Category: life

Things that happen In Real Lifeâ„¢

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friends life local uncategorized

The Northwest Ordinance

The Northwest Ordinance is a band from Dayton, OH. The Northwest Ordinance is also, in a roundabout sort of way, how I came to live in the slavery-prohibited state of Ohio.

I work with Chris Karnes, their lead singer and one-half of their guitar regiment. A splendidly nicer and more down-to-earth fellow you could not ever hope to meet. Yet, when he takes the stage, he becomes a possessed man, hell-bent on spreading the fire-and-brimstone Word of Rock to all within a six-mile radius (the approximate blast radius of their amplifiers). Jumping and skittering, leaping and zig-zagging around, he appears to be some kind of messianic epileptic. I’ve never seen more energy put out by a four-cylinder punk-rawk band in all my life.

Check them out at Canal Street Tavern in glorious downtown Dayton (1 Nov 2006):
[googlevideo]-2765128894187042447[/googlevideo] “Trouble”

[googlevideo]-4672745740412193341[/googlevideo] (no idea what this one’s called but it’s hella entertaining, with masterful tambourine stylings by “Ross,” a kooky bearded dude from the audience!)

Categories
life memories uncategorized

Thirty-five (is not alive)

I’m not sure, but I’ve become really disdainful of my own birthday over the past few years. All I want are for people to forget about it. Who cares? I don’t need no stinkin’ holiday! This year, I worked on my birthday, and thankfully had plenty of non-birthday-ness. At any rate, I had a good enough time, and blew far more money on myself than, in hindsight, I should have. Maybe it’s just that I want my birthday all to myself? Maybe I just don’t want to share? Maybe I’m just godless and don’t believe in no magical Jesuses and my increasingly heathen ways* are finally starting to affect more than just my outward worldview, but my inward self-image as well.

Maybe I just resent my childhood? Or is it my adulthood, which i most certainly detest, and with profound conviction? Maybe the mere passage of my increasingly limited time is not cause for celebration or merest remembrance to me.

Or maybe it’s just that much more special when only a couple of really close friends remember?

And maybe I need counseling for my crippling social phobia.

Having said that… your birthday is a special and magical day to me, gentle reader, and I do mean that. And, regardless, thanks to those good people who did remember. Please don’t do it again until further notice.

 

* ironically, less amoral and illicit

Categories
friends internets local uncategorized

Body by Xmas

My friend Mike, who’s a fantastic drummer and gifted in so many ways it’s not even funny, filmed this hilarious video. Check it out:

[youtube]fQzVYVe3JYY[/youtube]
Categories
CDs friends internets media uncategorized

Cocker Spaniels’ “Withstand the Whatnot”- free download

You can get The Cocker Spaniels‘ absolutely brilliant (and brilliantly named) album Withstand the Whatnot for free on their website! I urge you to listen and to donate (not only does the artist get 100% of the profits, but it will help him to finance the production of his next CD)! This is one of the greatest albums ever recorded by one of the greatest rock bands ever to come down the pike.

Withstand the Whatnot (lyrics & credits)

Categories
creative friends internets life local media uncategorized web design work

projects

Some projects I am currently involved with/have volunteered for:

I’ve asked not to be paid for any of this, although it’s going to be pretty overwhelming to work all this into a rapidly shrinking allotment of free time. Resume fodder is enough for me for now, and I certainly can’t charge friends for services.

Categories
life work

Aren’t morons cute?

Sometimes I look at all the wonderful and good things that mere people have done throughout the vast, untold millennia of history, and I feel such an upwelling of pride for my fellow human beings, and the accomplishments of this incredible civilization that we have created, that I believe I just might explode.

And sometimes I just want to stab my fucking eyes out. O, how cruelly naive I can be!

Also at work today, i received an e-mail that gave me an idea for a new micro-podcast (which i’ve christened a nanocast; get it?), and the following, unrelated, e-mail (spacing, spelling, and complete and total obliteration of conventional rules of syntax and grammar intentionally left intact for humiliation):

Two thing return .  29.99  and   14.99   just one return no . Just two  things back to you .  Still owe me  14.99   that is correct and miss one   don’t say 14.99   I bet that you forget put on it .    Thanks  !

[sic]

(Translation: I also returned another item which I noticed you do not have listed on the return confirmation e-mail which I have received but failed to include for your reference. Can you provide further information on this issue? Is it possible that it could have somehow been lost?)

Q: What was the customer’s name?

pick one name from each column:
first name last name
Tonto Nahasapeemapetilon
Tumak Rogers
Sharon , The Ape Man
Ayla Bartokomous
Tuong Souphanousinphone

A: If you guessed “Sharon Rogers,” you’d be sadly correct. Not only that, but she was from Arizona.

Bonus: If you can guess to whom those other names belong, you are not only smarter than “Sharon Rogers,” you are indeed worthy of being enshrined as a Thinking Person.

 

NOTE: names and places have been changed to protect the imbecile’s privacy.

Categories
CDs current events friends life local media uncategorized

Issues

Having CSS issues with IE (even IE7). Still trying to figure out why. So far, Big Urgent Wish works absolutely perfectly in Firefox and Opera, but in IE7 there’s irrational whitespace to the right (about the width of one of the sidebars), causing a horizontal scrollbar, while IE6 isn’t applying the opacity filter to the center div or footer (a width issue is my first guess on that one).

Once I get these issues ironed out, I’ll upload the thing and see what happens then.

[UPDATE] Just got back from Grog‘s (picking up CDs to review for the Chickenfish Speaks) and groceries. To make a crap day off crappier, on the way there, the “low tire pressure” light came on. Fearing an impending flat, I bolted, stopping at the gas station to pay 50 cents for three minutes of standing in the wind and rain, wishing I had a tire gauge and a flashlight. One tire was missing a stem cap, so that’s probably all it was, since all of the tires seemed reasonably inflated to me.

Did anyone see Bush’s press conference today? Scary, creepy, and pathetic. I’ll blog more about that later.

Categories
internets life uncategorized web design

Big Urgent Wish

Still working on the new theme. Actually, the theme’s done, it’s the subthemes that are killing me. I’ve got the first one about 90% done, and almost as much on the second. The main thing is separating the stylesheets into usable, selectable chunks.

Boy, is this gonna be purty!

I’m also gearing up for some podcasting for the nearish future. Should be interesting. More details to come….
Big Urgent Wish, subtheme twoBig Urgent Wish 3.0

Categories
internets local uncategorized

OregonDistrict.com

Goddammit. I was so totally going to do this very thing! OregonDistrict.com – a social networking site for the Gem City! Has a ton of potential. Register and find me.

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friends media uncategorized

Fantastic manuscript

I just got done reading my friend Jackie Corley‘s manuscript. Devastated. Trust me, this will blow you away. When it gets out there onto the shelves, finally, you will need to take a deep breath and plunge right into the raging torrent of a story this is. It’s tragic, moving, and crazy good.

Categories
internets life uncategorized

Lightning Strikes

I had my network card fried by lightning earlier tonight. Right when we’re about to enter the brokest week evar, I had to run out and spend $16 on a new card. At least I’m back online now.

Categories
current events internets local media uncategorized

The ChickenFish Speaks forum

I should also mention that The ChickenFish Speaks has a forum. Register and post! The ChickenFish could easily be the beacon, at least locally, for cultural/A&E news and views, rivalling the Dayton City Paper for absolute, total control over the hearts and minds of hipsters and wannabes in the Miami Valley.

Categories
CDs internets life local media

writing reviews and code

I think I’m getting carpal tunnel syndrome. Nevertheless, I’ve been doing a lot of typing lately. I just submitted my first batch of CD reviews for the Chickenfish Speaks, a terrific local entertainment zine run by Grog, the former bass player for local rock legends the ¡Oxymorons!.

Big Urgent Wish 3.0
Also, I’m still hard at work on Big Urgent Wish 3.0, my first real WordPress theme. (My current theme is based largely on the Ice theme.) It’s coming along nicely. I’ve completed the first of three subthemes. But first, a To Do: separate stylesheets into color/layout (possibly separating these further), font size, and font type (serif or sans-serif). Then I need to clean up what I’ve got and then I can finally start to work on the other two subthemes.

Categories
family life Speck uncategorized

How to dismantle an atomic bomb?

Holyfuckingshit! 7am, Holly vomits. Blood sugar way low. Run around getting shit to test & raise her blood sugar.

Minutes, and i mean mere minutes later, the dog starts puking up what smells like really nauseating, pungent poo, with pieces of dog food and plastic and things I never saw him ate and cannot identify. And again. And again. And again. Lather, rinse repeat. Ad, no pun intended, nauseum. And diarrhea. And more and more vomiting.

I feel like a fucking atom bomb was dropped on my head. Battle stations! Brace for impact! Emergency power!

My fingers are sore and my stomache is hurting, I’m exhausted and I’m stressed out and I’m sure my blood pressure’s high; I feel like i’m falling apart. And I’m the only one here who’s in good shape these days!

Categories
family life uncategorized

Good Times, Bad Times

These past several days have been good and bad. Holly’s blood sugar is getting more stable lately. That’s terrific, and a huge relief. However, her last couple of paychecks have been in the double-digit range, and rent is right around the corner. My dad, being a complete fucking saint, lent us some tiding-over cash and even brought Hol a much-needed printer cartridge so she can print out her school texts (potentially saving her eyesight!) – an act which singlehandedly saved us from literally starving in the final couple of days leading up to Pay Day.

However, I ended up calling out of work a couple of weeks ago, ostensibly to help care for Holly during a particularly crappy day, but also because I’ve just been completely exhausted lately. What I might have done differently is worked some serious overtime, but now it’s too late for that. Rent is around the corner. Which will leave us both with nearly $200 total to last two weeks (that’s forgoing paying a bill or two).

I hate to beg, but these coming days are going to be in pretty stark contrast to the relatively minor poverty of this last week. Sugar-free, or at least diabetic-friendly, foodstuff is expensiver than your garden variety. And laundry needs to get done or we’ll be working in the coal pits in the buff. If you can, throw a couple of bones our way. I can’t promise anything at this stage, but I’ll sure try my best to make it worthwhile somehow. Assuming Holly’s well enough to return to work soon, we should be doing a bit better in a few weeks.

Thanks for reading this.

Categories
life uncategorized

Time/spent

Some things i’ve been doing lately:

  • Reading Jackie Corley‘s fabulous manuscript for At the Slaughter
  • Listening to some cool new music for a new gig as a reviewer for The ChickenFish Speaks, and composing my first batch of reviews
  • Writing and recording a new song
  • Working 40 hours at a dreadful service-industry night job, hoping like mad that working in the internet department might somehow lead to Better Things
  • Making slight tweaks to this site, as time permits
  • Listening to a slew of great podcasts
  • Reading lots and lots of syndicated news feeds
  • Reading a few great books (fiction, science) and magazines (tech, culture/music)
  • Struggling to stay afloat
  • Not sleeping much
  • Spending as much of the remaining free time as I can with my girlfriend Holly and Speck, our dog
Categories
family life Speck uncategorized

sick and tired

Doggy: sick.
Mommy: sick.
Daddy: tired.

Categories
creative friends

So You Wanna Be a Drummer… Really?

So You Wanna Be a Drummer… Really?
(A Cynical Glimpse into What Challenges Await All the Would-be Drummers in the World)

By my friend, the exceptionally gifted Michael Christmas.

Categories
creative life music uncategorized

Downside

Lately i’ve been working, taking as much care of Holly as I can humanly manage (and managing to piss her off once in a while, too – oops), trying, frankly desperately, to keep my head above water financially, and trying – my god, I’m trying – to manage my creative life. Primarily at the moment I’m working hard on a brand new song. This one’s heavy, with a low, funky “Those Shoes” kind of vibe. The working title is “Downside,” and lyrically, it’s about the hear/see/speak-no-evil attitude of rich people when dealing with those of us on the Other Side of town. The Battle of the Haves vs. the Have Nots. That could always change, as these things do, when the lyrics start getting downright sophomoric. Low bass, some common and twisted chord changes, and chaotic, mind-bending guitar, with a Soundgardenesque vocal melody. Probably been done before, but this one’s mine.

Over time, I plan on posting a sort of mini-log of how it’s going. If possible, i’d love to post a running mix as it develops; however, my creative time is severely limited, so this might take a longer time than I’d like. For anyone who might read this who’s a home-recording nut, this one’s for you. DIY, baby.

Categories
friends internets uncategorized

New page: Tutorials

Because I seem to be the only person in my local circle of friends who understands web code, I receive lots of requests from people to help them jank up their MySpace pages. In response, I’ve created the first tutorial: MySpace: the DIV element. This tutorial assumes you know a little bit about HTML and CSS going in. In future tutorials, I’ll cover basic HTML and CSS.

And i’ve just finished adding the comments functionality to pages (as opposed to blog posts), so if you have any questions or need help, I’ll do my best to clarify. This is a work in progress.