Blowin' Up, Web Style

A few days ago, I mentioned the desire to become "web famous." Let me clarify a few things about that. I don't honestly believe I would become web famous. By web famous meaning I would somehow magically be discovered as some amazing source of information and entertainment by someone. I do have an ego, but not so big that I think everyone really hangs on my every word. No, if I were to get famous, it definitely would not be for my web presence. I would be famous for my drumming, as that is the only thing I am truly talented at.

If someone stumbles upon Gotta keep em bloggerated, digs it, and then goes and tells all their friends about how hot I am, that's pretty cool. But these writing are way to personal for anyone outside of my few readers to actually enjoy. So do I honestly believe I would ever become web famous? No, nor would I truly want to be. But it's fun to pretend sometimes.

It always fascinates me when someone gets famous simply for befriending a lot of people Myspace. The one in particular I can think of is Tila Tequila. She has no reason to be famous, except for the fact, from what I understand, is that she had a lot of friends on Myspace. MTV, the marketing geniuses that they are, gave her her own TV show. You know, one of those retarded "dating" shows where someone is looking for love in all the wrong places (TV) and has a pile of douche bags clamoring for her attention, all the while, really only looking for attention for themselves? Yeah, one of those. Well, that only added gasoline to the inferno of retardation that is the entire empire of Tila Tequila. She really, honestly has no reason to be famous, because she does nothing remotely well. She has big eyes and bigger boobies, and I know dudes dig that. That's why she's famous. Some say that Paris Hilton has no talent and doesn't deserve the attention she gets either, but at least she has rich parents, and is a heiress to the hotel chain. That's something to identify her with. Tila Tequila has (had) no business wasting our time. But it is amazing that she even had the spotlight in the first place, don't you think?

Now that I think about it, she wasted my time this morning too...

Mission accomplished, I suppose.

Cell phones are pretty (cool)

Cell phones are pretty cool. I remember not that long ago when having a cell phone was not really for entertainment, but for making phone calls. When someone had a cell phone ten years ago, it was viewed as cool mainly because you could get a hold of them whenever they wanted. (They. Not you because they didn't have to answer, which is still true.) Today, people use cell phones (or mobile phones, if you're British or hip) both for calling friends and relatives and for a distraction during down-time. I can personally say that I have used my phone as a distraction during an awkward situation. Don't know what to say? Pretend to text. Works pretty good.

Now that everyone and their mother (and grandmother) have their own mobile phone, you can call anyone, anytime. That's cool, man. I haven't had a land line in six years because of cell phones/mobile phones. Land lines are going the way of the dodo or buffalo or the Oldsmobile... Who needs it?

Businesses need them. This also removes the need for phone books for residences. I wonder why they don't have a phone book listings for cell phones? I wonder how long it will be until someone decides we need to have one?

Cell phones have evolved into mobile computers, and that's really cool to. You want to look something up WHENEVER you feel like it? Just whip out your phone. BAM! Well not me folks. I still have the old style phone. The one where you can text and call people and stuff. Sure I can access the internet with it, for a fee. I could sign up for a data plan, but that's money spent on getting inferior results. My phone doesn't even support the all important 3G network.

Phones are also used as a status symbol now a days. If you have an iPhone, I'm jealous. It makes you look more successful than me. which is most likely true. I just wish I could fuck around on my phone more. Like I need another distraction...

So is brain freeze 2010 over? Only tomorrow will tell...

P.S. wow that got jumpy. See what happens when you write too fast? This is what happens, Larry.

The continuation of the Brain Freeze.

If you frequent my blog area, you may have noticed that I have added a music player on the side bar. I was just fiddleing around on Lala and I noticed this thingy saying that you can link your favorite songs to your blog or facebook or twitter or whatever and anyone can listen to it witout signing up. I thought, what a perfect way to share some songs I like with people than to include a music player, playing those very songs! Theres no commitment, that's what I liked about it. It's nice to have things on the internet that are free and cool, like blogger and Lala

So once I'm out of my killer, cold, problematic brain freeze of writers block, you can hear great music while reading!

Today, I talk about flooring, for some reason

I've never liked hardwood floors. I've always preferred carpet floors better. This is probably because I always had carpet floors in all houses I ever lived in. Hardwood floors are just not as comfortable as carpet. I feel uncomfortable on hardwood floors. There is no better feeling than taking off your shoes and socks and stepping on a carpeted floor. Taking off shoes and socks and stepping on a hardwood floor? It's cold and foreign. And hard...

I like the look of hardwood flooring. I think it looks way better than an ugly beige carpet. It gives a home character. It looks like a home. But I like the feel of carpet more. It's just relaxing to me. The biggest downside of carpeting is that they aren't very friendly for allergy sufferers. So that sucks. When carpet gets run-down, like, after 5 years, you should replace it, and that sucks. Hardwood flooring lasts longer, but hurts to fall on...so take that in consideration.

So when I build my house/own my house, I will have some hardwood flooring and some carpeting, because I like carpeting and I want to escape to the comfy zone every once in a while.

The Brain Freeze

I'm stumped this morning folks. I want to talk about my band playing a show tonight, but I feel that's not that interesting to read. I want to talk about not eating animals. I want to talk about Manchester Orchestra. But I'm not going to talk about those things this morning. No, I'm not going to do it.

So I've been thinking about it for the past hour or so. What will I write about this morning? There's no way I've reached the end of my creative abilities. I want to talk about something that I recently discovered, but I haven't discovered anything as of late. I could talk about money, but no one wants to read that. I could talk about the weather, but you know how that would end up sounding. I don't want to constantly brag about how nice it can be, weather-wise, here in the wonderful city of Nashville. So I won't.

I don't want to talk about coffee, cookies and cereal. Those are the things that I will consume this morning to pass time. I don't want to talk about work. I don't want to talk about oil changes or tire rotations. I don't want to talk about iPods or iPads. I don't want to talk about fitness centers. I don't want to talk about homesickness, or travel. I don't want to talk about republicans. I don't want to talk about fishing.

I have no idea of what to write this morning and I don't know why. All I know is I don't want to write about a lot of different things. I'm sorry for wasting you're time. At least I told you about it this time instead of making you wonder if I just abandoned the blogging again.

So today, I fired up Google Chrome. Google Chrome is Google's web browser that is supposed to be better and faster than Firefox or Internet Explorer. Now, I stopped using IE ages ago because a friend told me that Firefox does a better job of protecting you against the evils of the internet. In other words, IE will eventually fuck your shit up. I don't know if this is true or not because I don't bother to read into it. To be honest, all of these web browsers are basically the same. I imported my settings for Firefox to Chrome, and not all of my cool tabbed pages on top fit while using Chrome. Strike one. I haven't exactly run across strike two or three yet, but when they do, I'll go back to Firefox.

Another thing that bothers me a little is Google itself. As an outsider of the internet ways and means, I have no idea why Google is as popular as it is. It's a search engine. I get basically the same results from searching on Bing, Alta vista, or Yahoo as I would on Google. Also, about Altavista, when I have used that site to search for something, people always say "whoa! throwback! I remember that site. I used to use it all the time!" I think to myself, why did you stop? The only reason I started using Google was because I thought the name was funny. It had nothing to do with the amazing search results I achieved. I liked the name of it. When it grew into a multi-million dollar company, I was pretty surprised that a fucking white page with a bar to type in and the words Google in multi-colored writing could net someone millions. That's when I found out about selling ads and such that makes a company a lot of money. Good for them, I like to see success.

So it seems like you can't go a week or two with out hearing about Google's newest something that everyone is all a rage about. Gmail, Chrome, Buzz, Wave, Chinese conflict, Android, Talk, Nexus One, Earth, Maps (and street view which is awesome), Voice, Reader...the list goes on and on.

Now I spent so long trying to figure out what Google makes, I forgot my point...

I'm using Chrome for the time being. I may not wait to switch back to Firefox from Chrome because I have a Firefox t-shirt that I wear and it would be mighty hypocritical of me to wear it while using another browser.

When was the last time you Google'd yourself?

It is a little frightening to think about. I was thinking pretty hard yesterday about an online presence, and how it could be found and viewed negatively. I actually hid this blog for a long time, and I don't know who had gotten the privilege of reading some of the earlier posts. When I decided I wanted to fully, and unflinchingly and whole-heartedly rip off Big Dave and Company, I wanted people to actually read what I wrote. Therefore I had to watch my mouth, and not be a general asshole to people on the Internet. It is true, if you say something on the Internet, someone is most likely going to read it. It's very easy to sit at the computer and bash another human being. It happens all the time. A fun thing to do is go watch music videos on Youtube and read the viewer comments on the bottom. Hundreds and hundreds of strong-minded individuals take part in expressing their opinion, weather it's strongly for, or against what they are seeing/hearing. Rarely is there that indifferent commenter. The idea of the indifferent commenter would be pretty funny, actually. "Meh, whatever. It's cool, sorta. I like it, but also, I don't." No, it's usually a couple of people bad-mouthing each other through a comment section of a Youtube video. You have got to be kidding me.

But back to the lecture at hand. I wanted people to actually read what I was writing/thinking. I decided to google myself for the first time in a while, I was pretty surprised to see the results. My Myspace and Myspace blog appears, neither of which I have done anything with in a long time. My Twitter account appears. My Facebook? Yup, there it is. Even my participation in the Greater Marquette/Negaunee Area Ska Appreciation Club makes an appearance. www.wearedeadcities.com/bio shows up. That one is actually pretty cool. I also tried to bigdaveandcompany.com myself, and zero posts matched my query, just so you know.

What used to show up, is Gotta Keep em' Bloggerated. Not anymore, people. Blogger is cool like that where you can set it to not find your blog on a search engine. I don't want EVERYONE to find this. Just the people I want to find it. If someone stumbles upon my Facebook, I really don't care. My Twitter? Slightly concerning. Myspace? I don't know how I feel about that...I don't think I care about that either. But keep you're prying eyes off Gotta Keep em' Bloggerated.

You see, I know I can set my Facebook and my Twitter to private and no one can see what I write unless I say you can. But I have a desire to become web famous, and no one with a locked account can be web famous. But after careful consideration, I may change my tact. I can be an ignorant ass munch sometimes, and I can talk a big game. But I don't want anyone to take what I am saying and use it against me. I'm not really an asshole, I just play one in the Internet.

Vote or Die

Well folks, the results from the Gotta Keep em' Bloggerated poll have finally been counted! The question asked is "Did you read today's blog?"



The winner, with ONE vote..........is "yes."



da dadada da da duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!! **cue confetti**



Did I really expect any other result? I was hoping for the Kindergarten Cop reference to get at least one vote. But that one vote went to the winner, and to be honest, the winner deserved it. When I realized that the poll had expired, I was not satisfied with the result, and like any good news network, I decided it was too close to predict a winner. So to ensure that a clear winner was chosen, I reopened the poll for an entire month! I was considering letting the supreme court decide the winner, but they got it wrong last time, so I couldn't trust them to handle this. I had to take matters into my own hands, and place the responsibility back on the people to decide what wins. When you vote on the poll, please keep in mind that not only is you're future dependant on it, but your children and your children's children.



I also considered changing the question. Any good politician would do that if they were not satisfied with the result they had been presented with. But I'm above that. I won't stoop to their levels.



So when you visit Gotta Keep em' Bloggerated, remember...VOTE OR DIE.

A Very Special Valentine's Edition

So today is Valentine's day. Valentine's day is a very special day for those of you who need another day to express you're love for your significant other, at the same time as everyone else is expressing their love for their significant other. If you have a significant other, that is. If you don't have a significant other, then today can go a couple different ways. Either you use this day as a battle cry for you're sovereignty, or perhaps you use today to sulk about the fact that no one loves you. There is a major portion of people, I believe, that use the day to shun love, and put up a front that love doesn't matter and you don't need anyone. Some people genuinely don't like Hallmark holidays, me being one of them. But to go out and just yell about how it's stupid, when you're alone, is kind of stupid in itself. I don't personally care about the holiday. It really is something made up to sell cards, chocolate, and stuffed animals. But if it means something to my wife, then I have to pay attention, and at least try to make an effort. I have not made much of an effort in the past, because of the timing of the holiday. Our anniversary and her birthday fall two days apart, and less than a month before Valentines day. If I don't show her how much I love her on those events, than I'm surely trying to make up for lost ground on Valentines day. It's sort of my way of making it up to her for sucking on those other important days. But, unfortunately, I don't make much of an effort of Valentines day either because of the fact that I'm in general, not a great husband when it comes to these things.



But the people I feel for on a day like Valentine's day is the people who are alone and don't want to be. Everyone needs love. Love is great!



Oh and Speaking of Love, the new Angels & Airwaves album entitled Love is released today, and it is FREE OF CHARGE through iTunes. So I really don't see a reason not to go to iTunes right now and download it. It's frucking fee-free. You can have it for no money. There's no obligation, cancel any time. If nothing else, do me a favor and just go get it to give it the numbers. I bet you'll enjoy it as well.



So I hope you have love in your life. If not, I hope you find love today. What better day to find love than the lovey-doveiest of all holidays! Happy Valentine's day everybody!

A Stale Cup of Joe, And I Don't Care

A few things. Firstly, it's not even 7a.m. CST, and I'm already getting my blog on. That's dedication, or boredom. Secondly, I'm bored already, and it's before 7a.m. This could pose a problem. I am working the dreaded 12-hour shift today. I know there are some in the world that only work 12-hour shifts all the time, and me bitching it about will make you laugh that I only have to do one. But when you only have to do one, you're not used to it and it makes it a bad experience. I don't want to be here for 8 hours let alone 12. But things come up, overtime is accrued, and all is well. I still get the rest of the day off after I get outta here. I get tomorrow off, and Monday off. Overall, this isn't that much different than usual. But just thinking about being here for an extra four hours is like the end of the world in my mind. I got a book, I got an SI. I got the iPod. I got the computer. I got food to eat. I should be fine. It's just a mental hurdle from here on out.

I left a sandwich bag with coffee beans in the office cabinet for a week. I brewed those beans this morning and they are not very good. I also brought some newer beans from home, in case these beans weren't enough or if they tasted stale. They are stale, but the fact that it's so early in the morning, I don't care yet. Hot coffee-ish dark liquid is better than nothing. Also the fact that they're ground by me instead of the Folgers factory will always make it taste better. More on that later, I hope.

To all of you that have been reading, I greatly appreciate it. Please call me out if I say something stupid. I don't want to think I'm right ALL the time. See you tomorrow, on a very special Valentine's day edition!

In Defense of the Genre (it's music again)

First off, I'll just admit that I obviously have no idea what I'm talking about most of the time. There was a musical genre right in front of my eyes for the majority of my existence that I didn't even understand. At one time, I thought I understood it, but I didn't.

The genre is emo.

As a 19 year old man, I listened to neo-nu-metal, punk rawk, ska, and 311. I was aware of this crybaby music that some kids somewhere made called emo, and I loved to poke fun at the kids crying because their girlfriend called them fat or something... Emo was not something I was interested in. Not while listening to this or this. I thought of emo as Dashboard Confessional acoustic guitar-style whining. Technically, I was right, but I didn't even know there was a whole wave of emo bands in the 90's that I totally missed. The bands had a serious rock side to them, more like, pop-punk than acoustic. But I guess this is where I blur the lines of what is pop-punk these days. Eh, nevermind. I never understood it before, why should I try to explain it now...

Now, the question I ask myself is, how important is knowing this now? The reason this is important now is that I realized that when I started this band, there were a lot of bands from this era that I really need to be aware of if I am to get along with my new band mates. I have never ever listened to the Get Up Kids until the exact moment that I'm typing this. I mentioned before that I missed the boat on a lot of bands of this era, and this is really good stuff. It's relevant to me now, even if it's only because I wish I was a different person when this was originally released. I want to be familiar with this music so that I can pretend I never was who I was. The music I listened to when I was between the ages of 14 and 21 are an embarrassing list of flash in the pan bands that I got caught up in, and I want to erase it.

But I know I can't. And I'm working on embracing that fact. But in the meantime, I'm gettin' all emo on everyone's ass, thanks to the greatest website ever for streaming music, Lala. I'm just trying to connect with a past I never lived. When I was trying to think of the genre of my new band, I immediately wanted to brand it punk/pop-punk. But I knew there was another layer to it, and more to it that that.

I'm pretty sure I'm in an emo band. Now, I'm trying to understand what that means.

Back-to-Back Consumption Blogs

It's kind of depressing to hear/read that everything I eat or have eaten throughout my life has been utter shit. While researching the previous blog, I came across this quote from a blog in the Los Angeles Times:

"...we have lots of real-life silliness of that kind on our food packages today. I especially like the listed example of Gerber "Graduates," juice treats for preschoolers, in a package that is covered with pictures of whole fruits and that proclaims it's made with "real fruit juice concentrate and natural fruit flavors" and is "all natural." Each serving contains 17 grams of added sugar. Hardly any of the pictured fruits are in it. The main ingredients are corn syrup and sugar."

There are examples like this all over. And you can't really blame the companies, because there is no singular company you can point at and place blame. It's everyone, all the time. Food companies, and namely, their marketing department, suck. All of them. I feel like I can't trust a single one. I have been eating a lot of Amy's Kitchen products, which all claim to be organic and produced with care and a real effort to be done in the correct way. But with the scale of their distribution, I find it hard to believe that they can really be the "good guys" of the mass produced food industry. No one is the good guy, unless you own a farm down the road, which no one does anymore. Like I said before, it's depressing to think about, that all food is shit. (now that I think about that is very true, all food will at least eventually become shit, in the very literal sense.) But it's true and there is nothing anyone can do about it unless you grow your own, and not everyone has the resources to do that.

Basically, we became lazy in our food selections. We want convenience over quality food. And I have grown up in this convenient world, and I live in it. Old habits die hard, especially ones that are VERY much out of your hands.

So that's why they list caffeine content on the side of cans, because we're all fucked.

Meandering Thoughts of a Lazy Bastard

When I get around to doing things that I feel I should be doing to make myself happier, sometimes I go forth and make it reality, and sometimes I just totally forget about it and put it off. I have currently set myself up with entirely too many things that theoretically should make me happier, but now I've gotten to the point where I'm stressing myself out with the amount of fun things I want to do. My main problem is that I've got too many things to do with not enough time in the day to do them. A normal day during the week would include sleeping in till around nine, reading the newspaper, making/drinking coffee, then playing Modern Warfare 2 until it's time to take a shower and eat lunch so I can go to work and make money. Somewhere within there, I open my computer and check my social networking sites, and also try to see other interesting things scattered about the Internet, but I usually just look at the clock, think about how little time I have to be fiddling around with the Internet, and get moving on to the next thing. There is never enough time in the mornings to do the other things I want to do.



I have set myself up with too much reading, to the point that I feel I have to go out of my way to read them. I get a newspaper daily, Sports Illustrated weekly, and Alternative Press monthly. I've found that reading the paper in the morning is becoming a headache, because there are so many other things I would rather be doing. So now the dilemma comes in where I don't really want to read the paper anymore, but I feel an obligation to read it so I'm at least somewhat informed. People will say "that's what the Internet is for." And to them I'll say "but the Internet is killing the print news, which I like." So do I continue my subscription to the paper, which is about $16 a month? Or do I cancel it so I can do other things I want to accomplish daily? There is so much to read already, with the magazines and the Internets...I don't know what to do.



I also have some very expensive video games currently collecting their weight in dust as well. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has absolutely DOMINATED my attention for the past month and a half. I own Madden 10 and NBA Live 10 as well and I know I would seriously enjoy playing them, but right after I get done with CoD...which never happens because I run out of time every day. "I'll play Madden tomorrow" usually turn into "I'll play Madden tomorrow" the next day as well. I paid good money for that to just sit there. And I enjoy it! I just need to quit my job so I can play more video games.



Additionally, there are millions of songs that have been recorded that I have never heard. I am on an announced mission to listen to damn near every one of them. But guess what? I don't have the time to sit there and really listen to any of it. Why? because I'm reading the paper and playing Call of Duty. Believe it or not, as I sit back and think about it, I'M BITCHING ABOUT ENJOYING MYSELF AT HOME ON MY COUCH. So I take back everything I just said.



Which brings me to my next part. I daydream at work about heading back to the FREE fitness center at my apartment complex because I have gained 1o pounds in the past few months from my increased laziness. Defenitly no time for that.



Thanks for reading, I'll be playing Call of Duty if you need me.

Half-Paying Attention to What I'm Writing.

It's been a crazy, wild, unusual weekend here in my world. So much crazy, memorable stuff has happened in the past 3 or 4 days, and there was absolutely no time to blog about it all. I played my first show with my new band, I watched the Super Bowl. I watched the Super Bowl commercials. I worked one day without the computer on at work, so I couldn't blog about stuff that I would have done. So without a stockpile of blogs, I hope to update regularly anyway this week. It just may require more work that I'm prepared for.

Let's start with the band show on Friday night. It went as well as a first show should probably go, especially taking into account that we have really only played together for bout an hour and a half before we played in front of 26 people. I couldn't hear the guitars or vocals so I was pretty much guessing on most of the songs as to where we were. I think it went alright, overall. But there will be much better shows in our future.

After the show, we went to a bar in Murfreesboro with Dave and his girlfriend. Bad idea for the next morning. I ended up with 3 hours of sleep when I went to work at 6 a.m. Compounding that was the fact that the computer was turned off, as I mentioned before. So I read Alternative Press and listened to music on the iPod for 8 hours. Went by quick, actually and that was a good thing.

We went out to diner Saturday night at P.F. Changs. They told us when we got there that there was approximately a one hour wait. An hour and a half later, sitting in the freezing cold waiting area, we finally got seated. I ate my entire plate of Ma Po Tofu, which is way too much food, and went home and passed out because I had to work in the morning again.

Set the alarm for 5 p.m. and not 5 a.m.... woke up at 7:25. Called my Supervisor. He told me not to come in and that he had someone else on the way. So I went to back to bed and felt like a jackass who cant get up to go to work.

Watched the Super Bowl. Saints won, to the dismay of my lovely wife. To me, I'm happy for the people of New Orleans. They deserve a championship. Their team has sucked for the majority of their existence, so I'm glad to see they're champions.

Favorite commercials of the night included the Doritos commercial with the kid telling the guy to keep his hands of his mama and his Doritos. Also, the Bud Light commercial with the Auto tune. That was funny.

Bethany is in severe back/hip pain yesterday and today. It's hard to see her hurting like that. It would suck to be her right now.

Today, I'm going to the boro for a band meeting, to discuss the future of our band. Our branding, our look, our sound, our dance moves. Also, future shows, which can't be worse than the first one. I was worried about the meeting, the way the wording was then it was proposed to me. I thought I was gonna be in the middle of a drama show, people getting pissed and stuff. But, from what I have come to learn this will be a good one. The future is bright. A kid from Negaunee has a future!

Music City. Live the Dream.

So you may notice that Gotta Keep em' Bloggerated has gotten some aesthetic changes since we last visited each other. This is because I couldn't stand looking at that preset template any longer. I had to personalize this thing, in some way. So I changed the layout, the color scheme, and added some gadgets to the side last night. I like it for now, but this may change again in the future. I get bored, and even this layout seems a bit blah, and I know I can do better.

My mom decided to drop in to Nashville for the weekend. She made this decision on Tuesday, and today is Thursday, so needless to say, I had to do some cleaning. Not major cleaning, because thankfully, we had just cleaned last week. So I cleaned the bathroom and Bethany did the kitchen. Looks great! The point to this is that there is no point. Cleaning sucks, but it's worth it when you're cleaning for your mom's arrival.

The reason my mom is in town is because she wants so see her son's dreams come true. Tomorrow night, I will play drums in a rock band of (essentially) strangers in a little town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. We formed a band out of necessity. These guys from the boro needed a drummer, I needed the rest of a band. Boom. The only problem we're currently having is that we don't have a name. The guy who seems to be running this band from the get-go is named Sean. He has this solo project thing that he does with friends and he calls it Sweatervest. Everyone hates the name Sweatervest, so we decided to change it. As of the time of me typing this, there are a few finalists, but not winner yet. I will let you know what is decided when it is decided.

But yeah, I'm in a band with like-minded folks, and our mission is to reach as high as we can in the music industry, and we feel we can reach pretty high. The mission from day one is fame and fortune. Why not reach for the stars? So hopefully, this little boy, from little old Negaunee, MI can sometime be considered the thing one might brag about when a visitor comes to town. "Hey you know the band (insert name here)? You know, the drummer is from Negaunee. Isn't that crazy?"

I wasn't sure moving to Nashville, Tennessee was the greatest idea, but now I see the brilliance of the whole thing. Music City, baby. I'm the happiest boy in the world.

The Hottest Rapper in the Game

So I sit here this morning, drinking my usual coffee, reading my usual newspaper, nothing out of the ordinary. I decided that I wanted to listen to something while reading this morning, as I usually don't have time to do the things in the day that I want to do, so I multitask. So the decision on what to listen to had to be made. I remembered that I had heard the the new Lil Wayne record had come out yesterday, called Rebirth. This is the rock record that he had been talking about releasing since sometime in the middle of last year. Well, since I have a facination with hearing artists experiment outside of their "comfort zone," I absolutely had to hear one of the most critically acclaimed rappers of the day attempt a rock record. To say that the results are mixed would be the understatement of the millennium. Lil Wayne is supposed to be the hottest rapper in the game, but honestly, I don't understand why. He can be witty sometimes, and make you smirk because what he said was kind of clever, in a way. But overall he is really pretty talentless. I believe the term is "no-talent ass-clown." I understand that what makes music good and what makes music bad is all a matter of taste and personal choice. Listen to what makes you happy, but seriously, this is pretty shitty. The album has it's highlights, but so do a lot of records. Not every Nickelback song is that bad...yeah this record has got me defending Niclelback. This is music by a misguided young man who has had his ego inflated to the point that he thinks he can do anything he wants and not only get away with it, but make a lot of money doing it. And as far as that point goes, I have to give him credit. He can cash in on name only, because for some reason, people just listen to his music. I don't personally get it, but I took a different musical journey to get to the music I currently enjoy. Some people will genuinely enjoy this record and it will make them happy. There is no reason to hate the people that will find this enjoyable. It is only my opinion that this is bad music. If this record was made by anyone besides an established artist like Lil Wayne, it would probably never see the light of day. I don't recommend anyone listen to this record, just trust me, it sucks.

What bothers me most about this is that people tolerate bad music, and even go as far as to say that is is good. There is no way to make people realize that the music they enjoy is shitty, and there is no reason to do so. Like I said before, it's not the people that buy this/listen to this, it's the artists that make bad music. I know that there has to be bad music as an option, because it helps the people that listen to "good" music justify their actions. Someone is always in last place. There is always one team in the NFL that has the worst defense against the run, or the team in baseball with the worst starting staff ERA. And when that happens, people get fired. The idea is to step up your game so you are not in the bottom tier of whatever you're doing. Unfortunately, Lil Wayne is considered to be in the top-tier of what he is doing. And that's what bothers me most about Rebirth. He makes bad music, gets praised for it, and good artists go unnoticed. But, if Rebirth is what the people want, than I guess the good yet struggling artists need to take a look at what's going on and fire their defensive coordinator. Even it seems fucking absurd.

Why am I so damn Twitchy?

I just noticed the other day that Coke has started listing the caffeine content of their drinks on the side of the container. Not in the regular nutrition facts or in the ingredients, but in tiny little writing on the side of the bottle, a little over from that other business. Drinking a can of Pepsi Max this morning, (Max apparently meaning you are drinking twice the caffeine content of a regular Pepsi (remember Jolt? Like the original Jolt cola? That shit was gross)) I decided to look if they listed the content like Coke does now. In fact, they do, but on this can, it's right after the ingredients. Probably a spacing issue, or else I'm sure they would have relegated it to the outermost part of the can, which makes no sense because it's round, but you know what I mean. Anyway, I started thinking. Was this just something that these companies decided to do on their own? Taking responsibility for the things they put into the popular sodas they produce? Or was this an act of government, forcing them to disclose the information, which they've neglected to do for so long, yet everyone knows there's caffeine in there? I figured that since it appeared on the cans out of nowhere, seemingly, there was probably the government mandate part I have theorized to disclose the content on the can. This was probably because of some concerned mothers or fathers that want to know exactly how much caffeine their ultra-hyper kid is actually consuming. Well, I couldn't find anything after researching for five good minutes, so I got bored and quit searching. Anyway, I found it interesting, and I think my suspicions that their hands were forced to disclose the information are correct, so we'll assume this is all true.

It's Like a Sperm Bank For Thoughts.

So if I can just write and save a bunch of blogs, and just like stockpile them, when I have a lot to say, I can just save them and post them another day? This may be a good thing for the future of my blog, and it's accelerated maintenance.



Well now that I figured this out, You should see a serious increase in blog posts. I have a lot of time on my hands on a Saturday morning, so i Won't lie, I will probably write a few here, save them, and post them throughout the week.



So, on to the real subjects here. I believe I can now officially declare my latest attempt to quit smoking a failure. Bethany tried to make a compromise with me that she would become a vegetarian if I tried extra hard to quit smoking. This is something I want her to do because eating meat, from what I have learned, is not really a good idea. But it was never my intention for her to actually join me on this journey into a life without meat. The only problem I have is that, if I don't quit smoking, would she go back to eating meat? If she did, would that bother me? The answer is no, it doesn't bother me if she eats meat. So the ultimatum was not really an ultimatum at all. It was just her deciding to not eat meat, and asking me to quit smoking at the same time. I know the ultimate goal is health, for both of us. I sort of want to quit smoking. People that don't smoke would find it hard to believe, but I actually enjoy smoking. It tastes good to me. It gives me something to do when I'm bored out of my frickin' mind at work, which is most of the time. Going out for a smoke breaks up my day at work. My long, boring day. Without it, I would probably go nuts. I did go a few days there without it but that isn't to say I didn't think about smoking every single time I got up from the desk to take a walk. This is NOT a defense of my habit. I know I must kick it, and do it soon. The main problem is I don't really want to, and that's something I have to deal with.