not. its big. but it sure seems like we arent occupying a lot of the space.

this time tomorow

well, this is it. my last night in virginia for what will likely be longer than id like. at least on a regular, living basis...

i spent the beginning hanging out at a shaq show watching a few local bands. my last few shows were actually all local bands; quite the contrast from my first few. id also gotten it down to a science. perhaps ill get into that later.. over the evening it was interesting realizing just how many people ive met in my time. seeing all the familiar faces and relationships ive established. from there it was time for my standard nightly adventure through fourteen thirty-live.

you never know how things will go there. there are the calm nights of hanging back and talking to robert. the musical stylings of anthony. and of course...the live. i was somewhat hoping for the latter and thats what it was. london coats. breaking vhs tapes. throwing violins. clothed showers for kevin. pie. yule logs. darren. visions of a disappearing security deposit...

so there it is. this time tomorow, ill be in england? maybe on a plane. not really sure...but i wont be here

in the end, it was a bittersweet thing i guess. having to put all that behind me sucks quite a bit. after all, those were some of the best friendships ive made in awhile along with some of the greatest times in recent years. its good to get out and see what all the world has to offer rather than getting complacent, but wheres the line between being complacent and just being happy where you are?

...in the valley of the wizard

i went to dc to see delta rae. driving through dc isnt a great thing to do. rolling through slowly, looking for spots. creeping like a hungry cat. shouldve known it would sell out... i kind of hate the 930 club. and to a lesser extent myself...looks like ill be paying in naiveity

back to paramax headquarters for some impact zone wrestling. boy was that something bad. luckily tony made it back in time to experience it too. i think we made the right choice by picking that over whwe am raw.

this is the last song

tonight was my last norva adventure for awhile. unfortunately, it didnt go very well. i didnt care for most of what i saw/heard and it made me miss something i actually did want to see. thats what you get when you keep your word i guess.

taking my usual post-show visit to musicplayer productions. robert has a new armoire type thing so hes organizing around it and all that. at some point, i drop some knowledge on him:

"youd be surprised what you can do when you have to do stuff."

he agrees.