A Return to Homesickness

*** I read this over once before posting it and it's really jumpy and hard to read, so I apologize for that in advance.***

Two years ago today I wrote a post on this site about homesickness.  How odd it is that I return to that subject two years to the day?  It's like I've applied a layer of dirt to my brain.  The dirt is me covering up the life I used to have back home.  I've tried so hard to bury it underneath my new life here in Nashville.  Every once in a while I dig into the dirt and find the little spot that used to be my life back home, and I sort of forget everything I've done to cover it up.  I litterally forget where in the world I am sitting for a little while.  I have to snap back into reality and realize that I'm in Nashville, not the U.P.  All it takes is to read a news article, or a few facebook posts.  It's really bad when I go to Google street view and look at all the images from home that you can access.  I lived there for what, 26 years?  It's home.  I didn't really leave the area for more than a week, ever before I moved.  It's the weirdest feeling to snap back to reality once I try to.  I realize where I am, and it was like I was in some sort of trance.  I cover those memories back up with the mental dirt, and carry on with what's real, the present.  I dealt with crushing homesickness for a while after we first moved here, but it got better and better.  When I went home for a few days in February, that helped a lot, seeing everyone and everything again.  But every once in a while, I dig that dirt up, and realize how much I miss the comfort of home.  Even if I went back, it's not the same for me anymore.  I miss being ages 0-26 in Negaunee, not 28-death in Negaunee.  You can't ever go back to that time, but you try to, and recreate things like how it used to be.

I try to remind myself that the past is the past.  Don't dwell on the past and try to enjoy the present, because someday, I'm going to want to go back to this very moment as well.  All you can do is try to have the best time possible in the current, and hope you remember these days with fond memories.  The best ways to do that is to just cherish the moments as they come.  As I grow old, I realize that life moves pretty quickly.  If you don't stop and look around every once in a while, you might miss it.

Sorry to get all downer, but that's what's on my mind.  Back to writing about stupider shit tomorrow! 

Don't Get Bent Out Of Shape About Gas Prices

Let's talk about gas prices, shall we?  I currently need gas.  My gas light is on, or as some people refer to it as the idiot light.  First off, I'm not sure why people call it the idiot light.  Isn't that a bit harsh?  I mean, sometimes you get low on gas and the light comes on.  You're not an idiot, you are just a person who uses a car which uses gas which eventually runs out.  Anyway, gas prices tend to make people irritated because they go up, and that means more money out of your pocket.  But how much does that little fulucuation in gas prices really affect you? Sure there's a big difference between say, $1.29 a gallon against, say, $4.50 a gallon, but 30 cents?  Let's do some simple math here to figure out why you don't need to wait in line at the gas station for the cheapest price in town.

First off, most gas prices in your area will be close to the same, if not exactly the same.  Gas stations need to keep the prices close to the other places that sell gas to stay competitive.  30 cents is a pretty big flucuation in price for one area, but I did see it last week.  One station near my house had it the entire 30 cents cheaper than a station in a different part of town.  But how much does that really effect the damage to your wallet?  Let's say you have a 15 gallon tank in you vehicle.  That's about average (smaller cars may be more like 12 gallons, bigger cars more like 16.  SUV's will be 20 gallons or more.)  Filling the empty tank at, say $3.47 a gallon rate will cost you $52.05.  On the other side of town their selling gas for $3.77.  That will cost you $56.55 for a difference of $4.50.  Now, that's a pretty big difference in terms of gas price, but $4.50?  That's a gallon of organic milk.  That's a sandwich at a lunch spot.  It's nothing to get bent out of shape about, but it's also something you would like to avoid if you can. You could totally save $4.50 just by knowing where to buy your gas.  But what if the place selling gas at $3.47 is so busy you will have to wait 15 minutes just to fill up? I would imagine that somewhere nearby, has gas for a similar price.  Like I said, gas stations in proximity of each other need to keep prices competitive so I would bet somewhere nearby has gas for a similar price.  That 15 gallon tank filled up at $3.50 at the Exxon down the street will cost you $52.50.  That's a difference of FORTY FIVE CENTS.  You can't buy anything worth while for 45 cents.  I imagine that there will be no wait at the place with the $3.50 gas either.

So unless the gas prices on one side of town is 30 cents more, just get gas wherever you are, because it really isnt' that big of a difference.  15 gallons at $1.29 a gallon is $19.35, at $4.50 a gallon it's $67.50, so that's something to bitch about, my friends.  I cite these numbers because these are the cheapest and most expensive I've seen gas prices in my driving lifetime, which is just over 10 years of driving.  But if you want to go out of your way and wait in line forever just to save 45 cents, you are frugal, but you are also stupid.  Just think about it next time your getting gas.  

Doom for Google+?

I hate to be this way, but Google+ isn't gonna work out.  I like it, I'll continue to use it as long as my friends do to, but it's not going to work like they said it would.

Facebook has it down, where you are friends with everyone you've ever met.  Myspace was sort of that way too, where you had over one-hundred friends, most likely.  When I signed up for Twitter iin 2009, when it was starting to blow up, I figured that was where everyone was going to gravitate towards next.  But it never happened.  There was a select few that did, a certain circle of friends not afraid to try out the new social networking service that limited your posts to only 140 characters.  What I noticed is that after about six months, the new sign-ups of my extended circle of friends came to a sudden halt, and even some of the people that were my earliest friends just suddenly stopped tweeting.  There has been about 3 people that I know personally that have signed up for Twitter since that initial six month signup frenzy.

Then came along Google+.  It's supposed to challenge Facebook for users, but I'm sensing a trend here.  A Trending Topic, if you will.  The same 15 or 20 people that signed up for Twitter in that initial flurry are the same 15 or 20 or so people that are on Google+ with me.  I think most people are comfortable with what they know, and what they know is Facebook.  I really thought that since Google has all kinds of cool things you can do that their developers have come up with that people would like to have all their stuff wrapped up into one neat package.  What they want is their Gmail and Facebook open at the same time in different tabs.  Google+ probably won't fail miserably into a ball of fire, but it's going to be more like Twitter, where you have a select few friends that signed up for it, and no one new signing up for it for a long, long time.

But the thing is, I don't think we want to be friends with everyone we ever met again.  I hate to say it, but Google+ is doomed to fail, at least in it's goal of taking down Facebook as the king of social media.  I hope I'm wrong, in a way, I have no problem with Facebook, I just want something fresh.  Google+ is pretty cool.  But it's not going to win.  

You Don't Need To Understand.

Planking is like Apple Jacks cereal.  Apple Jacks don't taste like apples, but the kids don't care, they just like it anyway and the people that don't get it try to figure out why the people that do like it, like it.  It makes me feel equally smug and stupid to know that "planking" is nothing new, it's just new to the general public.  Some people get it, some people don't.  What's to get?  Nothing.  There is nothing to get from planking. Yet some people will try to figure it out, and when they don't get it, they will feel left out, and then say it's stupid. Yes, planking is fucking stupid.  That's sort of the point, I believe.

I first heard of "planking" (this is where I feel smug) back in 2009, before it was cool, before everyone was doing it.  Only when I heard of it, it was just called the "laying down game."  From what I understood, you lay down face down in what would appear to be an uncomfortable position, or perhaps even a very unusual place to be laying face down,  and then have someone take a picture of you doing it.  That's it.  Why?  Why not?  So when people are still doing it two years later, now it's "the stupidest thing ever," because you tried to figure out why these people, perhaps even friends of yours, are laying face down in pictures.  There is no fucking reason.  If someone gives you a reason, they're bullshitting you.

I knew that this would happen, maybe not with "planking" but in general.  This is how it works, okay?  The internet comes up with something stupid that makes a few people laugh, then it makes other people laugh because the original people that laughed at it shared the lulz with their friends.  Eventually the idea gets shared around enough that it makes it into the general population, every day life, and someone will not understand what makes it so funny to everyone.  Most people won't get it.  They just don't get stuff.  Is planking stupid?  You bet.  Is it funny?  Absolutely.  I think the people that rally against planking are just as stupid as the people doing it but the only difference is that the people doing it are doing it to make someone (even if it's themselves) laugh.  The person that hates it does so because he or she doesn't get it.    They say "but it's stupid!"  Yes, that is the point.  It's fucking stupid and weird and unusual to see someone laying inside of a jet propeller.  End of story.  End of blog post, too. 

Growin' It Out

This is what I used to look like

Now that I have officially changed my permanent shift to midnights, I will very rarely, if ever, see my supervisor anymore.  I will maybe see my account manager once a month, perhaps less than that even.  It depends on if he drops in on me to see how I'm doing.  He does that every time and again, so I have to be prepared to look busy if he drops by.  He's done it before. Well anyway, the only reason I was keeping my hair at the short length it's at was due to the job's policy on such things.  Well, if I have no boss to tell me to cut my hair, so perhaps I'll bend the policy a bit, no?  I think so.  I like me better with longer hair.  I think it covers up for some of my other serious aesthetic flaws I believe we all feel about ourselves.  Maybe it doesn't?  But it makes me more comfortable in my own skin, so it's what I choose to pursue, damn it.

Another thing I noticed about being on Midnights, I try to write interesting posts, and just fail miserably.  I can't think straight at three in the fucking morning.  It's the weirdest feeling, man.  I have even less focus than I usually do, and I didn't think that was possible.  So if some of those (these) weekend posts seem a bit jumbled, that's why.  Thanks for sticking around.  I'll try to come up with something more interesting.  

Do The Doors Suck?

Alright so I got a rise out of one of my more loyal readers the other day when I said that the Doors suck.  No, I said the Doors "fucking suck."  Well, this is a matter of taste, I suppose, but I decided to figure out exactly what it was that has made me feel this way for my entire adult life and some of my adolescent life as well.


First off, that fucking organ.  Knock that shit off, man.  So irritating.  It literally has ruined every single song I have ever tried to listen to by the Doors.  Secondly, Jim Morrison just comes across as a hack who wrote a bunch of stuff while fucked up beyond recognition on what ever was the drug de jour.  When you're in high school, you try to find something that has meaning, something that has substance in a musical world full of fake bullshit.  Kids gravitate towards stuff that was written long ago and has a lot of safe, well-documented positive popular opinion.  So you either listen to the Doors, Led Zeppelin, or the Beatles. All three acts are innovators in their own rights.  High school kids latch on to one or two or three of these bands and wear their Jim Morrison shirts to school because it makes them look cool because, well, drugs are cool.  You get beat up wearing a Justin Bieber shirt.  You probably don't get beat up wearing a Jim Morrison shit. The dude was a fuck up.  By the way, I am writing this listening to the Doors, and I must say this organ is so unbelievably goddamn distracting...

The thing that most people may be unaware of is that he didn't write many of the Doors hit songs.  Many people would be surprised to find out that many of their favorite Doors songs were written by Robbie Krieger.  In fact, Krieger wrote Light My Fire, which was their only #1 hit.  You can't give all the credit for the great song writing of the Doors without mentioning Robbie Krieger.  But that just doesn't happen.  Morrison gets the album cover, Morrison gets his face on the t-shirt.

If you were able to take inspiration from the poetry of Jim Morrison, I'm very proud of ya.  Just know that when he wrote it, he probably had no clue what he was saying, due to the quantity and quality of drugs and alcohol in his system.  I know a lot of great stuff was written by people who were fucked up on drugs, but just for the sake of argument here, this dude was exceptional in the fact that it wasn't good.  Know what I mean?


Perhaps if Jim Morrison had lived he could have dispelled the bad poet bullshit he is saddled with to this day, like say "wasn't I a tool bag back then?"  But he died, and he is forever remembered for that.  He died and is a legend, a martyr for rock and roll, and is forever put on the same pedestal as Joplin, Hendrix and Cobain for the same reasons.  The music of the Doors isn't terrible.  It's not.  But it's the goddamned organ, and if you get away from the hits, it's just boring and doesn't really do anything.  Songs like Hello, I Love You are great.  Riders of the Storm can suck my balls.  Break on Through can suck my balls.  Light My Fire would be alright if they turned down that GODDAMNED organ.  


To answer the question posed in the title of this blog post, do the Doors suck?  My answer is...not entirely.  There is a lot of stuff out there that truly does suck (soulja boy) and I would choose the Doors over those shitty artists in a heartbeat.  I respect the swagger of Jim Morrison, all the while wishing people didn't worship the ground he walked on just because he wrote things that made people feel cooler for having tried to interpret and then died before he could do anything uncool.  Maybe I'm just missing something here, but every time I've listened to the Doors, I want to stab my ears out with a number two pencil.  Sorry, that's just the way I feel.  I shouldn't have to apologize, but I'm sure you could tear apart my favorite bands a lot easier than I can do to the Doors but I don't want you to go there.  I know I am in the minority on this subject, but I know I'm not alone in feeling this way either.  But I'm leaving this topic right here at this moment.  I will accept responses but I might not reply.


Have a good day.  

Spotify is Here

Well, Spotify is here in the good ol' USofA and this is a good thing for music listeners.  I think it's good for artists too, because they get paid for me listening, or so I'm told.  My biggest thought upon signing up and getting into Spotify is how is this all that revolutionary?  I guess it's revolutionary because it's a way to listen to a shit-ton of songs for free.  You can currenly do that on Grooveshark, my former choice of music streaming on the internet.  The only problem I have with Grooveshark is that it's all disorganized and I can't stand that.  Finding complete albums is a real challenge.  Spotify has all the songs and information available right there.  There's even a "related artists" thing that helps you remember the bands you have been meaning to listen to but haven't gotten around to it.  There is a paid version as well that allows you to avoid listening to the little ads they throw in there, which are not that annoying at this point to warrent me to be tempted to pay for this service.  The only reason I would pay for this is that's the only way to get the music to stream to my iPhone.  Do I really need that at this point for $10 a month?  No, I don't.  This is another reason I questioned it's revolutionaryness, because you could already do that with Rhapsody anyway.  Rhapsody doesn't have a free, ad-supported version, as far as I know, so that's the difference.

I'll be listening to Spotify because I can listen and feel good knowing the artist is getting paid.  That's important to me.