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.