Blog. August 10, 2008
Posted by Andrew in blogging.add a comment
I’m thinking about getting rid of the ol’ Andrew Speaks/Types. As in deleting it. People that I know are starting to read it and I kind of see this blog as a place where I can whine about whatever I want to and get away with it. And that won’t be reality anymore if certain people start reading. I’m not making any decisions yet, but I’m thinking about it.
Also, there will definitely be a music blog in 09, probably on Blogger.
An Oldie But A Goodie (Photos XIV) August 5, 2008
Posted by Andrew in photography.add a comment
These are some of the first pictures I ever took.
“look for lights?”
“just puppets.”
“ten stories down”
500 GB Of Fast August 4, 2008
Posted by Andrew in buying, computers, music.add a comment
This last week I have been working on making my computer more awesome and less suckish to maximize it’s potential. I have always been a Vista fan, but to be honest, I solved most of my problems by uninstalling Vista and reinstalling XP. Yesterday I bought a 500 GB external hard drive. I know, right? Its awesome. Now the hard drive that all my programs are on is almost empty because it has no music, no photos, and no videos on it. The hard drive takes care of that for me. Also, it lets me actually keep my music on my laptop instead of using my dads desktop PC. Awesome.
Unluckily (Photos: XIII) August 2, 2008
Posted by Andrew in Uncategorized.add a comment
“glow worm”
“prickely”
“necessary consonants”
Dotting My i’s August 1, 2008
Posted by Andrew in poetry.add a comment
Old poems blog number 2. This was written almost exactly a year ago.
DOTTING MY i’S
Part 1:
I bet you’re somewhere quoting movie lines
I know all your favorite ones
Do you remember that time at the theatre
We both screamed “That’s so hardcore”
I know it could have been E.S.P.
I know it could be love
I know something here could be really, really, real
If you’d stay
I know that if I were to excersize my pen
A little more often
We could be happy and glad again
We’d be back to old Courtney and Zaq again
We’d never have to worry about a thing
Except maybe if we thought we might be
Worrying a little too much
I could write awful love songs like this all day
I could perform them by the hour
But it’ll never be the same
They’re gone
You’re gone
You’re gone
–
Part 2:
If only we couldn’t taken a little less time out of life
A little more for God
If only we could’ve taken a little less time to say
Oh, God
Oh, God
I know that I messed up
I know that I screwed up
And I know that you know that I know that I’m sorry
About the way I acted earlier yesterday
I know that you know how I feel
Oh, God, I wish my name had an
Almighty strapped to the back of it
I would undo the undone
I wanted to burn that church
I wanted to burn that church
This is the only time you’ll ever hear me say
I wanted to burn that church
Until I realized you with you were there
Quoting movie laines
I know all your favorite ones
Let it stand, let it stand
Let that church stand now
Limewise July 31, 2008
Posted by Andrew in poetry.add a comment
This is prose (?) that I wrote early last school year.
starting out, she walks into thinking range and the colorful polkish circles on her blouse reflect the light of the sun into the prism of my glass eye, resembling the cover of that pink floyd album; dark side of the moon. such colorful clothes for such a colorful person. inside, my mind is racing and losing said race, too busy thinking about if she will ever be mine. and on that thought my brainwaves change lanes and ask if she will ever be anyone’s. such a scary thought. but you say you’re not the type, because you aren’t the type. i remember the bus trip home with time turned fragile blasting through the headphones of matthew’s ipod while we conversed back and forth about the status of our heartstrings. speaking of heartstrings, would you mind if i hung from yours for as long as we both shall live? most of the time i think that it would be, but when my mind is racing i beat myself up until it’s changed itself. maybe i’ll finish the song i’ve been writing for years that announces the way i am in real love. the song that puts your middle name on repeat because i really like the way it sounds. i’d quote the great okkervil river if i we’re to say “i don’t know what you want me to say, so pause right here and add your own intentions, ________.” right here.
It’s the common reactor
It’s the long way out
It’s the stream of a motion blur
That swirls around til you drown
But I couldn’t put it down
Semi-Intelligent Thoughts July 27, 2008
Posted by Andrew in lyrics, religion.add a comment
Sorry I didn’t blog yesterday. Totally slipped my mind.
This is a conversation that myself and a friend we’re having about the lyrics to this song, and how they are inaccurate. Here are the lyrics.
When we call
Everyone is gone.
God has killed.
Heaven has just called.
Run away.
I’ll find you some day.
He’s all of the places
And faces you wear.
He made you and saved you
But he doesn’t care.
There’s nothing to do
When he’s coming for you.
You think that I’m kidding
But all of its true.
He’s Taking your children
And raping them all.
He’s killing your family
And standing up tall.
He laughs in surprise
And he sings when you die.
A perfect assassin
From up in the sky.
No one loves you.
No one can save you.
No one hears you
Cause God is wearing black
And here’s the conversation.
(8:17:09 PM) Andrew: but thats not waht youre saying, youre speaking from the perspective of someone who is thinking that thit might be true
(8:17:18 PM) Andrew: something like that?
(8:17:51 PM) Ben: Of course not. I think that God let’s bad stuff happen to us because he wants us to fight through it and see if we can make it out alive for ourselves.
(8:17:57 PM) Ben: Part of me believes it and part doesn’t.
(8:18:03 PM) Andrew: ok well heres my stance
(8:18:39 PM) Andrew: it says in the bible that god knew from the beginning that adam and eve would eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil
(8:18:47 PM) Andrew: he knew sin would happen
(8:19:04 PM) Andrew: and he had planned on sending jesus to save the world before he even created the world
(8:19:17 PM) Andrew: thats in the bible, thats fact
(8:19:45 PM) Andrew: so…why would he even give us free will if he knew all of this would happen?
(8:20:08 PM) Andrew: because he didnt want a bunch of robots saying that they loved him, and sending up his “praises” int he name of the lord
(8:20:26 PM) Andrew: he wanted people to genuinely love him and realize what a wonderful creator that they have
(8:20:40 PM) Andrew: so he gave us what we call free will
(8:20:51 PM) Andrew: theres a chance that eve might not have eaten from the tree
(8:21:05 PM) Andrew: theres a chance that she wouldve just taken god at his word and said to herself:
(8:21:21 PM) Andrew: “you know what, god told me not to eat from this. I’m not going to do it, because he knows better than i”
(8:21:30 PM) Andrew: but she did
(8:21:38 PM) Andrew: he couldve stopped her, but what good does that do
(8:21:45 PM) Andrew: that goes back to the whole making robots thing
(8:22:01 PM) Andrew: if he wouldve stopped her from eating from the tree, she wouldnt really have free will, would she?
(8:22:54 PM) Andrew: the only way that god can make a human to genuinely love him and praise him and adore him, is if the person does it him/herself
(8:23:02 PM) Andrew: so people have free will
(8:23:11 PM) Andrew: god cant stop anyone from raping your children
(8:23:14 PM) Andrew: or murdering your family
(8:23:31 PM) Andrew: people can do waht they want, theres no smiteing involved or anything
(8:23:46 PM) Andrew: so basically, we do have a loving god, who made us and does care for us
(8:24:07 PM) Andrew: but he watns us to figure things out on our own, and realize that the bad things that we do are bad, and realize wat the right thing to do it
(8:24:09 PM) Andrew: *is
(8:24:23 PM) Andrew: so god doesnt “let things happen” and smile
(8:24:31 PM) Andrew: thats my point, in a nutshell
(8:24:37 PM) Andrew: which is why i want the lyrics changed
(8:24:59 PM) Ben: and your point is very valid
(8:25:06 PM) Ben: and i think i have to agree with you
(8:25:37 PM) Ben: I don’t think of God as a horrible being at all
(8:25:47 PM) Ben: But that doesn’t change the lyrics.
Just saving this because I didn’t want to forget what I said.
OH YES July 25, 2008
Posted by Andrew in i don't need no stinking catergory.add a comment
This just happened:
I love the Delay the most. But all of this is great. So great.
Collection Of Unstoppable Fortresses July 24, 2008
Posted by Andrew in andrew in latin, music.add a comment
Everytime I make a new Andrew In Latin song, I assign it it’s own album title and album artwork. I never actually intend on finishing these albums or making them full length. I feel that each song has it’s own vibe and wouldn’t sound good on an album next to another one of my songs. Maybe if I’m planning on doing an album I’ll try and work as hard as I can to keep all of the songs on a certain theme.
As of now though, I don’t feel right putting my songs on one disc. Today I was asked to put some of my best song in a .rar file and put it up somewhere, so I decided to do a collection. It’s called “Collection Of Unstoppable Fortresses,” and all of the songs retain their original album tags and artwork, but they’re in this bigger collection. It’s pretty cool. This is the tracklist.
1. Tribal Mask
2. Cicatrix (Jam)
3. Good Idea
4. Witch Doctor
5. Big Time Devil
6. Chime
7. Retrogressive
8. Faucetto
9. Widow A: Don’t Play That Game
10. Widow C: Oedipus Fans The Flame
11. Gunslingin’
12. Real Grace (Jam)
13. High Desert Wonder Valley (Feat. Julian San Innocencio)
This will be the first time the two Widow tracks have been released in any form. Excited about that.
Here’s a megaupload link. I plan on using this a lot more often once I start up my music blog in ‘09.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=334BN246
Long Names This Time (Photos: XII) July 23, 2008
Posted by Andrew in photography.add a comment
It’s been a while, guys.
–
Running From A Smoke Monster
Woodland Land Land Land
MirroredsrorriM
pg. 407: 14-40e, 47-56, test
Megaton Shotblast Effort (Wait, How Do You Dub Again?)
7/21-22/2008, Never Forget! July 22, 2008
Posted by Andrew in the comatorium.add a comment
Today was officially the day that The Mars Volta unnoficial discussion board (and most importantly, Drunkship and Mumblings, the General Disscussion and Other Music sections of the board, respectively), The Comatorium, sank to the bottom of the deep blue sea today, as the site’s owner, Aesthetic Theory, resigned from working or being affiliated with The Mars Volta.
He very briefly announced last night at around 6 PM that the Coma was sinking fast. 50 members we’re being deleted every minute, starting with the ones that got on the boat last. I joined in ‘06, so I don’t think I got deleted until early early this morning, but now he got me and all the others, and the Comatorium has thusly ceased to exist for all. There has been word of a backup server that the site is being hosted on, and that Theory will pass the site on to a new owner. Only time will tell.
High Desert Wonder Valley July 20, 2008
Posted by Andrew in andrew in latin, music, recording.add a comment
Brand spankin’ new Andrew In Latin song went up yesterday. (Sorry for not blogging, I completely forgot) I did a collaboration with my friend Julian San Innocencio. Co-wrote and co-played the song. Took us two long greuling days of recording, but it’s finally done and out for all the internet world to listen to. Here’s the bulliten that I posted about it on Myspace.
| From: |  Andrew Kyle
|
|---|---|
| Date: | Jul 20, 2008 1:01 PM |
| Subject: | New Andrew In Latin song |
| Body: | Yes, Andrew In Latin has a new song. And for the first time, it is a collaboration piece. The song is “High Desert Wonder Valley,” and it features Senor Julian San Innocencio, (or Julian Anthony, as he is known as in the crossville solo music myspace community).
We started by using a slide trick that Julian taught me, an built from there. We wrote the song as we progressed through it, and we both have a fairly equal share in the mix. If you want to know who plays what parts of the song, click on the lyrics button. The information’s all there, but it’s already kind of obvious seeing as I play a telecaster and he plays an SG. Totally different tone there. But anyways. HIGH DESERT WONDER VALLEY! www. myspace. com/andrewinlatin Also, not very many people have listened to my old new song “Tribal Mask.” I really like it, I’d like to hear what you think about that one as well. |
It Was Just A Coincidence July 18, 2008
Posted by Andrew in coincidence.add a comment
I waas in the living room, and I walked out to go to my parents’ room. As I was leaving the room, my sister was watching Avatar, and one of the characters said, “It was just a coincidence!” As I entered my parents’ room, my dad was watching something on TruTV, and someone said “It was just a coincidence.”
A Thousand Years As A Lamb July 17, 2008
Posted by Andrew in music, one day as a lion, rage against the machine, the mars volta.add a comment
I’m sure this is about to get media attention out of it’s ears, but I thought that I’d go ahead and rep this band before it blows up and I lose all indie cred. (Right?) Anyways, One Day As A Lion.
It’s a two man collaboration between Zach de la Rocha (singer/rapper/screamer for Rage Against The Machine) and Jon Theodore (former drummer of The Mars Volta). They’re from two of my favorite groups, so I’ve expecting great things. Their Self-Titled EP comes out on the 22nd, and there’s still no leak. (Not that I would download such a thing, no sir) However, you can listen to their first public song, Wild International at their myspace.
There’s no mind-blowing drumming here, unfortunately, but Jon Theodore has always been one to blend into the mix instead of standing out, while still sounding great. He defnitely delivers that here. And Zach de la Rocha delivers the complete opposite with his in-your-face keyboard effects and yelling.
Oh, did I mention that the band consists of drums, keyboards, and vocals? Yeah.
Pedal Colony Update July 16, 2008
Posted by Andrew in buying, ebay, guitar, money.add a comment
Two days ago I ordered a replacement Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal since I kind of blew up the first one. (Note to self: check ac-adapter voltages before plugging in to avoid smoke) My dad’s friend gave me a $25 gift certificate to Musician’s Friend as payback for my dad buying him REO Speekwagon tickets, so I only had to pay $15 on that, which is set at $40 retail.
And today, thanks to the wonders of eBay, I just bought a Boss TR-2 Tremolo Pedal for $60 and a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedal for $80. A Tremolo costs $90 retail and a Digital Delay costs $130 retail. Of course, both of these pedals we’re used, but judging from the pictures that the seller had of them, they were in pretty good shape and didn’t have any noticable scratches or dents. So I think I got a pretty good deal.
So I just bought $260 in guitar pedals for only $155. Heh heh heh.
Buy My Dad’s Pants Please July 15, 2008
Posted by Andrew in ebay, family.add a comment
So my dad has all these old Khaki pants that he has worn a couple of times a peice (like 15), and he wants me to sell them on eBay for him. I’ll get a cut of the money, apparently. Sounds like a good deal to me. Right now the first set is going for a whopping 5 dollars.
No Such Thing As Rocking Free July 14, 2008
Posted by Andrew in Uncategorized.add a comment
I have pretty much my dream guitar at the moment, but my set up needs some work.. My amp is too small and too old for my liking, and I feel like my Line6 Floorpod would be better substituted for abot 5 or 6 Boss pedals (just effects that I use a lot: wah, tremolo, distortion, phaser, delay, fuzz…possibly whammy).
But I looked into this and if I were to buy all of the pedals I want, it would cost me somewhere over 300 dollars, and if I were to buy the amp I want, it would cost me somewhere over 400. Obviously I could probably sell my Line6 Floorpod and my Amp for 150 and 100 dollars, respectively, but still. That’s a lot of money. I have about 250 right now.
This depresses me and the future of my guitar sound.
And just to think, I also want a Macbook. I never should’ve started an Amazon Wish List.
Why Brand New’s Latest Album Is the Greatest Christian Record Ever Released July 13, 2008
Posted by Andrew in brand new, church, music.add a comment
I’m not sure if I’ve talked about this or not, but if I have, forgive me. I’ve just been thinking about it a lot lately. I think that Chrisitan music shouldn’t be:
How great is our God,
sing with me
How great is our God,
and all will see
How great, How great
Is our God
That is incredibly boring. No one feels that way all of the time. Christians and even unsaved souls are constantly struggling in their walk of life and their relationship with God. How many times do we sing along just because the words are on some projector screen in front of us? How many of these songs do you think are written just because the words rhyme? If you were to ask me, I would guess that quite a few were.
Brand New is a different kind of band. They used to be a cookie cutter emo band that wrote some catchy tunes ad probably shed a few tears along the way. But their singer, Jesse Lacey, was raised as a Christian (I think) and lost his faith, but rededicated his life somewhere in between the release of Deja Entendu and their last album, The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. (For the record, I have not spoken to Jesse Lacey, I’m getting my information from the context of the band’s lyrics, so I may be a bit off on some things)
The rest of the band, as far as I know, are not Christian, nor is Brand New considered by anyone to be a Christian band, so Jesse Lacey doesn’t have to write songs like How Great Is Our God. How much flack do you think Chris Tomlin would get if he wrote a song with lyrics like:
“And in the choir I saw our sad Messiah.
He was bored and tired of my laments.
He said, ‘I died for you one time, but never again’”
He’d get eaten alive. Jesse can say just what’s on his mind. He talks about taboo things, like: are there sins that are unforgivable? And his hatred of people who cram the bible down your throat. And losing your faith. It may sound sacreligious to you, but I think that this is how Christian music should be.
We can still have How Great Is Our God, but that’s praise music. Christian music needs to be about our honest to goodness relationship with God, just like a good portion rock music is about relationships between family, friends, and significant others.
Apart from the lyrical value of The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me, the music is also great. This is the pinnacle of emo. This is probably the only true emo band I listen to, because honestly I find it pretty boring for the most part. Brand New is not boring. I would reccomend it to anyone who is bored of the genre of emo or anyone who is bored of praise music. This would probably make it into my top 5 albums of all time. In my opinion, it is a perfect album.
Centrifuge July 6, 2008
Posted by Andrew in blogging, centrifuge, church.add a comment
I’m leaving tomorrow morning at the crack of 9 AM to go on this:
http://www.lifeway.com/fuge/cfuge/index.asp
It’s a weeklong christian youth camp, and a few people at my church are going, including myself (of course). I can’t really put it any simpler than that. I’ll be back Friday, and hopefully I’ll be able to blog that night, but I’ll get home at about 11:15, so I’ll try my best.
See you then!
Adios.
The Protomen! July 5, 2008
Posted by Andrew in music, the protomen.add a comment
The Protomen are an independent rock band from pretty close to where I live. They play music about Megaman. And not super-corny, obsessed fanboy, 8-bit, “oh I’m indie” music, but real, entertaining, good music. They have a self titled album out right now that is a rock opera about the real Megaman story, but with a more political twist.
I say definitely listen to it, they’re one of my favorite independent bands. You can buy their album on iTunes, or order it from their website (www.theprotomen.com I believe). You can also get it from their shows, which I highly recommend going to, but I’ve never actually been to one myself. They only play bars, and I’m not 18. But hopefully one day I’ll be able to experience their epic live show.
Live Boot:
http://www.youtube.com/v/wRxfPuC7ka4&hl=en&fs
Tribal Masks July 4, 2008
Posted by Andrew in andrew in latin, music, myspace.add a comment
I recorded a song today, using that article that I posted a few days ago. I’m pretty proud of it, and I really like the way it turned out. But the problem is that when I went to put it on the Andrew In Latin site, it turned out that the file is too big. To be on a myspace, a file cannot be any bigger than 6MB. My file is 7 minutes and 6.6MB. So I’m screwed.
I don’t wan’t to chop it in half and put two files up, because then I would have to get rid of two songs that are already there to fit the new one. I don’t want to cut anything off of the beginning or the end, because those are my favorite parts of the song. I can’t compress it, because it’s an MP3 file and an MP3 is about as compressed as you can get, I believe. So I guess this isn’t going to happen.
I’m uploading it to mediafire now, to at least share the song with my readers.
EDIT: http://www.mediafire.com/?egkn3lmzkcb
Tell me what you think.
Coming: 2009 July 2, 2008
Posted by Andrew in blogging.add a comment
I’ve decided that next year, after Andrew Speaks/Types is over, I have decided that I’m going to do a music blog. Once a week (I can’t do this every day thing anymore, haha), I’ll upload a torrent of zip file of an album that I think people should listen to, write a little bit about it, and put it on the blog. I know that it’s been done to death, but I think I could use it to my advantage, already having at least a little fanbase from Andrew Speaks/Types.
I’m excited. I think I’ll enjoy it a lot. Now I just need to quit thinking about it and focus on this.
Led Based July 1, 2008
Posted by Andrew in buying, led zeppelin, music.add a comment
I finally got around to buying Led Zeppelin IV today. I am now a proud owner of the entire series.
Songbird Singin’ In The Dead Of Night June 30, 2008
Posted by Andrew in apple, computers, songbird.1 comment so far
When I realized that Apple software doesn’t work very well on a windows OS, and all microsoft programs are ridiculously slow, I began googling for alternatives to iTunes. Originally I discovered Foobar2000, and decided that I didn’t like it. Today I discovered something incredible.
SONGBIRD 0.6
This is being created in cahoots with Mozilla, pretty much the greatest software developers/perfectors of all time. Songbird is still in development (hence 0.6), but it’s making good progress. At the moment it’s a open-source music managing and playing program that supports themes, add-ons, and even web-browsing (think Winamp web browser), music downloading, FLAC support, and iPod/MP3 player support.
I’m not making it my replacement-iTunes just yet, because it’s missing some very key features that aren’t done being made yet (again hence 0.6). They still need CD ripping, CD burning, podcast support, and watch folders (something that iTunes has yet to pick up on). Then I’ll say bye bye to iTunes for good.
Until then, I’m very mad that I found out about this software while it’s still in development. The waiting is going to kill me. This is going to rock so much.
New Song Idea June 29, 2008
Posted by Andrew in idea, morals, music.add a comment
I was reading up on profanity today (don’t ask why…haha) and I cane across this article.
Music: Profanity, Addiction, Piracy
The part that struck me was the addiction paragraph. And I qutote:
“Another problem that is sometimes caused by people’s musical tastes is an addiction to music. Some people simply cannot get enough music. They walk around with headphones in their ears, they turn on the stereos in their rooms, they listen to the radio in their cars, and they go to concerts when available, rarely taking the time to give their ears a rest!
Not only can this cause physical problems (i.e. deafness or impaired hearing abilities), it can also cause other non-physical problems. Once we ‘Lose ourselves’ to the music, we have given up a part of what makes us humans. We are admitting that we are dependent on music, as we could be dependent on a drug. If a person is listening to music so much that he ‘loses himself’ to it, he has put himself in a weary situation indeed!
There is a certain amount of music that can be healthy for a person, and this amount differs for every person. But a common problem amongst the people of our modern American society is their inability to cope with silence. Some people even have silonophobia (“fear of silence”), and become tense when there is no ambient sound. Jesus himself knew the importance of silence: “he would withdraw to deserted placed to pray” (Luke 5:16). Without this respect and acceptance of silence, we cannot truly have some time to ourselves—to actually think things over and pray.”
I put these words in a text to speech and recorded my computer reading them. I think I’m going to make a long instrumental song and play the words over it, because of how increddibly ignorant and ironic it is. I might put it over a video I’m going to shoot as well. I really like this idea though, who knows what’ll come out of it.
Babelfish Translate: English –> Strength June 26, 2008
Posted by Andrew in life, politics.add a comment
Today while on the treadmill at the gym, I was watching some news headline. Now, I haven’t done my homework on this in any form, so this is going to be pretty vague, but I assure you it was on the news and it really got me thinking. The guy was talking about some Eastern country that was threatening the US. He was talking to another news anchor who was a woman.
The woman asked something along the lines of “why do you think that we can’t reason with these people and just find a solution through communication?”
The man replied with something along the lines of “these people aren’t going to listen to us. The only language they understand is strength, and we’re just going to have to show them who is the more powerful country in this situation.”
And that’s when I said, “WAIT A MINUTE.”
Just because another country is from another part of the world, and they speak a different language than us, do we really think that they are speaking less intelligently than us? Do we think that they aren’t as rational as us? Does this guy really think that if we were to talk this over carefully with the opposing country, it would end badly just because they are who they are and we’re better?
Sometimes I wonder if there are news stations in other parts of the world that talk about plans to wage war on the US. Was there a news headline about the 9/11 bombings somewhere before they happened? Did someone say “The only language that the US understands is strength,” and then bomb us?
I don’t know. Maybe the only language we understand is strength.
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven June 25, 2008
Posted by Andrew in godspeed you! black emperor, music.add a comment
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antenna To Heaven
I actually haven’t listened to this all the way through yet (it’s 2 hours long), but I’m in the middle of the 4th track, and I think I’ve heard enough to say that it’s fantastic. Really moving music.
The Green Day Blog June 24, 2008
Posted by Andrew in green day, music.2 comments
I love Green Day. For me, these guys are the best band to come out of the 90s, hands down. Catchy, simple, aggressive and fun. Plus they were one of the first rock bands I listened to. Nothing wrong with that.
I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there who have never actually given Green Day a good listen because you immediately dismissed it as emo teenage girl rock, but they’ve made a lot of good music. Most people will say that their best album is Dookie, and while I agree that it’s a great album, I’m going to have to disagree and say that their best work is Nimrod.
Nimrod is their only album that I think mixes the style up a lot throughout the entire thing. All the songs are enjoyable, and it’s the only record of theirs that I can listen to without skipping a song. Although I still like all of their albums, they all have a few clunker songs on them, except Nimrod, imo.
Pre-Dookie (1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours & Kerplunk): Totally raw, recorded-in-their-basement punk rock.
Dookie: Probably their biggest album. Somewhat-poppy, catchy, and aggressive tunes about about growing up, getting stoned, masturbation, and being bored.
Insomniac: Their heaviest album. In-your-face punk rock from beginning to end, no slow songs needed.
Nimrod: Best album. Lots of experimentation with their sound in this one.
Warning: Kind of hit or miss. It has their poppiest songs on it (yes, moreso than American Idiot), but it also has a few of my favorites (“Blood, Sex & Booze”, “Fashion Victim”)
American Idiot: Their worst album. I’m sure everyone here has listened to it at least once because of all the hype. Though it’s still kind of fun, it’s over-commercialized and gave Green Day a bad name as being emo pop-machines.
Green Day is awesome.
Stuff I Bought Today June 20, 2008
Posted by Andrew in buying, music, video games.add a comment
I went to the greatest pawn shop ever today with my good buddy Dominick and I bought two awesome things at awesome prices.
%5CWu-Tang%20Clan%20-%20Enter%20The%20Wu-Tang%20(36%20Chambers).jpg)
2.99
5.99
Dominick bought The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time (Master Quest) for Gamecube for 5.99, cause he saw it first.
That is all.
Amplification For Us All, It’s A New Way June 19, 2008
Posted by Andrew in buying, guitar.add a comment
I’ve decided I need a new amplifier. I have a really great guitar which I love, but my amp is sub-par and I think I would sound a thousand times better out of a higher quality amp. Right now I use a Fender Frontman 25R.
It has 25 watts and a 10″ speaker, with two channels, a drive channel and a clean channel. The clean channel is pretty good, and the drive channel is allllright I guess. But I get all of my distortion and effects from a Line6 Floorpod.
At the moment I have $___ (to be edited in later). My mom owes me $40. I have an extra Mars Volta ticket to that show that I’m not going to in Atlanta that I’m going to sell. If I sell it, I’ll probably get about $65-70 out of it, maybe. If I don’t sell it, I’ll get $50 for it because it’s under insurance by ticketmaster and I can get a refund If I no longer can go to the show. I’m going to sell my Frontman 25R to the guitar shop in town, and they told me today that they’d give me $100 for it. (It’s $140 retail, so I say good deal)
My dad’s going to be paying me $5 an hour for doing matic work in the front yard, and I’m guessing I’ll probably do at least 10 hours of that. So that’s $50 at bare minimum. Plus I can do extra chores and help out around the house if I want some extra money. If I’m really desperat I can work for my grandpa for $4 an hour for the rest of the summer. Last year I worked for him all summer and earned $500, which I used to buy this laptop that I am typing on right now.
So I say that at bare minimum I’m going to have somewhere around $400 to spend on an amp. Here’s what I’m looking at.
VOX AD50VT :: $379
50W :: 1×12″
CRATE FLEXWAVE FW120 :: $399
120W :: 2×12″
IBANEZ TBX150R :: $349
150W :: 2×12″
FENDER FRONTMAN 212R :: $329
100W :: 2×12″
Or, I could wait a few months longer, save up about 200 more dollars, and buy this. But is it worth the $200 more?
VOX AC15CC1 :: $599
15W TUBE POWER :: 1×12″
At the moment, I’m leaning toward the Ibanez.
S60eth5ng was n6t q45te r5ght June 18, 2008
Posted by Andrew in computers.add a comment
Somehow today I pressed the wrong combination of buttons, and this happened to me. I was just typing on a message board and I noticed that what I was typing wasn’t…what I was typing.
Luckily I figured out how to fix it. I googled it (with the onscreen keyboard, thank god for that) and found out that if you press ALT+NUM LOCK at the same time, it makes your i, o, p, k, l, m, and the number 0 type 56*230 and /, respectively. But until I figured this out, I was definitely freaking out.
So Hip June 17, 2008
Posted by Andrew in music.1 comment so far
I think that Hip-Hop might be my favorite genre at the moment. I have a pretty big wish list of CDs that I want to buy and listen to.
Madvilliany – MF Doom & Madvillan
Late Orchestration – KanYe West
6 Feet Deep – Gravediggaz
Stankonia – OutKast
Power In Numbers – Jurassic 5
Exit – K-OS
Falls Apart – The Roots
MM..Food? – MF Doom
Enter The Wu-Tang Clan (36 Chambers) – Wu-Tang Clan
None Shall Pass – Aesop Rock
I Wish – Skee-Lo
…and I just got NiggyTardust by Saul Williams. Great album, I highly recommend it.
6_18_08 (Photos: XI) June 15, 2008
Posted by Andrew in photography.add a comment
“a spider series”
“that’s a–”
“through the wire”
“sun wave”
“NESkimotion”
Af Lawn Your Plan June 14, 2008
Posted by Andrew in thoughts.add a comment
I was mowing today, and I wondered: why do people have lawns? What can I use a lawn for? I could see if you had children, you could use a backyard for them to play in. You could have a swingset or a trampoline or a playground or a slipnslide. But front lawns? What is the point? I realized that the only time that anyone in my family is in the front lawn is to mow it.
So a lawn is a chore.
It’s nothing more.
(See what I just did there?) Since we have lawns we therefore have driveways. Which makes me wonder: why do we have driveways? All it does is cost you money when you need to get it repaved or re-blackened or whatever the hell you do to a driveway. People should just have their garages right on the side of the street. There would be no driveways, and there would be no lawns. And there would be happiness.
365 June 13, 2008
Posted by Andrew in blogging.add a comment
I was at my friends house yesterday, and forgot to blog, for the second day in a row. As I was trying to go to sleep last night, I thought to myself: why am I still blogging? It’s becoming more of a hassle than it is something fun now.
Then I thought to myself: well, I’m still doing it because the goal was to have a blog a day for a year. A year of my life documented. Pretty cool when you think about it. When I’m 80 I can go back and read this to see what I was like at 16.
Then I thought to myself: I could still quit, we’re in the 6th month of the year. I never told my readers that the goal was to go for a year, so what they don’t know won’t hurt them. How about 6 months?
Then I thought to myself: What readers? I’m really just doing this to prove to myself that I can make a commitment and stick to it. If I quit now, what was the point?
Then I thought to myself: good point.
NOT GIVING UP.
Things That I Have Realized Exist Today June 10, 2008
Posted by Andrew in computers.add a comment
In an attempt to keep my computer organized and simple and fast, I have been looking for stuff to aid me in my quest. Today I struck a gold mine. I got to get rid of Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail, AIM, and I was able to clean up my desktop, so now I only have 8 icons on it. So here’s my 3 not-so-life-changing discoveries.
ROCKETDOCK
Gives your windows XP/Vista desktop a mac-esque dock bar. It’s awesome and everyone should get one. End of story.
THUNDERBIRD
Not as awesome as Rocketdock, but it’s way way better than Windows Live Mail and it’s pretty awesome. I also paired this up with a new e-mail account, this time at GMail. Also much better than Windows Live Hotmail.
PIDGEN
Pidgin is an IM client that lets you use ALL your IM clients at once. It also runs much faster than any of my IM clients, so this is a big plus. I need to get a skin for it though, it’s a little boring looking.
Check this stuff out if you haven’t already.
Bleep, Boo Boo Bop, Boo Boo Beep. June 9, 2008
Posted by Andrew in Uncategorized.add a comment
I WANT THISI WANT THISI WANT THIS
I live about 30 minutes from somewhere that sells retro gaming stuff, so I’m gonna go down there and get an extra NES controller for about 5 bucks. And apparently, it costs about 30 to get the supplies needed to make this bad boy. I.E., headphone jack, wiring, stuff like that.
My best friend Travis, his dad is an electrician, so theres all kinds of supplies and stuff lying around his garage. So I’m gonna get what we don’t have, go over to his house with a controller and my old shuffle, and follow these instructions.
I’ll get back to you.
CoolNESs June 8, 2008
Posted by Andrew in Uncategorized.add a comment
Yesterday I bought an NES.
I love it.
I got the console, 5/6 games (depending on what you call a game), two controllers, a zapper gun, and a power pad, all for 23 dollars. I’m so happy with what I got.
Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt
Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet
Jurassic Park
Star Force
Abadox
Mario Bros. is awesome, of course. Duck hunt, though, I can’t get to work, because I have and HDTV, and apparently (thanks google) the zapper doesn’t work on HDTVs because they send out different kinds of aweso-rays. World Class Track meet I tried for the first time today. You have to use the power pad to play it, which is essentially a bigger DDR board that has 12 squares instead of 9. You use it to run and jump and things of that nature, and it’s extremely exhausting. But very interesting, and very cool.
Jurassic Park is hard. It looks like it’s on a game engine similar to Toejam And Earl, except there’s a point. It’s a lot of fun, but the bosses are really tough. I dunno if I’ll ever get good at it.
Star Force is really fun. If Star FOX had been a top-down shooter, then it would be this. It’s like Galaga except it scrolls and there’s bosses and power ups and stuff like that. Very Star Fox-esque. I like it a lot.
Abadox…is the weirdest game I have ever played. It’s like R-Type. Except the premise is different. You are a space-cadet dude, and you’re traveling through the intestines of a giant monster that ate a planet or something. The goal is to get to his center and destroy him. Things attack you like tiny eyeballs, disembodied faces, and arms. It’s strange. It’s also very hard. I’ve gotten to the beginning of the second level, and couldn’t get farther than that. There’s seven levels that get harder and harder. So I dunno about that one.
The NES is awesome! I want to turn one of my controllers into an MP3 player.
A New Deal June 7, 2008
Posted by Andrew in concert, the mars volta.add a comment
There are so many things I want to blog about right now, but first comes first.
So the Atlanta Volta show got rescheduled to September. This time I have a ride, and permission to go. So I bought a ticket for that show. I got ticket insurance so I can get a refund at any time, because the person said that there’s a slim chance something may happen and he wouldn’t be able to go. After I bought the ticket, they called me and let me know that The Volta are playing in North Carolina the night before, and that would be a better concert to go to. Smaller venue, safer part of town, somewhat shorter drive.
So, the plan is this. I am keeping my Atlanta ticket. I just bought a North Carolina ticket. Once the Atlanta show sells out (it will.) I’ll sell this ticket either on eBay or over The Comatorium, The Mars Volta message board. I’ll probably get about 50-75 dollars out of that deal, and I might break even and get to go to the Volta show, losing no money. If the ticket doesn’t sell, I just use my ticket insurance and get a full refund.
Sounds good.
What’s My Age Again? June 5, 2008
Posted by Andrew in blink-182, music.add a comment
Blink-182 was one of the first bands that I listened to that I still listen to today. I’ve been listening to them for probably a little over 4 years, but I haven’t listened to them for a good long time, with the exception of their live album, which is phenomenal. When I got into Blink at first, my mom was really strict about what I listened to because I was young and just getting into the music scene, so I was forced to buy edited versions of all my Blink albums.
Today, I downloaded torrents of the explicit versions of Enema Of The State, Take Off Your Pants And Jacket, and their self titled one. Unfortunately, they don’t hold up as well as I had hoped. There’s a few really songs on each album that are really good, but I’m not a big fan of the fart and penis jokes that inhabit a good portion of Enema and Take Off. I was a little dissapointed.
Fortunately, the self titled album is still great. This is Blink-182 going out on top, before splitting up and forming two vastly inferior bands. Every song, except for a few (Go, All Of This, and Easy Target) are really really good. I recommend this album to anyone who tried Blink before this album and disliked them.
Another thing to listen is The Mark, Tom, And Travis Show, their live album. Really good, really hilarious, pretty long concert, which is good. So, those are two great albums by a pretty good punk band. Check ‘em out.
The Land Of The Man June 4, 2008
Posted by Andrew in Uncategorized.add a comment
So, I went on vacation, and now I’m back. I was right. No internet connection down there. Though I did walk down to the nature center of where I was staying and got some internet for a short time, only to have my laptop die before I could finish a blog. It was about this.
I canoe with my dad. We’ve been canoing (that’s spelled so weird, but spell check says it’s right) for about 3 or 4 years now. The vacation was to a cabin on a lake, so we brought our canoe with us. We put it in the water, and go fishing on it, and while we’re gone, a park ranger is knocking door to door. He’s asking everyone “who owns that canoe out on the lake right now?”
So anyway, he finds out it’s us, and goes and scares the crap out of my mom by knocking on the door and telling her that it is illegal to bring a privately-owned canoe to this lake, because there’s canoes for rent there. Basically it’s a scheme to get more money out of us. Unfair. I thought buying a canoe meant that we’d never have to rent one again, but apparently this guy thinks differently.
Then I thought, well, I guess they can do that. They bought the lake. It’s their property, they can have their own rules.
THEN I thought, should you be able to buy a lake? Should you be able to tell people what they can and can’t do out in nature? We’ve ALREADY paid a lot of money to rent the lakeside cabin, shouldn’t that give us some rights to use the lake how we want?
I don’t know. I took some pretty sweet pictures on vacation. I’ll share tomorrow.
Hello, Goodbye May 31, 2008
Posted by Andrew in andrew in latin, blogging, vacation.add a comment
Tomorrow morning I’m leaving for a short vacation. I’m bringing my computer, but odds are I won’t get any internet where I’m going. I’m hoping to be able to blog, it might just not be possible. I’m going to stay in a cabin with the family from Sunday through Wednesday.
I actually have a little demo that I want to share with you guys. This song doesn’t have any guitar in it, and a lot of it was improvised on the keyboard and the drums. It’s called “Glow In The Dark.”
I’m planning on putting guitar to it, but I’m not sure what I should do with the guitar. I can’t think of any places that the guitar should go, or how big of a role it should have. So, listen to this song, get back to me, and I’ll finish it when I get back.
“Glow In The Dark”
http://boomp3. com/listen/bzglyuh
Frances The Mute May 30, 2008
Posted by Andrew in frances the mute, music, the mars volta.add a comment
I’ve stated multiple times that The Mars Volta is my favorite band. But sometimes, when I’m listening to Daft Punk or Queens Of The Stone Age, and sometimes Kanye West, when I ask myself if The Mars Volta is really my favorite band. I don’t listen to them that much. Because when I do listen to them, I listen to them not for the awesome factor of them, I listen to them for the cinematic factor of their music. The way that you can just fall into their music, and you’re completely consumed by it.
So I don’t listen to them daily. I have to take a long time to listen to The Mars Volta. Whole albums (very long albums) and entire live jams and things like that. So, it’s hard to see how I like them more, when I go back and forth between listening to Daft Punk and QOTSA on my iPod all day.
But then I listen to this.
Then I remember that this is the best thing I’ve ever heard. This album is why The Mars Volta is my favorite band of all time. It’s a pure 1 hour and 31 minute trip of pure amazement. I love everything about this album. It definitely takes a certain kind of mindset to listen to it. I don’t even know where to start. I guess with the title and tracklist.
FRANCES THE MUTE
by THE MARS VOLTA
1. Frances The Mute – 14:40
2. Cygnus…Vismund Cygnus – 13:02
3. The Widow – 5:51
4. L’Via L’Viaquez – 12:22
5. Miranda, That Ghost Just Isn’t Holy Anymore – 13:10
6. Cassandra Gemini – 32:32
Total time – 1:31:33
Of course, that isn’t the official tracklist. It’s just the real one. This is the tracklist that the record label didn’t want The mars Volta to put out. Originally, it was supposed to be like this, and be a double disc album. But then, the record label pulled the first song off the CD, and made it a 12 track single disc album, with the last song, “Cassandra Gemini” cut into 8 tracks, and the opening song completely removed. But my tracklist is the way that the band intended it to be, and this is the way that I listen to it. And the way that you should listen to it. Because you should listen to it.
You’ve probably heard the story, but if you haven’t, this is the story of how the album’s concept came about.
Jeremy Ward, a previous member of The Mars Volta, used to work as a repo man. Once, he repossessed a car, and under one of the seats he found a diary containing a log of a man’s search for his biological family. While reading, he began to notice similarities between the life of himself and the author. When he got to the end, the story of the man’s adventures was not finished. So, probably alongside much heroin use, he started to write in it himself. He was in the process of finishing the diary at the time of his death, by heroin overdose.
When the band got ahold of this diary, they were shocked by the story inside. Frances The Mute is the story of the man from the diary. They changed the names of the people, and shrouded the lyrics in greek mythology, and recorded an album. Myself and my friend Ben have spent a good two years picking apart the album line by line, and have finally reached the conclusion of the story. What I’m about to share with you is only a brief synopsis of the album’s story, but I encourage you to listen for yourself and try and see what we’re getting at.
Frances The Mute is the story of Vismund Cygnus, who was a child who was conceived from rape, and then aborted, but was aborted to late in his development, and lived. He was put up for adoption and never knew his parents. After twenty five years of living a normal life, he leaves his own family to search for his parents. But instead of open armed mom and dad, he finds himself wrapped up in a tangled web of murder, lies, blackmail, and rape. All that underneath the brilliant musicianship of The Mars Volta, backed by a full orchestra and some of the most beautiful and insane music I have ever heard, equals the greatest album I have ever heard, Frances The Mute.
Favorite Show May 29, 2008
Posted by Andrew in Uncategorized.add a comment
The LOST season 4 finale was tonight, and holy crap, man.
Holy crap.
My analysis of this episode starts at page 122 of this forum. I’m “falseswipe.”
http://www.thecomatorium.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=106882&st=2420
Consider yourself warned, this site contains some serious language. I keep it pretty clean, but most of the users have some sailor talking going on. Just be prepared.
Third Favorite Show May 28, 2008
Posted by Andrew in seinfeld, tv.add a comment
I’m pretty sure that if I had the Seinfeld DVDs, I would never eat or sleep. Well, that’s not entirely true. I love to eat while watching Seinfeld. It’s just one of those shows where it just feels like I should be munching down some ruffles or something while watching. I’m not sure what that means.
Seinfeld is pretty much the most relaxing show on the face of the planet. Where I live, it comes on at 11 o’ clock. I wish it came on earlier, but 11 is a pretty great time for it to come on because I can be sitting in bed while watching it, and afterwards I can just fall asleep, amused.
Dear Diary May 26, 2008
Posted by Andrew in life.add a comment
Today was pretty…ugh. It’s one of those days where you’re just kind of waiting for it to be over. Waiting for 11 PM so that you can watch a Seinfeld rerun before you go to sleep. That was today.
Woke up at about 11 AM. Took a really long shower, and then went to the kitchen and ate 3 waffles. I was still hungry so I ate a toaster strudel and noticed that there weren’t very many left. Probably because me and my friend Devin ate about 4 or 5 yesterday. Now I realize that was a bad choice.
I was going to watch the Colbert Report, but the TiVo didn’t have any new episodes for me. Went and “played” guitar for a little while. I couldn’t do crap today on the guitar. So that ended quickly. It was extremely cold in my house.
I felt pretty uncomfortable today because of what I chose to put on. A stretched out shirt that doesn’t really fit anymore due to getting tugged on and some jeans that weren’t my usual slim-fits. I was hungry again so I ate 2 eggs and some bacon. It’s about 1 or 2 in the afternoon and I’ve had two breakfasts and no lunches. Nice.
I was supposed to go the gym today, said my schedule. But then I realized I’m still a day behind on running. I have a 45 minute run-day to do. So I planned on running to wake myself up and warm myself up outside. Right before I was going to go run, my mom gave me a list of chores to do. Dishes, laundry, and then take Sadie, our dog, around the block. Postponing my running, but at least I’ll be able to.
When I’m taking Sadie out, I notice that it’s not warm outside, and won’t wake me up. It’s gray and dreary, and pretty cold.
C’MON, CLOUDS/AL GORE/GOD, IT’S FREAKING MAY!
When I’m going around the block, I decide that I think I’d rather go to the gym, and that I want to go to K Mart, and pick up Graduation by Kanye West to listen to while I’m there. Good idea, Andrew. When I’m about to go inside, it starts raining. So that means it’s not going to be worth the trouble of convincing my parents that I can drive in the rain. It’s also memorial day. So the gym’s closed, mom says.
So, instead, I download Graduation, and wait for the rain to stop so I can run instead, like planned. While waiting for it to stop raining, me and my family watch the most boring movie I’ve ever seen. The Backwoods. This is supposed to be scary. No. It’s not. It’s ridiculously uneventful. Don’t watch it.
It’s still raining, so I don’t go running at all, and now I’m behind one run-day and one gym-day. Crap. I listen to a little of Graduation and I’m initially a little disappointed. I was expecting something with a little more umph. You know? During dinner, the family had a big argument, during which I got my keys taken away for sayjng:
“He’s not retarded, he has a backache.”
about my dad, who didn’t want to put his dishes away. I couldn’t find my keys, so I didn’t get them taken away, but I dunno if I’ll actually get to go anywhere when I find them. After dinner, we watched The Last Crusade.
Sean Connery is so funny. The pen is mighter.
Right Now My Sister Is Doing Algebra May 25, 2008
Posted by Andrew in family, school.add a comment
Normally this wouldn’t bother me but she is in 6th grade and school is also over.
Man Do I Suck At Remembering To Blog Before I Go To Sleep May 24, 2008
Posted by Andrew in Uncategorized.add a comment
Yeah I forgot yesterday. Again. But I’m going to try and be better at that now.
Anyways, remember that blog that I posted a few weeks ago about a song Idea that had to do with a party? Well I finally finished it. Took a LONG time, that one, but it was worth it. Props to Ben Eggler for helping me fix mistakes once it was done.
The song is “Big Time Devil,” and you can listen to it at the Andrew In Latin page.
Car Chase! May 22, 2008
Posted by Andrew in driving, life, sonic.add a comment
Yesterday I had my first “scare” while driving. (No, it wasn’t a car chase) I went to Sonic, America’s favorite and only drive-in, to have breakfast. Well, you know how sonic has those tiny parking spots that are on a diagonal and they have a menu on each side and they have the big roof over all of them.
Well they’re also numbered. There’s like 50-some odd parking spots. I decided, since it wasn’t occupied, that I’d park in spot number 1. Then I found out that spot 1 is different than every other spot. Imagine this. There’s only one menu, and it’s on my left. So, no dessert menu. This wasn’t my scare.
To my right, where the desert menu should be, theres the support beam to keep that roof from falling over. Behind that, there’s a big, short tree. And behind the tree is the lane where people pull into Sonic. So I can’t see the people coming in, or if there even is any people coming in.
I parked crooked. I suck. So, after eating my delicious Breakfast Bistro Sandwich, I find out that there’s a bunch of things wrong with this situation. If I back out fast, my right side mirror is going to hit that support beam hard. (I found this out by hitting it.) If I cut the wheel fast to avoid it and back out, the front of my car is going to hit the menu. (I found this out by hitting it.) If I back out SLOWLY, I have no idea if there’s a car whippin’ into the sonic parking lot, about to hit the back of my car, or if I’m backing into someone.
So I’m pretty much screwed.
What I had to do was back out a little bit, while cutting the wheel a lot, and then pull back forward. Then back out a little, cut the wheel, pull back. Back out, cut the wheel, pull back. Over and over. Once I figured I was in a good position to try to back out straight, int he middle of my backing out, some lady pulls into Sonic. I didn’t know this, because
that freaking tree was in the way
so she sits there waiting on me, instead of hitting me (thanks, by the way), and let’s me pull out. But I could’ve definitely hit her if I wasn’t paying attention. She honked at me, though. What I get I guess. People at sonic probably thought I was crazy, backing out and back in all those times.
Yeah.
Sonic also puts ice in their orange juice. It’s really awesome and that’s what I’m doing from now on.
Quite Possibly The Greatest Picture Of All Time? May 21, 2008
Posted by Andrew in manatees, the colbert report.add a comment
Plastic Galaxy (What I Remember Of It) May 20, 2008
Posted by Andrew in poetry.add a comment
you’ve discovered a new plastic galaxy and you’re off, just like that
you’ll need fuel before you even hit the sea and that’s that, and that’s that
you’re counting O’s and X’s; productivity is shot, and boring
Just Another Band Outta Boston May 19, 2008
Posted by Andrew in choir, rock band, wii.add a comment
Tonight, the Choir had a banquet for the graduating seniors, and afterwards we all went to this guy’s house and hung out. And I discovered, I’m really good at singing on Rock Band. Whoo hoo. I hope I have the money to buy it when it comes out for Wii.
When I Drive Myself My Life Is Found May 18, 2008
Posted by Andrew in life.add a comment
I got do drive by myself for the first time today, pretty much all day. I woke up, and I drove to church (I had some serious Queens Of The Stone Age in my CD changer). My parents followed behind me to make sure I was okay to drive the rest of the day. After church, I had to drive to school to work on Senior scrapbooks for Advanced choir.
That lasted about 2 hours, and then I had to go home to get my guitar and stuff to go directly to Wingolias practice (I switched out my QOTSA for some Daft Punk for this trip). After that was evening youth, which lasted until 7.
At 7 I drove to Burger King and got a chicken tendercrisp with lettuce and cheese, then went BACK to the school to finish my scrapbook, then at about 8:30 I drove home. I didn’t have time to do my running today (I was scheduled to run for 45 minutes…eek), but I’ll do it another day to make up.
So yeah, it was a pretty full day. And that’s a lot of driving for someone’s first day driving, but I’m a pretty safe driver, and I’ve been driving a long while, so I was pretty comfortable with it.
This Part Of My Life Is Called Being Stupid May 16, 2008
Posted by Andrew in friends, life, movies, stupid.3 comments
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.”
My Camera’s Back And You’re Gonna Be In Trouble (Photos: X) May 15, 2008
Posted by Andrew in Uncategorized.add a comment
“getting paid for this”
“kaitlyn.”
“ISO/400″
“war tor tle”
“the real thing”
“just living a suggestion (+-)”
“cool tapes”
“whoah!”
“whoah.”
I Have Decided To Save Up For A Macbook May 13, 2008
Posted by Andrew in apple, mac.add a comment
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.
Why I Am A Murderer May 12, 2008
Posted by Andrew in life.1 comment so far
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.
Next On LOST, Next On LOST, The TV Show May 11, 2008
Posted by Andrew in LOST, theory.add a comment
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.
Happy Birthday To Me May 10, 2008
Posted by Andrew in Uncategorized.add a comment
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.
Great Song Idea May 8, 2008
Posted by Andrew in music, song idea.1 comment so far
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?
S.C.I.E.N.C.E. May 7, 2008
Posted by Andrew in incubus, music.add a comment
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!
Ol’ Trent’s At It Again May 6, 2008
Posted by Andrew in free albums, music, nine inch nails.1 comment so far
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.
Space Is The Place For Bass May 5, 2008
Posted by Andrew in bass, music, the living end.add a comment
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.
Poke-question May 4, 2008
Posted by Andrew in pokemon.1 comment so far
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.
Xbox May 3, 2008
Posted by Andrew in video games, xbox 360.add a comment
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.
Abstractism (Photos IX) May 2, 2008
Posted by Andrew in photography.add a comment
“never do you any good”
“look for lights?”
“riser upper”
Pokemon Separates The Men From The Boys May 1, 2008
Posted by Andrew in morals, pokemon, school.add a comment
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.
I Wish I Was A Little Bit Taller, I Wish I Was A Baller April 30, 2008
Posted by Andrew in wish list.add a comment
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.
P.S.: My dad fixed the computer.
The System. Is Down, Whum Bum. The System. Is Down, Whum Bum. Doot Doot Doo-Doot! Doot Doot Doo-Doot! April 29, 2008
Posted by Andrew in computers.add a comment
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
BitTorment? April 28, 2008
Posted by Andrew in computers, music.add a comment
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.
Motivation For The Soul April 27, 2008
Posted by Andrew in motivational pics, the mars volta.add a comment
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
Gunslingin’ April 25, 2008
Posted by Andrew in andrew in latin, music.add a comment
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.
Hot water April 24, 2008
Posted by Andrew in water.add a comment
Oh, people who buy the trendy, expensive, and bad tasting water.
Why can’t I be more like you?
I Like The Way You Brawl April 23, 2008
Posted by Andrew in blogging, brawl, friends, video games.add a comment
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.
The Roo’s (Colber’ Joke, Ha Ha) April 21, 2008
Posted by Andrew in music.add a comment
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.
Stagedive (Photos IIX or VIII) April 20, 2008
Posted by Andrew in photography.add a comment
“open the floodgates”
Theifery April 19, 2008
Posted by Andrew in poetry.add a comment
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.
Mr. Blue Sky April 18, 2008
Posted by Andrew in my day.add a comment
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.
Theives April 17, 2008
Posted by Andrew in hate, theft.1 comment so far
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?”
Optimus Rhyme April 16, 2008
Posted by Andrew in music, optimus rhyme.add a comment
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.
Wingolias! April 15, 2008
Posted by Andrew in church, music, praise band.add a comment
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.
himynameismark Is Back! April 14, 2008
Posted by Andrew in himynameismark.add a comment
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.
After Bananas Curdled Dastardly… April 13, 2008
Posted by Andrew in Uncategorized.add a comment
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.
I Am An Expert In Knowing How To Not Hook Up A Genesis April 10, 2008
Posted by Andrew in Uncategorized.add a comment
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.)
Time To, Time To, Time To Echolocate April 9, 2008
Posted by Andrew in music, review, the ebb and flow.add a comment
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.
Oh, Woe Is Me April 7, 2008
Posted by Andrew in annoyance, complaining, the rec park.add a comment
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.
[COLORBAR] April 6, 2008
Posted by Andrew in camera, photography.add a comment
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.
I Think I Have Blogger’s Block (Photos VIII) April 5, 2008
Posted by Andrew in photography.add a comment
“mic”
“explosions”
“lamp”
“UFO”
New Andrew In Latin Song April 4, 2008
Posted by Andrew in andrew in latin.add a comment
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.
Big Choir Show April 3, 2008
Posted by Andrew in choir.add a comment
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!
Help! April 2, 2008
Posted by Andrew in Uncategorized.add a comment
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.
Adventures Of Power April 1, 2008
Posted by Andrew in adventures of power, trailer.add a comment
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.
Cloverfield Toy March 31, 2008
Posted by Andrew in cloverfield.add a comment
I don’t think this looks very much like the Cloverfield monster, honestly.
The Second And Last Wallgreens Video March 29, 2008
Posted by Andrew in video, wallgreens.add a comment
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.
