4.29.2007
4.21.2007
So Much Energy, but No Outlet
My extended horoscope for the day:
"Your energy level and enthusiasm are going to burn right through the meager demands of your day. There just won't be much going on today -- nothing worth your fiery can-do attitude. But don't let the day's ho-hum mood disappoint you, though. Be flexible, and take the day as it comes. If you can't find an outlet for your energy, save it for another day -- it has no expiration date"
It's pretty accurate. The weekend has come, the weather's been great, and I've got oodles of excitement and energy, but nowhere to put it. I went for a bike ride, and that helped a bit. Last night there was an attempt to Glo-stick football, but the others weren't as enthusiastic about it as I was.
And now I'm sitting at home thinking about all the exciting things I could be doing, and wishing that I had a) the financial means to do them and b) people to do them with me.
Ah well. Spring is here and the sun is shining. There will be other weekends, and plenty to do.
"Your energy level and enthusiasm are going to burn right through the meager demands of your day. There just won't be much going on today -- nothing worth your fiery can-do attitude. But don't let the day's ho-hum mood disappoint you, though. Be flexible, and take the day as it comes. If you can't find an outlet for your energy, save it for another day -- it has no expiration date"
It's pretty accurate. The weekend has come, the weather's been great, and I've got oodles of excitement and energy, but nowhere to put it. I went for a bike ride, and that helped a bit. Last night there was an attempt to Glo-stick football, but the others weren't as enthusiastic about it as I was.
And now I'm sitting at home thinking about all the exciting things I could be doing, and wishing that I had a) the financial means to do them and b) people to do them with me.
Ah well. Spring is here and the sun is shining. There will be other weekends, and plenty to do.
4.17.2007
My Personal Movie Soundtrack
You know those stupid things that always show up on myspace and facebook that make you skip through your playlist and fill in the blanks for random movie events? I did one tonight on facebook, because I think the idea of having a personal soundtrack is awesome. Normally I ignore these internet quiz things, but this one was kinda fun. So I decided to share it.
Go ahead, mock my playlist. You know you want to.
What to do:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie
-----
[I'm going to use these brackets to provide a running commentary to make this more interesting. My movie starts off as a black and white art film that looks like it was done by an aspiring film student.]
Opening Credit:
Rabbit in the Headlights - Radiohead and DJ Shadow
Waking Up:
Poetry and Power - Gravity Kills
First day at High School:
Dark and Long - Underworld (Oakenfold dark train mix)
[So up to this point I'm getting the sense from the first few songs that my character takes life very seriously and is dealing with some serious drama. But then along comes the love song. Clearly the scene in which I fall in love occurs in a strip club and involves a latex-clad stripper.]
Falling in Love:
Frontline Assembly - Vanished
[The fight song, on the other hand, is so happy that it must be like a lover's quarrel complete with pillow fights, because there's no way I'd get my ass kicked to this bouncy number.]
Fight Song:
Dragonflies - Povi Muhoberac / Rizzo (uberzone in your bed mix)
(This is so NOT a fight song...)
[And then me and the stripper break up. I guess the song almost fits the scene, but the fact that I have it in my playlist may actually be the reason for the break-up.]
Breaking Up Song:
Be Like That - Three Doors Down
[Somehow during all this I became a DJ, because I'm playing my own music at my prom. How cool is that? So now the art film has become a trypical teen comedy romp.]
Prom:
Lingering in Limbo - Andrew Lockhart
(That's right, my own music is on my playlist!)
[But then comes the heavy drama again, with a certain sort of irony.]
Life:
Don't Laugh - Josh Wink
[Clearly somebody else is driving in this next scene, 'cuz I sure wouldn't be driving to the sappiest Britney song I've ever heard. Let's assume it's my closest female friend and confidante, and she's driving her car. I'm relating all my tales of woe to her, and she's offering support. ]
Driving:
Everytime - Britney Spears
[This is where the movie starts getting better and turns into a kung-fu crime drama. It turns out that up until this point the whole movie was one huge flashback. It's actually 20 years after high-school and I'm a badass detective with a drinking problem who was been heartbroken by a stripper in his teens and never recovered. ]
Flashback:
Walking Wounded - The Tea Party
[And 20 years later I meet the stripper again through circumstances invovling a crime investigation. It's messy, but we work things out through booze, fighting, and finally a big make-up make-out session.]
Getting Back Together:
Faces - Orgy
[We get married and our family life is a bit like being on the Adams Family.]
Wedding:
Oh My Goth - Razed in Black
Birth of Child:
Goth Girls - MC Frontalot
[But, OH NOES, here comes the Stripper's ex-angry-lesbian-lover. She's super jealous and high on crack, and we have to battle to the death.]
Final Battle:
Voices/Machine - Sister Machine Gun
[ Back to the drama. Having been slain by the angry lesbian, I cast away any belief in the afterlife in my final moments.]
Death Scene:
Heaven's a Lie - Lacuna Coil
[The funeral song is a symbol that I've learned nothing and will have to try again in another life]
Funeral Song:
Back to School - Deftones
[The credits roll as my wife, in her depression over my loss, seeks comfort in the arms of the drugged-out angry lesbian. They two of them proceed to snort themselves into Oblivion, leaving our gothy daughter abandoned to live on ths street.]
End Credits:
Come White - Apoptygma Berserk (Marylin Manson cover)
[The reel goes black, the house lights come back on, and the theatre patrons all ask for their money back 'cuz this movie sucked so much.]
Go ahead, mock my playlist. You know you want to.
What to do:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie
-----
[I'm going to use these brackets to provide a running commentary to make this more interesting. My movie starts off as a black and white art film that looks like it was done by an aspiring film student.]
Opening Credit:
Rabbit in the Headlights - Radiohead and DJ Shadow
Waking Up:
Poetry and Power - Gravity Kills
First day at High School:
Dark and Long - Underworld (Oakenfold dark train mix)
[So up to this point I'm getting the sense from the first few songs that my character takes life very seriously and is dealing with some serious drama. But then along comes the love song. Clearly the scene in which I fall in love occurs in a strip club and involves a latex-clad stripper.]
Falling in Love:
Frontline Assembly - Vanished
[The fight song, on the other hand, is so happy that it must be like a lover's quarrel complete with pillow fights, because there's no way I'd get my ass kicked to this bouncy number.]
Fight Song:
Dragonflies - Povi Muhoberac / Rizzo (uberzone in your bed mix)
(This is so NOT a fight song...)
[And then me and the stripper break up. I guess the song almost fits the scene, but the fact that I have it in my playlist may actually be the reason for the break-up.]
Breaking Up Song:
Be Like That - Three Doors Down
[Somehow during all this I became a DJ, because I'm playing my own music at my prom. How cool is that? So now the art film has become a trypical teen comedy romp.]
Prom:
Lingering in Limbo - Andrew Lockhart
(That's right, my own music is on my playlist!)
[But then comes the heavy drama again, with a certain sort of irony.]
Life:
Don't Laugh - Josh Wink
[Clearly somebody else is driving in this next scene, 'cuz I sure wouldn't be driving to the sappiest Britney song I've ever heard. Let's assume it's my closest female friend and confidante, and she's driving her car. I'm relating all my tales of woe to her, and she's offering support. ]
Driving:
Everytime - Britney Spears
[This is where the movie starts getting better and turns into a kung-fu crime drama. It turns out that up until this point the whole movie was one huge flashback. It's actually 20 years after high-school and I'm a badass detective with a drinking problem who was been heartbroken by a stripper in his teens and never recovered. ]
Flashback:
Walking Wounded - The Tea Party
[And 20 years later I meet the stripper again through circumstances invovling a crime investigation. It's messy, but we work things out through booze, fighting, and finally a big make-up make-out session.]
Getting Back Together:
Faces - Orgy
[We get married and our family life is a bit like being on the Adams Family.]
Wedding:
Oh My Goth - Razed in Black
Birth of Child:
Goth Girls - MC Frontalot
[But, OH NOES, here comes the Stripper's ex-angry-lesbian-lover. She's super jealous and high on crack, and we have to battle to the death.]
Final Battle:
Voices/Machine - Sister Machine Gun
[ Back to the drama. Having been slain by the angry lesbian, I cast away any belief in the afterlife in my final moments.]
Death Scene:
Heaven's a Lie - Lacuna Coil
[The funeral song is a symbol that I've learned nothing and will have to try again in another life]
Funeral Song:
Back to School - Deftones
[The credits roll as my wife, in her depression over my loss, seeks comfort in the arms of the drugged-out angry lesbian. They two of them proceed to snort themselves into Oblivion, leaving our gothy daughter abandoned to live on ths street.]
End Credits:
Come White - Apoptygma Berserk (Marylin Manson cover)
[The reel goes black, the house lights come back on, and the theatre patrons all ask for their money back 'cuz this movie sucked so much.]
4.16.2007
The Evolution of a Haircut
Alternate title: How to Post Terrible Pictures of Yourself on the Internet
Since it was requested, here are photos of my hair. I've even done you all (all five of you, 'cuz I have so many readers) one better and posted a pictorial history of my hair.
I tried to find some even older, not too mention worse, photos than these but I don't have any digitized.
So I'll kick things off with my haircut from 2001. I wore my hair this way for basically three years starting in the eleventh grade (1998) and running right through college.
This was the only change I made to my hair in that time. The haircut itself is basically the same. The only major difference is that I got bored and decided to put bright red streaks in it. That's what college is for anyways, right? To heck with learning, it's all about doing all the stupid things you need to get out of your system before you have to "grow up". Side note: I miss my red streaks, and the green spiker gel I bought just isn't the same.
College ended and I moved back to Edmonton and had to look for a job. So I got rid of the red streaks, and went back to a slightly longer variation of the previous haircut. My hair stayed like this until last summer. (The photo was taken in Vancouver in 2003)
In the summer of 2006 I got bored with my hair again, and decided I was going to grow it out. This was the beginning. Notice the familiar shape, but with longer growth on top. Personally, I think I should probably have kept it this way
This was the outcome of my experimental long hair. This is the haircut (non-haircut actually) that scared the general public and confused my grandmother. My hair looked like this up until two days ago.
After my weekend haircut, this is what I've ended up with. Granted this is a terrible picture, and it's the end of the day so it's all wind-tossed and messy.
It's still pretty long on top, except I got rid of the annoying curly fringes at the back and sides. I haven't decided if I like it or not, but I'll try it for a while. Maybe I'll get used to it.
On a completely unrelated note, look how much weight I've gained in the last 4 years! You can see it in my face. Ugh. Time to get some serious exercise.
Since it was requested, here are photos of my hair. I've even done you all (all five of you, 'cuz I have so many readers) one better and posted a pictorial history of my hair.
I tried to find some even older, not too mention worse, photos than these but I don't have any digitized.
So I'll kick things off with my haircut from 2001. I wore my hair this way for basically three years starting in the eleventh grade (1998) and running right through college.
This was the only change I made to my hair in that time. The haircut itself is basically the same. The only major difference is that I got bored and decided to put bright red streaks in it. That's what college is for anyways, right? To heck with learning, it's all about doing all the stupid things you need to get out of your system before you have to "grow up". Side note: I miss my red streaks, and the green spiker gel I bought just isn't the same.
College ended and I moved back to Edmonton and had to look for a job. So I got rid of the red streaks, and went back to a slightly longer variation of the previous haircut. My hair stayed like this until last summer. (The photo was taken in Vancouver in 2003)
In the summer of 2006 I got bored with my hair again, and decided I was going to grow it out. This was the beginning. Notice the familiar shape, but with longer growth on top. Personally, I think I should probably have kept it this way
This was the outcome of my experimental long hair. This is the haircut (non-haircut actually) that scared the general public and confused my grandmother. My hair looked like this up until two days ago.
After my weekend haircut, this is what I've ended up with. Granted this is a terrible picture, and it's the end of the day so it's all wind-tossed and messy.
It's still pretty long on top, except I got rid of the annoying curly fringes at the back and sides. I haven't decided if I like it or not, but I'll try it for a while. Maybe I'll get used to it.
On a completely unrelated note, look how much weight I've gained in the last 4 years! You can see it in my face. Ugh. Time to get some serious exercise.
4.14.2007
The Great Hair Dilemma
Last fall I got bored with my hair. I decided to let it grow out for a while and see what would happen. And so I stopped cutting, let it grow, and started brushing it forwards instead of backwards, which is something I previously hadn't done in years.
I was happy with the results for a while, but the longer my hair gets, the more it curls at the bottom. It's not quite afro-worthy, and I hope it stays that way. But it does get this little curly thing happening at the fringes that annoys me to no end because I think it looks ridiculous.
My "long" hair has been met with mixed opinions from others. I've been described as "scruffy looking" at least once or twice. At christmas my own grandmother didn't even recognize me. But I've also been told that it looks good on me, though I'm not sure I agree. I like the way it looks right after I get out of the shower and brush it, but once it's dry and curls a bit more I'm less impressed. I also have very very thick hair, which means that this 'doo is difficult to manage.
I guess the conclusion I've drawn is that I'm not 100% happy with the results of this experiment, and it's probably time for a haircut again. But now that I've made that decision, I can't bring myself to do it. It's rather silly. If I wanted the longer hair, I could grow it back, but part of me just doesn't want to cut it off.
I think I'm hoping that there's some way I can salvage this hair. Like, if I could have the longish hair just on top, but get rid of the curly stuff at the bottom, back, and sides. But that would end up leading to an undercut, and I hate undercuts.
I'm also hesitant to do this because there is little photographic history of this event. I've taken some bad web-cam pics, but otherwise there are very few photos of me with my longer hair. This phase in my history will be forgotten in time. I'm tempted to keep it longer and encourage people to take photos so that I can prove that for 6 months of my life I grew my hair out.
Of course, such an event in one's history is basically negligible. Who cares about a haircut anyways? And I probably wouldn't want those photos coming back to haunt me later in my life.
Well, I guess I'm off to the hair-dressers. Maybe they can do something neat with it. I'm doubtful, but we'll see what happens.
I was happy with the results for a while, but the longer my hair gets, the more it curls at the bottom. It's not quite afro-worthy, and I hope it stays that way. But it does get this little curly thing happening at the fringes that annoys me to no end because I think it looks ridiculous.
My "long" hair has been met with mixed opinions from others. I've been described as "scruffy looking" at least once or twice. At christmas my own grandmother didn't even recognize me. But I've also been told that it looks good on me, though I'm not sure I agree. I like the way it looks right after I get out of the shower and brush it, but once it's dry and curls a bit more I'm less impressed. I also have very very thick hair, which means that this 'doo is difficult to manage.
I guess the conclusion I've drawn is that I'm not 100% happy with the results of this experiment, and it's probably time for a haircut again. But now that I've made that decision, I can't bring myself to do it. It's rather silly. If I wanted the longer hair, I could grow it back, but part of me just doesn't want to cut it off.
I think I'm hoping that there's some way I can salvage this hair. Like, if I could have the longish hair just on top, but get rid of the curly stuff at the bottom, back, and sides. But that would end up leading to an undercut, and I hate undercuts.
I'm also hesitant to do this because there is little photographic history of this event. I've taken some bad web-cam pics, but otherwise there are very few photos of me with my longer hair. This phase in my history will be forgotten in time. I'm tempted to keep it longer and encourage people to take photos so that I can prove that for 6 months of my life I grew my hair out.
Of course, such an event in one's history is basically negligible. Who cares about a haircut anyways? And I probably wouldn't want those photos coming back to haunt me later in my life.
Well, I guess I'm off to the hair-dressers. Maybe they can do something neat with it. I'm doubtful, but we'll see what happens.
4.06.2007
It's Not Easy Being Green
I had to share this. I stumbled across it this morning while searching for info on the new NIN album Year Zero.
http://www.sadkermit.com
http://www.sadkermit.com
4.01.2007
I Was Not Prepared
I've had a bit of a crazy week, but in a good way. Today marked the first day in three days that I've spent any amount of time at home doing more than just sleeping. Wednesday was the Killswitch Engage show, Thursday I worked late, and Friday...
Well Friday is what this post is all about.
It all started around 5pm, when the staff at my company held a company milestone party. Beer, hors d'oeuvres, pizza, more beer, and tequila, all paid for by the company. We made merry until around 8:30pm, when the party relocated to another staff member's house. But I had other plans....
A little while back I purchased what is possibly the coolest and most ridiculous article of clothing I will ever own in my lifetime. Said clothing article is a very special t-shirt. This T-shirt, to be exact, aptly named the T-Qualizer.
I've had the shirt for about a month and been anxiously awaiting the right opportunity to wear it. Last night I finally got a chance to take it for a test-drive at the Buffalo Club, where Flood of Fire were playing a show.
Wearing an item like this out can be referred to as "peacocking", a term anybody who's read Neil Strauss' book "The Game" will recognize. It basically refers to wearing something attention grabbing in a public place with the sole purpose of being noticed.
Trust me. A guy wearing a t-shirt that blinks is pretty damn hard to miss. I knew the shirt would be a ton of fun and that friends would get a kick out of it. But I think I underestimated the amount of attention I would receive. But I guess it's hard to be subtle when your chest is lit up like a Las Vegas billboard.
During the course of the evening I must have been asked about the shirt roughly 50 times. This is no exaggeration. People wanted to stare at it, yell into the mic, find out where the batteries went, ask if it actually responded to sound (the answer is yes), ask find out where I got it, and even touch it. Later in the evening, the house band (after Flood of Fire's set) even asked me up on stage briefly to point out my totally awesome shirt to all the other bar patrons. (Pshhh.. As if they hadn't noticed it already.) Immediately after, two guys on the dance floor insisted on taking a picture with me, and followed that by offering me a discount at Best Buy, which is apparently where they work. (I have no intention of cashing in on that offer, but I found it amusing.)
At one point I actually had a group of girls beckoning to me to join them on the dance floor. It was as if the shirt screamed "I can do the robot like nobody's business!" I can't actually do the robot, but I suppose I have "some moves", if you can call them that. In any case, I passed them up since I was in the middle of a conversation with a friend. Sorry girls, maybe next time.
I'll admit, I'm usually a wall-fly at the bar. (No, not a barfly, since that implies spending all your time at, or next to, the bar itself). And towards the end of the night I was getting tired of answering the same questions over and over. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't like the attention.
Overall, the response to my shirt was excellent. I'll definitely be wearing this thing out again. But next time I think I'll work on my conversation skills a bit. Otherwise it will only be a matter of time before somebody figures out that the shirt is actually way cooler than me.
Fear me, for I am Nerdotron, and you will be T-qualized!
Well Friday is what this post is all about.
It all started around 5pm, when the staff at my company held a company milestone party. Beer, hors d'oeuvres, pizza, more beer, and tequila, all paid for by the company. We made merry until around 8:30pm, when the party relocated to another staff member's house. But I had other plans....
A little while back I purchased what is possibly the coolest and most ridiculous article of clothing I will ever own in my lifetime. Said clothing article is a very special t-shirt. This T-shirt, to be exact, aptly named the T-Qualizer.
I've had the shirt for about a month and been anxiously awaiting the right opportunity to wear it. Last night I finally got a chance to take it for a test-drive at the Buffalo Club, where Flood of Fire were playing a show.
Wearing an item like this out can be referred to as "peacocking", a term anybody who's read Neil Strauss' book "The Game" will recognize. It basically refers to wearing something attention grabbing in a public place with the sole purpose of being noticed.
Trust me. A guy wearing a t-shirt that blinks is pretty damn hard to miss. I knew the shirt would be a ton of fun and that friends would get a kick out of it. But I think I underestimated the amount of attention I would receive. But I guess it's hard to be subtle when your chest is lit up like a Las Vegas billboard.
During the course of the evening I must have been asked about the shirt roughly 50 times. This is no exaggeration. People wanted to stare at it, yell into the mic, find out where the batteries went, ask if it actually responded to sound (the answer is yes), ask find out where I got it, and even touch it. Later in the evening, the house band (after Flood of Fire's set) even asked me up on stage briefly to point out my totally awesome shirt to all the other bar patrons. (Pshhh.. As if they hadn't noticed it already.) Immediately after, two guys on the dance floor insisted on taking a picture with me, and followed that by offering me a discount at Best Buy, which is apparently where they work. (I have no intention of cashing in on that offer, but I found it amusing.)
At one point I actually had a group of girls beckoning to me to join them on the dance floor. It was as if the shirt screamed "I can do the robot like nobody's business!" I can't actually do the robot, but I suppose I have "some moves", if you can call them that. In any case, I passed them up since I was in the middle of a conversation with a friend. Sorry girls, maybe next time.
I'll admit, I'm usually a wall-fly at the bar. (No, not a barfly, since that implies spending all your time at, or next to, the bar itself). And towards the end of the night I was getting tired of answering the same questions over and over. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't like the attention.
Overall, the response to my shirt was excellent. I'll definitely be wearing this thing out again. But next time I think I'll work on my conversation skills a bit. Otherwise it will only be a matter of time before somebody figures out that the shirt is actually way cooler than me.
Fear me, for I am Nerdotron, and you will be T-qualized!
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