Moonshine Valentine Inspiration

I don't remember if I mentioned it, but my song, Moonshine Valentine (the title track of the band's next album, incidentally), was inspired by a silent movie from 1911 called The Revenue Man and the Girl. Well, guess what? I found a copy of that video!! It was on Google video... must have been uploaded recently because I didn't see it before when I was looking for it.

Anyway, here's a link: The Revenue Man and the Girl

Merry Christmas!!

Another Project Finished

Just finished copyediting a manuscript for an author. I feel accomplished. :)

Oh Noes!

Paper due... kids have stomach flu... work piling up...

Send relief personnel immediately!

Haven't Had Much To Say...

And I haven't had the time, either. Between work and school and trying to stay on a day schedule, I've been focusing on other things besides updating this blog.

My body HATES being on a day schedule. It hates it SOOOO much that it wants to make me fall asleep in the middle of the afternoon or in the early evening just so that I will be awake around 2AM. It sucks. And even when I fight off the sleepy spells, I find that I am not tired by the time 11:30PM-midnight rolls around. My body REALLY wants to be on a night schedule.

And the sleep I get when I force myself to go to bed at 11PM-midnight is fitful at best, with lots of short, disturbing dreams that I can't remember (save for the disturbing feeling) once I'm awake.

And my heartburn is worse than ever. I feel like I am eating Rolaids every fifteen minutes, and, if I don't, this surge of burning acid causes pain from my collarbone to my pubic bone, and makes me feel like my throat might catch on fire any minute. Blech.

Anyway, I caught up in my school work over this last weekend. This morning, I woke up at 4AM and went about loading the dishwasher, starting a fire, and then worked on the database for the last 6 hours. I have to put together a CSS layout for the LA lawyer I am working for, since I already received and cashed his check. Tomorrow, more of the same.

My Hands Hurt...

...from copying and pasting options and code into the eCommerce database. These cymbal sections are driving me bonkers. Teeny-tiny, little-bitty differences... most of it, I have no idea what it is... made one item have more than 50 SKUs because of all the different sizes and options. Yeesh.

I e-mailed my academic advisor yesterday, and got a call from some dude today who is NOT my academic advisor. He tells me that which I already know and informs me that he is my new contact for my degree, and then doesn't have any answers to my questions about thesis option versus project option for my capstone course.

Been Awake A While...

I got most of the options entered into the database, did readings for school this week, got some more items entered into the database, and watched a TV program on the network web site 'cause I couldn't watch it or tape it. All this activity ended at 6:30 this morning.

So, I haven't slept. Well, I did take an hour nap this afternoon, but got up when Dad came over. He brought me my mail and we talked about politics and religion and the band and such. Since then, I have watched a TV show with Kenny and finished most of my postings for the week in school. I also e-mailed my advisor since the telephone numbers for such people are National Secrets OMG.

My friend, David, offered to help me gather images for the eCommerce site, but, in the end, he was unable to help. It turns out that the PDF files online are really crappy, although they do have some hi-res pictures available that could be edited, but I would have to cross-reference with the catalogue unless I can find a way to download all the images at once. But that would still mean sorting through everything. I'm going to look into it as it would save me lots of time in the scanning of the catalogue pages, cropping images, and then re-sizing and saving them.

Finally!

Kenny went and got me an awesome new fridge!! It wasn't the one I wanted, but it is much nicer than the one I had, with an actual freezer, and room in the door for a gallon of milk, and THE LIGHT COMES ON!!! OMG!!!Anyway, all work, no play, that was my day for today.

I worked a LOT today. Put in almost another 100 items. My leg hurts from sitting on it.

So...

I put in about 100 items into the eCommerce database tonight, and did some school work, though not much of the latter. I am just not feeling this class. Somehow, I always get put in the groups that don't say much. The group I am in has just over 30 posts total, so there's not much to reply to. The other group is nearing 200 posts in a week and half. Blech. I am not sure whether I should feel happy that I am the most talkative (and verbose and tangential) in my group or sad that I can't hide away amid the chatter in the more talkative group.

Still no fridge. I am considering going on a Housework Strike.

Busy Me... Still

have to read two chapters in my textbooks tonight (maybe not... might be able to skim... we'll see), post some crap on the class forum, and then work, work, work. I have ideas for two songs, but haven't had the time to explore them.

Back to work with me.

Update

The show went well, even though we were late. We made up for it by playing later than scheduled. Dad stayed over at my place last night and Mom came and picked him up today. I was super tired today. I went to bed at about 2:30-ish, I think, and got up at 9:30 AM, but I was so tired I fell asleep at about 1:30 PM and napped until about 4:30. I still feel tired.

The pellet stove blew some kind of microchip, so it is not working at the moment. Oddly enough, I am actually overheated right now. Go figure.

Life is lonely here. I have tons to do, but nobody talks to me.

I want to buy a new refigerator. The one I have is probably as old as my Dad, and I am sick and tired of having to defrost it. I am probably not going to get a new one, though, 'cause I can't haul it and no one will get it for me. So, I will probably defrost this one that I have tomorrow. It's not like I have anything else to do.

Except that I do. I have to post replies to the school forum for my class, I have two chapters to read for that class and a 6-page paper due on the 9th. I have to finish that eCommerce site ASAP, and then, I have tons of regular work to do. Oh, well.

Anyway, my feet still hurt from playing. More later.

Arg

So, band practice has been cancelled for today, so, NOW, the plan is to practice TOMORROW at 6PM. Arg, arg, arg.

Must go work.

A Very Busy Day...

...but a productive one, as well.I got up early, at 8 AM, and got my day started. Dressed, coffee, fire started...WORK! I edited the band's pick 'em league stuff, then called my professor and got the skinny on publishing my research. Next, I wrote checks and made out envelopes for those, and then wrote a proposal and analysis for my lawyer client on his site and its statistics for the last year as well as suggestions for improvement and a price quote.

After that, I downloaded the syllabus for the class that started today and made sure I had the right books and stuff. And then the mail arrived, and the pocket paperback of Night Cries had arrived, so I ogled those for a while, all pleased with myself. Then, I put in a few items into the eCommerce database, and then cooked dinner. After dinner, I watched three shows that we'd taped, and then caught the highlights from Monday Night Football.

After that, I wrote some stuff for the class that started today, and then put a few more items into the eCommerce site. However, if I am going to be worth a damn tomorrow, I had better stop being so productive and go take a shower and hit the hay. We have band practice at 2 PM tomorrow, so I have to get cracking.

Traffic Sucks

We ended up going to Spokane yesterday afternoon because we needed some stuff for the show. The drummer broke his last set of drumsticks at practice on Thursday, so we needed some of those, and Kenny needed guitar strings, and we bought picks, too. But the traffic in Spokane was just AWFUL. People driving COMPLETELY H.U.A. (Head Up Ass), cutting people off, and a bunch of rude customers in the stores... it was tiring just being there. I am SOOOOO glad I don't work there.

Anyway, we have band practice again today, and I have a bunch of work to do. My second class starts tomorrow, my Irish client called and I have work to do for him, I still have to finish Kenny's site, and then there's the never-ending eCommerce project. I also have to talk to my friend, Richard, about his schedule for taking the pictures for the band's record, and then there's doing the web site that will get me the recording in the first place. Life is really busy. **YAWN** And I am tired.

My Life...

I finished my project for school, I have almost finished Kenny's web site, and I have worked up a design for the recording studio's web site.

Tomorrow night, we are having band practice in preparation for the show on Halloween. Friday, I'm probably going to Sandpoint. Saturday... I don't what's happening. Sunday, we are having band practice again. But I have been busy. My sleeping schedule is all screwed up.

More Grades!!!

I just checked my grades, and I found this:

GRADES!!!

I finally got some feedback from the professor on my research project, and I am THRILLED!!!

Copyrights

I searched the Copyright Office database tonight, and "The Cover" is finally registered. Interestingly enough, the official date of registration is before any of the others. I have no clue whatsoever as to why it has taken so long.

So, now, only "Relax" has to clear.

WHOA!!!

Just got off the phone with the court clerk, who said that the judgment was PAID IN FULL and as soon as the check clears, the court will mail a check for the full amount!!!

I AM SO HAPPY!!!

I seriously never thought that they would pay!!!

Then Again, Maybe Not...

Due to some new information, I guess I won't be taking the teaching job. Le sigh. I really wanted to; it just wasn't going to work, though. Not with my schedule and other committments.

Been Extremely Busy

In the last month:

I built an eCommerce site from scratch, took some fraudsters to court (and WON!!!), worked out the kids' curriculum, started the second semester of classes for my Master's degree, and got three new web design clients.

On Thursday, I am leaving for a vacation.

Today, I got hired to teach college-level English, which is pretty darned cool.

Work Crap

I am working on a dynamic shopping cart tonight. This means that I had to set up a testing server on my computer. That was a pain in the ass. I had to install WAMP so that I had access to Apache, MySQL, and PHP servers locally. After about 3 hours of screwing with it, I finally got it running about two hours ago, and installed everything into the template. I started scanning pictures and uploading products to the store. Boring, boring, boring work.

Another 1,000 Words...

Yup. I hadn't written a word in Devil's Handiwork since the 30th. I got busy with some other stuff. But I wrote for an hour tonight and cranked out another 1,000 words, bringing my total to just over 58,000 words.

Word Count Check-In

Tonight I cracked 57,000 words in Devil's Handiwork. In fact, to be precise, it's 57,323. Yay!!

50,000!!!

I just cracked 50,000 words total!!!

Okay, well, for the month of July, it's actually 42,914 words, but total, like everything I have ever written for the book... it's 50,000!!!!

Yay!!!

Wordage

I hit 47,908 words today - total - for my book, bringing my July total to 40,426. I am in Chapter 13... no pun intended. Only a bit more to go to finish up the story, and I can start the editing process. Yeehaw.

Today, I went shopping up at Wal*Mart and bought two awesome couch pillows in faux suede. They are burgundy and match my curtains in the livingroom. I also made banana bread today.

Sleepy...

I got a commission to do a web site. I'm getting $700!! Yay!

I stayed up from 1:30PM Tuesday to 10:30PM Wednesday. Man, was I tired. I slept like 12 hours Wednesday night. Why did I stay up? Because for two months, we've had an appointment to get the electricity worked on, and Wednesday, they were supposed to be here between 7 and 8 in the morning. I'd been writing until 5:30AM, so I decided to stay up. And I was kinda pissed that I didn't have to. I could have slept, if those buttwipes had bothered to call to say they weren't coming. They didn't show up Thursday, either.

At any rate, I suppose I ought to do some writing in my book.

Word Count Update!

Because I know you are all hanging on the edge of your seats for my word count posts: I hit just over 38,000 words for the month of July as of about 15 minutes ago. Yay, me! That means I have almost 46,000 when you add in my previous material. It looks like I might actually get this thing done!

I have also noticed that I have a weird habit when it comes to writing. I have to write on my laptop. I will not write if I am at my desktop. I will read or I will work on graphics or web stuff, but I won't write. It is so weird. /randomness

Puzzle, Finished!

I finally got the crossword puzzle finished. BTW - I just found out that the "snooty" term for a crossword puzzle compiler is a cruciverbalist.

A guy I did a web site for needs me to make him a form. Maybe I can catch up on my writing after that....

Ooh, wow!

I got a job writing crossword puzzles for a Mexican Expat magazine out of Boulder, Colorado!! There's something I haven't done in a while....

I'm Such a Slacker

I only wrote 1,500 or so words tonight. I am such a slacker.

On the bright side, that brings me up to just over 30,000 words total. Getting there.

And, as it turns out, I am only following my outline in a very general way. And some of the things that are coming out of that are just HILARIOUS. Like slipping RFID chips into plumber's butt at a truck stop. HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Yet Another Writing Update

Tonight, I cracked 29,000 words in Devil's Handiwork. I wrote 2,025 words from 1AM to now; I wrote 1,701 words yesterday; and 1,064 words the day before. It brings my total for July to 21,812 words, and, adding in my previously-existing material, a total of 29,294 words. Lots of writing.

Stupid Things

The Van Morrison thing has more implications than I originally thought. It turns out that Van Morrison and "his people" are only having videos deleted if they were taken at paying gigs. Which, as per my original argument - that the bars pay the licensing companies so the songwriters get paid - makes this argument even weaker. More suspicious? Mr. Morrison has a "retrospective" album collection coming out later this year or early next year through Polydor records, which is owned by the Universal Music Group. For more than a year now, Universal Music Group has had an agreement with Google/YouTube to allow YouTube users to use music owned by Universal Music Group in user-created content on YouTube. And then they start ripping down videos that were taken at shows where the songwriter got paid?!?!?! that is ridiculous, and it will not - as they have asserted - increase sales of Mr. Morrison's forthcoming "retrospective" collection; it will cause people to boycott Mr. Morrison (I know I will. I had a Van Morrison record on my Amazon wish list for a while now, but I will delete that, and my "Brown Eyed Girl" ringtone is gone, too). When cover bands stop playing your music and people stop putting up videos of themselves playing your music, people will not be reminded of you or your music and will not buy your stuff.

I Feel Like I'm Being Lazy...

...but I guess I'm not.

I wrote 2,162 words in Devil's Handiwork last night, bringing my nine-day total to 17,022 words, and the total word count for the book to 24,504. I am very nearly half way to meeting the JulNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words for the month of July, but, more importantly, I think I might actually be able to finish this project before August! ::happy dance::

My Day

Tonight, I wrote 3,338 words (from 1AM to 4AM this morning, actually), adding to the 11,552 words from the previous week. I might actually be able to do this! The total for the book is now at 22,342, accounting for the 7,000 or so words I had prior to starting JulNoWriMo. I'm excited and really proud of myself. Right now, a lot fo the writing is very bland: "I did this and then I did that" kind of stuff, but I can flesh it out later. Right now, I just need to get the story down. :)

Another Writing Update

I am up to just over 18,000 words for the total of Devil's Handiwork as of 4 AM this morning. I have written about 11,000 words in the past 6 days. To be perfectly honest, I think that most of what I am writing now will eventually actually be readable after I spend August getting it critiqued, re-writing, editing, adding stuff. I really want this done before school starts.

I keep putting little details in that I might be able to use later. Like the dead body in Chapter Three. Or the supposedly condemned house that is perfectly fine in Chapter Six. What could those be used for? Who knows?!?! That's the BEAUTY of it!!!

4th of July Writing Update

I wrote 2,320 words on the 4th, bringing my four-day total to 5,544 words and the total of the whole book so far to 13,026.

Writing Update

I added 1,776 words on the 3rd to Devil's Handiwork.

Whoa!

I just finished writing for the night, I just cracked 10,000 words!!! In the last two days, I've written more than 2,500 words: 337 on July 1st; 1,111 on July 2nd, and, so far on July 3rd, 1,140!!! I've got a total of 10,070 words. This thing could actually get done by August 1!!!

JulNoWriMo - Day One

July 1st, I only got 337 words written, thanks to thunderstorms, power outages, and miscellaneous life stuff. Arg.

Hope to get on track today, though.

This And That

Kenny and I went out to Copper's on Friday and Saturday to support another local band. Well, when we were there on both nights, everybody in the bar was all, "How come you guys aren't playing?" and "They should let you play tonight!" or "I'm gonna ask them if you can sing with them!" That was pretty cool....

I finished the outline for Devil's Handiwork and will start writing tonight so as to finish it by the end of the month.

YouTube yanked two of our videos today. "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Wild Night." They are both Van Morrison songs. Apparently, Mr. Morrison's record comany and lawyers want to charge astronomical fees for "syncing rights'... that is, the right to display a performance of a song. You see, apparently, even though the bar we played at pays licensing fees to ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and the Harry Fox Agency for bands to be able play cover songs in their bar, and while it is legal to record yourself playing those songs, you can't publicly display those performances without buying an exhorbitantly priced "sync license" from one of these agencies. Even if you aren't making money on the videos. Even if you EXPLICITLY say it is a cover of a song. Even if you EXPLICITLY say who the song was recorded by originally, performed by originally, and/or written by. Even if you EXPLICITLY say that you don't hold any rights to the song. You either pay the fee or have the video removed. YouTube's letter also implied that they would take down ALL our videos if we re-uploaded those two. I swear to God that I am going to record a version of the song except with my "Brown NOSED Girl" lyrics. Parodies are protected, even without asking the songwriter or anybody else.

The above item got me to thinking just how FLATTERED I would be - regardless of my fame - if someone covered my song and was proud enough of their performance to make that performance public. If I ever get famous, I am going to instruct my lawyers not to do anything to people who cover my songs in videos that were taken at shows or at home with their web cams or whatever (recording them for profit is a totally different story).

My back is still out. I have a tingling/numb sensation in my left pinky and ring finger and my left palm. I can feel the vertebrae that is out, but there is nothing I can do about it.

Writing Again!

So, tonight, I am finishing up the outline for Devil's Handiwork. I have been working on this for about three days. Thinking up stuff to happen in the middle is really hard. But this outline will really help me when I am writing. Once I have the chapter-by-chapter view I am working on now completed, I should be able to finish this thing up by the end of July. In fact, I know I will. I start in on what is called JulNoWriMo one the 1st. That jumble of letters is short for July Novel Writing Month. I need this thing done by the end of August because school starts back up then, and I'll never get it done then.

While writing the outline, I realized that the theme of honesty is running through the whole thing. This is probably because I detest lying so damned much.

Our Show this Weekend

Friday, the band and bunch of my family came over to help move things to the show. We went to the show, had something to eat, set up, and soundchecked. And we were awesome. There wasn't a very big crowd, at first, but the place filled up as the night wore on, and the whole performance was great, and I had a lot of fun doing it. The crowd was really into it, too. All kinds of people came up and told me I was a really good singer; in fact, this one lady went on and on and on about it. :D

The next day, I made set lists, and then got ready for the show, which took me a surprisingly long amount of time, as I was having a "fat day," which is is a day in which absolutely NOTHING looks good on me, to my eyes. I ended up wearing the same outfit I'd worn the night before.

So, we get to the bar, and one of my best friends is there, and I was so happy to see him there. It isn't very often that my friends come to my shows, so it was really, really nice to see him and another of my best friends there. One of my friends took a bunch of pictures and some videos of the first two sets of the show. As far as our performance went, we were pretty good. In my opinion, not as good as the night before, but, all in all, passable.

Songwriting

I saw on MySpace today that a film is looking for a song and they're running a contest to find said song. The film is called "Henry Poole is Here," and the prize is to get a video made by the movie's director for the submitted song.

So, I looked at the rules. Apparently, the song MUST be named "Henry Poole is Here" and MUST use those words in the lyrics; you grant them all rights in perpetuity for the song, and allow them to be listed as the author in the copyright. Then, they reserve the right to not let you be in the video, and the video may not be used at all... and the song may not be used at all. They won't give you royalties or any money at all for the song, either.

WTF? What a shitty deal.

The sorry part is that there will be bands and songwriters who will enter this contest simply to get a music video. They won't even read the rules and realize what they're giving up. Might be a decent promotional opportunity, but it looks like another ripoff to me.

In related news, I just entered a contest, but a real one this time, that actually has benefits for me. It cost me $35, but the grand prize is $50,000, so, yeah... worth it. Cross your fingers for me!

**YAWN**

I re-did my personal site... again. I keep getting letters from people that the light text on the dark background is hard to read. So, I changed it, almost back to where it was two years ago. It even has the same background as it did back then. Oh, well.

I also started writing a new song today. It's called "You're The Reason." I'm not finished with it yet, but I'll get it done tomorrow, probably.

Slightly Less Depressed

We had band practice on Friday, and that went really well. The originals are starting to sound quite polished.

Saturday, I went up to Sandpoint and went grocery shopping. Bought a HDTV and a new entertainment center to put it on. I like the new HDTV set-up for football already. NFL Network had the Steelers/Browns match-up from mid-season on this morning, and, holy schmoly! You can see every blade of grass! Kick ass. Some of the other channels (even in HD) aren't as amazing, but I guess they'll all get on a standard sooner or later.

I have been writing in Devil's Handiwork the last couple of days, but it isn't going very well. I suppose I should just write and leave the editing for later this summer. **sigh** But I have so much trouble doing that. I just can't leave it alone. I will write for a while, go back and read, and simply delete more than 75% of what I've written.

I watched CSI from Thursday night the other day (I'd taped it), and the season finale was, like, WTF?!?! They killed off my favorite character!!!

Later tonight I might start recording scratch tracks for the band's upcoming second album. The plan is to get these scratch tracks to the new guy so that the songs will all be in tempo and won't waver all over the timing spectrum. For whatever reason, I absolutely HATE recording. (I'm sure you all can figure out WHY I hate recording so damned much! ::grin::)

Grades

I got my grades for this semester today. Two more 4.0s! That makes three altogether!!

Been So Busy...

I tried for days to write my term paper, but couldn't get into the right frame of mind to do so. I was going to on Wednesday, but the fiasco with the studio was a major deterrent. Was going to Thursday, but I decided to watch TV instead. About 2 in the afternoon on Thursday, Kenny calls me and tells me to get ready to go to the Legion and that he'll be home at 4PM to go up to Cusick. I think this is odd because he never calls me that early in the day to tell me to do something unless it is like looking something up on the Internet. And I had thought all week that he was planning something, but I didn't think he would pick Thursday to do it because of a number of reasons. First, my Dad would have to work the next day. Second, Kenny himself would have to work the next day. So, even though I suspected that something might be up, I really didn't think that he would pull anything.

So, we went up to the Cusick Tavern and had tacos, as usual. After dinner, we got in the car to go to the Legion (as usual), and I started fixing my lipstick, which had worn off while eating. Because my head was down doing that, I did not see my Dad hiding his truck. When we pulled up to the Legion, I looked up and saw one of my best friends standing on the porch of the Legion. The jig was up!

Kenny had thrown me a surprise party, complete with balloons and cake and some of my friends and my family, so it was a really nice surprise. I only wish Dad and my friend could have stayed longer and that some of my other friends could have made it. My drummer and bassist came over a little later, and we all had a great time. It was a very nice party. :)

On Friday, after drinking pretty heavily the night before, I woke up at 6 AM after going to bed at around 1:30AM. I don't know why, but drinking messes with my sleep patterns. Anyway, so I ran to the store and bought water for coffee ('cause I was out... again) and a dozen donuts for the kids.

After that, I drank some coffee and then started writing my paper. I stayed writing my paper all day long. I finally finished the thing at 6AM Saturday. So, anyway, I finished my paper and went to bed and then got up the next day and swept and mopped the kitchen. I went to my aunt's house, and I worked on her son's computer for a while, trying to remove a virus and a trojan from the machine, to no avail. The hard drive was, eventually, reset.

On my birthday, I talked to my friend from Sandpoint for a while, and talked to Mom for a while, and finished dusting and vaccuuming and started cooking for everyone. I made rigatoni and cheese sticks and had chips and salsa set out for munchies.

I got up today intending to make my forum postings, but instead let the kids play on the computer for quite a while, and then I cooked dinner. I finally did get my forum postings made. Anyway, I have some more forum postings to do, but I will catch up on all of those later in the week, and then be done on Friday. Yay!

Tomorrow, I am working on my Sekrit Prawjikt. Wednesday, forum postings. After that, no clue.

I'm Finally Caught Up...

...until tomorrow.

Let's see... Mom and Dad came and got the kids Thursday, and the band practiced. That went really well, actually. Then, I went out with a bunch of friends to the Legion and bought my drummer birthday drinks. Everybody but Kenny got completely hammered. (!!!) (Kenny was the designated driver, as usual, because he can no longer hold his liquor. At all.)

Friday, needless to say, I was a little slow getting around. I was majorly hungover, and did not get to much school work at all before I had to pack up the band gear and get ready to go. We had a great show Friday. There was another birthday party there, and the bar was pretty full all night. I was pleased.

Saturday, I got myself together and finished my school work for the week (except for the forum postings and reading other people's stuff). The show Saturday was even better than the Friday show, for once. We were really good, and the vocals were really, really good, in my opinion. I know that some of the songs seem a little low for me now, but, when we actually get to practice them in the lower tuning instead of just hopping up and playing them without practicing them, they'll get better. I think. Anyway, the bar owner told Kenny that they made $4,000 over the weekend, which isn't bad at all. Definitely worth what they paid us. :)

I went up to Sandpoint and did the shopping for the month with the gig money. I bought the kids each a pair of pants and got Cait a pair of shoes (that were on clearance for $3!!!) and got my sister a birthday present and Hunter a birthday present.

The Band

We had band practice Saturday. It was actually quite a lot of fun, and cutting it down to one day a week has given me more time to deal with school and other stuff, but it has cut down our productivity A LOT. We aren't getting NEARLY as much done in the one practice as we were with two, in my opinion. but it did go really well. We have added six new songs to our covers list.

I guess other than that, nothing's really going on.

First "New Computer" Post

Well, I got my new computer set up! It's going to take a bit of getting used to. The screen is HUGE!!! The keyboard is a little light and delicate for my tastes and the mouse is a little bit big.... I haven't installed all my programs yet.

I moved my mail over from the old computer with nary a burp in the delivery of said mail; the only thing that pisses me off about the whole thing is that, since I downloaded IncrediMail on my old computer in 2005, they've changed their junk mail system, so, now, you have to pay $60 a year to get your junk mail delivered to a different folder. I am about THISCLOSE to switching to another mail program, but I am going to check into having junk mail re-routed before it ever reaches IncrediMail from my server.

The weather is seriously weird. Fifteen minutes ago, it was overcast and slightly warm. In the last ten minutes, it's rained, hailed, snowed, and sleeted (is that even a word? I think not...). Strange.

I have to make a shopping list, take a shower, and write a one-page paper proposal, so I guess I better stop farting around and get stuff done. More later.

Long Week

Okay, so: my week. I stayed up all night Tuesday night and did not go to bed until 9PM Wednesday. I got nothing accomplished (except I did write a really cool new tune, but I have no lyrics and none seem to be forthcoming, which really makes me sort of pissed). I got up Thursday at about 9AM and watched TV with the kids and got through their school work for the day and got ready to go to Spokane and got the kids packed to stay at my Mom's. Mom and Dad came and got the kids at 2:30PM, and me and Kenny left the house minutes later.

We drove into Spokane and went to the Verizon store where I got a new battery for my cell phone and car charger for it, as well. Then we went to Gonzaga and Kenny dropped me off there. I met my classmates and instructors.

The first session of the residency was pretty cool. The teacher had us draw stuff upside down and draw without looking at the paper and work with clay with our eyes closed. It was mindless and kinda fun. I made a cat. :)

After the class ended at 9PM, Kenny took me to Dairy Queen where I got a chili dog and a Moo Latte. We went home, watched the new CSI that I had taped while I was gone, and then went to bed. I got up at 6:30AM, got ready, and was in Spokane at 9:00 AM. The first class was at the library, where they showed us how to request books and articles for free if we lived more than 35 miles from the campus (SCORE!), and how to use a program that I will never ever use. After that, we all went over to the admin building and got our student ID cards, and I took a majorly crappy picture that makes me look slightly insane. After that, I ended up going to lunch with some of my classmates.

After that, I walked about a mile to get to where the next class was being held. After that, I went to the next class, where we dissected a Woody Allen film called Crimes and Misdemeanors. This process took from 1:30PM to 6:30PM.

I got up Saturday morning at 6AM, got ready and went to Spokane for the last day of the residency. The first class was all about the Benedictine monks. After that, we had a short break and then back to the second session of the day, in which we meditated for an hour. After that, we went to lunch.

I ended up chatting with a gal from Tucson and a lady from Jacksonville, FL for the meal. Then, they left another of our classmates (who was from back east somewhere) at the restaurant, so somebody (not me) had to go back and get him. The last session of the residency was about Shakespeare and Richard III and leadership, and we watched three different film versions of the opening scene of Richard III: one which featured Lawrence Olivier (or however you spell his name) in the 1950s (which featured Olivier as the main character with a Little Lord Fauntleroy haircut so that he looked like the evil prince from Shrek); another film in which the dude who played the wizard Gandalf in Lord of the Rings (you know, Ian McKellen) was the main character, but who was styled to look like Hitler; and a third film featuring Al Pacino as Richard III.

Anyway, Kenny did not want to go to the final dinner, so we skipped it and came home. I had to get some papers for Mom off my e-mail. While I was printing the first one, the power to my computer went off, and, at first, I thought this old computer had finally bit it as I couldn't turn it back on. So, I called Mom and told her to send the files to my Yahoo account so that I could print them from another computer. Just after I hung up with her, I checked the surge protector, and, indeed, the switch was flipped to off, as the heater Kenny had plugged into it had surged or something.

Anyway, so we went out to Mom's to get the kids. I got up Sunday at about 8AM and watched TV until band practice, I also cooked soup. Band practice went well, and tuning to "D" made all the difference in the world in the vocals. There are some things that will have to be worked out, but that will come in a few practices.I got up today at 9AM, loaded the dishwasher, and have been doing school work for most of the day. I only have one other thing I have to get done tonight and then I can relax. I am going to take a shower tonight and maybe do some reading for school. I have more reading to do tomorrow, and there are a couple of papers that I have to work on. Tomorrow, I am going to Wal*Mart to do grocery shopping. Tonight, I think I am going to move all the files and settings off this computer and ready for the migration to the new computer and set the new on up. I've had it for almost a week and it is still sitting there in boxes. I had intended on putting my office in the porch, but, for various reasons - not the least of which is the power situation - I am not doing that. Which makes me EXTREMELY unhappy

Some Good News

I did a search at the Copyright Office website and found out that "Rumors" has been officially registered with the Copyright Office. Only four more songs to go.

Miscellaneous Stuff

I forgot to mention this, but, the other day, Kenny ran into a certain former drummer of ours at Safeway. Apparently, he saw Kenny and asked him if we hated him. When Kenny told me this, I was like, "No, I really just don't care." According to this guy, he is now living in Oldtown (oh, joy!) because he got tired of his band in Spokane doing drugs, so he left.

I got a call today from the gal from Mom's church who wanted me to do a web site. She, apparently, has been on the road for 6 days a week, so has not had the opportunity to contact me. However, she called to ask about recording studios as she was looking for one to tour as she is apparently taking some recording studio/audio engineering course online and a tour of a recording studio is part of the program. So, I recommended the new studio owned by the guy who called me yesterday, as one of her prequisites was that the studio be both analog and digital, and this guy's does both.

The drainage situation is finally cleared up. (No pun intended.) Apparently, it was not the drain field, nor was the septic tank full. There were actually TWO problems: 1) there was a blockage between the tub output and the cleanout; and 2) there was a hair blockage in the tub itself. The plumber came over today (at no charge) and fixed the problem and even cleaned the tub for me. How nice!

The electrician is to come over on Tuesday and he will be completely re-wiring the breaker box, so I may be all day without power. In the meantime (probably later this evening) I will clean out the closet under the stairs so that I can put all the crap in the porch in the closet under the stairs. Once the porch is cleaned out, the electrician will be able to get to the breaker box easier, and, after that's done, I will be able to put my office in there. In other news, my neck is out, which is giving me a massive headache; I need to work out still today; I tried to call the drummer to find out if we were practicing Saturday or Sunday, but he was "out"; my new computer monitor will not be shipped until the 31st, so I can't set up my new computer until then (I could set up the computer with this computer monitor, but I'd rather not have to install drivers for it, so, I wait); I have to make plans for someone to watch the kids while Kenny is at work and I am in Spokane on April 3rd and 4th; and, lastly, I am making a list of songs to add to our setlist. Fun.

Kinda Depressed

I don't know what's wrong with me. It's almost as if EVERYTHING is wrong, and I don't know how to fix it.

Yesterday, I got a phone call from a recording studio in Spokane. I'd written to the guy on MySpace to find out, from his perspective, just how long it would take to produce and record five songs. He wrote back a few days ago basically saying, "A hell of a lot less time than a year." So, yesterday, he calls me, and we talked for quite a while about what has gone on with the studio who's been "working" on my songs. Anyway, he told me that he could get a full album's worth of recordings done for us in about two weeks. The only thing: he charges $3,000 per week. However, he said he was interested in a new web site for his recording studio and would consider a partial trade, so I might get it for half.

This guy was so nice on the phone, and already loves my band. He has our CD! So, I think we're going to hammer out the details in the coming weeks and probably start recording in June or July and I will pay it off in August so we can release the CD in September-ish.

However, despite that good news, I am still depressed. I don't really know what's wrong. I do know that several problems have sprung up around the house due to the melting snow. Because the melting snow has saturated the ground out back, there is a lake of standing water. Because of the standing water and the saturated ground, the drainfield is not working properly. As a result, there is sewage (poop and all) backing up into the bathtub. It smells like rotten eggs in the whole house and the drains are unusable. I had planned to work out and take a shower today, but that isn't going to happen because the drains aren't working.

Additionally, the power keeps blinking off for no reason whatsoever. So far, I have found only two plug-ins that are not wired to the same 20-amp breaker. When that breaker blows (at least twice a day), only the stuff plugged into the outlet by the kitchen table (my desktop computer and the desk lamp) and the stuff plugged into the outlets above the kitchen counter backsplash stay running; everything else (including ALL the lights throughout the house) go off. To fix it, you have to go reset the breaker. Kenny has no clue when the electrician is going to be there.

The plumber just finished clearing out the drains, but the sulfuric smell is not yet gone.

I Have Insomnia

Which is odd, because I am VERY tired.

Like I mentioned, I came down with a cold Monday night, had laryngitis by Tuesday, was plugged up Wednesday and Thursday... was so plugged up Thursday night that I didn't go to bed for fear of bugging Kenny, who, by then, had also contracted this stupid thing. I tried to sleep on the couch, but I could not breathe unless I was standing up. I can't sleep standing up, so I decided to give it up and started dinking around on my laptop.

I started playing with a recording program I have, and found an auto tune thingie, which will come in handy for recording later. Anyway, so while I was doing that, about 1PM Friday afternoon, I got a call from the bar we played at last weekend. They had called 6 or 7 other bands because their scheduled band called in sick, and all the other bands they called were also sick. He wanted to know if we would play. I said that, normally, I would jump at the chance, but we had all come down with something, too.

Anyway, so, after the call, I called Kenny to let him know. He was, at first, fine with me saying "no" to the guy 'cause we were sick, but, the more we discussed it, the more we talked ourselves into it. So, I called the bassist and asked him. He, though sick himself, said that he would do whatever we decided. I called the drummer and asked him. He wanted to play, and was disappointed when I said that I didn't know if we could do it 'cause we were sick. I told him that I would talk to Kenny and call him back in an hour or so and let him know.

So, Kenny and I talked it over some more, and decided that it was worth it, so Kenny called the bar back and told them that we would be there. So, I started warming up my voice. It wasn't terrible, but I had no stamina, no power, and I went into coughing fits every little bit. Not good. But, the more I worked it (and the more tea I drank), the better it got. Kenny brought me some cold pills, and that alleviated the stuffy head. I called everyone back and told them that we would be playing and to meet us at the house at about 6:30 or so. I called Dad and asked to borrow his truck.

So, we went to the show, and I felt like crap. I had a fever, sore throat.... I was MISERABLE. And my singing... was tentative, to say the least. We managed to get through it, though. We went home at about 2AM and I crashed. Sick, no sleep, and then a show? DRAINING.

I got up at 11AM and took a shower, cooked food for Kenny, did a load of dishes, and drank copious amounts of tea in preparation for the show Saturday night. I put on my make-up and did my hair in an adorable high ponytail and I trimmed my bangs so I looked very 1960s glam-ish. Or something. Anyway, I thought the hair and makeup combo was cute, and I picked out the most AWESOME outfit EVER to wear that night: it was just a simple pair of jeans, but for a shirt, I wore a CHAINMAIL TANK TOP. That's right: little silver rings all hooked together with tiny crystals dangling all over it. I only had a bra on underneath, so, over it, I put on this long, tight, black blazer with only one button, and the button was right under the boobs. The front of the blazer separated in the middle to reveal a little bit of the sparkly chainmail and my skin. It was AWESOME, and a HUGE hit all around.

Saturday night, Kenny was feeling worse than me, but we were both miserable, and the bassist looked like he was on death's door. The drummer was the only one who wasn't visibly sick, but even he said that he had felt like he'd been sick all winter, and wasn't 100% either night. In any case, for being sick and on last minute notice, we were AMAZING. I can't think of another band that would do what we did. We even pulled off "Radar Love" (a song that has troubled us for a while at practice) both nights, as well as both nights the weekend before.

So, Sunday, even though I went to bed at about 3AM, I didn't get up until 2PM. I did a load of dishes, watched a little TV, and just generally did nothing. I dinked around on the computer for quite a while. Which is where I still am. The Daylight Savings Time thing has really screwed with me. I want to be back on a day schedule, anyway, so I'll just stay up today and hope that no bars call this afternoon wanting us to play tonight. HA!

Arg.

I am still ill. The nights are way worse than the days, but they usually are, with colds. On the whole, though, I am feeling a lot better since the fever went away. I am just tired of blowing my nose and sneezing everything 30 seconds.

I'm Getting Sick...

...which irritates me to no end. I'm pretty sure I know where I got it, since Dad was so sick. The weird feeling in my throat professed to full-on laryngitis (sp?) by this morning when I got up. Though my voice returned somewhat a little later, I am still very croaky. The last time this happened in September, it progressed to a head cold. I could really do without that. Right this moment, I feel a little nauseated, I have a fever, and my throat hurts. In addition, I seem to be having some trouble spelling, as this paragraph has had to be edited three times for typos. Grr.

Re: Luck

Friday afternoon, I was working on school stuff, and got a call from a friend of mine. I helped him out with some MySpace stuff, but, while I was on the phone to him, I got a call from my bass player who told me that a friend of his told him that the band was scheduled to play at a new bar in Newport. I thought that was odd, so I had Kenny call the bar to find out if that was true.

He told them when he got them on the phone that he was calling to find out how they did booking: did we need to bring a demo? And they told us that the band they'd booked for their opening weekend (a band out of Spokane) had canceled on them, and could we come down and play that night? This was at 3:30PM. Kenny called the drummer - who was in Spokane at the time - and told him, and he rushed home to get ready. I rushed around and got ready and told the bass player to come down, that we had a show.

Dad came over and we loaded everything into his truck and went down there. The place was PACKED. There had to be 100 people there. We totally rocked the place with VERY few mistakes. It was awesome. It was standing room only, people 4 deep at the bar... and we rocked, feeding off the crowd energy.

Unfortunately, a night like that on the first night ALWAYS means that there will be almost nobody there the second night. Kenny thought that me and the bassist were totally wrong when we both (separately) predicted that that very thing would happen. I told Kenny that we would see.

Saturday morning, I got up and made blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs, and mashed potato patties for breakfast and then started repairing the dress I thought I wanted to wear for the show that night. But I was totally dreading going. I knew that there wasn't going to be a crowd.

Around 3PM, I got ready to go, but Dad was feeling terrible, so he didn't come to the show; instead, he stayed here and watched the kids for me. We got to the show, and I was right: there were (maybe) 20 people in the bar, and it didn't get very much better all night. People drifted in and out while barhopping, but there was never any more than 40 people in the place, and that was at the end of the night when all the other bars had closed down.

Afterward, Kenny gave the bar owner our card, and, apparently, the bar owner said he would put our band "into rotation" with other bands he was having. We'll see what happens.

Happy Leap Year!

I only get to post on February 29th once every four years, so I thought I would. I've been a little under the weather, so I think the break from the band for a few days will be good for me. We will practice again on Monday.

Dad called me today to tell me that he has a job interview. Cross your fingers for him!

I went shopping up at Wal*Mart today, and, the one time that Kenny wasn't right there with me, I got followed around by two coverall-clad goons. Le sigh. Anyway, I did really well with the bill and got (almost) everything I needed.

I wrote a song about loudmouths who feel the need to let me know they're moronic thoughts about my body and attire.

Ten Tips For Moving Up In Life

10. First, convince yourself that you are the awesomest thing to ever grace the planet Earth. You know everything. You can do anything. You are THE expert of ALL experts. Anyone who disagrees with you can kiss off. YOU ARE AWESOME. Repeat this saying whenever necessary. One day, you'll wake up, and you'll just believe it. You are Awesome Incarnate.

9. Kiss ass. A lot. Don't worry: you'll get used to the taste of it after a while. This goes hand in hand with Tip #7: no one really wants to hear the truth that their ideas suck, so, don't tell them! Then, take it one step further and tell the people who've paid you that their ideas are awesome. Tell them that THEY are awesome. Tell them how impressed you are by them and what they can do. Once you got them where you want them, move in for the kill (see Tip #2). Make everyone around you believe that you, Mister Awesome, are, in fact, so awesome that your opinion and approval means more than that of their family, friends, and professionals. Make lots of promises about how their incredible talent and smarts will take them everywhere they've ever wanted to go... so long as they follow your advice.

8. Assume that everyone around you is a complete, grade A, certified idiot. They probably are, anyway, and assuming that every single person around you is a bonafide airhead helps you when you use the next tip.

7. Lie. Lie about everything. No one really wants to hear the truth. In fact, you're probably doing a lot of it already without even knowing it. Every day people ask, "How are you doing?" And we all reply, "Fine, thanks," even when things are NOT fine. Starting to lie about bigger things will come easier when you truly believe that everyone you speak to is your intellectual inferior. Assuming people are imbeciles helps you lie because lying itself assumes that person being lied to is an idiot. When someone asks why your promises aren't showing up yet, just lie about the delay. You can't have them knowing that you aren't doing anything.

6. Combine Tip #7 with some good, old-fashioned gossip and opinions. If there's something you want but whoever's responsible for giving it to you is having doubts about your qualifications, tell that person that you did something similar in the past, even if you didn't. (This goes with Tips #7 & #8.) Tell the people you're dealing with that everyone else in the field doesn't know what they're doing or that these other people in the field (even if they are experts with WAY more experience than you) are just being negative and want this person to fail. If that doesn't work, tell the person questioning you that you have had dealings with the experts in question and that those people are complete losers who don't have a clue what they're doing and that they steal or do jobs half-assed (basically, assume that the experts in question have read this article and put it into practice). You really have to believe it. Be convincing! You don't want these questions coming up again!

5. When your promises never come through, just make more promises. Eventually, you will have to produce something, but it doesn't have to take up a lot of your time or energy. Making more promises will buy you enough time to slap something together to mollify the more persistent people you have to deal with to make it to the top.

4. If you are in a position of power, and someone appears to be smarter than you, tell them that they are ignorant, stupid, uninformed, and, if needs be, not qualified for your attention. Eventually, you'll break that person's spirit, and he or she will quit in frustration.

3. Adopt the mantra of "never enough." In ancient Greek philosophy, they called this pleanexia (play-AH-NEXEE-uh). You can never have too much power, too much money, or be too big of an asshole. You CAN make people respect you. But you have to keep these kinds of people under your control, believing everything you tell them, and under the assumption that you are going to help them, when you really aren't going to do anything. When questioned about anything you have said or done, use Tip #7 LIBERALLY. Tell the person that they heard you wrong, misunderstood you, or go all out and tell them that they don't know anything about the topic or what they are talking about. If confronted with facts from experts or written proof of what you said, deny it anyway. Most people give up. If confronted with more facts, figures, expert opinions, or pictures, simply ignore the proof and the people who confronted you with it. They'll go away eventually, and you can continue on with Tip #2:

2. Use people for all they're worth and then throw them away. Once someone has worn out their usefulness welcome, make sure they don't want to be anywhere around you or just stop taking their calls. After you got what you wanted from them, make them feel like crap whenever you can. Even if that person has paid you to do something, pretend they didn't. Pretend that you are doing that person a favor by working with them, long after you've cashed the check and spent the money.

1. Never, ever admit to anyone that you were only using someone. Never own up to your lies, overstatements, hyperbole, cheating, or stealing. Never admit that you never actually did a single thing (especially if you were paid for it). Lie for all you're worth if confronted. And if it ever goes to court, you better hope that they really were as stupid as you assumed they were.

There Are Days...

Before I say anything else, here is a link to an album on the band's gallery of AMAZING pictures that I took of the eclipse. You MUST check these out!

I used my dishwasher for the first time today. It seemed to work fine. It's noisy and it takes a long time to run a cycle. Other than that, I have no comments on it.

A client basically told me that I will have to start COMPLETELY over on the project because he changed his mind. He still has to pay me the $150 for the time I spent creating this other one. He doesn't know that yet.

I tried to update the band's message board and created a HUGE mess. I managed to straighten it out, but I am not happy.

I ran into this guy I used to know at a bar a few weeks ago. My Mom used to homeschool him. When I ran into him at the bar, I gave him my phone number thinking that he would never call. Unfortunately, I wrong. He never really got over his crush on me, even though it's been 15 years since I last saw him. He texted me for over an hour tonight, and, no matter how I tried to get rid of him (by not replying, by telling him to stop, etc), he just kept right on doing it! I finally shut my cell phone off in self defense.

Can't remember if I mentioned this (and I am too lazy to look), but, the other night, I got a call on my cell phone from a number I didn't recognize. This usually means work, so I answered it pleasantly, saying, "Crescent Moon..." I never even got to finish, because I was cut off by an extremely loud broadcast through the phone of some speech... with applause and everything! It sounded a lot like JFK, but it wasn't. The speaker was talking about Muslims and Islam and all kinds of things. I listened for over a minute, and then it occured to me that this might be one of those calls that "spoofs" your phone and makes calls to Outer Mongolia on your bill, so I hung up. And then I looked the number up on the Internet and found out that it was coming from an unlisted landline in Rhode Island, near Providence. Also, in my web search, I found out that this number randomly calls people at all hours of the day and night six and seven times a day without saying anything or just putting the phone up to the TV. There are lodged complaints on the Web about it. Anyway, so, that freaked me out, so I called the number, just to see, and it acted like it was a computer modem or something. So, I checked my toll free account to see which number they'd called: my cell phone number or the toll free number that routes to my cell phone. They'd called my toll free line, which ends up costing me TWICE because I get charged on my account limit for minutes on the toll free line, and , because it was before 9PM, I also get charged for minutes on my CELL PHONE. So, Kenny called the Providence police, who said that they would have their Internet and Communication Crimes Dept. look into it. Probably nothing will come of it, but, who knows?

Tomorrow is band practice, I think.

Songwriting

I've been in a musically creative mood the last couple of days. I re-wrote the chord structure to one song, re-wrote the lyrics to another song, and have started on another song. I only have bits and pieces at the moment, but you can tell that it is themed, and the lyrics I've been jotting down are all in a similar vein, despite the length of time over which these lyrics were written:

November 21, 2007
I don't know how many ways you're wrong
I just know that you are

January 10, 2008
It's a stretch for me
To suspend my reality
And use it in ways
For which it was never intended
And it's a stretch for me
To just sit back and believe
Everything you're telling me
And pretend that I am not offended

February 19, 2008
Please stop assuming that I am
The way that you would be
If you were me

The process of songwriting is majorly killer. I love it. I see how the threads are all coming together. It's amazing, seeing something being created right in front of you. And, even though I'm the one doing it, it feels like I'm not, almost as if I am nothing more than a tool for this song to come into existence. It's weird.

Okay, that was corny. Moving on....

Kenny's been gone the last two days to a conference in Spokane for Stratford Homes. He should have taken a bunch of my business cards as everyone there wanted a web site. He said that he probably got me some business, anyway, but I kind of doubt it.

I have to do school stuff tomorrow. Wednesday... I don't know. Thursday is band practice. Friday... I don't know again. In fact, I only know what I am up to on Thursday, really. And that might even change.

Boringness

My life is boring here lately, which, strangely, is a good thing. Nobody's bugging me badly, and I've been doing school work (a paper and a "group" project) and regular work and cleaning and playing guitar and piano and such.

Kenny and I went out on Thursday to the movies and saw Jumper, which wasn't bad... it wasn't great, either, but it was entertaining. We were going to go out to dinner, too, but, by the time the movie let out, everything was closed.

We went out Friday night, too. There was a steak special at the Cusick Tavern, so we went there, ate, and then went to the Legion for drinks and pool. We didn't stay long because we all intended to go to The Rio to hear the band, but the weather was so bad when we left the Legion that we decided to just call it a night around 9PM. I spent the remainder of the night looking up sheet music for songs we want to add to the set list.

Today, I got up a little later than usual, did some school work (checked on forum postings and downloaded other people's projects so I could comment on them tomorrow), worked on the site I referenced above, talked with Dad, worked out after Dad left, took a shower, and am now working on the site again. I had hoped to write today, but I don't think that I am going to be able to get to it.

Tomorrow, Kenny might have to go to a convention in Spokane for work, and my Mom kinda wanted to come over. Monday is band practice, and we will go over the sticking points in the cover material and start choosing which songs to record for the upcoming record. I want to write one more song - something that really rocks with BIG drums and bass - but I don't know if I will get the inspiration to do so. Tuesday on... I am not sure what is happening.

Of Ancient Breakfast Sausages and Other Things

So, Saturday, I went into Spokane in the afternoon with Kenny and my Dad. We started by going to JCPenney where Kenny got himself some new pants. Then, we went to Guitar Center, and I got my guitar strings. Next, I nagged Kenny into taking me to Dairy Queen and getting a Moo Latte (and to go to the bathroom... I don't know why JCPenney doesn't let anyone use their bathrooms, but they don't; you have to go into the Northtown mall to go pee, and I didn't actually go into Guitar Center due to the fact that the parking lot was covered with eight inches of slush and we had to park half a mile away from the store because of Outback Steakhouse's moronic, Gestapo-like idea that they can bogart public parking spaces for their "curbside take-away." Bastards).

After the quick Dairy Queen stop, we went to Michael's (the craft store), and I bought the acrylic resin for the "Weiner Award" as well as a new pair of scissors, some thread, some elastic, this neat rhinestone iron-on thing in the shape of a fleur-de-lis, a cute mirror for my livingroom, and some floral wire for another project. Next, we went out to eat at this place in Northpointe called Brooklyn's. They undercooked both my and Dad's hamburgers, even though we both asked for well-done. Luckily, neither of us suffered for it.

After that, we went to Wal*Mart where I bought party supplies and a treadmill and spent more than $300. Yipes.

Late that night, I put together the Weiner Award. Now, this acrylic stuff is dangerous. It says not to breathe it in, not to get it on your skin, not to accidentally get it in your mouth or your eyes... and the catalyst you add to it is even worse. Well, I got out this little container that Crisco shortening sticks come in that had a lid. I went out into the porch to mix everything. I took the cap off the acrylic resin, but they had soldered down another cap inside of it! I couldn't get it off, so, after trying to get the damned thing off for about 15 minutes, I finally went and got a church key and poked a hole in the can. I poured the stuff into an old frosting container and mixed it with the catalyst, and the whole place started to smell like cans of spray paint. It was terrible.

I finally got it all mixed up and poured it into the container with a thin piece of transparency paper, onto which I had written: "You're The WEINER!" with a Sharpie marker. I poured in more goop, and then stuck the breakfast sausage in there. It wanted to rise to the surface. So, I stuck a half a toothpick into the weinie and braced it against the lid of the Crisco container, put the whole thing in a Ziploc baggie and sealed it and brought it inside, because the damned stuff wouldn't set up right out in the cold; it has to be at room temperature.

I cleaned up everything else, but the whole house smelled like spray paint, despite my best intentions. Right before going to bed, I checked on the weinie, and found that the container was so hot that I couldn't touch it. It was as hot as any pan would get on the stove on "medium" or whatever. But, by morning, it looked fantastic. Kenny took it outside and ground off the sharp and uneven edges, and it looked like a real award. The Sharpie writing on the transparency didn't hold up real well, but I just re-wrote it on the outside of the award. That came off, too, but it can always be re-written. I don't care.

Sunday morning, I picked up clutter and cleaned the bathroom in preparation for the party. The DirecTV guy got here at about 11 AM and fixed our satellite dish, so we did have that for the party. I cooked pizzas, cheese sticks, taquitos, and put out chips and dip. I had 3 and half cases of beer and 3 and half cases of soda. It was a successful party. Here are a few pictures, including one of Carl winning the "Weiner Award." It's the only current picture in existence of the "Weiner Award." I'd definitely check it out.

We have band practice tonight. Other than that, I have no idea what's happening with the week.

LoOoOoOng Day

My day started out crappy. I was informed that the satellite was not working, so, before I had gotten any coffee or anything, I had to trudge through hip-deep snow to get to the satellite dish, only to find out that the rain gutter had become completely full of ice and collapsed on the satellite dish, knocking it down. It didn't knock it off the house, but it pointed it at the ground. So, I hammered out enough ice to get the gutter off the dish, and I pushed it back up where it belonged, but, of course, it did not go back to working. NoOoOoOoOoO.

So, I called Kenny who called DirecTV to get it fixed. They can't even get here until Sunday morning. Hopefully, they'll have it fixed before the party, and I think they will. In the off-hand chance that they don't, though, I will simply run a line from my Internet cable (which also sends me local stations) and we'll watch the game that way. No harm done.

Well, while Kenny was home, he started shoveling the three-plus feet of snow off the roof of the basement. Hunter went up to help him, but was wearing cowboy boots (which aren't very good for traction, don't you know), so Hunter was basically pushing the snow from high up where there was a board to brace himself. Kenny, however, was wandering all over the roof pushing snow. While he was shoveling the porch, he fell two or three times, finally causing me to get a length of rope and tie it to the banister of the stairwell and run it through Cait's window in an attempt to tie him off and keep him from falling onto the pavement below. However, this never came to fruition as Kenny got a phone call that the snow shoveling crews were all over at the office wanting paid. So, Kenny left to do that, and then he left the office to go get more cash to pay more people and then go get some rope to take out to a crew in Deer Valley who, apparently, had an epidemic of people falling off the roof.

Shortly thereafter, Kenny returned with a Bobcat to plow all the snow that was removed from the porch roof (which was now on the pavement below) so that people could safely come into to the house for band practice tonight and for the Superbowl party on Sunday. After doing that, he left again to run more errands.

In the meantime, the drummer showed up with his daughter and his cousin (both under the age of 13). The kids all went off to play, and the drummer proceeded to play drums for almost an hour while I was desperately trying to finish my theoretician profile before I had to cook dinner. I didn't get that done. I cooked dinner for the band, the drummer's cousin and daughter, and the kids and Kenny, and then we all started watching this DVD that the bassist brought with him. We watched it for a while, and then we practiced for maybe 40 minutes before calling it a night, as Kenny was giving up the ghost. He fell asleep on the couch about 10 minutes after we went on break. The band left after we scheduled another practice for Monday night, and I tried to finish the dishes (still not done with that) and finished the paper that was due at midnight. I missed the deadline by an hour, but I do hope that the instructor will be forgiving: after the day I had, somebody ought to take some pity on me that I even managed to write a word considering everything that is going on.

So, the PLAN is... tomorrow (Saturday), Kenny is going to work until noon or 12:30, and then we are going to Spokane. I am going to buy the resin I need to make the Weinie Award, some guitar strings, and some other stuff, and then I will come home and make the Weinie Award. Sunday is to be the party, and, hopefully, we'll have the satellite back in working order. Monday, band practice.

But with Kenny's work schedule (and with the impending loss of our only running car at the moment due to the fact that it got rear-ended at a stop light in Sandpoint and it will need to be repaired at some point), I don't think I am going to get to do ANYTHING I want and/or need to do.

Writing. Studying. Researching.

I've spent the vast majority of the day researching a communication theoretician for a paper that I must turn in my 11:59PM Friday. The only reason I was doing it today was that, while I was writing in Devil's Handiwork last night, I suddenly remembered that something was due on February 1st. So, I checked, and a 5 page paper was what was due. Sigh.

Yesterday, like I said, I wrote in Devil's Handiwork, but I also did a bunch of domestic things. I did up all the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. Carl came over and helped me install the lighting fixture I bought for the bathroom.

As for Devil's Handiwork, here's a brief excerpt of some stuff I wrote yesterday:

"So, you're the psychic," Victor said after a while, breaking my reverie.

I forced myself not to react. "No," I said, finally. "I'm not a psychic, but I’ll take four-ninety-nine a minute to tell your future."

He laughed. "Got a smart mouth on you. Rich never mentioned that." He was silent for a moment. "So what is it that you do, anyway?"

"Is it important that you know?"

"I guess not," Victor said. He smiled and flipped some switches on the panel. "Let's just say that your reputation precedes you."

"Do you mind if we don't talk?" I said.

He grinned. "Yeah, actually." He cast me a side-long glance. "How about some small talk? That okay?"

I remained stoic, to say the least. The last thing I needed was a lovesick cling-on in the likeness of a casino high roller. No, thank you.

I managed to keep him off the topic of me for about three hours. I got him talking about his casino and the day-to-day operations involved with that for almost an hour. Then, he went off on some tangent about the government for another hour or so. When I came back from a trip to the restroom – finally free of the God-awful sequins and wig – somewhere between Denver and Houston, he started in again.

"So, how did they recruit you?" he finally asked.

"You don't give up, do you?"

"No," he said. "So, how about it?"

"Not on your life."

"I can handle it," he prodded. He reached out and laid his hand on mine.

I placed the index finger of my left hand on a nerve at the back of his neck, and I watched as his face went slack. "Listen, Victor," I said. "I think you’re a decent guy and probably don’t mean any harm, but I have to warn you, now, okay? You're on thin ice. Trust me: you do not want to know anything about me. The less you know, the safer you are." I removed his temporarily paralyzed hand from mine. "In fact, it's probably for the best that you forget you ever saw me once this plane lands."

As soon as I took my hand from his neck, his muscles twitched back to life, and he glared at me, his face bright red. "You could have just said, 'no'. You didn’t have to go all Spock on my ass."

"Did I make myself clear?" I asked.

"Crystal."

Interesting Video

Click here (I can't get the embed fuction to work today.)

Vapor Lock

I've been in a funk. Nothing really set it off, but, in a funk, I remain. Le sigh.

Friday, I got my refund check from my school money, so, Friday night, I went out to dmajorfifth's and the cluster picker's house and repaid them the last of the money that Kenny borrowed from them almost 2 years ago. Then, I went up to Sandpoint.

My first stop was at Home Despot (intentional misspelling) to try to buy the casting resin I need to create the Weinie Award for the winner of the Pick 'Em League I've been hosting on the band's message board. This is the second year I've done it, and, this year, I wanted to continue the "Great Weinie Caper" by gifting the winner of the Pick 'Em League with a "trophy" of this petrified, ancient breakfast sausage. (God, that sounds hilarious!) Anyway, [unscheduled rant break]

Arg!!! Sprint just sent another of their customers to me via my toll free number!!! Do these people NEVER LEARN?!?!?!?

[end: unscheduled rant break]

Anyway, back to Home Despot: I went there to look for two things. One, I want to get a portable dishwasher; and, two, I needed that acrylic resin. They didn't have the dishwasher, so I went to the paint department to look for the resin. The guy in the paint department immediately said that they didn't have the resin, but they did have a polyurethane-type stuff that would do the job. They were out of the stuff, which is $20 per quart. So, I bought nothing there. After that, Kenny and I went to this Mexican restaurant in the same parking lot with Home Despot, and we had dinner. The food was decent (not as good as the Mexican restaurant in Newport, but edible).

After that, we went to a friend's house and we stayed there for quite a while, talking, so we didn't get to Wal-Mart until almost 9PM. I hadn't been shopping in a good long while, so there was a LOT of stuff that I needed. Rather than bore you with that, I'll tell you this: while there, I saw this little sweeper vac thing that looked perfect for small vaccuuming things around the house. It was misplaced on the shelf, so I had no clue how much it was, but I bought it, anyway. Also, I purchased some hair color. When I got home, I took the vaccuum thing out of the box and started to assemble it. That's when I realized that the manufacturer had not included the part that attached the handle to the unit, and they had not included the battery charger plug. So, that had to go back.

I had also purchased a new lighting fixture for the bathroom (which will have to be installed with the electricity shut off), and a clip-on desk lamp to go over the stove, so I could see to cook. Well, Saturday, Kenny went to the store, I had him get me more lightbulbs, since the kids used them all. He bought 100 watt bulbs. I told him when he was putting one in the desk lamp thing that it was too powerful for the lamp, but he said that he "didn't buy weinie bulbs." I let it go. I was cooking some chicken at the time, and boiling some pasta. I'd just taken the pasta off the stove and drained it and gone over to the fridge to get the butter when I heard this horrible BANG behind me. I turned around to see that the lightbulb had exploded all over the top of the stove. Luckily, the pasta was well away from the glass fragments, and I'd put a lid on the pan with the chicken in it, so the food was all right. But smoke was rolling out from the desk lamp. I thought it was ruined, too, but, the next day, Kenny went and got some 60 watt bulbs, and the lamp still works and it hasn't exploded that bulb.

Last night, after failing to find a portable dishwasher at either Home Despot or Wal*Mart, I went online and found exactly what I was looking for. So, I ordered it! Now, I don't have to do the dishes anymore!! Yay!!

As for me, I should be working on Devil's Handiwork.

Ding Dong

The engineer finally sent me the last two songs. Out of the five, I like what they've done on one of them. I don't know about you, but 1/5ths of something isn't a lot to me....

Anyway, I've conveniently uploaded the songs to my server. Internet Explorer should "Right Click/Save Target As..." and Firefox should Right Click "Save Link As." Both work the same, I found out today....

The Cover

Strings

My thoughts: I like "The Cover." It's starting to sound like an actual song, and they are doing things (that I like) that I wouldn't have thought to do, which is what I would actually pay a producer to do. As for "Strings," it is the most important song to get right, and they've clearly blown the feeling the music needs to have to support the lyrics. The verses are okay... but the choruses and the bridge are not right. The choruses and bridge will have to be completely redone. The music has to tell the story the same way the lyrics do because, if these get sold to TV or film, they probably won't use the version with the vocals and lyrics. And right now, the music isn't doing that.

I spent the entirety of the day watching football, and the Superbowl will not be "super" anything. Were it not for the fact that I have several people playing in the football pool, I might not watch it at all. As it is, I will be having a party here for the Superbowl and will likely give out the prizes for the pick 'em league.

Tomorrow, we are to have band practice, and the kids are out of school for the day. Tuesday, I don't know. Wednesday, Kenny has pool league. Thursday should be band practice again and I have a paper due.

Blech

I have heartburn and it refuses to go away. If I eat a Rolaids, it will go away for two or three hours and then be back, burning my throat. Arg.

Band practice went well. We got through some of the tougher songs, but it is apparent to me that we still need to practice them a BUNCH more.

I don't have that much to say right now; I'm only posting because today is the 4th anniversary of this blog!

Fun

Cait and I played Scrabble and - would you believe - she got 429 points and I got 435?!?! No, seriously: I spelled "christen" (building off an 'r' already there, and using all my letters) on a double word score, and, a play later, Cait spelled "virtual" on a triple word score and also spelled "rarer" at the same time (building off "rare" with her 'r'). I spelled "zephyr" on a double word score, and Cait spelled "zodiac." We also spelled "qua" and "jade" and "axes" and "phantom" and "nature" and "sword." Aw, hell. I took a picture with my cell phone. Here it is:

Circulent

I did some work on Devil's Handiwork! I actually created a name for the company Shelby worked for as a spy: Circulent.

I know... you're thinking, what the hell is that? Well, I was looking up stuff on corporate symbology (and got all sidetracked on how Freemasons and the Illuminati are rumored to influence corporate logos and branding and whatnot, which I don't buy, really)... and the star, Sirius, kept coming up in the symbols. Sirius is, of course, the brightest star in the sky... the Dogstar... Canis major... aaaannnyyyyyway....

So, I am thinking, "Sirius... Sirius... Sirius...." while looking at a Wikipedia article on the naming etymolgy of companies. And I kept reading on there where these companies just jam two unrelated words together and create a new word for their company. So, I looked up Sirius in the dictionary for ideas. And it said "bright, shining" and I thought, Luminescent.

So I go to look that up, and my eye lands on another word: lucluent. I forget the exact meaning of that, but it is pronounced, "LOO-ku-LENT." So, I combined that word with "Sirius," spelled it with a "C" and got Circulent. (Which would be pronounced as "SIR-ku-LENT.")

Now that word has some connotations! Light, brightness, the star as a symbol(more Freemasonry crap, if I need to add it for some reason), the star as a... star... PLUS... it sounds like it could have something to do with a circle, which could come in handy, too!

Well, I Did It

I am officially a Gonzaga student. I now have to buy books, contact the financial aid office, and get acquainted with my professors. I can't wait!

Happy New Year

Well, lessee... My last journal entry was just before Christmas. We had a nice holiday, and I kept myself very busy, as usual. I've got one major project to do, and then I am probably going to do some work for a friend of mine this coming week.

Dad and Carl came over here for football on Sunday, and we played Hearts, which was fun. I spent the vast majority of the New Year's holiday with my cousin, his girlfriend, and The Twins playing Dungeons & Dragons (showing my nerd colors here). We went out to the Legion on New Year's Eve and listened to a karaoke band (which is just as weird as it sounds; amazingly, they were still able to mess up) and drank.

Other than that, nothing's happening. I have the urge to write, but I don't have the motivation at the moment. I am in limbo because this school thing is taking so long to get going.