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| So I'm not typically into writing serious stuff, but I can't sleep tonight, and I feel compelled to tap into my emotional side before it buries itself again very soon... This weekend the only dog that I've ever had, Snickers, passed away. It's brought to mind a multitude of things obviously. Ridiculous, fun, hilarious and comforting moments immediately come to mind. He was the best dog. And that's just it. I've never paid much attention to the emotional condition of others when their animals die. When it's not YOUR animal it often feels very trivial. It's so different than when you find out a friend's relative dies. When it's an animal, you immediately assume that the person will get over it. And they will. But that's not the point. No matter how bad, good, cute, ugly, well behaved or mischievous somebody's animal or pet is, they were the BEST. I cried tonight for the first time since Rae left for India. For the second time in probably the last ten years. My emotional condition as it relates to this fine young (in my heart) canine should speak volumes about the effect that Snickers had on me, that any good dog has on its owner. Young boys who don't grow up with a dog I think miss out on some sort of intangible experience that I've realized should be mandatory. If and when I have a son of my own, they will grow up with a dog. It may not be a timid little Shih-Tzu. The dog may not be the friendliest dog on the planet. He may not get ridiculously excited about nothing in particular and run around in frenzied circles in the living for five minutes at a time. The dog may not completely freak out during thunderstorms and car rides. And the dog may never lay his chin on their leg while they both fall asleep throughout my future son's high school and early college years. Or that dog may do all of those things, as Snickers did. No matter how this hypothetical future dog behaves though, he'll provide that inexpressable experience for my kids, the way that Snickers provided that for me. RIP buddy. You may have been the least intimidating dog we've ever seen, but you made me smile every time. As Jacob put it, you were the best. In memory of Snickers 1997-2008 | | |
| Man it's been a long time since I updated this thing. First thing's first - if you like me at all please go and check out the new Furlough tune on our myspace. "Blue Glass" is our first release from our upcoming record "This is Not All" which will be available on JANUARY 31ST at our Club 3 Degrees show. We're wrapping up the artwork this weekend and then it's off to the presses. Leave feedback, let me know what you think, and by golly if you like it please tell your friends. Yah. Christmas time, end of the year time, yeehaw time, that's what this entry all boils down to I suppose. I go home for a 9 day vacation in just two short days. This is the longest paid vacation I have ever had. In fact this is the ONLY paid vacation I have ever had. It's also the longest vacation in general that I've had since I graduated college. 9 days of no responsibility - it's going to be IMMENSE. Indeed. This is typically the time of year where I do my year end wrap up of the best and worst of the year. To be quite honest with you though, in terms of entertainment this year I have not seen much, listened to much, etc. I feel out of the loop on movies, and there was just about nothing this year that really grabbed my ears musically. I will offer up an aside to say that the band OCEANSIZE is the first band to grab me by the throat and not let go since Muse did this to me a couple of years ago. Buy or download "Everyone into Position" immediately, it is amazing. It's also the only record this year that I feel was worth mentioning. Am I jaded? Possibly. Maybe being a grown up and working a real job and seriously dating has sucked all the desire to explore music out of me or something. Or maybe there just wasn't a lot of good music this year. I tend to think it's the latter. Or maybe I just need to check out some new genres. Micah at work is pushing me towards blues. Perhaps I will venture in that direction. Best thing to happen this year? Getting hired at Northwestern as an admission counselor - without a doubt. To look back at where I was a year ago, working at CompUSA with absolutely no direction in my life, seems like a completely different world now. God always knows exactly where he wants us, and he always takes care of things. No exceptions. It's a huge blessing to have a steady job, great benefits, great coworkers, and a great work environment. I love my job, and the newness of that experience has really dominated my thoughts since July. Trying to dress professionally is not easy for me. Being up everyday at 7:00 is not easy for me, but I'm adjusting, slowly but surely. Video game of the year? Super Mario Galaxy. That was easy. Rock Band might give it a run for its money though, we'll see in a week. Movie of the year? I've seen like...three of this year's movies. I guess I'll go with...LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD because the end was ridiculous. Seriously though I saw Die Hard, TMNT, and Into the Wild....none of which were all that amazing. Maybe I'll post some more end of the year awards later...in the meantime check out the song of the year Blue Glass at myspace.com/furlough. I promise you won't be disappointed. But maybe you will. | | |
| Hey kids.
I don't know how many of you people read this thing. Of the people that read this I have no idea how many of you care about Furlough's music, but we're back in the studio recording our new album, and there's a blog update as well as a video of the bass and drum recording sessions at the band myspace:
www.myspace.com/furlough
Check it out dudez. If you're not our friend on myspace, please add us! We appreciate the support. Also there's a Furlough Fans group on Facebook that we would love for you to join.
Okay, enough shameless self promotion. Bye!
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| And so it is - tomorrow shall be my first Valentine's Day with a girlfriend in five, yes five years.
And so it is, that this Valentine's day shall feel exactly like all the others.
I have never been a fan of Valentine's Day. The idea of setting
aside a single day of the year for showing extra special love to
someone just seems silly. Couple that with the fact that girls
usually don't do jack for guys, and it usually comes down to guys doing
things for girls on Valentine's Day and it seems a tad outrageous to
me. Of course, all of these thoughts may have had something to do
with the fact that I never ever had girlfriends on Valentine's Days of
yore. The one time I DID have a girlfriend on Valentine's Day, we
had been dating for two weeks, so rather than make a big deal out of
it, we simply went out to eat, and that was that. Wait, that's
not completely true, I also got her a heart shaped Little Debbie © cake.
So here it is. Rather than lament about lonliness or make only
half sarcastic jokes about not needing a girlfriend, I instead am
romantically entangled with a girl. This year I don't hate
Valentine's Day. I spent a LONG time working on Rae's gift and
getting it ready to send to her in India - and I didn't mind. And
then it hits me, that I have to send my girlfriend's gift half way
across the world in order for her to receive it. Then I feel
lonely and start to hate Valentine's Day all over again. It's a
silly reminder that Rae is still 96 days from coming back to the
States. Now before anybody tells me I'm whining - let me say that
I don't think 96 days (not that I'm counting) is a very long time.
I will survive.
I just want to know - when is it my turn to enjoy this darn holiday?
So if you're lonely today, if you have no love interest, no potential
soulmate that you're pursuing, if you're down on your luck and wonder
why everybody thinks you're so repulsive - come and get a hug from me,
because the only person who doesn't think I'm repulsive is on the other
darn side of the world 
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| ATTN: This is undoubtedly the nerdiest post I have ever written, and I make no apologies for it.
So, do you remember the excitement you felt the first time you played
Super Mario Bros? Or how amazing it was to see completely
rendered game worlds in Donkey Kong Country? Or how the fact that
it was RAINING ON ZEBES and you could see the splashes of your feet on
the ground somehow added a layer of atmosphere to Super Metroid that no
other game had touched? Remember how the fact that Super Mario 64
was free roaming 3D and still felt like a traditional Mario game made
it the greatest video game experience of many people's lives?
No? I pity you.
Anyone who knows me understands that I am an old school game fanatic,
but a big reason for that is the lack of FRESHNESS in games these
days. That's not to say they're bad. In fact that's not to
say it's even POSSIBLE in the same way anymore. All I know is
that within the last few years, only a select few games have filled me
the type of giddy school girl excitement that my old school games used
to fill me with.
Off the top of my head those games are: Resident Evil 4, Guitar Hero,
and now it's WarioWare: Smooth Moves. Or maybe it's just Wii
games in general. I suppose most of you could have seen this
coming. Girlfriend gone, time to finally blog and give an
exposition on the United States' most coveted Christmas toy, the
Nintendo Wii.
Now I'm a Nintendo die-hard. No question about it. But when
was the last time that playing something incredibly simple was fun,
just by the nature of what it was? Wii Tennis for example has
nothing special about it. But the fact that I can wave a wand
around and make my dude swing is somehow much more entertaining than
pushing a button. Same for bowling, golf, etc. I am not
alone on this theory. The number of GIRLS and PARENTS that have
come over and enjoyed Wii speaks for itself. Simple.
Fun. Easy. And excuse the cheesiness: magical. Similar
to the light gun for NES, nobody REALLY understands how the darn thing
works. There's something mystical about it that inherently makes
it better.
Now take WarioWare and add it to the mix. This is by far the most
ridiculous game I have ever played. The amount of crazy things it
has you do with the remote, the fever pitch it has you do them
at...it's just FUN. It's EXCITING to play, just by it's very
nature. Yeah games where you blow up six billion people and it's
all intense are fun, but only because there's so much going on.
The fact that WarioWare can make something like picking up the
telephone fun and hilarious is just so much better than the most
intense shoot em up game.
We need more magic in games, and less blood and guts. Also less Sony PlayStation 3. Okay I'm done.
Anyway, I'm doing pretty good. Photo Not Found has a sweet show
at Club 3 tonight, please come if you can, we'll be playing at 7:30,
and I'll be breaking in my brand spankin' new never been hit before
Zildjian A Custom cymbals, which were kindly purchased for me (650
bucks!!!) by the glorious and notorious band Furlough, which has their
OWN show coming up at Club 3 on the 27th. ALSO, this just in:
both Furlough AND Photo Not Found will be playing February 4th in the
NWC Student Center as part of their Super Bowl festivities.
Awesome.
I finally got to talk to Rae on the phone for an hour and a half last
night. I really needed it. I'm doing okay about her being
gone, but I sure can't wait til she's back here. Any other
specific questions about my life please inquire in your comments.
I love you all.
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