Just admit it...

ADMIT IT!

Despite your pseudo-bohemian appearance and vaguely leftist doctrine of beliefs, you know nothing ABOUT art or sex that you couldn't read in any trendy new york underground fashion magazine...Proto-typical non-conformist. You are a vacuous soldier of the thrift store gestapo. You adhere to a set of standards and tastes that appear to be determined by an unseen panel of hipster judges

BULLSHIT!

Giving your thumbs up and thumbs down to incoming and outgoing trends and styles of music and art. Go analog baby, you're so post-modern. You're diving face forward into an antiquated past, it's disgusting!

It's offensive! Don't stick your nose up at me!

You spend your time sitting in circles with your friends, pontificating to each other, forever competing for that one moment of self aggrandizing glory in which you hog the intellectual spotlight, holding dominion over the entire SHALLOW....POINTLESS...conversation.

Oh we're not worthy.

When you walk by a group of quote-unquote normal people you chuckle to yourself, patting yourself on the back as you scoff. It's the same superority complex shared by the high school jocks who made your life a living hell, makes you a slave to the competitive capitalist dogma you spend every moment of your waking life BITCHING about!

Well let me tell you this, I am shamelessly self-involved. I spend hours in front of the mirror making my hair elegantly disheveled. I worry about how this album will sell because I believe it will determine the amount of SEX I will have in the future. I self-medicate with drugs and alcohol to help treat my extreme social anxiety problem.

You are a FAKER!
ADMIT IT!
You are a FRAUD!
ADMIT IT!
You're living a LIE!
You don't impress me!
ADMIT IT!
You don't intimidate me!
ADMIT IT!
Why don't you bow down, get on the ground, walk this fucking plank!

I'm proud of my life and the things that I have done, proud of myself and the loner i've become. You're free to whine. It will not get you far. I do just fine, my car and my guitar,guitar go!

-Say Anything
"Admit It!"

it's always been awhile..

same old same old... thought i would blow the dust off the html and get back into writing rambles of nullified reasons again... just as a quick couple of updates, j and i had set off about a month or so ago to see the arcade fire out on their 3 night stint here in chicago...

they never cease to disappoint us... another rockin' show, filled with an eclectic cornucopia of instruments (they had a pseudo-pipeorgan of some magnitude there) filled a set of a mix of new and old songs... quite baddass, and in a posh-theater setting as well.. j and i settled into our "box" sets, ready for the show.... the only thing that we were missing were those 'Mardi Gras mask" binoculars and a cigarette held on a long stick for us to complete the setting...

2 weeks ago, we checked out a local radio station's gig that featured sum 41, good charolette, the bravery, and shiny toy guns (the femmes were scheduled to play but were cancelled, prob because they realized that Good Charolette was headlining...) in any case, we were mainly there to see shiny toy guns and the bravery... sum 41 was a bonus for me since i never got to see them live and somewhat knew their songs...

despite the fact that carah was having mic feedback problems, they put on a badass set... the bravery stepped up next, and since the last couple times we saw them, sam looks like... someone else... when he came out, i didn't even know it was him... he's lost a ton of weight (almost too much), and just looks different (add some pics soon)... nonetheless, we had a fun sing-a-long-dancing time with them and wished the first two acts played longer...

then sum41 popped out and i was surfed the wave of teenage-punky-angst-ridden-kids pushing and made my way up to the front... after 5-7 songs of swaying without effort and absorbing the sweat of those around me, i headed back to where j and kevin were and watched the rest of the show behind a couple totally enamoured with playing jonah and the whale, but seeing who could swallow who's head in a fit of mad sum41 grown love...

we only stayed for about 2 songs into GC before we said gayced out... didn't have any interest in seeing them at all... however, before GC came out, i had noticed the beer cup littered ground and decided to try an interesting experiment while we waited...

i picked up 3 beer cups and built one of those cup pyramids (you know the ones you used to build with styrofoam cups when you were a kid....)... my experiement was simple... and i shall outline it here:

Purpose: To test the natural will of human nature and its natural tendency to destroy anything with organization and beauty.

Hypothesis: Man will destroy everything.

Materials: 3 empty plastic beer cups.

Procedure:
1. Create beer cup pyramid with said materials
2. Move 5 feet away from pyramid built in item #1 and wait
3. Observe

Observations:
1. Not more than 10 seconds later, a kid walked PAST the pyramid, did a DOUBLE TAKE at it, walked back to the pyramid and kicked it over
2. I screamed - "You fucker!"
3. Kid turned around and smiled on his latest conquest

Conclusion:
Man will go out of his way to destroy anything.

And that's how it exactly went down.... it was pretty damn intersting to see him do a double take on it, walk back to it (out of his way) to kick it over... he was pretty amused by being called a "fucker", but so is the name of the game...

anyways, my bud ryan (who was also one of the infamous bodyguards that punched the lights of of the crew that sucker punched me back in college) has been staying with us the last few weeks... its great hearing about all these stories he brings back from his neurosurgery intership he is doing... damn interesting, yet sad stuff...

well, the next few weeks holds warped tour, a trip to san fransisco to see the smashing pumpkins, visit some friends, see some sights, and eat some food, and whatever else this wild ride brings us on...

!!!!!!!!!!

You know an annoucement is big when it makes you want to update a blog that you don't update too frequently...

in any case.... STARCRAFT 2... drooooooooolllllll...... i feel like cartman and his wait for the wii... somebody freeze me... please...

update...

yes, i am still here and breathing... kicking to the beat of my own drum... quick summary of what's gone down... ace'd my first graduation class towards my masters degree, kicked it out in san fransisco with good ol' friends, drank and got yelled at in a beer store, started on my microsoft certification (passed my first test), tied a couple kite strings together and flew my kite higher than i've ever flown one before...

it's been busy and fun.. j is graduating in a couple of weeks and she scored a job... so damn proud of her :)

what's on the horizon? Warped tour, arcade fire, and q101 block party... my soon-to-be-blingin-buddy ryan-who-kicks-the-shit-outta-anyone-fuckin-with-his-friends may be hanging with us for about a month as he works on his neuro-surgery internship... it's good to know that i have protection again, so that i can fuck with whoever i want... hell, he's good with a scapel now, i can only imagine the precision in his fuck-you-punches to anyone/anything that moves...

ahhh, the good old-en days....

catching up to the current...

absolutely marvelous! it's been quite busy the last month... let's see... saw MCR at allstate... if my hearing wasn't bad enough, after scores and scores of screaming teenage girls, i think i've reached old man hearing status... we also purchased tickets for arcade fire coming up... which is a show that never seems to dissappoint...

magically lost my cell phone in somewhere within the bits and bytes abound... this was the point that i realized how much i rely on technology... (hell, if my pc is offline for a day, i go nuts...) nonetheless, it's been replaced and i'm finally back thrown back into the trend... (thanks to a b-day giftcard from my sister)

i turned 26 - and am never really a fan of celebrating my b-day at all... dunno why, but oddly enough i think it has to do with my shyness... in anycase, j treated me with a DS-lite that i've been thirsting over for the last year or so... she always knows what she can get me that'll keep my occupied for ages.. (ds, world of warcraft. simpson bats, foam cowboy hats,m etc..)

we also finally decided to purchase a new car for j... she's been driving this '94 cavalier since back in the day, but the car was quite the trooper... heck, if we had room for it, i wanted to keep it as a beater car, and something i could work on and learn more about cars on.. there was nothing wrong with it, but alas it was time to retire the car (mostly due to the fact that i had a cc with lots of gm bonus bucks on it that were all going to expire...)..

it was a sad day to see it go.. it's funny at times how attached you can become to such inanimate objects... it felt like a metallic funeral pyre watching it sit ontop of that tow truck, slowly sailing away to be auctioned off.... we ended up donating it to an animal rescue shelter, so we hope it helps...

buying the car was quite the experience - after finally signing for the car from the salesman and then a 2 hour or so wait, we were escorted to the first of two "let's try to sell you a bunch of overpriced warranties for stuff you'll never need"... now keep in mind, we've already been there about 2 or so hours and just wanted to get out of there... instead, the "warranty-death" saleslady proceeded to tell us how she would make this "quick" by apparently first starting totally off topic on sushi, before finally getting to the point...

she was trying to sell warranties for paint/corrosion fading, some anti-theft tracker, and whatever the hell else it was she was trying to sell... trying to enforce her sale with examples of acid rain, hail damage, and even the deadly bird shit that is apparently so acidic it'd dissolve you the instant you touch it... the funny thing was. was how much she reiterated the bird shit... apparently if we didn't have their paint warranty, bird shit would eat our cars alive...

after about slow pain-stakingly 30 or so minutes of listening to her, i basically told her that i bet about 80% (stat pulled out my ass like most stats) of people don't have this warranty so my car will look just like everyone else's... at this point, she threw the "don't you want to protect your investment?" BS line... yeah, that's exactly what i want to do.. protect an investment that always depreciates, rather than appreciates... after this new miserable experience, we moved on to salesman #2..

it all started off quaint and quite nice... talked about general shaz, until he finally got to the point of trying to sell extended warranties for the parts... i told him no and he proceeded to keep trying to make the sale... now, there's nothing better than a salesman basically calling you a "stupid-fuck" indirectly.. phrases such as "it'll pay for itself if you use it just once, there's no real reason for you to not buy it" or "so you don't want to pay for something that'll pay for itself after just one use?"..

sorry fucktard. no. at this point, i decided to have some fun with this guy and i started to goad him on (in a very nice, and unbeknownst way to even my wife, that i was doing it - btw, this is pretty accurate of how the convo went..)... i started making up shit about how i have good friends who know cars (well i actually do, so this was fo rolez) and that i like fixing cars...

he countered with "well, good luck with trying to fix an electrical problem in the door"... to which i replied, "oh, i'm not worried... i have friends who are EE majors and have done stuff like that before"...

Taken agast, he razor replied with, "well, it'll cost you about 8 hours of labor... that'll be expensive and it'll tkae a long time".. to which i replied again "well, i like learning about that stuff and my friends don't mind teaching me... i need to learn this somewhere..."...

Trying to prove me wrong he wagered - "and the parts are expensive, you'll have to pay for those".. my reply... "oh that's not a problem, i've gotten tons of parts from salvage yards that i've used in my car now, and for cheap..."

"what do you drive now?" - "a 97 chevy blazer to which i've replaced lots of stuff and fixed on.."
"oh.... this will be much harder to work on than your blazer" - (could you believe this shit?)

"that's ok, i can learn it, i learned how to work on my blazer with my friends, so i don't think will be a problem..."

"Well, it'd take at least 8 hours or so of labor, so you'll have to pay for that..."
to which i whimsically replied... "well, labor payments to me is a 12 pack of beer..."

in jackfaced unmoved emotion - "you're not in college anymore" (i honestly can't believe he said that... at that point.. i knew i was pissing him off... and who was he to tell me what my friends would do for me...)... "well, i have good friends, they've always helped me with everything...i help them with computer stuff, they help me with car/ee stuff..."

after this point, he just didn't say a word after that and just got us the rest of our paperwork queitly... however, i wasn't done... i continued to bombard him with questions in a very friendly/cheerful manner... asked him about if the chicago auto show brought lots of business, or if he's ever been to it... told him about how i've been to the d-town auto show... these were all received with very short responses as he tried as quickly as he could to process the rest of our paperwork...

of course, i can't really blame them for trying and being "pushy"... in fact that's there job... but just due to being there for so long, i was frankly bored and just wanted to get outta there... i saw an opportunity for some fun.. and i took it...

about 3+ hours after first walking in, it was finally over... we are now a proud owner of a 07' red chevy cobalt... i can't wait for the next car we buy... cause i'm thinking i'm gunna have me some more fun :)

the great pumpkin...

ahhh an onslaught of music news! the great pumpkin will be set to re-appear this later this year through festivals throughout europe... where will this charlie brown be when it decides to rear its head over jack boot teeth towards the u.s.?

hopefully in the patch, with the slew of other minions grooving to the sweet jack-o-lantern sounds.. will it be the same? is it just a gimmick since maybe he needs money? who will be in voltron formation to form this great pumpkin? do any of these questions really matter?

no.

all that matters is, the time is upon me to hopefully witness the rebirth of something i held so dearly, or to go back into the current less than nourished...i'm preparing to bunker down in the midst of ticking clocks, anxiously waiting with sidewalk camping gear in tow, for the announcement...

in any case... 7.7.07 - 'zeitgeist' will be upon us... i'm not holding my breath, or maybe i am, but i just don't know it yet...

being damn handy..

besides the fact that it's been ball freezing weather out here, i've found myself last week being damn handy around the house... our dryer had suddenly stopped working (most likely due to the fact that i stuffed it to the point of exploding preganancy) that it had stopped drying... it worked, but just didn't dry...

so i took it upon myself to take the entire thing apart (to the point where the drum that rolls around fell off "un-expectantly") and starting looking for anything.. about a day or two poking around in there, i eventually called a repairman to get an estimate... $125 beans just for him to come out and look at it and for the first 30 min of labor... at that point, buying a new dryer woulda been cheaper (thanks CL)...

being a poi dog pondering, i decided i wouldn't let it get the best of me and went out and bought a multi-meter and started testing the connections for continuity... i found some fuses and heat thermometers and tested those as well...

alas! it was the thermal fuse and themal regulator that showed no signs of ohms thus == broken. i called up some local part shops and threw down $20 beans for the parts, installed them and put the dryer back together (with no missing parts!).. that night... we enjoyed the beautiful heat emitting from our now fixed dryer...

later that week, my car brakes were making a quite familar grinding sound everytime i braked... i took it into a shop for a free estimate, where they anally 'pirated and boarded' me with an outrageous price... i declined, of course only had a one night stand with them only t find out what was wrong so i could try to fix it myself... now i had changed my brakes once before, but that was about a year ago... could i do it again?

a little worried i couldn't remember how to change them, i decided to give it a go... alas number 2! i now not only have new brake pads, but i have new rotors!

besides this handyness, i have come to find out today about Ozzfest... normally, i don't care two beans about Ozzfest, but when tickets are free, i care... as this will probably be the only opportunity i would ever take to go see bands like From Autumn to Ashes, Atreyu, Lacuna Coil, or In Flames... not only for the fact that i'd probably get my ass kicked by any roid-raging 16 yr old there, but i'd be afraid i'd not only be "down with the sickness", i'd prob get the sickness (ala, the time when we went to see STP with disturbed, and godsmack [yes, odd lineup] and 2-tags and both woke up the next morning with cold sores on our lips... )

Nonetheless, it's nice to see them giving back to the fans... i'm defiantely considering stopping by for a few sets... maybe i'll come back from it with some new piercings, tats, and sores....