Today my friend asked me if I wanted to go see the new Indiana Jones at midnight with him. Of course, I told him I wanted to but I needed to call my parents and make sure I could. So I worked out this big plan to where I would go home and do my running and then go to his house after dinner and hang out there until it was time for the movie, then go home with him and sleep at his place. My parents would come get me in the morning and I would have a job interview the next day. I get all this worked out.

I text him and I say, “What time do you want me to come over,” and he replies, “For what?”

I say, “I thought I was coming over to hang out for a while before the movie?” and he says,

“Wow, you’re stupid, it comes out next Wednesday.”

“getting paid for this”

“kaitlyn.”

“ISO/400″

“war tor tle”

“the real thing”

“just living a suggestion (+-)”

“cool tapes”

“whoah!”

“whoah.”

Happy birthday to me!

Allllllllright.

Yep.

Once I get a job (hopefully at the movies) I’m gonna put half of my money away every paycheck to save up for

TA-DA!

That. It’s about 1500 dollars, and that’ll take about half a year to save, but I figure it’ll serve me about the rest of my life. My iPod has broken a lot, but I’ve always gotten new ones for free thanks to Apples generous warranty services. I looked at this thing for about an hour today at the apple store in the Knoxville mall and have come to the conclusion that it’s perfect for everything I use a computer for.

My reasons?
-Way way way faster
-The hard drive space to store my whole music collection and much more without having to use my dad’s pc
-Garageband for my Andrew In Latin stuff
-iMovie, because I hate Windows Movie Maker but lovemaking movies
-The ability to not have to convert .MOV files to .
AVI files to play them
-Fast startup, fast shut down
-Better speakers
-The keyboards are awesome
-Built in camera/webcam and microphone
-Two finger scrolling
-The time machine feature
-Keyboard (the piano kind) support for garageband
-iTunes the way it was meant to be used
-The way the apple is glow-y white and the laptop is black…so cool
-I love OSX Leapord, thanks to my homeroom class
-Just pretty

Sorry, windows. But there’s another operating system in my life now.

Last night, a really big fly was buzzing around my room, particularly near my head, so I lured it into my bathroom and shut the door so it would leave me alone. Tonight I went in the bathroom to take a shower, and found the fly dead an the floor. Then I remembered that science lesson for 1st grade that taught me that flies have an average lifespan of about 24 hours.

So a fly died of natural causes in my bathroom. Nice to know.

I just came up with what I think is a very well thought out and very possible theory on what the heck is happening in my favorite show, LOST. Bear with me, as I’m not very articulate with my words, and this might not come out right.

My theory is this. Everyone thinks that Richard Alpert doesn’t age. And everyone’s been noticing how “the smoke monster” shows up off island when there’s smoking references. As shown by the no smoking sign in Hurley’s interrogation room (first episode of the new season) right before an apparition of Charlie swims up to the glass of the aquarium and breaks it. Another example was when an apparition of Christian Shepard shows up in the hospital as Jack is changing the battery in the smoke detector.

My theory is that the smoke monster is the spirit of the island in physical form. That’s why we’ve seen lots of things on the island that shouldn’t be there, like Kate’s horse in season 2, or a dead Christian Shepard, and maybe Hurley’s imaginary friend was possibly the smoke monster as well.

In “Cabin Fever,” when baby John Locke’s grandmother is lighting up a cigarette, the nurse says “you can’t smoke in here,” and then she sees Richard Alpert. Is it a smoke monster reference?

I think that the reason that we see Richard Alpert as always being the same age isn’t because he never ages, or because he’s time traveling. I think that he never ages because he is the smoke monster in his standard human form, thus never ages. This is also why he’s so bent on getting Locke on the island, because apparently Locke is now “the chosen one” to speak to Jacob.

There you have it. The answers to everything. I take all credit.

Wednesday is my Birthday. I turn 16, and hopefully, I’ll become the new driver of my Dad’s old (he has an Infinity now) Nissan Pathfinder. But what I;m hoping for the most is that there’s a slim chance I might get a cell phone.

For all 16 years of my life, I have been deprived of communication. It feels weird being the only person you know who doesn’t have one. I think I can count on one hand the amount of people in high school that I’ve met without a cell phone. That’s really all I have to say on the subject. I better get one.

Remind me to do this:

I want to record a song that starts out with like 2 minutes of party music. Like the music that you hear in Abercrombie and Hollister and stores like that, where it’s just a heavy beat and a rhythmic chord progression played on a loop. There’ll be sound effects of people talking and laughing throughout the whole thing. Like a party. And about halfway through that, way back in the background, a descending bass note will get louder and louder until it starts to sound very uneasy, and then get a little scary almost. Then, all sound effects stop, chord progression stops, beat stops. And all of a sudden, guitars go crazy, drums go crazy, sound effects off the wall, very frantic sounding, for a very short time until the end.

Eh?

I thought I loved Incubus before. But today, I got one of the items from my wish list. (But didn’t buy it, my awesome friend Kathy burned it and gave it to me)

This is incredible. It’s like hearing At The Drive-In, falling in love with THAT band, and then hearing The Mars Volta, and realizing that the band that you used to love is vastly inferior to what they had the ability to be. “S.C.I.E.N.C.E.” is a completely different Incubus than the one that I thought I knew. If you are only familiar with post-”Make Yourself” Incubus, let me fill you in.

Originally, Incubus planned to be a nu-metal band, and compete for popularity with the likes of other hard-rocking contenders such as KoRn, Rage Against The Machine, and early Red Hot Chili Peppers. But they developed their own style along the way, and became the sounds of this album. It’s basically nu-metal mixed with hip hop mixed with funk, mixed with hard rock. It’s VERY heavy, I was really surprised.

I’m mad at myself for not picking this up sooner. All Incubus fans who haven’t already, get this!

I’ve only been a Nine Inch Nails fan for about a year now, but I must say, I’m falling fast. Trent Reznor is one of my favorite musicians, and I love all the Nails albums that I own. But I need more.

Luckily, now is the best time to be a Nine Inch Nails fan. Now that Trent has broken free from the shackles of lable-dom in a very Radiohead-ish manner, he’s dishing out music like crazy. And not just any music.

“…this one’s on me.”

Free music. Yes, even though “Ghosts Volume 1″ before it was a great deal (9 songs for free, and the rest for 5 dollars) the new album, “The Slip” is even better. The price tag? $0.00! Now, I’m all for buying music. But I’m going to take advantage of this when I have the chance. I haven’t listened to this yet, (downloading now) but I thought I’d get the word out for anyone who hasn’t heard.

www.nin.com

I rented an upright bass today. Over the summer, I’m going to take lessons from my sister’s violin teacher and my old elementary music teacher. Once I’m good enough, I’ll play in my sister’s little-kid orchestra until I can play on my own. Then I might have to buy one or something. Can’t rent it forever.

Right now I’m trying to finger out Smells Like Teen Spirit for it.

I actually got turned on to the idea of upright bass by a really great punk band from down under called The Living End. Their bass player, Scott Owen, plays an upright. And he plays in a very unconventional way. He doesn’t play with a bow, and he doesn’t play the root note of what the guitar playing, he does his own thing. Gives the song a groove. Bass was pretty boring to me until I heard of these guys.

I’m really excited to learn how to play this awesome instrument. Maybe one day I can work some Bass action into my Andrew In Latin stuff, which has been bass-less thusfar, save for Genusus. I think.

If I have Pokemon Diamond, can I trade with someone via Wi-Fi who has Pokemon that they imported with the pal park from Sapphire or Ruby if I haven’t defeated the elite four and gotten the national dex?

Because my team would be undefeatable if I had a Ludicolo.

My friend Devin brought GTA IV and his Xbox 360 over to my house last night, and I must say: that game is awesome. It’s so satisfying to get caught by the cops. It’s fun even when you aren’t doing missions, you can just goof around in the city. And it’s just really great looking. The graphics in that game rule, it really makes the city feel more like a city than the previous games.

But what I really want to talk about is the Xbox 360 itself. I’ve stated before that I would like to have a 360, but now I’ve decided that I’m not planning on getting one. The games are ten dollars more than all Nintendo games, ($60) the console itself is a fortune, and it’s completely unreliable. When we were playing, I have a pretty hot room, so the system kept overheating. We had to place it by an open window to keep it from happening, and even then, it still did. Not as much, but every once in a while.

Also, I only know one, maybe two people who have a 360 and haven’t had one break. I know a few people who have broken more than one. So, I really don’t want to dish out that much money for the system, and then that much money on games, when I know that it’s eventually going to explode or something.

“never do you any good”

“look for lights?”

“riser upper”

This last summer, myself and my friend Travis challenged each other to play our Pokemon Red and Yellow Versions (respectively), and once school started, we would do battle. It was a lot of fun while it lasted, but with Pokemon, it’s so addictive that once you play you don’t ever want to put it down. But, if you ever do stop playing for about a week, you just don’t feel the need to anymore. So our lives got busy and we lost track of our game.

Now that we have a Photography class where we do absolutely nothing, we decided to bring our cards to school, and hold competitions to pass the time. This was really awesome. Eventually, our douchebag teacher told us that we can’t bring them anymore, for reasons unknown.

But what I want to talk about are peoples reactions to us being associated with Pokemon. When I walk through school with a Nintendo DS, and people see that I’m playing Pokemon, I get laughs. Not “I’m laughing with you,” but most definitely, “you’re a loser, aren’t those for 8 year olds?”

The real children here are the ones laughing. When my retort is “hey, don’t you know that they’re really great video games?” I get laughs as well. Apparently, nowadays, people enjoy different things. While certain people absolutely love to play baseball, my opinion of fun is hanging out with my friends, playing a good game of Brawl, or Pokemon, or anything. Why would I want to play your game when it isn’t fun for me? Isn’t it in the definition of the word fun that fun has to be something you enjoy?

Right now, there is this “fact,” that Pokemon is on the same level as Dora The Explorer, or listening to Hannah Montana. But there’s nothing to support this. That’s what’s immature. Not standing up for something that you like because you are afraid of what your friends will think.

Actually, most people that play Pokemon are people that we’re playing video games when Pokemon was created. People who grew up with it. And if I recall correctly, there wasn’t one kid in my 4th grade class who wasn’t playing Pokemon, and wasn’t loving every second of it.

Back then it was fun. Why isn’t it fun now? It doesn’t have any blood or killing in it, so you don’t like it? Let’s be honest, isn’t there something that we all don’t do just because theres some rule that says it isn’t cool, even though you can’t explain why.

Don’t stop doing something that you enjoy just because someone else doesn’t.

A few weeks ago I got the idea from Dharmalars to make an Amazon.com wish list, because I’m always forgetting things I want to buy and end up buying something else. So lately I’ve been adding pretty much anything that I have interest in owning to my list, and It’s about 3 pages right now.

If anyone feels the need to send me anything because you just want to be a nice person, go right ahead.

My List

P.S.: My dad fixed the computer.

My good buddy Zaq with a Q got on MSN about an hour ago and asked me to send him a song that he sent me a long time ago, but lost the file. I was on my laptop, and all of my music is on my desktop computer, because I don’t have room for 12+GBs of music on my 60GB laptop that’s almost full. So I say, “Sure Zaq, let me switch computers real fast.”

I jump on the big compy. My dad has his “profile” running, and I decide that now would be a good time to take advantage of him leaving his profile on. There are a lot of unnecessary icons on my desktop because I can’t get rid of them, seeing as I don’t have admin privileges. The one that’s particularly bugging me is the “HP Camera Share-To-Web Upload Folder” icon for that HP camera that we don’t have anymore. So I right click it to send it to the recycle bin, and the desktop freezes, right there.

But I find out that the “start” button still works. So I’m able to log out of his profile without anything freezing for good. I leave his profile and click the little button with a guitar on it that says “Andrew,” to go to my desktop. However, when I open my profile, all I see is my background. Windows says that I’m logged in. And I am. But all of my desktop icons are missing, and the taskbar (the thing where all your windows are and the start button is) is gone.

So all I see is my background image, which is solid green. I’m trying to open MSN and iTunes so I can copy and paste that song and send it to Zaq. But with no buttons to click, how do I open the programs? Well, I found out that control+alt+delete works. But the “processes” tab shows that everything is working the way it should. The taskbar program is even running. It’s just not there.

One thing that control+alt+delete does is has a button that says “New Task.” If I know exactly the location of “iTunes.exe,” or “MSN.exe,” I can open it. Unfortunately, I don’t. Fortunately, theres a “Browse” button, so that I can find it myself. UNfortunately, when I click this, everything freezes and I can’t click on anything at all.

So I unplug my comptuer and restart it manually, and see if it will work a second time. maybe I just messed up something because my dad’s screen froze. But, no. The same exact thing happens. And restarting again makes the same thing happen.

I’ve also tried running the computer in safe mode. If I do THAT, scrolly text goes down the screen then freezes infinitely, and I never get to where I’m going.

HELP ME

I’ve been having Torrent trouble lately.

Usually, I don’t download albums. I buy albums because I want to support musicians, and because I like to have a hard copy of the album in case my computer ever goes berserk or my files get lost. But, when there’s an album that I don’t really care about, but would like to listen to to see what it’s like (Bjork’s “Post” comes to mind), I’ll torrent it. Or, if I want to download a particular SNL skit and put it on my iPod. I’ll torrent it.

And usually, I use uTorrent. But all of a sudden, it just stopped downloading. I dunno if my computer blocked it or something, but it just became useless overnight. Downloads nothing. So I uninstalled it, and got BitComet. That worked ONCE. But then it quit on me. After that I tried Azerus. I just hated the interface and the way everything was laid out. So I uninstalled that. And now I have the original, BitTorrent. It’s working. But everything is

super

slow.

I’ve been downloading an album, and I’m 27% done, and the estimated time says I have 4 and a half hours to go.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME.

At The Mars Volta’s web forum, in a general discussion part of the site, there was a thread where people posted their favorite fake motivational pictures. After a while, they started making their own. A whole lot of them were way too inappropriate to be shared on this blog, but I went through a few pages and downloaded some of my favorites, to share with the rest of the world.

elephants

lobster knife fight

bottled water

sense

stupidity

stingrays

invisible sandwich

so I was in the shower

the internet

wargarbl

…and, my favorite.

(DO NOT CLICK IF YOU DON’T WANT TO READ SOME VERY EXPLICIT LANGUAGE)

vacation

Theres a new song on the Andrew In Latin myspace that I recorded this morning, about 2 hours ago. I’m pretty proud of it. It’s called “Gunslingin’” and you should check it out.

I’m still trying to find out how to upload music to the blog post itself. Hopefully that’ll happen in the near future.

Oh, people who buy the trendy, expensive, and bad tasting water.

Why can’t I be more like you?

I had two friends come over yesterday (that’s why I forgot to blog), and at about 1 in the morning, after playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl for hours, we made out own way to play. Two people will be using Gamecube controllers, and one will be using a Wii Remote & Nunchuck (or whatever controller he’s worst with), and then you’ll have one computer player. You’re going to need to make 3 new “profiles,” or names for this Brawl.

Make a new name called “Blind,” one called “Foot,” and one called “Screw.” Whoever is “Blind,” is always Sonic, whoever is “Screw,” is always Ice-Climbers, and whoever is Foot is always Olimar. In this mode, the 3 players will take turns being Screw, Foot, and Blind.

Whoever is Blind/Sonic, has to use a Wavebird Controller or a Gamecube controller with an extension cord, and has to play the game while facing away from the television, using only his ears to tell where he is and if he’s hitting anyone.

Whoever is Foot/Olimar, obviously sits the Gamecube controller in front of him and plays only with his feet.

But Screw/Ice-Climbers is the fun character. Whoever is going to be Screw has to leave the room, while the other players go into “Options,” and change his control scheme to whatever they think would screw him up the most. He cane come back in the room when they’re done, and then it’s almost time to Brawl.

Now, set up a computer character, who is always Mr. Game & Watch, always on level 1. Set the rules on a 2-minute time match. Let Screw and Foot agree on what stage to play at, and do not tell Blind where it is. After the Brawl is over, save the video to your Wii and let Blind and the rest of the players watch it back. I can almost guarantee that it’ll be a riot.

This mode will probably be funniest if played past midnight, when everything’s funny, though.

I’m a huge fan of the Colbert Report, and this week as part of his Doritos Spicy Sweet Pennsylvania Primary Coverage: “The Land Of Brotherly Crunch” week-long event, he had a band called The Roots play twice on the Report. Normally, he never has a musical guest. But he makes exceptions every now and then, and this exception was necessary.

They played his opening theme (awesome as well), but the best part of the show was their song at the end. They played The Star Spangled Banner instrumental, and it was amazing. Watch this video, and make sure you see the end.

So I looked them up and I found out that usually, their a hip-hop group. They changed their line-up around a bit to do this. I listened to some of their hip-hop stuff, and its pretty freaking good. I bought, “Dynamite!” and “Spark” off of iTunes, and I think that I’m gonna buy one of their albums. It also turns out that they’re playing in a city near me next month.

Thinkin’ about it.

“open the floodgates”

lie cheat and steal my life
too bad the good is gone
the dark is where the light is s’posed to go
oh, no
you’ll never give it up now
your understanding’s warped and extra slow
always
thinking
of what you could be slinking
through the floorboards with
keeping all the gifts for you alone
din’t you know they weren’t for you at all
and you know who you are
–
if I were to catch you
red handed
with my left hand
theifery would be the charge you’d be accustomed with
be convicted
be restricted
be omitted from the rest of everyone
and you know who you are
–
why are you
always committing theifery
and why are you
always so real to me
–
just to think, that someone else is running around with my backpack, my jacket, with my ipod, is enough to make me sick.
I just hate you so much.
and you can bet on your life that my door’ll never be locked again, dirt.

I had a really good day today. Or at least, a day that I don’t think anything went wrong during. Except seeing a certain someone with a certain someone else. But it’s minor, it’s minor. Today has been pretty darn good. In first period, I got to play Mexican folk songs with my bearded friend, Julian.

Then, in second period, I played Pokemon cards (you know it’s fun) with my friend Travis, and won, with my amazing two Dragonairs. They never fail. never.

In third, I got to listen to music the whole time. I ended up trading iPod’s with my friend Kathy, and I listened to some Tenacious D that I had never heard before, and about died laughing. “One Note Song” rules me.

In fourth, I had to take a test. Kind of lame, but I think I did pretty good. Also, I had no homework, for the first time in fourth-block-history. So that’s good.

After school, while I was waiting on my hair appointment, I went to the library and found out that you can “check out” music. There we’re only two CDs I wanted, but I ended up only getting one. “Is This It?” by The Strokes. It’s an album I’ve been wanting for a long time, because I’ve always been a casual Strokes fan. But I just got to check it out for free. And put it on my iPod. Sweet.

Then, I went and got all my hair cut off. Which is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. Since I was about 12 or 13, I’ve had this big bushy long hair, that looked pretty cool most of the time. But lately, it had been starting to get where I had to take care of it too much, or it would look terrible. So, I got it all cut off.

Now I have almost no bangs at all, and a near buzz cut on the sides and the back. It’s pretty cool, and it’s always the same. I don’t have to worry about hair anymore. One step further in simplifying my life. I’ll talk about that sometime.

After I got m hair cut, I went to Blockbuster and rented a lot of movies I want to watch. “There Will be Blood,” “August Rush,” “Juno,” and “Lars And The Real Girl.” Also, my friend Spenser is bringing over “Sweeny Todd” on Tuesday. So that’s more. Really excited about “There Will Be Blood,” though.

After Blockbuster, I went home and watched two very hillarious episodes of The Office. Such a good show, such a good show.

Then, I went to Gondola, and ate a very delicious Charbroiled Chicken Parmesan, and listened to my new Strokes album on the way there.

Then, I came home, watched August Rush, was blown away by the ending of it, then went to my room to watch a freaking awesome live recording of my favorite band, The Mars Volta. And now I’m writing about it. Nothing to complain about.

There’s absolutely nothing I hate more in the world than stealing. I mean, sure, I’d rather people not kill people. And I don’t really like the Disney channel. But I hate, hate, HATE stealing. I don’t really know how to go into it without rambling and not making sense. This is a quote from the book “The Kite Runner,” and I agree with it, but I don’t think that theft is the only sin. Though, when I say theft, I mean the normal version of theft: taking a physical thing that belongs to someone else. Anyways, this is a good line.

“Now, no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. Do you understand that? When you kill a man, you steal a life,” Baba said. “You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?”

It’s one of my life-goals to start a band that plays other people’s rock covers of rap songs. A rock cover of a rap song is exactly that. It’s different depending on the band, but most bands make the song faster and more beat-heavy than the original, and sometimes even change the harmony, only leaving the original words. Some bands that have done it are:

Bowling For Soup - London Bridge
Sum 41 - Get Back
Incubus - Still Not A Player
The Automatic - Gold Digger
The Racontuers - Crazy
Travis Morrison - What’s Your Fantasy
The Gourds - Gin And Juice
Zolof The Rock And Roll Destroyer - Ridin’ Dirty
The Vines - Miss Jackson
Lorene Drive - Hey Ya!
Just Surrender - SexyBack
Ben Kweller - Ice Ice Baby
Editors - Feel Good Inc.

Some of these songs would be interesting to do, especially the Incubus and The Vines ones. My old band, Slur, played Ridin’ Dirty by Zolof to end our shows, it was a lot of fun. Which is where I go the idea of a rock rap cover band. I already have someone who agreed to play bass if the need ever arose, and I would do the singing parts of the songs and the guitar. So I’m lacking another guitar, a drummer, and rappers. I would probably want a keyboard player, too. I would actually like to have a different rapper for each song that still has actual rap in it. To mix it up a bit, you know?

I would name my band Optimus Rhyme, and it would rule the world.

So yeah, over the weekend, my youth group’s praise band (which I call Wingolias, even though we have no name) performed about 4 times in 3 days, and it was pretty killer. We played “I Am A Friend Of God,” but we really made it our own, and added in a 2nd guitar part and a really cool outro. We Played “Holiness (Take My Life),” and I don’t know if the original is like this or not, but ours was a Reggae song, and it ruled. Also, we played “Breathe,” which was a very chill song, with my favorite effect in it…sweep echo! You gotta love sweep echo. It’s just the best.

Another song we did was “Enough,” and the band as a whole simultaneously screwed it up, but I probably did the worst. I was supposed to be doing these very subtle phaser notes in the background of the song, but then went overboard and it was too loud and fast and…yeah. It didn’t go so swell. Other song’s we did that were just kind of average were “Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing),” and…another one that I can’t think of right now.

There was also a song that wasn’t ready to be played yet. It’s called “Agnus Dei,” and it’s easily my favorite song of the bunch that we know. It’s probably one of the only praise and worship songs that has a good intro, and the intro really makes the song. Try and find it online if you can. Good song.

Also, our youth leader, Dan, wrote a song called “Fork In The Road,” that was going to be our theme song, back when the band was going to be called “The Electric Fork Band.” We put all the music of it together over the weekend, and that’s another song that I really like, and that I’m excited about. I was expecting playing in a praise band to be pretty boring, but I actually like it a lot.

I checked my iTunes today to put a new song on my iPod, and I checked my podcast subscriptions so that I could listen to the new Dharmalars, and lo and behold, hmynameismark is back! Before I started listening to Jay And Jack and the Dharmalars, this was my favorite podcast for a very long time. The guy who does it is Mark Hoppus, who used to be the bass player for Blink-182, who also used to be one of my favorite bands.

This thing has been dead for about a year, and I figured that he gave up on it. Really glad to have it back. It’s hilarious. Mark is a beast. Basically what he does is talk to his friends the whole time, and in between conversations, he plays songs from independent bands that he wants to get out there. But the main thing is that Mark is funny.

himynameismark

So I missed two days blogging. But I didn’t mean to. I went on a youth retreat with my church, and the newly formed Praise Band that I’m in played every day. I brought my laptop to blog with, but there was no signal there so I couldn’t get on the internet. Oh well. I’ll talk about the praise band soon, but I have something interesting to share tonight.

On the way home, I was riding with the rest of the praise band, myself, Kaysee (right spelling?), Dan, and Devin. Devin had an idea for a game, where we would take turns adding words to make a sentence, and the words have to start with whatever the next letter of the alphabet is, in order. So it’s a 26 word sentence, in ABC order. This was our sentence.

After bananas curdled dastardly, everything fell graciously heavenward instantly, just kinda like Marcy Nunchakus on P.C.P., quivering restlessly, sobbing, trembling under vacant waterfalls, xylophoning, yelling “ZEPPELIN!!!”

Amen.

It’s true. I struggled hooking up my “new” 2nd edition Sega Genesis. That’s a lie. I struggled a whole lot. It took me two days. Granted, two days of not trying very hard, but still, it took way too long for a fan like me to get the thing together. I googled it a lot, which never actually gave me the answer, but led me to finding my own solution. Turns out, a lot of people are having this problem. “Hook up a Sega Genesis” lends google 27,000+ results.

So! I am breaking this news right now. This is the definitive way to connect your 2nd edition Genesis to a newfangled television. With a lot of pictures. For dummies.

“There are a lot of different Genesis consoles out there”, said Wikipedia to myself. And to do what I’m describing, THIS is the kind of console that you’re going to need. Sorry if you we’re looking for instructions on how to hook up the 1st edition or later versions. But this is what I’ve got.

Mmk. Here’s what you need to do it. Genesis, TV with an ANT plug (the plug that you put your cable TV into), RF cord (the thing with the box in the middle of it), ANT cord (cable television cord) ANT wall plug (not pictured), and Genesis power cord (also not pictured). And a game to make sure that what you’re doing is working.

First, plug your Genesis into the wall with the power cord, and then plug the side of the RF cable that fits into your Genesis. Take the cable/ANT-cord and plug one side into the wall plug. Plug the other side into the part of your RF cord that says ANT IN.

Now, take the wire that is coming out of the RF cord that is labeled TV OUT. Plug that into where you would normally plug your ANT/cable-cord into, on the back of your TV. Now the Genesis is hooked up to where you can watch TV and have the Genesis plugged up at the same time.

Next, turn your TV on, and put it on either channel 3 or channel 4. Theres a switch on the RF cord that goes back and forth between the side labeled 3 and the one labeled 4. Put yours on the same channel that your TV is turned to.

Last, put a game in your Genesis, and turn it on. If you did all this right, your TV should switch from whatever you we’re watching to–dun dun da daa–16-bit Sega glory! You win!

(By the way…my Sonic 2 was being stubborn and I had to switch it for Earthworm Jim for the second photo.)

I love this album.

A band that I’ve been really into lately is The Ebb And Flow. I saw someone request a download of it on a forum that I visit, and I like the title of their album, so I listened to some 30 second clips on iTunes. I liked what I heard, so when I got an iTunes card over Easter weekend, I had nothing else on my list but this, and downloaded it.

The band that I think The Ebb And Flow most remind me of is The Doors. One of their singers (I’ll get to that later) sounds a lot like Jim Morrison, and they have a lot of organ-ish sounding keyboards that live in the background of their music, and give it kind of a constant “flow”, pardon the pun. Their guitar sound has a real southern/folk vibe to it, which are both genres that I like.

They also have two singers, and they do about the same amount of work. One is a guy, and the other is a girl. Surprisingly, I like listening to the girl singer just as much as I do the other, which is strange because I usually don’t like to listen to bands with female vocalists, with a few exceptions. She sounds like she has a British accent, but I’m not sure where the band is from.

I don’t just like the songs that this band does, I like this band. I like the way their songs are constructed, I like the way their music progresses, I like all the vocals, I like all of their melodies, I really like the lyrics, and the music itself is extremely entertaining. I can’t stop praising this album enough, and it really deserves some credit. I’m pretty picky wen it comes to what I will listen to, and I’m having a hard time finding any flaws here.

Anyways, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. I have a pretty bad way of explaining things, especially music that someone hasn’t heard before. So please, do yourself a favor and find this album somewhere, listen for yourself.

I’m going to whine for a little bit.

I hate going to the rec park. It’s where all the baseball and softball teams go every night for their games, and my dad’s a softball coach. So we’re always up there. And I have a little baby sister who’s three, and likes to run around rampant. And my mom is busy being the scorekeeper. So I’m left watching my sister the whole time. I have to kind of keep her…away from everyone else, who she wants to socialize with. We’re usually up there for 2-4 hours, so it’s pretty frustrating. Especially when she doesn’t want to do anything I say.

But my main complaint about the rec park is that no matter where you go, its dusty. Like the dirt on the baseball diamonds? That’s everywhere. It has to be in the air or something. I usually take my iPod, and lately my laptop, and my hands always get all grimy and nasty. You can’t leave the place without feeling like Pigpen.

That is all.

My camera is broken. It’s been broken for like a week now. The same thing happened to my friend’s PSP, it really blows. What happened was… I had it in my pocket of some tight fit pants, and I guess the screen was facing opposite my leg. It must’ve bumped against something pretty forcefully, and cracked not the screen, but the LCD screen behind the screen. So now, half of my camera’s screen is colorbar instead of picture. Sucks.

So I called Casio (my camera company), and they said that even though it’s under warranty, technically it’s my fault. So, they want to charge me $119 to get it fixed. That’s about $85 that I don’t have right now. So my mom’s taking the camera up to Wolf Camera in Knoxville tomorrow, to see if they can fix it for any cheaper. And if they can’t, tough, I guess. I’m going to have to get it fixed anyways, so I guess I’ll have to get someone to loan me the money to fix it.

I love my camera.

“mic”

“explosions”

“lamp”

“UFO”

This has been up for almost a week now, but I figured I’d share. The song is called “Good Idea” and can be located at the Andrew In Latin Myspace. I recorded it a lot differently that I’ve ever recorded a song. I experimented and recorded keyboard first, even though I don’t really know how to play keyboard, nor do I know any keyboard theory at all except that I can tell you what note is what.

But anyways, I made a part up and then started playing around with it and making it sound like a jumbled mess in the middle. Then I put a pre-set beat over it at the right moments. (Lame, I know, but I can’t play drums on a keyboard) Then I figured out a guitar riff that sounded good. Actually I’m thinking that it would sound good as a vocal melody. But whatever. I have what I have.

I’m happy with the song, though, it’s fun to listen to.

The choir that I’m in had their big production tonight. It’s called “Cinemagic!” and all the songs are medleys from movies, old and new. I think this was the tracklist:

Thanks For The Memory
Beauty And The Beast
The Lion King
Hairspray (First Song)
A Chorus Line
Grease
Mary Poppins
Hairspray (Last Song)
Dreamgirls
Across The Universe
Sweeney Todd
Titanic
Stomp The Yard
Rent

Yep. I played the intro to our Rent medley on guitar, because I didn’t have a solo. I think it was kind of awkward looking, I’m going to try and clean it up for the next show. This was a really good show, though. I feel a lot more comfortable with my dancing this time around. It seems like we crammed a lot of practicing at crunch time, then kind of pulled the show out of our butts at the last second…but the audience doesn’t know that. Two more shows, tomorrow and Saturday. Wish me luck!

Calling everyone: I need help. The other day, my computer went all crazy Windows were freezing and my pointer wouldn’t bring anything new up, and I was clicking like mad. When it finally unfroze, my “user name folder” (the green folder in vista with your name on it that contains Documents, Music, Pictures, etc..) had been changed. It used to be named “Andrew,” and now it’s named “S.”

S? Oh, well. I forget about it for now, and promise myself that I’ll change it back soon. So today, I decide to do something about it. But, it turns out that the user name folder is un-renameable. So how did I accidentally change it before? I have no idea. But I want to change it back. And google is doing nothing for me right now. So somebody help me out.

This video was already posted on www.himynameismark.com, but it’s extremely awesome. Plus, it being April fools day, I figured I’d post something goofy. It’s the trailer for a movie called “Adventures Of Power,” and it looks awesome.

I don’t think this looks very much like the Cloverfield monster, honestly.

My camera is broken, and I have to send it in to get it fixed, so I’m probably going to be uploading a lot of videos for the next few days. I’ve got tons of them. Or, at least 21 more.

Watch closely.

screw everybody else
yeah
I mean everybody
that’s what Mark Hoppus said, isn’t it?
sometimes I wish Mark could drop us all a line
stuff would be fine
drawn would be lines
simple as that
matter fact
waiting on another
cataract
cardiac arrest
arrest me for speaking because
nevermind
this town’s just waiting on another
tradgedy, this week
and that’s weak
if I do say so myself
and I do
someone please move the cloud
away from the speck

So, it’s official that I’m not going to the Mars Volta concert. My parents don’t want to take the risk of me being driven by my 20 year old cousin in Atlanta, one of the biggest cites in the world. (Says my dad.) So I’m gonna try and not ramble on about it anymore, and stick to more important stuff, instead of blubbering.

A favorite band of mine, Okkervil River, just put out a new album, for free. They’re a folk rock band, and most of their stuff is pretty chill. The new one is an acoustic album of covers, but most of the songs are songs that no ones heard of, so you wouldn’t really guess.

This band does acoustic songs really well, though, and I’ve been listening to this album all morning. So far, I’m digging it. It’s called “Golden Opporitunities Mixtape,” and you can go to their website (www. okkervilriver. com) and there’s a download link on the front page.

So, those of you who like music, free things, and acoustic guitars, should head on over and download that stuff.

So here’s the deal on the Mars Volta concert I’ve been oogling over for months. My parents don’t want to drive me to Atlanta. Because it’s a 5 hour drive, and they are very lazy. So, we had this great idea. My cousin is a cool guy, and he lives exactly in the middle of the trip from here to Atlanta. He’s a Volta fan, too, so the idea was this: my parents drive me to his house, then his brother drive both of us the rest of the way and we go to the show together. Sounds great.

Problem. I find out that the show sold out a week after tickets went on sale, about a month ago. So I go looking for scalpers. I found a really nice guy who has 4 tickets, but then couldn’t afford gas money to go, so he’s selling his tickets for 50 dollars a pop. 100 dollars for two people to go to a Volta show is definitely worth it to me, so I tell him I’m planning on buying two tickets after I get a green light from my cousin’s parents.

Then, tornadoes hit Atlanta. They hit the venue that The Mars Volta were going to play at, and theres some minor water damage, and almost all the windows are broken. The venue has confirmed nothing about any concerts for the future. So, the possibilities are this: they reschedule the concert and let people use their old tickets for the new one, move the concert to a different venue,  cancel the concert and reimburse all money to the ticket buyers, or cancel the concert and don’t reimburse all money to the ticket buyers.

So, the show is in two weeks. The guy who’s going to sell me the tickets is going to have to mail them to me, because he doesn’t live in my state. The tickets will probably take about 3 or 4 days to get to me, so I really have about a week to make a decision on whether or not to buy the tickets. And I’m not making a decision until the venue (The Tabernacle, Atlanta) confirms what exactly is happening to my Mars Volta show.

I think I just discovered a word. It’s a real word, but it’s not in the dictionary. The word is “nother.” I’ve been thinking about it all day. Actually, lately, I’ve been thinking about what words mean a lot. But anyways. Nother. It’s a word that is used all the time, but only in other words or phrases. Like, “another.” In English, the word “a” means “one”, and “a” and “an” in English are used the same way that “un” and “una” are used in Spanish. They both mean “one” but they are both used in different situations.

The word “another” sounds like two words. “A” and “nother.” So “one nother.” What does “nother” mean? Well, “another” means, and I quote:

Another (a-nuth-er) adj. 1: one more, an additional 2: a different

So. “A” means “one,” and “another” means “one more.” You see where I’m going with this. The word “nother” means “more.” Though, it’s never used. Except, I’ve noticed, people say “whole nother.” Like, for example:

“It broke, so I had to buy a whole nother one!”

Even though this is the only time the word “nother” is ever used in actual conversation, it doesn’t make sense in this context. Weird.

Anyways, I discovered a word. It’s real, and you should use it, and get all of your friends to use it. I hope to discover nother words in the future.

I read the book about a month or two ago, and I really enjoyed it. Very excited.

“posideon”

“zeus”

“fingers”

Another thing that the Blue Man Group completely succeeded in doing was being hilarious. Everything they did not only bottled my mind but also made me laugh really hard. Even before they went on, they had a scrolling LED light talking to the audience. For the first few minutes of sitting down, the words read loops of things like

“Please turn off all cameras, cell phones, game boys, PDAs, and portable fax machines”

(I don’t know why fax machines…) but then later the sign started talking to the audience. It told us that the gold medal winner of last years Olympic arm curling was in the audience. Then it told us that the creator of the Human Genome Project (pandora.com) was in the audience, which was pretty cool. I’ve been to Pandora my fair share of times.Then the sign was like:

“Also, Kevin Green [I forget the actual name, I made that up] is in the audience. Kevin is just an average guy, but that’s all the more reason to give him a hand. Stand up, Kevin!”

…and…

“Also, it is Angelina Hernandez’s birthday today. Let’s all speak happy birthday to her. But remember, don’t sing. Words only. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Angelina. Happy birthday to you.”

But then the Blue Man Group came out. These guys are awesome. They don’t speak, and they don’t move their mouths, and they barely ever move their arms when they aren’t playing instruments, but they have a way of communicating with each other, rather hilariously, with just the way they look at each other. I don’t really know how to explain it other than saying they communicate with their eyebrows.Like, for instance, when they played 3 covers, they played “Whip It.” When they played it, one Blue Man played the main riff part, and another Blue Man played the bass parts. Then, when it came time for the *whip!* noise, the third Blue Man took out a handkercheif and whipped the middle Blue Man on the butt, then the first two stopped playing and just stared at him for like 10 seconds.

This video is a video I found on youTube of a Blue Man Group Skit. They actually performed this at the concert I went to, but it was a little different. It’s called “The Feast” and what they do is they take a lady from the audience, then they take her on stage, set up a table, and have a silent dinner of Lite Twinkies. This video is only about half of what happened at my show, but it’s still pretty funny. Some of it was improvised, because a lot of their jokes depend on the reactions of the lady on stage with them. See what I mean.

Okay, so I’m back from my trip now, so I’m gonna take the next few days to talk about cool stuff that happened. Today, Blue Man Group.

I didn’t really know anything about Blue Man Group before I went to go see them. I knew they we’re painted blue all the time, and I knew they played on pipe drums. I didn’t know that their music was instrumental, and that the “pipe drums” we’re PVC pipes, that, when hit with other, drumstick sized pipes, not only made percussive sound, but musical notes. They had one PVC pipe that was just a long, straight pipe, and connected to a long U-bend pipe that made the instrument kind of like a slide trombone.

They used the drumstick pipes to hit one end of the PVC pipe, but when the slide thing was pulled to make the pipe longer, he note became lower, just like a Trombone. The sound was always a beat, but it was also music. Then, they hooked another PVC pipe to the end of the slide pipe, and that made the notes lower, and gave the pipe a broader range of notes it could hit. They could move the slide in the center to lower or higher the notes, then they can slide the new pipe to change the notes moreso. It’s really hard to try and describe to someone, but it’s awesome to watch.

It’s 11:30 and I’m playing Worms with friends and I’m not blogging. Tomorrow is another day.

I saw Blue Man Group in concert off a limb (yesterday, check the time on this post) today. It was incredible. I’ll write a big long summary of it tomorrow or the next day, but for now I gotta get some Z’s. Night.

Last night I slept on a bus. That was interesting. Half the time I slept in a reclined chair, but when that got uncomfortable, (which was soon) I moved my slumber party to the floor of the bus. That was actually a lot more comfortable. Just stick a pillow under your head and dress warm and sleeping on the floor of a bus it pretty tops actually. I am officially recommending it.

Got off the bus at like 8 in the morning, ate a supreme omelette croissan’wich thing at Dunkin Doughnuts. That, I do not reccomend. That was a little less than satisfying. Next stop was Seaworld. Now, Seaworld was not at all what I expected it to be. The gist of Seaworld is this: 40% of Seaworld is shows that you have to get there early to see, 40% is gift shops (why so many, Seaworld, why?), and the other 10% is the two rides at Seaworld.

The shows are about 30 minutes long, and they all start at the same times of the day, so to see all of them, you’d pretty much have to stay at Seaworld all day. Also, you need to get in line for the shows about 45 minutes early, because they open the doors about 30 minutes before the show starts, then close the door about 20 minutes before the show starts, because now it’s full. Basically, waste of time.

SO MANY GIFT SHOPS. There is one gift shop for every single animal exhibit. Manatee exhibit? Gift shop. Penguins? Gift shop. Shamu? Gift shop. Otters? Gift shop. You get it. But the thing is, they have pretty different merchandise in every one. So Seaworld has way too many gifts for themselves to handle.

There are 2 rides at Seaworld. One is called the Journey To Atlantis. This is basically that ride that’s at every park there is where you’re in a big boat and you ride to the top of a big sloped tunnel then go down a flat slide. Like Escape From Pompeii at Bush Gardens or that log ride at Disney world. The thing about this one is that the tunnel to take you to the drop is like…Atlantis. Except it’s trying to, like, scare you. With eels and jellyfish. And mermaids. Eeeeee. The tunnel is really long, and takes up a really large majority of the ride. Pretty boring.

The other ride is actually a rollercoaster, and it’s pretty wicked. The Kraken. I’m a fan. Lots of loops and corkscrews, and it’s really smooth. Not much I can say about it other than it’s a kickin’ roller coaster. Enough said.

Tonight I got to go to the Virgin Megastore! WOO! I love that place. It’s probably one of the 10 greatest stores ever. Definitely. I bought some serious CDs, too.

Let Me Come Home by Limbeck
Roll On by The Living End
Emergency & I by The Dismemberment Plan
Renegades by Rage Against The Machine

Yeah, I know that the last one wasn’t a small label release, but I’m having a serious hard time finding it in my town and surrounding areas, plus it was just 10 dollars here. So I went for it. But I’m really excited for Limbeck and The D-Plan. I was really hoping to by Time To Echolocate by The Ebb And Flow, but they we’re all out. That really blows. I don’t know how I’m gonna get my hands on that album.

Tomorrow, I go to Universal Studios to ride more stuff. Right now, I’m gonna chat a bit and go to bed. Later.

Tonight at 7 the choir trip officially disembarks (well, starts driving) to Florida. 13 hour of bus-trip, and when we get there: Seaworld, Universal Studios, Coco Beach, competition, lots of super smash brothers playing, and The Virgin Megastore! I’m gonna stock up on small-label albums while I’m there. I hope they have some Limbeck and The Ebb And Flow, maybe The Living End. Anyways, I’m taking my laptop with me, and I’ll be blogging from the road to document what’s going on. Bye.

“blood”

Since about last Friday, I’ve been really sick, and it’s gotten worse by the day. Today, It got the worst it’s ever been. I had a (really) sore throat, a constant cough that feels like whooping cough, stuffy/runny nose (went back and forth), and, today, a fever of 102. It was terrible. On top of that, I had to dance for about 5 hours a day on average, and I felt like I was about to die the whole time. Today I went to the doctor, and I got an antibiotic shot to cure everything. Then, I spent the worst 5 hours of the sickness, and all of a sudden I felt fine.That was about an hour ago. Being not sick feels really good.

Well, off to play Brawl.

As I’ve stated before, I bought Super Smash Bros. Brawl yesterday, and I’m digging it. My character for the first two games was Samus, but I’m not a huge fan of Samus in Brawl. She’s slower and doesn’t seem as fluid to me to use. I can’t figure out how to go into the morph ball either, but I’m sure it’s there. However, a character that I used to hate, Fox, is like, on crack now. He’s so freaking fast, I really like to use him.

Out of the new characters, I like Pit the most right now, and Olimar in second. I haven’t gotten used to Olimar, he’s definitely the strangest of all the Brawl characters. I’ve been told Ike is really good, but I haven’t had the time to use him yet. I’ve actually only played Brawl for about 2 hours so far, cause I’ve been so dang busy with choir. The trip is Thursday, and I’ll probably bring my Wii along to get my Brawl on.

That’s all for now.

Got Brawl today, playing now.

Fr some reason, youTube always drastically reduces the quality of my video. You can’t read the introduction because of that, but nevertheless, here’s the video. I kept accidentally putting my finger over the microphone, sorry about that. This was pretty soon after I just got my camera and I wasn’t sure where the mic even was.

(Brawl comes out tomorrow!)

Right now I’m uploading a video of the band This Is Luke up to youTube, and it should be on the blog tomorrow. Today I’ll tell a little about This Is Luke. They are a local Christian band from a town over from where I live. They have kind of an alternative sound, and I would say they sound a little like the band Brand New, but more energetic and less chill.

They’ve been around for probably almost two years now (didn’t do my homework on that, so check me), and they have one EP and one full length album, which happens to be a concept album. You can hear the full length album on iTunes (plug), but honestly, I think that they sound better live than on the record.

I’ve seen them in concert 5 times, or 7 if you count the 3-day revival that they played at. I’m uploading a video of them from the revival, playing what I think is their best song. It’s called “Alive,” and it’s going to be on their next CD, which will be a worship album with mostly original songs on it, I think. The pre-chorus of this song may cause up to but not limited to 3 brain anuerysms, and the same goes for the ending riff. So, fasten your seatbelts, come tomorrow.

P.S.: I’m buds with the singer of this band, he’s a cool guy.

Does your life ever go into a few days or a week where you don’t feel like you have the time to turn around? I’m in a show choir at my school, and we do a competition every year. For those of you who don’t know what a show choir is, it’s a group of people who dance and sing in harmony at the same time.

This is my first year in it, but we have a really huge reputation, and have won grand champion 4 out of out 6 times we’ve gone to (nationwide) competition. We leave for competition next Thursday, and our director is a bit of a procrastinator, however good she may be, and we just started learning our dances Monday.

So, we’re jamming in at least 3 and a half hours of practice a day, and about every three days we have a 6 and a half hour practice. On top of that, my dance partner got sick on Monday, and can’t come back to school on doctors orders until Monday. So, today, Thursday, after dancing by myself (pretending I’m not dancing with myself) all week, I get a new partner who knows nothing and had to learn all the new stuff in one day.

Luckily, she’s good and picked it up pretty fast. But basically, my point is I’m freaking swamped right now and I don’t have time to play guitar, video games, or take pictures of my turntable at all since I’ve been ungrounded. Oh, and Super Smash Brothers Brawl comes out Sunday and I’ll only have time to play it for about 2 hours that day because of practice.

But, I’m probably going to go see The Mars Volta in April, so turn that frown upside down, self!

“among the best of them”

I got a pair of new shoes last weekend, and I noticed that my feet didn’t fit in them exactly the same as they did my old pair. The curves in the sole of the shoe were a little different, and the edge of the heel was at a different angle. They were very minor differences, but still, the first few days, the shoe was a little uncomfortable to wear. But, magically, today the shoes fit fine, as if nothing was out of place. So I asked myself: “Self, was this the case with every pair of shoes I have ever bought?” Thinking back, I can remember this happening before.

So, did my foot kind of adapt to the inside of the shoe? I think so. So, with almost every pair of shoes I’ve bought in my entire life, my foot has changed a little. So little that I didn’t notice, but still, it was a change. Things that I have bought throughout my life have been slowly changing the way my foot is supposed to be shaped.

Japanese women wrap their feet with tape from childhood to ensure that their feet will be small when they are old enough to take the tape off. Is this the case here? If so, I have a question. If someone went an entire lifetime without ever wearing shoes, socks, or anything else on their feet, what would their feet look like?

I was planning on uploading a video for today’s post, but I ended up not being at home barely at all today, and didn’t even get the chance to put the videos on my computer. So, I uploaded some pictures that I took of drawings that I’ve done, for lack of a scanner. These aren’t the best, I have much better pictures, but these are the ones on my computer right now, so that’s what I’m going to have to go for. I do a drawing almost every day in Geometry class (probably should be listening to the lesson), and some of them I’m quite proud of. Not all, but some.

“draw”

“escuchar”

“double coup”

I have some a lot better than this, like I said. But, another day. Oh, and as an added bonus: a brain teaser I made.

“find the difference!”

I am finally ungrounded, seeing as it’s March 1st. I have my iPod back, and I can now properly listen to all my new music in some seriously high-definition sound quality. I have my camera back, so I can continue taking photographs and videos for the blog, and I have my laptop back, so I can finally break free of the piles of crap that are school-macs. I can finally get back in the swing of things and post a blog a day again. I hated having to miss weekends and snowdays. And only having 20 minutes of homeroom to type my blogs in. Ah, freedom. So sweet.

Tomorrow I’m gonna try and post one of my two hilarious videos that I took at Wallgreens about a month ago, then post the next one the day after that. I’ll probably be so preoccupied with being able to post photos and videos and music (yes, I’ve decided I’m going to make music just for the blog), that I probably won’t even write for a few days. I’m enjoying this.