Monday, April 26, 2010

He's Talkin' Music Again, Folks

Before writing this post, I had to say to myself "please let this come out right." I know what I want to convey, but I haven't figured out exactly how I am going to do this, so bear with me.

When most people think of art, they think of painting. Well, at least that's the first thing I think of. Music is also an art form. That's why we call musicians artists. And when thinking about music as art, that is what I have finally figured out is my problem with some music that is created in the world. It's not artistic. I couldn't exactly describe what i didn't like about country music or Alt-metal or whatever you want to call it. Country music is art, sort of, like in the way an old metal coke sign is art. Or the art you buy at walmart to decorate your mobile home with. Sure, it's there, for you to look at, but it's also probably a reprint, or not the original. The emphasis in country music is on the words, not the music. If the vocals were removed from any country song from the past 20 years, you would hear the same song over and over. I understand completely why people listen to country, because they can relate to the messages relayed in the lyrics. The music is not challenging it doesn't necessarily make you think. It's what you put on to get through the day. They sing, mostly, about down-home problems and things of the nature that the common man can relate to. I have no problem with that, I just don't have time to waste on it, mainly because I don't relate to those issues.

This problem is the same one I have with another genre. That genre is this new post-nu-metal stuff that is out there. I could rattle off a pile of bands that are the culprits, but I don't even know what's out there anymore. I used to listen to it a lot, mainly when it was "NU." Linkin Park is one band I would probably throw under the bus. The problem with a band like that is the opposite of what is wrong with country music. The lyrics are so bland and pointless, there's no way anyone can truly relate to them. I guess the vagueness of the whole thing is an excuse to listen to it so you can apply any situation to the anger and frustration of the words. Let's provide an example:

There's something inside me
That pulls beneath the surface
Consuming, confusing
This lack of self control I fear
Is never ending, controlling

Discomfort, endlessly has pulled
Itself upon me distracting, reacting
Against my will I stand beside my own reflection
It's haunting


Can anyone please explain what exactly he's talking about? I mean, I guess I get it. He is having some sort of insecurity issues. There's also lines about the "walls closing in" which would indicate some sort of external pressure upon the writer? Man, I don't know and Ive been trying to figure that out for 9 years.

These music styles are just the tip of the iceberg. This is not to say that if you like country or alt-rock (or however you want to sugar-coat the term Nu-Metal these days) that you are an inferior music listener. Like what you like, but I'm just trying to point out that, as an art form, musicians can do better, and so can listeners. I'm not saying that the music that I like that is artistic is better than any other type of music, because your music choices are about YOUR TASTES, not what others think. I know there are a lot of Nickleback fans out there (with lines like "that shit makes me bat-shit crazy" among their amazing word choices they use) and I can't, nor would I want to stop that from happening. But people, really, you can do better. When you think of music as art, it's more enjoyable. Again, this is just my opinion.

Will you people listen to some fucking Jazz, already? That's the place to start. Jazz is pure, unadulterated art. That's the closest thing you're gonna get to an audio painting. Especially if you're hearing it live, with all the improvisations, that's like watching a painter paint a portrait. It's all the originality you can imagine, without the pretentiousness of indie rock. Indie rock is, again, in my opinion, the closest thing you're gonna get to true art in music today. But most peoples jeans aren't tight enough to walk into the indie record store and pick up the Broken Bells LP. Most people don't want to associate themselves with that sort of thing, because they don't want to seem uppity. Whatever, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Indie snobs are just as bad as metal heads when it comes to hating on music they don't like.

Can't we all just get along? Why do we have to hate any music? I don't hate any music, I just would prefer not to associate myself with certain brainless radio rock or country. Because some musicians out there have realized that we all can do better, when it comes to making and listening to music. And those artists have gone and done that.

I feel bad dropping this monster of a post on you on a Monday morning, but I get passionate. Thank you for reading this. This topic means a great deal to me. It's all I do. Oh, this and watch sports. But seriously, thank you.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Avoiding Overload

**********Heads up! This blog was written on Saturday, April 24th, and I'm going to talk about the events that are going to occur later today, but I didn't want to double-post on Saturday because the previous blog was really long!!! So I am going to write my Saturday morning blog now, and have it posted on Sunday Morning, even though when you read this, it will have already happened.********

Today is a cool day, sorta. Cool because things are happening around Smashville today. This morning is the Country Music Marathon, which until yesterday, I thought was called the Music City Marathon, which sounds better to me, but no, this is the Country Music Marathon. Well, the thing goes all over downtown, which is my current, and usual location here in Nashville. I am at work, as you may know, and the route of the Marathon goes right behind and next to my work building. Additionally, they have blocked off major roads around town, causing traffic to suck, apparently, for all Saturday morning commuters. I was looking at the TDOT cameras they have around on the interstates and it shows cars backed up all over the place. It didn't affect me at all because I live 3 minutes from where I work. Win!

Anyway, some of my fellow Officers here at my place of work have volunteered to work the alternate entrance of the building today, because they expected the regular employee entrance to be unusable. Not sure this is the case, but nonetheless, it's still awesome because no one is bothering me over here this morning. They also hinted that I would be expected to help out with their duties at the other entrance. Sorry motherfucks, you volunteered to be here on your day off, not me. So I'm gonna just stay right here, blogging, and listening to music.

So that's all, I guess. That's what's going on in Nashville on a Saturday. Thanks for reading what happened yesterday...


Saturday, April 24, 2010

Going on Vacation In Cleveland

I can really tell I'm excited to write a blog this morning. First thing I thought of when rolling out of bed is what I would want to write about today. Taking a shower, I thought of topics I could cover. Eating breakfast, same thing. So one would think that I got a bunch of great ideas to go on about this morning. The fact is, I didn't come up with anything really solid. I figured once I got to the keyboard I would know what I wanted and it would spew forth. This is not the case. Well, not entirely.

First thing I want to point out is that the work computer was down all week, which made me not only miss reading Big Dave and Company all week, but I also took an unintentional vacation from blogging as well. There were some significant events of the weeks past that I would like to cover now, even though it's too late for them to be relevant. I remember the thoughts I had during the week, in order to write about them right here, but I didn't have the time, or the means to do so. Thankfully, I have a photographic memory. These words will ultimately come back to bite me in the ass, I'm sure.

First off, Ben Roethlisberger is a fucking idiot. Also, he makes bad decisions. I honestly don't know, nor did I care to find out what all the allegations that were levied against him are, but I just know he's an idiot. Riding a motorcycle without a helmet is exhibit A. Exhibit B would have something to do with being the quarterback of a very popular NFL team and having sex with a lot of different people that you are not in a relationship with. Girls will say you assaulted them when you did not when you are a superstar quarterback, mainly to get rich quick, and it's pretty hard to prove one way or another, but the chances are you will be held responsible. Well, Ben didn't get charged with anything, and I think that probably indicates how much he actually did wrong in this situation, which I'm suspecting is not very much at all, whatever it is he did. Make sense? Well, now that he went off and allegedly had questionable sex with someone in Georgia, he is getting to miss the first 6 games of the regular season, without conviction, and probably dooming the Steelers to a sub-standard season (which I approve of). Keep your Johnson in your pants when you are a superstar. It will ultimately be the best option, no mater what you Johnson is saying back to you at the time. There was also a question of race involved here, where I felt that they had to go hard on Ben (Pun INTENDED) because he would be about the 2nd whitey to be punished with the NFL conduct policy. Pacman Jones had 8 different charges from 8 different incidents against him, and he got 10 more games suspended than Ben did, and all he did is have his name pop up in the news a couple times. Trust me, they had to let him have it.

Next topic is actually related to the above one. The NFL Draft.

The NFL draft happens every year at this time, and while we're all caught up in the NBA and NHL first rounds, the MLB season still young and fresh, we somehow find a way to talk about football. This angers me and pleases me at the same time. This football loving country of ours is so blind to other sports sometimes. But even as I hate on that sort of thing, I found myself mainly watching the draft on TV the past few days. The thing I love about the draft is, save for a few of the really notable college athletes, I have no idea who these young men that are being drafted into the NFL this weekend. I really don't know anything about Taylor Mays, except that he plays Safety for the USC Trojans, until yesterday, when he was drafted by my 49ers. Cool, hope that works out. I was caught up in the drama of the two quarterbacks that were predicted to be drafted in the first round and weren't. Once Colt McCoy got drafted with the 85th pick (or something like that) by Cleveland, I lost all of my interest. (BTW sucks to be you Colt, for going to the Browns. Hope you have more success than others. Though it could have been worse, you could have been drafted by the Lions.)

So those are two of the things I thought about this past week. I thought about a lot more things, but I didn't write them down and now I forgot them. (My ass has just been bitten.)


Saturday, April 17, 2010

I had a lot of great ideas to tackle this morning, and I will, I promise. But right now I'm just flying high from a Nashville Predators victory last night in the first game of the first round of the NHL playoffs, against the heavily favored Chicago Blackhawks. So what I'm going to do is leave this page minimized, and when I remember what I was going to write about, I'll come back to it.

............................................................................................................................................................

Okay I thought of it. It never ceases to amaze me what influence others can have on me. Especially ones that I am in a band with. When I was with the band back in Michigan, I got very much into music that my band mates listened to. This has happened again, but this time, in a new part of the country. When I/we started this band, I was listening to, I don't know, whatever I was listening to. But then I start hanging out with these guys, and now I'm catching up on all that music I missed growing up, when I was stuck in my "hard rock" phase. Let's face it, I was listening to NU-metal. Linkin Park, Mudvayne, Korn, Slipknot, Nonpoint...the list goes on and on and on. Well anyway then I went punk, then Screemo, then Emo, then indie...the natural progression of a twentysomething. Well, I realized within the past year that there was a lot of great music I missed out on in the late 90's and early 2000's, and now I'm trying to play catch up. Especially, due to the fact that the bands I missed out on are the ones that are the biggest inspirations of my band mates.

The two bands I've been listening to the most lately are Alkaline Trio and The Get Up Kids. I feel like I have to do this because I need to know the mindset of these guys if I want to play with them. I knew where Chris and Andy got their inspirations. Tim, too, even if that was less clear than those other guys. TJ's natural secretiveness made it hard to tell what he was exactly listening to, ever. But I had an idea, even if I was wrong. That was easy because I knew these guys for years. I've known Sean, Dave and Andrew for three months now. It is obviously harder to know what these guys like and dislike, because we haven't had those experiences together. We're trying to play catch up, cramming a lot of life experiences into a very short period of time.

Getting to know my new friends is one of the coolest things I get to do in Tennessee. Part of getting to know someone, at least for me, is knowing what they listen to. It says a lot about a person, in my opinion, what they listen to, and what they used to listen to. So the way I find out about a person is to listen to their music. Good thing these guys like good music. I can't believe I missed the boat on The Get Up Kids. That band is great. So if nothing else, I got that out of this.

I vowed not to make friends here so it wouldn't be very hard to move away, but that ain't happening. Instead, this is happening.

********To learn what else Brad is listening to, check out his Last.fm page!********

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Hypocrisy at it's finest, right here

As I was reading my old blogs in boredom, I stumbled upon the one I wrote about the game Foursquare. Well, last weekend, I bought an iPhone. Once I got the iPhone, I started downloading all the apps I could think of, all the ones I had heard of here and there. I had several recommended by friends and family to get. Well, in the flurry of App acquisition, I downloaded Foursquare. Then I started using Foursquare. So in other words, I am a hypocrite. But from what I understood, it was only really a big deal if you post your locations on Twitter that it makes it dangerous. I don't know, man I guess I'm just testing the criminals out there to see how dedicated they are to stealing shit.

I should probably not be typing right now, for I could be in serious trouble for doing so, so until tomorrow morning, have a good one!

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I was real fired up last night as I was trying to fall asleep. My mind was racing and my thoughts were spinning. I wanted to get up at that moment and write down what I was thinking about right here on this very page I'm typing upon right now.

But now that it's morning, the moment is lost. I could probably bring it back by trying hard, but I feel it would be a forced anger. I had really good points to bring up, too.

Lemme give it a shot.

I was sitting in my bed, thinking about how advertisements piss me off. Especially advertisements that are not directed at me. It's funny because the ads I like are the ones in which I am the target audience, which is the whole point. By the way, we're talking about television ads at this point.

Commercials in the USA, Adverts in the U.K.

Examples of commercials I like and dislike are easy to see why. I like Old Spice commercials. They are funny to me. I haven't seen a Old Spice commercial that I don't like in a long time. On the other hand, there is a particular Kashi commercial that can go straight to hell. It depicts nice lady explaining that she works for Kashi, and it's her job to go around the world and find the best ingredients for their products. So they show her walking through what looks like a rain forest, meeting locals, grinding cacao, and licking her finger, as if to say that this is where the chocolate comes from in their granola bars. HIGHLY UNLIKELY. I'm not buying it, motherfuckers. Oh, I'm sure the Kashi company decided to send this nice, kinda hippie-ish, but not too hippie-ish, kind of mom looking woman into the forest to gather some berries and cacao, to put in her little satchel and throw over her shoulder, so she can take it back to the company headquarters, and MAKE MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF GRANOLA BARS AND CEREALS.

Fuck you, Kashi.

You know what? That wasn't forced at all.

But I like Old Spice commercials because I am the target audience. I'm supposed to like that. The target audience for the Kashi commercial is a woman, probably over the age of 21, but under the age of 55. That would be my guess. That's clearly not me. It's funny how my wife points out how I fall for advertisements all the time, which is sorta true. I do buy Old Spice products, more than I used to. She can see right through their ad campaigns, as I can see right through ad campaigns that are not targeted for me. So whatever works. Basically, I don't like commercials, I don't like ads. Whatever you call it, I don't like em'. Except for Old Spice. They do a good job.


Sunday, April 11, 2010

Moving?

I've received an interesting business offer recently. I was receiving heavy pressure from a certain 15 year old to change some things around these parts. I received a very lucrative offer to move this blog. An offer to move from Blogger to Tumblr.

Ditch Blogger? Haven't I just gotten good at maintaining this for the first time ever? Why would I change it right now? That just seems absurd. But...I don't know. And when I say lucrative, I mean she said "You should sign up for a Tumblr." Tumblr seems entertaining enough, and I know how to maintain a blog now, so you would think it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Plus, I've been pounding away at these keys on blogger and gaining "no traction" for a few months now, and I know that with a connection to a well-liked Tumblr, that could help get my message out there. That message, by the way, is utter nonsense. I need to spread utter nonsense all over the place. Utter nonsense also sounds like unpasteurized milk, don't you think?

But seriously. If I moved to Tumblr, would I enjoy it? I mean, for real, I enjoy just writing stuff down. The site on which I do it shouldn't matter, because this ain't no goddamn social networking.

On a completely different side note, I don't know if it's my word selection this morning, but I have never seen so many red squiggly lines in my life. It's a rough morning, to say the least.

So if I decide to make the jump, I will make sure you readers are the first to know. I already made two leaps to make it to Blogger, so might as well make it a triple jump? First from Livejournal, to Myspace blogs, to here. We shall see. As of right now, I'm not going anywhere. But if enough convincing is done, I just might.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Shower.blogspot?

You know where I come up with my best post ideas? In the shower. You know how many computers I have in my shower to write the brilliant blogs I come up with in there? None. I can't even take notes on what I should write about because they will get wet. Getting wet on note-taking devices is a bad idea, weather it is because it's paper, or because it is some other form of electronic device. So I come up with brilliant ideas for blog posts in the shower, then promptly forget them by the time I sit at a computer. I do everything in my power to remember what I wanted to write about, and I just completely draw a blank when I sit down to write it.

In today's news, the President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski has perished in a tragic plane crash. It's always shocking to hear a leader of a country has died in office, especially one from Europe. If a Middle Eastern President or leader, or whatever, dies, you kind of expect that sort of thing from those people. And even though this is an Eastern European country, Poland is legit, yo. I like Poland. I feel bad for their people now that their leader has died. I'm not sure what kind of leader this man was, but no matter, he was still the president.

Not to poke fun at the dead, since he was living not that long ago, but I am going to take a off-timed shot at trying to figure out the pronunciation of this man's name. His first name must be pronounced as Leach, would you agree? Now, knowing how the Pollocks like to throw a bunch of unnecessary consonants in their words, I would have to assume that the last name is pronounced Ka-zin-ski, like the Unibomber. It was kind of like when the Georgian luger died in the training run before the Olympics. His name was Nodar Kumaritashvil. And we all could tell it was hard to pronounce, and we wanted to be respectful of him in his untimely death. It wasn't until the opening ceremonies, when they were paying him tribute, and the man making the speech said it, that I realized what a name that really is.


By the way, this is totally showing off my awareness of the world around me, when I have no idea who the president of a country is. I am, apparently, an American Pig-Dog, who only cares about USA. USA #1!

So anyway, I'm sorry, Poland, to hear about you're loss. It's a sad day in Europe and around the world, that is for sure.

(no one voted on the favorite candy bar poll, and I'm very unhappy with you people. The winner is Snickers, even if it wasn't voted upon, because everyone knows that Snickers pwnz.)

Friday, April 9, 2010

The Sound of Something or Another

Sometimes, in life, there are sounds that I love. Little sounds that when you hear them, they invoke a sort of, how do you say, good feelings.

One of the sounds that sparked my thought process tonight is the sound of a woman digging in her purse. Especially a leather one. A lady walked up to the silent desk just a moment ago and put her purse down. She opened it and began rummaging around inside, looking for something. Usually when people do this, they are looking for their badge to leave the building with. Other times, they are looking for a phone or keys. I don't know what this woman was looking for, as I was too busy reading Big Dave and Company to bother to look up. No, it didn't matter what she was looking for, but the sound what was made was one to remember. It brought back so many memories, but of what, I have no answer. I liked it. It made me feel something. I just don't exactly know what.

Another sound that rules include the sound of mixing rice crispies and marshmallows to make treats. Now I want one of those. Damn it.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The Animal Inside (My Apartment)

You know what's awesome? Cats. Cats are cool, man. They're cool cats. I like cats because they're independent. Cats can be left for the weekend and not really need anything except a litter box, food and water. Cats will sleep next to you, kneed you, and meow at you. Cats will play like kittens. Cats are cute.

There are three things in the world that some consider to be very cute. Puppies, babies, and kittens. Nothing is more cute than kittens. They look kinda sad and are not afraid to use their kitten voices to meow at you. They're fuzzy, but have sharp claws, so watch out. We love kittens because they are kind of dumb, and you can mess with them and they do stuff to make you laugh. Puppies are cute, but they shit everywhere. Babies? Same problem. Kittens might shit too, but you don't care because they're so damn cute! Awwww Kitties!!!!!

I often make the same mistake as most people when a cat comes over to you, rubbing it's head on you and stuff. You think they're loving you and showing it. Everyone likes to be shown affection by something or someone. Let's face it. But if you have ever read or watched anything on cats, they'll tell you that this action by the cat is showing ownership. It's kind of sad to think because you want the cat to love you, because you love it, and it's walking over to you, rubbing all up on you, acting like it's being affectionate. But deep down you know the truth, that it's just saying "I own you, you are mine." But I like to suspend disbelief and just assume the cat is showing me how much he loves me. Plus, this is a rare occurrence for me because my cat doesn't like me as much as he likes Bethany. So when the cat comes to me, standing on my stomach while I'm trying fall asleep, and he is purring and meowing, rubbing on my hand, I would just like to assume that he is saying, "Thanks for feeding me and cleaning my box. You are nice and I like you."

He isn't. But he doesn't speak English so I'll just pretend he is saying that.

Monday, April 5, 2010

My Cursed Day

As you may have noticed if you checked you're calender, today is April 5th. For several years now, I have told people that April 5th is my cursed day. And I truly believe it to this day. There have been several instances I can recall to exemplify the shitty-ness of April 5th throughout my life time. Let me explain:

April 5th, 1996: Mark Celesky and a number of other degenerates and I were caught smoking during lunch hour in 7th grade. We would sneak out the side door of the Manual Training Building of the middle school, head across the street behind the church and smoke cigarettes. We had done this for a few weeks, and the church people had witness us doing this. They alerted the school people, and the principle watched us head over. He walked over and confronted us. I got a few days of out of school suspension and severely scolded and grounded by my mother. It was terrible...for a 13 year old.

April 5th, 1998: Another incident with my juvenile smoking adventures, my Mother found a pack of smokes in my jacket pocket when doing laundry. Again, grounded severely and had several privileges revoked. Disappointing my own mother is also crushing to a 15 year old.

April 5th, 2000: The date of my Junior prom. I had asked Dana Desrochers to be my date a few weeks earlier, and she declined. My first attempt to ask a girl I liked to do something with me, and she shot me down, and not for the last time, I might add. Though it was her constant refusal to be my girlfriend that eventually led me to start dating my current Wife, so that turned out alright I guess. I remember on the day of the prom, I had a massive scab on my chin from a zit gone awry. It encompassed the entire right side of my chin. So unattractive. So Chris, Tom, my brother and I went to the movies and saw Ready to Rumble instead of going to prom. By the way, we were winners.

April 5th, 2003: While heading home from a midnight shift, exhausted, I traversed a ridiculous snow storm without incident only to arrive at my apartment and find that my parking spot, which was the yard, had been completely plowed in by the lovely city of Negaunee. I was very tired, and didn't feel like shoveling the spot out, so I decided to just plow my way into the spot and I would figure it out when I woke up later in the day. I got about a quarter of the way into the spot and got stuck. I tried to do the rocking thing where you quickly change gears from reverse and forward, to no avail. I jumped out of the car, mad, and didn't realize I had left the car in reverse. With this car, if the car was in gear and you closed the door, all of the doors would lock, presumably a safety feature. Well now my car is stuck, with it's ass out in the road, in reverse. I had no extra key because I had just bought the car a few weeks before that. Mr. Wrecker came out about 45 minutes later, managed to roll down the window so I could put it in neutral, so they could pull me out. I was awake for a few hours more than I had planned on, and was pretty pissed. I was also amazed at how shit happens to me on April 5th. This was also the year that I was screwed on the NCAA tournament as described here.

Oh, there's more...

April 5th, 2005: While driving that same Pontiac to Marquette, from Negaunee, bringing Bethany to work, I was coming up the hill before the TV6 station when my car suddenly lost all power and acceleration. I managed to pull it into the health department parking lot, where it died completely. It wouldn't start and wouldn't do anything. I had it towed to my Dad's house where it sat for about 5 months. It had a blown fuel pump and a bad "coil tower" whatever the fuck that is. It ended up costing me $650 to fix, and the problems from then on continued for that piece of shit car. While it was parked, I drove the legendary Jeep all summer, which I hope to detail the hilarity of that thing in a future post.

All in all, the April 5th's since then have been pretty quiet if my memory serves me correctly. I do remember last year driving home from work, a midnight shift once again, and either worried about the conditions of the road being poor because of snow or ice, or worried that my car was going to die for some reason, because of a mechanical issue I was having at the time. I don't remember, but I know I was worried about it. And I'm sure there was a perceived level of bullshit that has happened on every April 5th's in between 2005 and 2009 , but I don't remember exactly. So yeah, wish me luck today, because I obviously need it.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

PLAY BALL!!!

So tomorrow, is a personal holiday for me. Well, up until this year, to tell you the truth. Monday, April 5th, is the opening of the Major League Baseball season. Yes, it's a time of optimism and hope that your team will have that magical run to the post-season, ending with a World Series Championship. It's that time of year when every team is tied for first place in the division, and everyone is (presumably, unless you're the Mets or Phillies) healthy and ready to strike people out or hit home runs. Yes, Baseball is back, and I'm trying to be excited about it.

Anyone who knows me would wonder what the hell happened to me to end that last paragraph in the way I did. "How could Brad, a through and through Baseball guy, be having a hard time getting excited about this season?" I don't know why, specifically, but I have my theories.

The number one thing that is making me inattentive to the upcoming season is I'm not working at the Casino. There, I would talk about the upcoming season with any number of coworkers to pass the time, namely Melka. Even if he was more concerned with betting on the NBA or College Basketball or the also-upcoming NFL Draft, he was knowledgeable enough about all major sports enough to be able to talk baseball. Phil O'Neill was also a good person to talk MLB with, but that was a long time ago. Mike Barry as well, but as was also the case with Phil, they only talked about the Tigers, which is fine. I like the Tigers...But not as much as my beloved Braves.

After a season like last, when the Braves were in contention for the playoffs for most of the second half of the season, you would think that I would be jumping for joy at the prospects of the upcoming season. Oh believe me, I am, to a point. But the number two reason I'm not freaking out about the onset of another wonderful MLB season is that my Nashville Predators are on the verge of entering the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I have devoted so much of my time to the Predators this season that my focus is squarely on them at this time.

I believe that after I read this latest issue of Sports Illustrated, which is a 2010 baseball preview edition, I will be much more excited about the upcoming season. And I'm sure that when the first pitch is thrown at 3:05 CST-ish on Monday afternoon at Turner Feild against the Cubs, I will be watching. I will be freaking, a little. Because no matter what, I love baseball and I love the Atlanta Braves.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Who Will Stop The Rain?

First off, it's raining out this morning. One of my favorite phrases ever usually happens when it rains in the spring, summer and even in the fall. I love it when people say "Well, we needed the rain." What are you a farmer? I personally never need rain. When it's raining, that just means I'm not going outside. I don't like to get wet, specifically getting wet from cold rain. It's so shocking to the system to step into cold rain. I'd rather not do that. But I can understand why some people feel like we need the rain. If they have a flower bed that they are trying to grow or something, It's much easier for the rain to add moisture to the flowerbed than it is for you to actually pour some on there yourself. No one wants to do that sort of thing. Also if you grow your own tomatoes or herbs or whatever, you would rather have the rain do the watering because, let's face it, it's free. If you are a farmer, good for you. Let it rain. Rain also makes grass greener, which I like to look at. It makes the trees grow some leaves in the spring, which I like to look at and also, seek shelter from the sun or ironically, rain. However, I know never to get shelter from a tree during a thunderstorm, because it can fucking kill you...or so they say.

No, I think when you weigh the pros and cons of rain, I think it sucks. Fuck rain, man. It's so cold and gloomy and wet. I can't do stuff outside comfortably in the rain. It leaves water spots on my new car, and I don't like that. My dog won't go bathroom in the rain because he's a princess, so I feel bad for him. Also, rain floods Rhode Island, and everyone loves Rhode Island, so that's another reason to hate rain.

On a side note, I had mentioned my displeasure in myself that my posts are getting shorter lately. Then I remembered my commitment to keep them a bit brief so that people might actually read them. A stack of blogs that, quite frankly, aren't that interesting is hard enough to read, let alone ones that are 9 pages long. So look forward to blogs that try to get to the point, though I really enjoy writing the lengthy ones once in a while. Thank you for reading, it truly means a lot to me.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Family Friendly Fun

An exciting day in Nashville as the family has arrived! Now, this is not my blood family, but still family, nonetheless. They took the daunting drive from the great northern Upper Peninsula of Michigan to arrive here in Nashville just a few hours ago. Only took nearly 15 hours. This is why I can't go home that often, people. That drive is insane.

So Nate and Sam (mostly Nate) are on the couch playing Little Big Planet, Lydia is using Bethany's computer while Bethany watches is all. I'm on my puter at the dining room table.

The weather has turned from nice to beautiful, the grass is turning greener, the trees are blooming, and the sun is shining.

Yes, life in Nashville is pretty good right now. I always love having visitors. This week should be a lot of fun, in that family-fun kind of way. In that this-is-where-we-live kind of way.

I'm gonna think of fun topics to write about tomorrow. Stay tuned in the next bunch of days!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

April Fools!!!

So today is April fools day. I love April fools day! People playing well-thought out jokes and pranks on each other. Google does an annual April fools day joke and today, if you go there, they renamed themselves Topeka, because Topeka renamed themselves Google once...Kinda weak this year, Google...

We went for a walk in the park today. It was so nice to see people and ducks and geese. My dog got so wore out he tried to lay down on the ground instead of going into the backseat. He was a hotdog.

So I had to do a system update for my PS3 and didn't have anything else to do and also didn't have a very much time to write today, but I wanted to put something out there.

Have a great April fools day and be aware of people tricking you.