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[x] Rayna and I were making rounds at the local stores to finish up some Christmas shopping today and let me tell you. People are retarded. There were too many small incidents to even start to describe, so I'll just leave it at this: people are retarded.

[x] One place we stopped was the liquor store and it was one of the most depressing things I've ever witnessed:

Two long lines full of people. Almost twenty people. ONE of which was buying gifts. It was about 3 in the afternoon and the place was packed with people who were startlingly similar. All about 50 years old, and all looked like they had been smoking for about 45 years. And every single on of them had a medium sized bottle of cheap liquor. Some of them vodka, most of them whiskey, but all cheap brands and all medium sized. They all had the same sad, lonely look on their face like they were about to go back to a house that nobody would be visiting this weekend. One guy about half way back in line looked around at all the people and mumbled to those near him, "heh, 'tis the season." His voice cracked and it sounded like he was going to cry...maybe it was just from trying to speak softly. I'm sure smoking for decades didn't help either. The tone of his voice left me wondering if he was realizing the sadness in the room, or just commenting on the long lines.

[x] Today the grades from this semester got posted to UAB's website and so I checked 'em out:

4 A's,
1 B

I am so FUCKING surprised.
I mathematically earned exactly an 87 in one class, but was given an A. I thought I had one A, a couple of B's and maybe a C. The questionable C?...it was an A.

Do I regret having perfect attendance to every class all semester? Fuck no! I guess it counts for more than you think.

So that's a 3.91666667 for this semester and it brings my overall GPA to a 3.48... pretty good.

[x] Also, I gots me an Xbox 360 now that school's over and I have time to play it. The games are pretty cool, but it's the non-game features that make it a step forward for gaming consoles. It does a lot of stuff. I will now go tinto a NERDY description of the main features of it:

I used mine to play Hexic HD (XB Arcade where you can download games for small prices) while I USB-streamed music from my iPod through my surround system, while I chatted to a friend in Las Vegas who was playing Perfect Dark single player on his sytem. I felt like I was a commercial for all the system's features, and it was really cool. They say it's called the 360 because it's supposed to be "the center of your home theatre"...well, it IS the center of my home theatre for sure. You can stream music and pictures from your PC also. The slideshow is pretty cool, but I won't use it very much. Also, it only reads from my basic "My Music" folder and not from the iTunes library I've accumulated. I was really really excited to see that I could download an AAC (like an apple version of mp3) encoding patch that allows it to play the 2000 AAC files I have on my iPod.

Right now, Rayna's watching DVDs of "Friends" while I type this and voice-chat with that same dude (Josh!) through the controller/headset...all through the same system at the same time. Wooo!

[x] I LOVE having no school for a while.

[x] Semester is over. Grades will be coming soon, but I don't care...as long as it's over. Then in January, it will be an even worse workload. MUST...ENJOY...VACATION....

[x] So, because this semester was such a bitch for everybody, we decided to throw a bit of a hoedown to celebrate our survival of it. It was at Dan's and it was fun. We usually get a good four hours of craziness in a night. This normally happens from 11pm-3am...or about like that. Last night we started at 8pm and were done by midnight. We kept hanging out and what-not, but the alcohol was retired for the night.

[x] Guitar Hero for the PS2 is a damn fun game. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to ROCK. We played it all night long at Dan's. Mixed with alcohol, it becomes more about showmanship and less about musical accuracy... that's how I like it.

[x] Yesterday was my Mom's birthday. So, at about 10:30PM, I realized that I haven't called her yet to extend a Birthday greeting. Like I said above, by 10:30 I had quite a few beverages in my system. So I called...my Dad. Yes... I called my Dad, woke him up, told him Happy Birthday, and before he could finish saying "huh?" I said "aw man, I called the wrong parent"...another "huh?" from him. I said "today is Mom's birthday, but I called you"...he said "oh." Then I said "I'm not 100% sober right now." He chuckled and told me to call my mom. So I did. I called her and it was all cool. My dad called me this morning and I apologized. He said he had a good laugh at it and that I'd hear that story again someday....great. :)

[x] I took some great pictures last night as well.

[x] Today is my one year anniversary of marriage, but it's not that important...last month was 5 years of being together. I'd rather celebrate the one that actually means something... the marriage date is more of a legal thing than a meaningful thing. Sure, it's important, blah blah blah, but not as much to me.

[x] Work continues, school takes a break, life continues.

[x] If there were "balls in the air" that you juggled (a common metaphor for daily responsibilities), mine would be getting heavier, more numerous, and begin moving with an accelerated gravitational pull. The semester is winding down like the water at the bottom of a flushing toilet and I've got to do some fancy swimming to avoid the turds that are out to get me. God damn, I'm like the king of applied literary devices.

[x] The Halloween party was a success. Especially if you measure success by whether or not you threw up. I haven't thrown up for any reason in a year and a half, and even that one was only a single mouthful. Saturday night I broke the streak bigtime. I had made this cool toxic-colored green punch that was made up of orange juice, tang, blue curaco, green apple pucker, some 100 proof berry schnapps, and a shitload of vodka. It tasted pretty good and a couple of cups was all you needed. I had a little more than I needed. We cooked a couple of freezer pizzas for everyone (which were also the only thing I ate ALL day) which made for some interesting puke. It looked like slime from Nickelodeon with mozzarella cheese.

Speaking of puke, how does your body know when you're at the toilet? HOW? You know what I'm talking about: you feel sick and so you walk to the bathroom and the moment you get ALMOST to the toilet it spews. Just close enough to where the first 1/4 hits the side of the toilet and the rest goes in. If you had never got up and walked to the bathroom, you wouldn't have thrown up at the same time, but since you got within reach of the toilet, your stomach goes heave-ho and spits it right up. Your brain doesn't want it to come up, so why does it? Your stomach can't SEE. How does it know when the last possible moment is...and then spew exactly one second BEFORE that moment? I don't know how, but it keeps me up at night.

[x] Ben Folds in Atlanta 11/15. Gonna rock.

[x] I just ordered Dave's Gourmet Ultimate Insanity Sauce. This stuff will KILL you. It's hot sauce. But not like, "oh, I like hot sauce" or "I had this sauce this one time that claimed to be the hottest ever"....this stuff will KILL you. You can not possibly understand how hot this shit is. If you want hot hot sauce, don't look for ones with intimidating names like "Ass Blaster" (I've really seen that one) or "Anus Bleeder" (ok, I made that one up)...skip the gaudy looking ones and go for a modest-looking bottle of Dave's (found cheapest by far on eBay stores). At first you will be glad you did, but then you won't be glad when you're crying tears of pain and your asshole looks like a blowtorch.

[x] I'm supposed to be doing art assignments right now. I'm a wee bit of a procrastinator.

[x] For the first time in weeks, I know what I'm doing in all of my classes. One of the upsides of being an art major is the open-endedness of your assignments. That's a huge downside for me, though, because I CAN make art but I have the most bring ideas about what to do with my abilities. I always want to do something I haven't done before and I've already done the things I like...so what do I do? Well, the stress of that is temporarily gone because I am now diligently at work doing the HUGE project I decided on. I've written myself a pretty big check, commitment-wise, and now it's time to cash that mutha as well as I can. I really hope that this thing falls into place how I want. But it'll probably get partially shot down because it doesn't exactly fit the requirements in some ways. But it could be quite nice if it works.

I know I'm talking in completely vague and un-understandable terms right now, but this is MY journal and I know what I'M talking about so bugger off.

I received this survey thing on myspace via bulletins from a friend. I really wish people wouldn't use those things like a damn chain letter, it's so annoying. Anyway, I thought this one was actually a little interesting, so I'm doing it...but I'm not going to send it to everybody I fuckin' know, they can come here if they want to read it and I won't bother them.

***I will answer most of these as if they only apply to me starting after my parents divorce and my subsequent move to Alabama (at kindergarten age).

1. What was the first car your family had?
White '88 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme

2. What was the name of your first pet and why?
Cottontail. White cat with the fluffiest fur ever, found her on Easter, so...yeah.

3. What was the name of your elementary school?
Hewitt-Trussville Elementary

4. Who was your first best friend?
Tommy Noblin

5. Are you still friends today, and if not, what happened?
No. He turned into a redneck.

6. What was your favorite board game?
Uh...Monopoly Jr.

7. What was your favorite cartoon?
Doug (only when it was on Nickelodeon)

8. Did you play house or other make believe games?
Sure. I was quite imaginative.

9. Were you a Dungeons and Dragons geek?
Nope.

10. Did you sleep with stuffed animals as a kid?
Don't think so.

11. Do you still sleep with stuffed animals?
Just Rayna.

12. Who was the first person you looked up to when you were younger?
...tough one... my Mom, I guess.

13. Who was your favorite relative?
Granny

14. Were you short or tall in elementary school?
short, but back then the gap wasn't as big as it is now

15. Were you teased in school?
Not in elementary, not in high school, just a little in the middle.

16. What was the name of your favorite teacher?
I guess Ms. Reddick, since she got me into art.

17. What was the name of your least favorite teacher?
There are lots of them. Virginia Volker, but that's at UAB. In my younger days, I'd say Mrs. Bishop. I only had her for one elective class, but that bitch held a grudge.

18. What was your best subject in school?
Art.

19. What was your worst subject in school?
Algebra to Pre-Cal. Every other math class I excelled at, until they put letters in there.

20. Did you do well in Physical Education?
yeah

21. Were you clumsy when you were younger?
nope, very coordinated

22. Who was your favorite band or artist as a kid?
Michael Jackson

23. What was your favorite movie as a kid?
Aladdin

24. Did your parents read to you?
A little bit.

25. Did you have a favorite book?
The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales

26. What was your favorite restaurant as a kid?
I dunno, McDonald's?

27. On what TV or movie star did you have a crush?
Larisa Oleynik, from the Secret World of Alex Mack

28. Do you now wonder what you were thinking?
nope

29. Who was your first crush in school?
Erin D. in first grade.(last name initial only for anonymity's sake...I don't want to be rude)

30. As a child, what kind of car did you want when you grew up?
Lamborghini

31. Did your parents spank you?
Sure

32. Did your parents fight a lot when you were a kid?
Don't remember, I think they must have hid it pretty well.

33. Did your parents get divorced or stay married?
Divorced.

35. Did you ever run away from home?
Never.

36. How old were you when/if you first got glasses?
I have perfect vision.

37. Did you need braces or a retainer?
no.

38. If you're male, how old were you when you had your first wet dream?
no idea. I can't remember ever having one.

39. Both sexes when did you start shaving?
yesterday

40. Girls when did you start wearing a bra?


41. What was your first kiss like?
If truth or dare counts, it was awkward but good. If truth or dare doesn't count, it was fantastic.

42. What did you do on your first date?
dinner and a movie

43. How old were you when you first drank?
17, I think

44. Where was your first house?
Apartments in Trussville

45. What did you want to be when you got older?
Hockey player

46. What were you scared of when you were little?
pretty much what I'm sacred of now.

47. When and what was your first bad word?
Too young to remember, but I'm told that I once said "shit" about 30 times in a row as a toddler.

48. What was your favorite outfit when you were a kid?
MC Hammer pants

49. What was your nickname as a kid?
chris...I don't know WHERE they came up with that one

50. What kind of lunch box did you bring to school?
plain plastic thermos

51. Which of these things embarrass you the most?
Nothing. I wear my MC Hammer pants proudly.

[x] School just continues to march on. Every week there's another huge pile of work to pump out. The light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to appear and next semester looks like it may be a bit easier. I don't have a plan for afterwards or anything, but I still want to be done with school. I am enjoying my Photoshop class, though. I feel like I'm making art in there.

[x] So I joined myspace. Bunch of my friends were on it, so I followed. My name on there is pooberry. I have some truly awesome pictures on there. I will continue to keep my journal flowing through this outlet and just link to it from there. Partly because if I move to there, I'll be throwing all of this content I worked on away...and I really hate the word "blog."

[x] Going to see Ben Folds in Atlanta on November 15th. It's gonna rule ass.

[x] My assistant manager said he found this journal through my myspace page and was disappointed by the lack of things I said about him. Well, here you go: Jason eats poop.

[x] I hosted a Halo 2 tournament yesterday. I say "I" hosted but it was EB who supplied the equipment, I just was the one who worked a 13 hour day and did everything myself to make it happen. Really, I spent just over 4 hours setting up a room full of 8 Xboxi all on a LAN (so everyone had their own screen). NBC 13 came by and interviewed me and the owner of the Pizzeria where it was held. They only used him talking (mine was too nerdy and technical) but they did show some on-screen action of me kicking his ass at Halo. Then I held the games, then packed it all back up and took it back. It was fun, though. I'd rather be doing that and getting paid than doing regular job stuff, even if it was more work.

[x] Rayna and I are hosting a Halloween party tonight. It'll be fun stuff. I've just got to spend all of today getting things ready.

[x] My Photoshop teacher really likes the work I do, and he requested that I take a couple pf my pieces from this semester and he'd work with me to print them out so I could frame them and submit them to the Juried Student Annual at UAB (students submit works and a judge from another place comes and picks stuff out, the judge this year is a highly reputable curator). Over 200 pieces are submitted each year and 50 or so are accepted to b in a show on campus. The printouts are super-duper industrially high quality on really nice photo paper from the top secret computer printing lab at UAB. Well, it's not really "top secret" but it's behind like three doors, two of them locked. I felt like a secret agent going back there.

[x] Stubbs the Zombie is a pretty fun game.

[x] I am treated like a child. This woman just assumes that everyone in her class has no grasp of any of the concepts we are supposed to know. Sad thing is she's probably right.

[x] At least I can do stuff like this ("this" being updating the journal) because the only other guy in my row is playing video poker online and checking sports betting websites. In class. I'm serious.

[x] Everyone in here is worrying about the 7th grade level writing test we have to pass later this semester. ??? "...but what if we don't pass?" WELL THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULD CHANGE YOUR MAJOR TO CONSTRUCTION WORKER.

[x] Yeah, that guy in my row... the gambler. I'm trying not to be too obvious with my peeking over, but I'm pretty sure he's looking at porn now. No wait, they look like they're just slutty myspace profiles.

[x] She just said "misperceptions."

OMG LIEK HOW MANEE ST8Z HAV U BEN 2!!!??!???
...and add the part of Canada directly above Niagara Falls to that list too. Then it'd be complete.

I want to go to Russia. Seriously.

I am dying here. I am in a room full of technologically retarded people. It's like watching a 90 year old trying to upload digital pictures onto a computer. Every person in here doesn't understand what we're doing and it's at a 7th grade level of difficulty. I am at college. COLLEGE.
"Now make sure you have this box checked." NO SHIT. "Someone has done something here, but it's good, but not required, so don't worry about that, ok. Don't worry, I'll hold your hand all the way through it. It's ok." You are just EDUCATION MAJORS and you'll be in charge of rooms full of children, but don't worry about having basic comprehension skills. If you wonder why the Education system in Alabama is so fucked up, come visit my class. Holy shit, these people are like chimpanzees typing. The program we're using is the easiect to use, most self-explanatory thing I've ever seen yet no one here can comprehend it. It's like our homework is just to post a short someting to a message board or post it into a livejournal update or something...but they can't.... HOLDING BACK RAGE....

You are a Gumby! You like to smash bricks and say
things that no-one can understand...


What Monty Python Sketch Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Guess I can't argue with that.

[x] Also, had a few people over last night. We killed many beverages. Many many beverages. Now I clean up. Fun times. I took 200 pictures last night, some of which are the best ever. We killed many beverages.

[x] I have a lot of school work this semester.

[x] For months now, weekends were when I was busy and working the most, since there was no school during the week. Now, even though I work weekends just as much, they are WEEKENDS...as in, they are a break from stress. School is the new work and work is the....easy stuff.

[x] Going to Rayna's parents' house for Labor Day. And what will I do there? LABOR! Nothing but a full day's yard work. Acres and acres of it.

[x] I bought a "Fight the Flood" shirt. Now I'm not just a nerd, I'm a nerd who helps. Also, if anyone who sees this plans on donating any money to the Red Cross, do it at EB Games: give your money to them just like a regular transaction, and they'll match the amount to the Red Cross. So your contribution will count double...and the company will be out of a little money, it's a win-win.

[x] The reason I'm updating now is because I'm supposed to be doing school work, but since that school work is on the computer... it's time to procrastinate and slack and get distracted and all those other fun things. I'm supposed to be doing a few photoshop assignments right now. That's my favorite class for sure.

[x] Today, I gave myself a haircut and now I'm eating Pez. The pink and purple ones really do some damage to the color of your tongue:

[x] Too much stuff to do. I imagine my already sparse updates are about to get even more seldom.

[x] I'm taking Beginning Painting, Intermediate Drawing, Digital Photo Manipulations, and a couple of education classes this semester. Having three studio art classes at once is a sure recipe for not having any free time at all. They aren't "hard" exactly, just very time consuming.

[x] But you know what we do most of the time in Art classes? WORK. Not talk, work. So, all art teachers suggest that you bring some headphones and some kind of portable music apparatus to get you in the zone and break the silence. So I decided that the discman and big headphones and case of CDs and replacing batteries was just too much trouble... and I bought an iPod two days ago. Its 20 gigs and it should keep me busy for a little bit. That's actually why I'm at the computer right now, I'm ripping a LOT of cds (I'm at about 1200 songs right now!) in a nice hi-fi format for transfer to the portable thingamabob.

[x] I can't wait until the weather starts chilling out. Hurry up, fall!

Before reading this, I urge you to go here: http://www.hellblazer.com/archives/2005/03/dallas_cheerlea.html
And download the full-length version in whatever format suits you. Also give the lyrics a read-through if you are so inclined.

Now, for the last three-four weeks or so, I have played Halo 2 online regularly, as I have since November. The group of guys I always play with have been singing the Tender Crisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch (TCBCR, as it will now be called) song from the Burger King commercial starring Darius Rucker. One in particular actually plays it through his headset over and over (and over) while we play. It's great fun. There is no greater embarrassment than being killed by three guys who are singing the TCBCR song loudly. When we play the song, we're almost unbeatable. It's like some lame nerdo battlecry.

So all this singing had got me seriously jonesin' for this juicy chicken sandwich in all its glory. For days I tried to open up a slot in my busy eating schedule. Finally on Wednesday I went to the BK lounge and ordered one on a break from work. Took it back to work and what do I find?... NO BACON, NO CHEDDAR, NO RANCH...and a SHITLOAD of mayonnaise. It's too much of a pain to go back, so I call the phone number on the receipt and humorously explain to the lady that while I was charged for bacon, cheddar, and ranch, all I got was enough mayonnaise to give Lance Armstrong a coronary. I got a stiff piece of paper and shaved the mayo off of the bun and spitefully ate the dry sandwich. At least I had enough ketchup to make the fries consumable. The Burger King in Trussville is incompetent at best.

So the next day I knew was the first day of school and that I would have to drive downtown to go to UAB...right near a Burger King! I formulated my plan and got ready for school early. Left with an hour and a half until class time (way early) because I had a mission. Went to the BK lounge by the Hospitals near UAB campus and ordered my TCBCR with an optimistic tone in my voice. Pulled out my exact change and made the drive-thru exchange. Noticed I only had 2 ketchup packets but there was no turning back, the future held the mother of all sandwiches for me. Made it to school and parked.



Reached into the bag and pulled out the wrapped sandwich. Would the contents live up to my expectations and look anything like that miraculous picture on the drive-thru menu? In a word, Yes. This thing was a beauty. The chicken breast was thick and juicy and its circumference rivaled that of the bun. The chicken this came from was a beast. The lettuce was plentiful and crispy. Tomatoes and onions in the proper proportions and placement?... check. And the most important part, the cheddar was applied in the most deliciously melty fashion. The Ranch dressing was flowing copiously and the bacon was right on. This was the sandwich Darius Rucker promised me all those times. This was IT!



The first bite was like...well...I know how to explain it, but it's too nasty to get into in a story about food. Every bite that followed was equally delectable.



I urge you to get the Tender Crisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch from Burger King, but don't settle for a half-assed thrown together one. Go in the middle of the afternoon, not thirty minutes before closing. Be really nice to the people. Maybe, just maybe, if your Karma is good...you'll get one of those magic sandwiches like I did.

Holy crap. Last night was the single best night of frisbee I've played in about three years or more. And the reason I say that is only because if the last 10 minutes of play. Allow me to explain:

[x] Every Sunday, a group of friends and I get together and play Ultimate frisbee. We usually have about 10-16 people, depending on the week. Average turnout this week, so we played one game then another. We get to the sports complex at 8pm and the park closes at 11, so the lights automatically go out at 10:30ish.
About half way through our second game, these guys show up and start walking out onto the field while we're playing. Kind of annoying, but we finished the game and all was well. Oh, did I mention that they were trash-talking and talking about how much better they were than us while we were playing? Yeah, we had a couple of friends sitting out the second game and they overheard the group of jocky guys making fun of us. So these guys were from SportsFirst, the local Baptist Gym (yes, Alabama has a chain of gyms that advertises their Baptist-ness)...so I'll let you come to conclusions about how nice they were (total dicks).
After we finish our second game, we've got about 15 minutes until the lights go out so we decide to play another game (or as much of one as we can). These guys want to play too and we start to divide up teams. We don't know how good they are and who needs to be with who to make fair teams, so I take initiative and say "all right, everyone who was here come with me, al the newer guys stay here." So the teams are split up. Us versus them. "Us" includes my short ass, Rayna and Jaime (that's right, we had two girls and they had none), Erick's not-too-tall ass, Lance, Mark, and Shane. The other team was loving it. What their eyes saw was a horrible mis-match. They were sure it was going to be quick and painful for us. We even volunteered to kick off to them first.
What followed was the best 10 minutes of frisbee ever. We kicked off to them to start and they didn't complete their first pass. We picked it up and scored in two throws. 1-0. We kicked off to them again and they threw it the length of the field in about three throws. 1-1. Now we got to receive. Now the thing about cocky jocks is their inability to see a girl as a competitor. So of course our girls were always open, and they can throw better than those guys could. So using our girls as our secret weapon when we were on offense, we had no problem scoring. 2-1, (on their way back to their kickoff position, they yelled at each other "this is pathetic") they could NOT believe they were getting beat by a team that consists of mostly smokers, partly girls, and mostly short people. They receive the next kickoff, it's high and long. Erick and I are both about 5 and a half feet tall, so we run up and guard the passer (quarterback-type) while our taller guys play deep safety and the girls float in the middle. You'd think we were the Health Department the way we shut those guys down. After a short attempt by their offense, we score AGAIN. 3-1, and this time one of their guys (with all of us only a few feet away) yells at his team (and I quote exactly:) "C'mon, were better than THEM!" So what do we do? We kick off to them. We shut them down, force a turnover. We score AGAIN. 4-1, in 10 minutes. Right after we hit that last point, the lights shut off. Now it's complete darkness and all you can hear is the huff of defeat coming from the other team. We didn't say anything, it's not our style. We could have rubbed it in like they would have, but we didn't.

So just like every week when the lights go out, we went to go drink our water and chat for a little while. I gathered up my discs and put them in the car, went over to grab my water jug and looked up...all of them were already gone. They left immediately. They got their firmly sculpted asses handed to them by out-of-shape nerds and girls...and they were embarrassed.

Score one for the good guys.
We'll see if they come back next week.

[x] My boss is a dick. And a child.

[x] I've seen Weezer three times before. One was awesome, one was a disappointment compared to the first and one was...well...not even as good as the second. The first was four and a half tears ago in the spring of my senior year of high school. Me and four friends left at 7 or 8am (instead of going to school that day) on a four hour adventure to wait outside the venue really early and see the show we've been waiting a LONG time for (back then, Weezer had been basically inactive for about five years and were kicking back up). So we went and spent all day outside being first in line and just having a blast. Very front for the show, they played all the best songs (almost) and the bassist even lept out onto us and crowdsurfed while he played during the finale. Best concert experience ever (Weird Al was the best "performance", but this was the best for me). The other two shows since then were both "good" but could not be what the first one was.

So Thursday I go to the Weezer/Ben Folds concert in Nashville. It's three hours north of here and I've been to three Weezer shows before, so I know the drill: show starts at 7:30pm so we hit the road at 11am. Not as early as I'd liked, but I knew nobody else would be ok with being so early. We should have though. We get to the venue around 3 and we're still about the 75th people in line. By the time the doors opened, the line was blocks long, it was over 1000 people and it wrapped around the whole venue. So the doors finally open and we run inside so we can get as close to the front as possible. We're about 2-3 people's length from the bar-thing that holds back the crowd. Wait for another hour.

First comes out "The Fray"... four songs, twelve minutes, nobody liked them.
Then the lights go up and they start setting the stage up for BEN FOLDS! His grand piano is moved up to the front of the stage. You know that music that they play between acts at a concert? Well, they played The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" and a large percentage of the crowd decided to sing along. Imagine a sweaty mob of people going "OH, Oh" (you know that part).

Ben Folds comes out. Starts with "In Between Days," a cover a a great song by The Cure. He plays most of what I wanted t hear and all together kicked ass. At one point he played his cover of Dr. Dre's "Bitches ain't Shit" and it was spectacular. It was an easy-listening/lounge sounding version but with the explicit lyrics in place. Got some really weird face from the security guards, especially when the whole crowd was invited to repeat the chanting "bitches can't hang with the streets" near the end. He jumped up on the piano and led the crowd in choral singing for "Not The Same." He jumped off the piano and grabbed the bass from the bassist and let him sing the finale of "Rockin' the Suburbs" where he screams "FUCK" about 32 times (and the whole crowd joined in). Great show. Great great show.

Then was the break before Weezer. Then they came out. By this time people had shifted and we had a great view. Throughout the show, the crowd heaved to and fro like the drunken sweathogs that infested it. There were high-schoolers mostly, but for every three teeny boppers there was a tattoo covered shirtless guy. If we hadn't been in the front, and had access to fresh air, it would have been unbearable. In fact, a girl about our size (fairly short) was just a few feet behind us and had to be carried away and given medical attention because of the heat and lack of oxygen accessible to short people in the crowd.
The stage was set up like their album cover art. They started with "Photograph" and that scared me because I though it meant that I was gonna see nothing but new songs all night (that's bad). I was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong. They played mostly from their first album, with a couple from Pinkerton (including "Why Bother" which was sang by Brian Bell). Pat was having fun. Scott was having fun. Brian was having fun. Rivers was doing a job. I saw maybe one smile from him all night. Once he hit a (very) wrong note on the solo of "Island in the Sun" and instead of the shifty-eyed "did anybody see that" smile you would normally get from a musician, he looked like someone had just ran over his dog. His face lit up with complete shock and horror, then he slowly slid back into his groove. Despite the lack of "Only in Dreams" and "In the Garage" the show was good. It was performed very well and everyone enjoyed it. They really kicked ass. But I now realize that no future show of theirs will ever be better than this one, and no show will ever begin to stand next to the first one I saw. They were younger, and they only had two albums to play from (the two that everyone wants to hear now). Up until now, whenever Weezer came by my area I went to the show regardless of venue or cost. I have now seen enough to know that I can be picky when they come by again...not because the show is bad, but because the show will never be AS good. On the other hand, I WILL see Ben Folds again.

[x] Then Friday night was a party at a friend of mine's house. It was refreshingly devoid of any drama and contained some good drinking time for everyone. Mucho fun-o.

[x] Between Thursday and Friday, I took exactly 150 pictures (filled up my half-gig memory stick). Of course most of them are crap or repeats, but that's why I got a digital camera. Now I can take as much as I want and discard the ones that don't turn out to be good with no loss. Of course some of them are GREAT though.

[x] Now frisbee tonight and back to normal week tomorrow. Just a few weeks from school, oh no!

I bought a new digital camera on my trip to the north, so I will illustrate certain parts of this. Photobucket is acting like molasses going uphill in winter...with crutches. For that reason, there won't be that many pictures, so I'll just hit the highlights. Plus, they have a rather low filesize limit so I'm not happy with how they look anyway. My original files are 7 megapixels at about 3M a piece. I like my camera.

[x] Before we left, Rayna decided that we needed some luggage. Not just for now, but to have in the future. So, on purpose, we bought the ugliest luggage possible:

The point of those bags is so that when you see them coming off of that conveyor belt at the airport, you know which one is yours immediately. The plan would have been better if the bags ever came off of the conveyor belt. You'd think that it would be hard to misplace a set like that TWICE. That's right, on the way up, our bags didn't make it...and then on the way back, our bags didn't make it. WEEEEE.

[x] So we get up there and it's just like last time we went up there two summers ago: corn and cows. But it's ok, we get settled in and hung out with my Dad and stepmom...they're cool people. Over the course of the week, we drank some beverages, we hit some golf balls (something I'd never done before, but was ok at), drank some beverages, went to an Indian casino, drank some beverages, and sang some Karaoke (after we drank some beverages of course). You never can tell what you sound like yourself, so I don't know if I trust what they all said to me...but according to the feedback I got, I gave one of the best performances of The Beatles' "Revolution" in the history of the planet. It was fun. I forgt to take my camera to that particular stop on the trip.

[x] Another thing we did was go fishing. Not like "get a rod and some worms" fishing. Lake Michigan charter boat Salmon fishing. Big stuff. I took lots of pictures, lots and lots of pictures:

One of about 25 sunset shots I took.


Rayna catches the biggest fish of the day. Wonga.


The harbor is behind me in this picture.

[x] There's this cool little lunch counter place in Two Rivers, Wisconsin called "Phil Rohrer's Lunch" and it's really good. If you're ever around Green Bay, go a little south and check it out. Here's the menu:


[x] Later, at another diner, Rayna punched a penguin. That was possibly the most random sentence in history, but it's all true:


[x] Just like last time I went up, I visited the local Goodwill store to find something that mine at home might not have. Some cool T-shirts mostly. It was here that I further proved "Dan's Law of R.E.M's 'Monster'" You see, any place that has used CDs (that has at least 200 or so) WILL have at least one copy of R.E.M's album, "Monster." I have never seen a used record shop, thrift store, or pawn shop where this was not true...ever...EVER.

What do we have here? Used CDs!!


And that's why we call it a Law, not a theory.

[x] I will now start laying on the pictures more heavily and illustrate the trip home with more show and less tell:

Clouds. I took about 236464 pictures of cloud formations I thought looked good from 30,000 feet. Here's ONE.


I'm not sure where this plane came from, but I'm pretty sure that it was STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON!!!!!!1! GET IT?!?!?! Aw, c'mon, that was a good one.


Layover in O'Hare in Chicago. That place is too big to even use the word "huge" to describe it.


If our plane were to crash, I knew that I would be safe. You know why? Because I had my tray table up and my seatback in the full upright position.

Our plane-switch in Charlotte is where things got fun. A Tropical storm was coming through and we got stuck for a couple of hours. It was ugly outside.

These folks got lost outside. Heh heh...they're old.


Also at the Charlotte airport. I feel arty.


...and then on the way from Charlotte to Birmingham.


Ah, home crap home.

[x] Well, that's about it for now. We got our luggage back and everything is back to normal now. Well, normal by our standards, anyway. I'm glad I got this thing written up.

I have returned from the north and details will come soon. With purdy pictures too.

SHIT SHIT SHIT GOD DAMMIT. ASS BITCH HOLE SHIT SHIT SHIT.
Those are my thoughts right now.

Allow me to explain:
I went to bed about 2:30 am, about my normal time. At 3:53am, Rayna shakes awake and asks "what is that?" "That" was a raining sound...coming from inside our apartment. Our downstairs apartment. The "rain" was coming from the bathroom, naturally. So I spring out of bed and make my way around it and across the hall to the bathroom. Walking across the carpet to get there, my feet splashed. SPLASHED. Then I saw what the problem was. Dripping from the ceiling in copious amounts is a yellow liquid. That's right kids...IT'S RAINING PISS IN MY BATHROOM. Heavily. So I stand in awe for a moment then get hit with a magical golden drip. Action time. Apparently the people upstairs have let their toilet overflow and have no plans of stopping it. I bang on the ceiling and I hear footsteps going to the bathroom, YAY. But then the footsteps cease and the water does not. NO way. Of course we break out dozens of towels and rags and they end up either in the washing machine or the bath tub. We're not making a dent in this lake of urine. Rayna decides she will go to work and steal er....borrow the shop vac for a while so we can suck up the puddle and maybe help the carpet situation. She calls the emergency maintenance number and leaves. While she goes, there's nothing I can do to help, so I run to this here computer and burn a two song CD: Ween's "Where'd the Cheese Go" and Nerf Herder's "Seigfried and Roy." The plan is to play these two songs (both fast paced with loud bass lines) over and over at a high volume to wake the people upstairs and/or make them mad at least. I put the thing on and crank it to 11. Rayna gets home and loves the idea. But after about 25 minutes, we got no footsteps upstairs and the songs aren't getting any better, off it goes. So the shop vac does some damage and the towels are getting washed. What comes next is the most genius plan possible in a situation such as mine. I tell Rayna to get the duct tape and I start taking down the shower curtain. If this piss is going to rain non-stop from my ceiling and flood my apartment with yellow gold, I'm gonna stop it. So after about 30-45 minutes of fancy footwork and some awesome duct taping skills, I have made a plastic ramp in my bathroom that leads all the dripping into the bath tub. After getting a few items to put under it to stop it from puddling and sagging, it efficiently puts 90% of the urine into something that DRAINS! Maybe you didn't notice, but in those last few sentences, I left out how I did this whole thing while being DRENCHED IN URINE. It is now almost 8:00am (Over fours hours of this) and the piss has not let up at all. AT ALL. We haven't heard back from the maintenance people and the people upstairs are apparently in some kind of asshole coma.

So right now I'm typing this while Rayna takes a nap. I don't get to sleep tonight, tough, I get to go back to the bathroom every 30 minutes and shop vac the carpet in the hall so it doesn't spread any further. We've got the dripping parts somewhat under control, but it's still coming down from inside the walls and flooding the floor. Oh, and did I mention that the ceiling is sagging and looks like it might end up caving in soon? Oy vey.

Typing this up has been a cleansing experience (mentally, not physically), but DAMN when is this gonna stop? It's gonna be great when the maintenance folks have to come early next week and Rayna and I LEAVE on Tuesday for a week and a half. Fan-fuckin-tastic. Call me paranoid, but I don't want people coming in and out of my electronics-laden apartment while I'm 1500 miles away. Fuck.

I'll keep this thing updated with the pissy developments.

[x] Psychonauts is awesome. Very very funny, and original, and fun, and all together cool. I recommend it to everyone who has an Xbox now, it comes out for PS2 soon.

[x] Thursday was Dan's birthday and so last night we had a bit of a get-together. We watched Seed of Chucky (for pure entertainment value, mind you, we knew what we were getting in to), and then played some massively multiplayer Donkey Konga. It was loud. Especially for 1am. Well, they're always stomping around up there, why can't I make a little noise, too, eh?

[x] I got a cool Nintendo hooded sweatshirt by doubling everyone else's score at a DK Junglebeat contest yesterday. Except that I had to buy it off the guy who actually got second because employees aren't eligible for the contest. They know I won, though.

[x] In 9 days, I'm probably leaving for 9 days to go visit me Papa. From Alabama to Wisconsin, quite a trip. It will be fun...if Rayna can get off of work. Everything else is in place, so she'd better be able too!

[x] Wait, phone's ringing...

[x] That was her, it is a go. I'll be going to Wisconsin for a little over a week in a little over a week. We'll spend July 4th up there with my Dad. Hooray.

[x] Welp, that's all I have to say.

What the hell is a meme, you ask? I DON'T KNOW, I would then reply. But this cool guy on my friends list tagged me to carry it on and fill one out so here I go:

The meme in question asked:
Things you enjoy, even when no one around you wants to go out and play. What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level? Make a list, post it to your journal... and then tag 5 friends and ask them to post it to theirs. (I was tagged-ed)

Internet - Just sitting down and checking my email, the HBO front page and forums, and then browsing around on ytmnd.com for a while. Relaxing. Enjoyable.

Video Games - I am currently playing a few games and have a queue of many to finish by next semester when I'll be dangerously overloaded with high level Art projects. I play on the PC a little bit (but not action games, just the slow kind that a mouse/keyboard is suited for). I play Xbox the most, because I like the feel of the system and because my HD and surround is taken advantage of by it...not to mention Rayna and I playing Xbox Live Halo 2 until the wee hours (OMG a girl plays?!?!??). The Gamecube also gets a fair share of my time just because it has so many great first-party exclusive games. (I had a joke about the PS2 here, but decided not to get into that one on here)

DVDs - I have a lot of them. Over a hundred. Rayna and I will settle down and start watching a season of some TV series that we own (right now it's CSI) and it'll be 3am before we realize we need to stop and sleep.

Nothing - I can sit and do nothing. I can.

Work - But only under certain circumstances. When it's just me and my assistant manager working together it's like hanging out with friends. Well, he IS a friend, but.... well.... it's COOL, ok? Working at EB Games selling mature games to kids with bad parents can be fun if you're working with the right person.

Frisbee - Every Sunday at the sports complex in my redneck suburban town, it's on in a manner similar to Donkey Kong. Big, crazy games of Ultimate frisbee with friends are great.

Ok, that's enough. Thanks for the meme tag Steve (is that what you call it? meme tag??).

I can't pick people to do it, though. Everyone who reads this is ordered (in a passive kind of way) to do one too.