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May 31, 2005 Tuesday 9:45 PM The new computer arrived on Thursday. I've been messing around on it all weekend. My email still isn't up-and-running, I have a bunch of files to transfer yet, and I haven't even begun this site redesign. I decided to just take the weekend to play around. I can't begin to say how cool this new machine is. The new operating system, Tiger, is wonderful. The computer itself is bigger than I imagined. It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful computer, truly a piece of art itself. The majority of my time slices have been devoted to a program called "GarageBand." It's a music-based program that allows you to record instruments, vocals, and mess around with thousands of loops. I've already created six songs and am working on my first "album." For a guy who loves music but can't play any instruments, this is absolutely amazing to me. When the album is complete, I will be sure to have it available here for download, in a music/video/multi-media section that I will be adding in the redesign. This new machine has done nothing but add to my creativity. I live to create and have been doing so since I got this thing home Thursday night. I will gush more later. That's all for now. |
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I am happy, though, that once this show is over tonight, I no longer feel like I'm a slave to Fox programming Sunday through Wednesday nights! Of course, then sailing starts...Oh well. That's all for now. Wednesday's Playlist 1. Fantasia - I Believe EP 2. Kelly Clarkson - Thankful 3. Clay Aiken - Measure Of A Man 4. U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb |
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Dear Cartman II: Well, old friend. Your time is up. Your replacement is on his way. He boarded the plane last night in Shanghai, China and arrived in Anchorage, Alaska around supper earlier tonight. His trip to Appleton will be arduous, I'm sure, but well worth the wait. I can't wait to pull your plug, wipe your hard drive clean, and start from scratch. Just like that C3P0 bitch. American Idol: Go Carrie. Even my dad's rooting for you! If only I could get through the phone lines... Rob and Amber's Wedding; Britney and Kevin: Chaotic: What the fuck is happening to TV? When did we start caring about these people? (That reminds me -- I wonder who won America's Next Top Model last week?) Maybe growing my hair out is a bad idea: In case you thought Michael Jackson looked weird in court, check out Phil Spector. Dude, you're only supposed to keep the conditioner in for 30 seconds. But, really, he looks innocent enough... Okay, that's all for today. Tuesday's Playlist 1. U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind 2. Alanis Morisette - So-Called Chaos 3. INXS - Kick 4. Bon Jovi - Crossroads 5. Keane - Hopes And Fears 6. U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb |
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Bare Bones I'm probably going to take a bare bones approach to these pages the next week or so until the new machine arrives. There's so much I want to post (I'm still working on that U2 concert post), change, and add, but have reached my limit of frustration where content development is concerned on this archaic machine. Very soon, there will be a flourish of content that will match my creativity and the speed of my new computer. Other than the new computer, the big deal this week for me is TV. Tonight is the season finale of 24. Tomorrow and Wednesday night is American Idol's. It will be nice to not have my weeknights be captive to Fox for a least the summer. Over the weekend I caught Team America: World Police and Shrek 2. Team America was raunchier than I expected, but funny as hell. I still have that song "America: Fuck Yeah!!!" in my head. The marionette sex scene (yes, puppets having sex) was worth the cost of the rental alone. Shrek 2 was a lot better than I guessed it would be. The animation, now granted, it's no Pixar, was still pretty amazing. That's all for now; I have a 24 viewing to attend. Monday's Playlist 1. John Williams - Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Soundtrack 2. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head 3. Kelly Clarkson - Runaway |
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The actual premiere was awesome and fun as well. It's as if everything clicked right into place. I got to the theater around 5:30. There were probably 60 people or so already in line in front of me. By 7:00, it started raining. Before the heavy rain really started, they lined us up in the lobby. By 8:30, we were in the theater to hang out until midnight. It was awesome seeing all of the light sabers in the audience. It was filled with jedi, storm troopers, a few princesses, a couple of Darth Vaders, and even Jango Fett. Pictured to the right is what happens when a liberal has a run in with a mercenary. Love or peace or else my ass!
It was a good crowd to see the movie with. The obvious enthusiasm made it a great viewing experience. People cheering and clapping during key parts. It was a blast. My group of rebels headed to Perkins after the movie to try to digests what we just experienced as well as a few pancakes. I think I got home at about 5 AM. The morning birds, about 72 ounces of Diet Pepsi, and some of the darker elements of the movie made it hard for me to fall right asleep. I layed there thinking how it was such good night. Everything fell into place. I chilled out all day yesterday with the movie really buzzing in my head. My friend Jim stayed with me for a few days for the whole Star Wars experience. Any conversation we had yesterday, always came back to Star Wars. We saw it again last night. It was good to catch stuff that I missed. If anything, with the big hype and expectation of it now over for me, I was actually able to enjoy it more last night. Jim and I went out afterward and discussed the deeper meanings of the movie and the entire saga over a few pints of Sir Alec Guiness. It's all good. My Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of the Sith experience was perfect. That's all for now. I'm sure I'll be talking more about this movie later! Blogging to: John Williams - Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Soundtrack P.S. I called Apple this morning. My computer is being shipped today from China! I should have it some time next week. Sweet!!! |
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Yeah, I know how geeky I've been about this. My parents, my dad especially, cannot conceive why I'm doing this -- why I'd wait in line eight hours to see a movie that will in the theaters all summer. I tried to explain to Dad that in my mind, this is the equivalent of tailgating at a Packer game. He wanted nothing to do with that explanation. Oh well. What's so awesome about doing this, much like the experience I writing about for the U2 concert, is that tomorrow night, I'll be part of something. I'll be part of a collective group who have turned a simple movie into something for greater. I tell people all the time that I'm a "Star Wars geek." I have no problem with that either; I wear that label with pride. I can see how ridiculous things are, how fanatical people can get. I mean, I have a Darth Vader tattoo, a cat named Anakin, and have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on Star Wars toys throughout my life. I always tell people that, no matter how fanatical they might think I am regarding these movies, there's always somebody ahead of me in line. There's always a bigger geek. But I'll wear that geekdom with pride. For me, it's really cool to be part of something so huge. Part of the wave. Part of the force. An undeniable force. These Star Wars movies have taken on a life of their own. They've become their own sub-culture and it's pretty awesome to be part of that. By me being one of the first people in line tomorrow night, by me coordinating the event with friends coming from Madison and Green Bay, I've added to the Appleton part of the experience. I guess you could call it the Appleton part of the force. That's pretty damn cool. Shit. Now I'm getting excited!!! Tuesday's Playlist 1. John Williams - Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Soundtrack 2. U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb P.S. Bear with me if it's a few days until my next post. My friend will be in town for a few days and my new computer should be showing up by the end of the week. It may take me a few days to get it all set up and back online. Later! |
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Lucky!!! Monday's Playlist 1. John Williams - Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Soundtrack 2. John Williams - Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones Soundtrack 3. John Williams - Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace Soundtrack |
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Tomorrow begins a short work week. My friend Jim going to be in town and I took a couple of days off for the Star Wars premiere. My social life is busy but now, but things are good. I'm still working on getting some photos and videos ready for a large post/review about the concert from Tuesday night. I'm not sure if anybody reading this even cares about that or not. I'm really just doing it for my own recollection of things. They were filming the concert for a DVD to be released in the fall, which is cool. But I want to record my own memories of it first, before they are changed by the DVD. Hopefully I'll get that post done tomorrow night. Right now, this slow computer is trying my patience. Doing large posts or dealing with lots of different files and media is practically torture. Only a few more days until the new iron should show up! For now, I'm just posting another one of my pix from the concert. This was during the song "Vertigo" before all hell broke loose! That's all for now. |
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I also bought myself the best birthday present today. I FINALLY ordered my G5 iMac!! 20" display, 2.0 GHZ processor, 400 GB HD, dual layer DVD burner, wireless mouse and keyboard, bluetooth and airport ready, with Mac OS X Tiger installed. They upgraded all of these specs last week; my waiting paid off. I've been saving up for almost two years, it seemed fitting to make the purchase today. It sould show up sometime next week. It's funny, how in the split of a second, a new year begins. A new year for me, anyway. It feels odd calling myself 34. If the way my birthday week is already starting out is any indication of what 34 has to offer, then it's a good sign. That's all for now. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to my review of the concert. I'm alive From "All Because Of You" by U2 Friday's Playlist 1. U2 - Vertigo Tour 2005 / May 10th Chicago Setlist 2. U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb |
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U2 // Vertigo Tour 2005 // May 10 // Chicago // Night Three (of Four) // Setlist City Of Blinding Lights Zoo Station All Because Of You That's all for now. There are so many experiences I want to share from that night, I don't even know where to begin! |
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Objectives Elevate me. |
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A trip to the ATM for extra cash to buy a concert program and maybe a cool shirt has been made. The tickets have been located and set aside. The video camera, to document the ride down, is charging. Digital camera batteries are in the charger. The new cell phone is fully charged and ready to go; the "Vertigo" ring tone has been purchased, downloaded, and is set. The iPod, of course, is fully loaded and ready to go too. 490 U2 songs at my fingertips. I wonder what we'll listen to on the way down? Directions to the United Center are now in an email sent to work. I will print it off first thing in the morning. The atlas has been pulled out of the trunk; the United Center has also been located on the map of Chicago. Directions are set. I know how to get there. Mark's set to meet me here at noon. An Irish flag has been located and will be brought to work tomorrow (thanks Todd!). Poster board has been purchased and a "Happy Birthday Bono" sign has been cobbled together. We may be sitting in the nosebleeds behind the stage, but I'm going to do my best to get noticed. Everything's set. Now I just need to try to get some sleep, put in what I'm sure will be four long hours at work, rush home, and wait for Mark to show up for the long drive down to Chicago for a 7:30 show, with U2 hitting the stage sometime around 9:00. I'm so pumped for this, I can barely stand it. I'm flying despite the fact that I'm exhausted from all of this running around. I can't believe the U2 concert is already tomorrow! There will be an extensive update Wednesday night, I'm sure, about this little band called U2 and the hottest concert ticket of the year. But I have to make it through tomorrow first! Now it's time to play the waiting game. Uno, dos, tres, catorse! |
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I went out for drinks with my friend Aaron afterward. As we sat at the bar, he proceeded to vent about how stressed out he's been at work -- how stressed he's always been at work. I patiently listened to him spew his frustrations and realized that, for the moment, I'm not stressed out at work at all. For the time being, things are going pretty well. I'm getting lots done, really moving forward, but dealing with a manageable level of stress. The past few weeks, especially since completing my huge project, I feel content at work. I feel happy. Today I spent the entire day working on my parent's yard. My sister and I landscaped a wall around Dad's flagpole that we got him for his birthday last fall. We worked all day, from morning until supper time. There's so much I should have been doing here at home instead, but I didn't mind helping at all. Moving bricks and digging into the earth is painstaking work, but I was happy to do it. I was happy to help out Mom and Dad and spend time with my sister and nephews. It was good being outside, feeling the sun, using my muscles, and doing some hard, manual labor. At the very moment, my body is sore as hell. My knees and back ache. I've got no energy left. But I feel content and relaxed after a hard day's work. I sit here listening to some good music (490 U2 tacks on shuffle!), a gingerbread candle scenting my studio, sipping on a Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, writing about my day. There's a hot shower in my immediate future and can't help but feel calm and happy. I'm not sure what it is. I'm not sure where these feelings of happiness and contentment are coming from. Perhaps it's the fact that the weather is finally getting nice. Perhaps it's that I have so much to look forward to this month: a U2 concert and my birthday next week, the Star Wars premiere the next, and finally, a new computer coming very, very soon, with more bells and whistles than I initially imaged. There's a lot going on this month, but they're all good, positive, happy things. Three of my biggest passions in life are all coming to fruition this month. It's hard not to feel happy. May is turning out to be a good month, and I'm taking it. This fall, winter, and early spring were tough ones for me. There were many factors that contributed to the dark cloud that I just couldn't escape. For the moment, though, things feel good. I feel content. I feel happy. I hope this is a sign of things to come for this summer. So on Thursday night, when I drew that picture of my teacher's granddaughter, there was more to that smile on my face that just being happy with myself and my art. Maybe all of the tumblers are falling into place. Maybe, as my friend Brandon joked, this is "the month of Gary." Regardless of why all of these good things are happening, I'm just glad that they are! It's nice to have the glass be half full awhile. Me used to be angry young man From "Getting Better" by The Beatles That's all for now... |
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Going to the V.A. clinic was a very sad ordeal. The impression I got was that the veterans there seem to be lost souls, forgotten members of our society who served our country but have now been cast aside. The clinic is a big, mind-boggling place. I'm not sure how my parents could even find their way around a place like that without me. And Mom and Dad were some of the younger people there. Seeing all of these old men delegated to wheel chairs, canes, crutches, and various states of immobilization was a harsh vision of what our future with Dad will turn into as his disability progresses with age. From the look on Mom and Dad's faces, they sensed it too. I saw one guy, about my age, pushing his crippled father around in a wheelchair. My heart sank at the idea of what the future is likely to hold. For the record, I am extremely happy that Dad is getting the full veteran's benefit. But I have to say, I am appalled by the hoops that these veterans... these sons of America... have to go through to get what they have coming to them. There's a local V.A. clinic about 20 minutes from here. Dad had some initial tests done there. But since it's a small office, there's no hope of him getting any treatment there for at least five years until spots open up when some old veteran gets his final 21-gun salute. So now, Dad's regular pharmacist and doctor are over an hour away. For his normal checkups, to ensure that he's getting the proper amount of benefit, he will have to continue to go to Milwaukee, which is two hours away. I was amazed driving to the Milwaukee location, how difficult it must be for anybody who needs to access these benefits to get to this clinic. It is the heart of Milwaukee interstate traffic, on top of a bunch of interchanges and the baseball stadium. Getting there taxed my nerves and tested my driving skills; I can't imagine a senior citizen or a veteran in need. There's no way an elderly person should (or could) drive in traffic like that. The clinic itself had the charm of the D.M.V. The doctor who met with Dad was an extremely nice woman. But all of the other administrative staff that we dealt with, and there was a lot, seemed uncaring, cold, and lazy. It was no doubt that this place is a government-run operation, full of red tape, paperwork, politics, and logistics. I've seen McDonalds run more efficiently. We were told to go to three different locations to validate some forms. All of this, mind you, included much walking through the labyrinth of hallways, wings, and lobbies. All of this walking is taxing on my dad these days. Can't any of these state workers see that at all? Nothing but a bunch of damn jerking around. Again, I couldn't imagine an elderly person or somebody with a more extreme handicap going through all of this. I don't know how they'd do it. The only smiling staff I ever saw were about a dozen various staff members who literally bumped into me, almost running me over, busy talking and laughing with colleagues, all rushing out for a lunch or smoke break. I felt like I was in their way. I think back to the Election of '04. I think of all of the time George Bush and the Republicans spent trying to make John Kerry look like he didn't serve his country and was practically some kind of war criminal. Then I see the state of affairs at this V.A. clinic, and the damn run around the veterans have to deal with. Well, Mr. Bush, I think yesterday I saw some real crimes of war. I think of Bush in his flight suit, both thumbs up, praising the "brave men and women who serve this country." Well, fuck you, and the horse you road in on, Georgie Boy. Talk it cheap. I wonder how long before all of the men and women that you've duped into serving for your war of false pretenses will see the light of day. I wonder how many of them, coming back from Iraq, bodies shredded, missing limbs and souls, will end up driving two hours every six months to get their examinations to prove that they deserve the disability benefits that they now depend on for a living. I wonder how long before the young men and women who return from Iraq will have to wait in line behind the lost souls of our other wars, only to be treated like a number, a bother, and a leech of society. The next time I see King George on TV spouting off about the brave men and women who serve our country, I just may spit at his image in anger. Talk all you want George, the truth is out there. Fuckin' hypocrite. On the drive to work today, I couldn't help but notice all of those yellow "Support Our Troops" magnets on the backs the proliferation of SUVs that now occupy our freeways. Support our troops? Not from what I saw yesterday. What I saw yesterday disgusted me to the core. Shouldn't the pain and suffering that the veterans of this country, derived by their time of service to this country, amount to something more than some shitty experience at the D.M.V? I didn't see one administrative person treat a veteran with anything that even remotely resembled compassion or respect. It's absolutely appalling. Fuck. Support our troops my ass. It's easy to support them now, now when we need them to fight this war. The more troops who go to war, the better chance little Jimmy has of not ever getting drafted, right? But what about later, when the war and all the glory is over? What about when the reality of war, the lingering affects after the war, are right in our faces? When it's no longer a golden ideology, a recruiting commercial, or the pomp and circumstance of some well-produced Super Bowl halftime show? What happens when these men no longer can "be all that they can be," because their bodies are falling apart, whatever, that is, they have left of a body? And what happens, when a once-"support our troops" ideology materializes into a human face that's seen too much, been ignored by the very county it tried to serve and protect, only to become another number and financial burden around budget slashing time?? I feel sick to my stomach. Our government should be ashamed of itself. We should be ashamed of ourselves. God bless America. Wednesday's Playlist 1. John Williams - Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace Soundtrack 2. John Williams - Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones Soundtrack 3. John Williams - Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Soundtrack |
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Today was a long day. Not a bad one, just long. I'm tired and my mind is fried. To be honest, I think I have a bad case of "too much weekend." So tonight, I'm going to turn off my brain, post a cool picture that I shot of my cat Anakin yesterday, and play my Star Wars Battlefront PS2 video game for awhile. On a different note, I just got done watching 24. Holy shit. I just can't believe it. Holy shit!! This post is all over the place tonight. Oh well. That's all for now. Monday's Playlist 1. U2 - Boy 2. U2 - October 3. U2 - War 4. U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb P.S. To the April archives... When one door opens...
If you any questions, comments, or requests, you can contact me at: |
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Tonight I'm Hung: William Hung
The Final Stretch
Love Or Peace Or Else
Some of the costumes were incredible. Some were amazingly authentic. Others were just lame. There was one dude wearing a brown bath robe. As Yoda would say, "Bath robe make you a jedi not." There was even a Darth Vader with a full mask, cape, and chest piece, but then had on black and orange surf shorts with flames on them. It was funny as hell. It also struck me funny how many jedi were on cell phones and smoking cigarettes. I see the jedi code has been loosened up a bit to promote for new recruits.
Strong The Force Is
Work In Progress
New Year's Day
Blinding Lights
Running To Stand Still
I'm Taking It
Support Our Troops?!?!
Meow Mix