04.28.08

        Sweet Jesus! An update! Well, for those that didn't get to make our 2nd annual performance at Fest-a-ville on the Great Lawn, you missed possibly the best trainwreck we've ever had......by a mile. Luckily, we get to try and redeem ourselves May 9th at Headliners. That's right, we're rocking Headliners again. While I don't expect it to live up to our previous show at Headliners, hopefully it'll still be a blast. And hopefully we won't trainwreck. Just incase you missed our last Wicks gig, we've released the Anna Lies official skidmark logo'd tighty whities. Can you say sexy? Giggity.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is released midnight tonight. Unfortunately I'm still on overtime and have a ton of changes that need to be made in the next day or two. So I can't call in for tomorrow and stay up playing all night. Sadness. :(

Car stuff. Jody, go fold something and come back in a minute. Sooooooo, I've had a clunking sound coming from what I thought were dying stock endlinks on my Perrin rear swaybar. I end up ordering $150 Perrin endlinks to replace them before they break. Turns out the clunking is acutally due to the mounting brackets screwing up. Talk about irritation. To top it off, there's been missing hardware on BOTH orders from them. I sent an email to them about it and the guy just offered to send me the missing hardware. WTF? What about my clunking swaybar? Nothign like driving around a new car THAT CLUNKS. Bah. I also ended up getting some camber bolts for it as well. The car finally handles somewhat nimbly. Surprisingly running the added front camber and the larger swaybar out back has not turned it into the oversteering machine I hoped it would. Looks like I'll be waiting until I get a coilover kit on it....which will be never at this moment.

On a random note, I was sitting at the light by "gay Denny's" after leaving Uncle Pleasants the other night. Had the car opened up enjoying the nice night time weather. A UPS jet flew over and I couldn't help to think how cool it would be to sit out on a nice night and watch the jets fly in. Maybe not as cool as watching all the bats fly around outside my place, but cool nonetheless. Perhaps I'll grab a stogie and change my smoking location for a night.

04.03.08

        Don't fret, I'm still here. Much has been going down. Anna Lies just played our exclusive Pheonix Hill gig where we introduced our first ever shirts and bunny slippers. The gig went great. We've also added a singer/DJ by the nick of Topher to the band. He's been adding a whole new variable to the equation. We have a gig on 4/19 back at Wicks on Dixie, so if you're in town come check us out. Also coming up this weekend is the release of the true Anna Lies website. Prepare to be dazzled. I just got in from seeing a band called Hanover. The female vocalist is only 20 but puts on an awesome show. I highly recommend checking them out.

I'm starting to get back on the exercise horse after dropping 10+ lbs of muscle. Please feel free to prod me along. Also, John opened an online Bonsai store. Go buy shit from him, now. Otherwise ninjas will kill you in your sleep.

The car is dying for warm weather so I can fix things. The WRC has been exciting this year. Subaru is having a less disappointing season and the driver's championship has been exciting as well. I may be heading up to catch the Sportscar series at Mid-Ohio. Unfortunately the family reunion is the same weekend, so masterminding this is proving interesting.

In more important news, Grand Theft Auto IV is coming out the 29th. I will be absent from the outside world for quite some time as this is about as excited over a game as I've ever been. For those that haven't been there, peruse the GTAIV site. Awesome stuff. I already have a stiffy. I also just realized (yes, I'm slow) that the Tomb Raider Anniversary is a remake of the original. So that's on my list of games to get. Luckily it's a $30 download since I already have the newest Tomb Raider. On the unfortunate side of gaming, I was playing a few rounds of CoD4 with Tiny yesterday and apparently the little kids have begun moving over from Halo. The plus side is, you can now individually mute players as well as request not to be matched in a game with them again. Panda controllers are the shiznit. That is all.

02.14.08

        happy capitalism day!

yay for snow! the scoobaru had it's first true snow test and did very well considering the tires are almost bald. of course i learned with the rx7 that mostly bald allseasons will still grip better than new sports tires. my big problem was everyone in front of me. i264 was interesting thanks to there not being any lanes. yet cars were still able to get beside each other and sit there. once clear of everyone driving 10, i was able to get up to 50 and hold it reasonably with minimal walking. the ability to drive the car with the throttle makes it an absolute blast in the snow. now if i could just get it set up to do that on tarmac. holy snow donuts too. this thing can turn like a top or arc magically huge donuts that could feed an entire police force. calling it fun is an understatement.

shirts! the other night tara and i finally started the actual screen printing. so far so good. there was a little bit of a learning curve at the beginning, but now i'm pretty comfortable with the process. so be looking for anna lies wears at the shows. t-shirts, dress shirts, bunny slippers, underwear, a cat, tube socks, and pretty much anything else i find around the apt. don't forget the very scrumplicious anna lies album as well.

speaking of t-shirts, grae t-shirts will be available shortly at a goodwill near you. the band has decided to dissolve. fear not though, as we are starting an electronic project under our old name of devilray. i've added a midi keyboard to my arsenal of not many instruments and have been creating funkalicious sounds not heard since the late 90's.

if you haven't heard of the "band" puscifer, check it out. it's maynard's (tool/a perfect circle) side project. it has some very cool tracks posted on the main website and on the myspace.

the wrc has been underway since the end of january. so far the year is shaping up to be an interesting one. rather than like past seasons where you watched the battle for second, there are many good challengers steal the title from loeb. the subarus have also faired better despite freezing development on the car in an effort to concentrate on developing the 2008 wrc model set to release around mid-season. it will be nice to see them finally come back into the fight.

in apt news, i have new neighbors. while still hands down less annoying than the previous, they are continuing to get worse as they settle in. looks like they may recharge my interest in finding a house sooner rather than later. i was starting to think the place wasn't that bad when noone was above me.

crazy work lady says, "la la la la do do do da DEEEEEE DOOO MMMM MMMM OOOOHHHH JESUS MMMM LA LA do DEEE ok line enter LA LA DO DO DO alright let's see what this is MMMMM DO DO DO DO DO".

01.14.08

        do you hear that sound? if not, it's because you haven't bought the new album by none other than anna lies. that's right, we are bringing the rock to your doorstep. those in town can pick one up from a member of the band at a show, or at earx-stacy. those out of town can order a hardcopy or download it from our myspace page. any questions, compliments, or shenanigans can be forwarded to our box.

01.03.08

        apparently there was some confusion by some parties that the christmas photo i posted was done in seriousness. i assure you, it was. also be sure to look for anna lies limited edition bunny slippers, due in stores soon.

welcome to the new year. hopefully everyone is still with me. christmas was a fun time of sleep and video games. ironically the best christmas present has been a vacuum cleaner. i never thought i'd be so excited to receive a vacuum. upon returning home, i sucked up literally two more mozzys out of the carpet. it was pretty amazing to witness how bad my other vacuum had become. i also received a stuffed alligator from my brother to adorn my desk at work and remind me of my harrowing service to my industry.

i finally had the chance to test the outback in the snow on new year's night. it surprisingly can be tossed with the throttle easier than i thought it would. it was rather fun doing some awd parking lot carving with tara trying to stay upright and hold onto the steak'n'shake bag. i couldn't help but laugh.

end of the month is going to be a fun one. anna lies will be on the verge of a cd release and playing a show on the 26th with the broken spurs, whom troy has been talking about and peaked my interest. after perusing the local bands on myspace, i'm amazed at how much cool stuff is here that i've never heard of. speaking of which, thomas medicine played a great show last night at the hill. get out and catch these guys, you lazy bastards. also starting up at the end of the january is the wrc kicking off at monte carlo. this rally season should be a good one.

dawn dishsoap was stolen my tagline of "love at first pump". i need a lawyer.

12.18.07

        christmas edition '07. ho ho ho. anna lies is wrapping up it's last gig of the year at pheonix hill this friday. our, and my, debut in the roof garden. should be a fun time. also we are finally wrapping up the debut album. troy has finished the artwork and we are going to start presales here shortly. i have to interject for the moment. wanda sykes as an apple is scary. anywho, we're going to be coming at you in '08 with shirts, stickers, cds, cards, anna lies collectible action figurines. be looking for us.

grae is also starting to pull in some gigs for next spring. hopefully we can get 2 or 3 more practices in before the gigs.

=staying with the rock theme, i went to the rock bar at 4th street for the first time this past weekend. not be my own accord, but that i ended up at 4th street due to a misunderstanding between tara and i. needless to say, i still have no desire to go to 4th street, as the rock bar is basically the same lame shallow place as the rest, just with rock music instead of booty making music. still the same fake people. still the same crap and overly expensive drinks. hell, the seating at the rock bar was blocked off as a "vip" section. it would cost roughly $250 to get into it. hahaha. what a joke. the dj's played maybe 1/4 to 1/2 a song and would constantly mute it trying to get people to sing along. this was highly annoying. ironically most of the hot girls worked in the rock bar instead of the booty bar. i'm guessing because it's newer. i'm not even interested in playing their thursday night live bands dealy.

went and saw i am legend on it's opening this past friday. i was unaware that it's based off a book that already has two movies made on it. i found it to be quite good, just a little disappointing on the ending. still worth the movie ticket.

ended up going to orlando a few weeks back for a business trip. we're adding to a fedex facility there and i was selected to go down with the project engineer as the elite crackteam. now i'm already nervous as this is the first time i've flown since bobbie and i went to new hampshire to my nanna's like 8 yrs ago. we also find out that the president of the company is going down with us. awesome. turns out the trip wasn't that bad. the flights were very smooth. the best thing was the orlando weather. oh does it make me want to move to florida. 75-80 and beautiful. beautiful girls, beautiful cars, beautiful weather. the second night when it was just rodney and i, we cut loose a little more. he kicked my ass at the minature golf place across the street, which happened to have 2' long gators you can feed too. after flirting with the girls working there a bit, we head down to a billiards place about a block away. after a few beers and losing 2 of my 3 matches, rodney decides to buy me a shot of patron tequila. afterward, the pretty bartender made a house double shot with patron for us for free. after the second shot, i decide we need to go. on the way back, i thought it would be a good idea to go back to the gator golf place and hang out. in the process of me being funny, i crack about getting in the pit and gator wrestling. of course this is stoked by one of the girls as she comments "i want to see what this kentucky boy's got". the other's eyes are about as big as a dinner plate as i jump over the railing and into the pit. now, these gators aren't that big and definitely aren't as dangerous as the snapping turtle at grandpa's, so i'm not feeling to nervous. belly full of booze helps too. looking around for a minute i realize that i can't find any of the bastards. finally i sight one in the water in front of me. as i slowly walk toward it, it ducks under the water and disappears. i guess skinny white guys scare gators, as they stayed hidden. so i went back to the truly scary part of the trip, the motel. this place is possibly the worst i've ever stayed in. the doors show signs of forced entry. the first room i get didn't even have a clean toilet. the second room hit a half assed remote. the only buttons that did anything where the volume buttons. luckily mine wasn't as bad as rodney's, which had the thinnest mattresses and smelled like a leaky basement. when we went to get our advance tickets, we were directed to a computer in the little shop in the back. a computer that cost 35 cents per minute to use and 75 cents per page to print. hahahaha. they even had a timer sitting at the computer. i was so happy to leave there. the last funny memory of the trip was rodney calling me tom tom. due to my good sense of direction and ability to memorize where i am and how i got there had him baffled.

for those of you that didn't make it through story time, stop acting like you really have anything better to do. psh. so, in leaving you until the new year, the corkran jr household wishes you a merry christmas and meow.

11.27.07

        leaving, on a jet plane. don't know when i'll be back again. oh baby, i hate to go....

11.08.07

        cool weather and pumpkins! before i launch into all those great little life details that you savor, i'm going to yap to you about one of the coolest things ever. last night i was watching mythbusters in a half sleep daze. they were testing a myth that water heaters could turn into deadly rockets. the first test was a dud. then the second blew itself 500ft into the air. it was so badass i about wet myself. so they built a "house" and launched one out of there. it leveled the house and still flew 500 ft. just so you know, you have a steam rocket in your house.

anna lies is getting back out for the "holiday tour". we're kicking it off with an interview on the fox this sunday @ 7pm. they are going to play one of our songs, into the storm, during the local music hour. the rest of the album is coming up soon. there are a few guitar tracks to lay down and some final touches on the mix. the first gig is taking place saturday, november 17th at wicks on dixie. anyone needing tickets, let me know. speaking of ticket sales, i must thank tara for selling a bunch of mine. for those who don't know tara, she's my new indian. she's almost house broken now too. i had a problem with her starting fires in the middle of the living room and trying to skin the cat. silly indians. grae is also working on new material and starting to solidify as a group. hopefully we'll be presentable soon.

rally ireland is coming up november 15-18. i'm excited, yet irritated. i was really hoping i could take my first trip to ireland during it's hosting of a wrc race. it should be an awesome rally. both of the front runners, loeb and gronholm, crashed out of rally japan. all the excitement of this duel is just transplanting itself to ireland now. anyone who doubts the irish love for rally, just search "irish rally" on youtube. tons of awesome local footage.

in other news, my job is trying to short change me, some bitch flew around the corner as i was backing out of my apt parking spot and went right down my rear bumper, mozzy had his front nails trimmed for the first time and didn't struggle much surprisingly (thank you, tara), i found out my neighbors are moving at the end of the month after i finally left a note about their waking me at 4am, and i'm finally getting back on a workout schedule, thanks to tara calling me skeletor. i had something else but it's escaped my little ADD brain. so until next time, be safe kids.

10.15.07

        yesterday evening on my way home from work, i stop off at the local market to grab some fluids for the bare fridge. i grab a trusty steed upon entering and start to feel out my machine. some slow lady is blocking my main route to the juice so i kick it into high gear through fruit/nuts section, drifting an elongated S. busting out of the end i have the pedal to the metal. the ass end of the cart hanging out with smoke billowing off the rear wheels. a kid watching the whole thing gasps in awe of my skills as i take one hand off and point at him, winking. about this time the front wheel grabs the mat in front of the produce and the whole cart jacks up on two wheels. i'd totally missed that the left front had a busted bearing, causing the wheel to shimmy and grab. i countersteer hard into it and manage to slam the cart back down before crash into the wall of produce. disaster averted. i glance over at the kid just in time to see a look of fear and a slight piss stain forming down the leg of his pants. i nod, never relenting my punishment of the accelerator. i need oj, and no little gray mat can stop my pursuit.

in band news, grae is plodding along. sort of like a waddling duck that took it in the ass from a large goose. anna lies is finalizing it's latest round of halfassed vocalist auditions. hopefully we'll be recording soon. cristyn is also onto something cool for a new song in the works. although i already forgot what i was doing and chances are we'll rerecord the demo a 3rd time to include this song when it's done. working with someone for a while, you get to know them quite well. i've come to find that troy has bad taste in vocalists. almost as bad as his taste in men. that's right, you heard me, big guy. he also looks young without his goatee. cute little baby smooth chin and all.

in the automotive world, rally corsica finished up this past weekend. results and podcasts for your audial entertainment are located at wrc.com. loeb and gronholm are still battling it out with gronholm in a slight points lead. he's also retiring after this year, so one last crown would e a nice send off. suzuki, who has supported the junior wrc and multiple 2 wheel drive classes worldwide, is stepping into the wrc with a full-fledged effort next year. their debut however was this past weekend. it will be nice to see another manufacturer stepping into the fray. the fords have been breeding like rabbits....

in work news, i'm still doing boring conveyor work. however i just interviewed at a place in new albany, right across the road from john's job. it seemed a nice place, but we'll see if they are interested in me. also rolling up on my 6 months here, meaning i can go permanent employee. but i haven't heard shit and my boss evades any prods, so i'm not holding my breath. ah the lovely waiting game.

with the weather changing, i'm thinking of that nice caribbean hut on the beach again.... heated seats have been rather nice. 0 to toasty balls in under 10 secs.

10.01.07

        written after wednesdays flamenco night at the jazzfactory
so last night i finally made it back to the jazz factory to see some flamenco live. i'd have to say it was one of the best nights i've ever been there. it was almost as if i was an observer of large closeknit family. the music was great to see live as well. not quite as passionate as the greats that you can watch video of, but passionate nonetheless. the lady that danced and sang was absolutely hypnotic. i could have watched her for hours more had it not been so late. they also had a guest flamenco guitarist in from nyc who had been their mentor. it was his heritage, but he was born and raised in chicago before moving to nyc. turned out that he actually started as a blues guitarist before taking up flamenco. i'd say it was a good switch as he could make the classical guitar sing.

09.19.07

        happy talk like a pirate day! pirates of the caribbean is rolling as no one makes me think of a pirate more than.....johnny depp. for those unawares, sam adams oktoberfest is out and i have a big box of it. :) john, this ones for you. finally i made the purchase.

09.18.07

        i came to the conclusion that i'm going to adopt a son. it's the kid in geico commercials and i'll have him talking shit to john all the time. so there has been a ton still going on. most notably, the bachelor party. bob, jody, i, and the man of the night, john, managed to go out and prove that, we're antisocial. after a great tai meal, we hit godfathers to warm the night up. i made the mistake of going in last, meaning the sheep were led to a stage table and thus we were harassed by every stripper on stage. luckily we were able to run them all off about as fast as they rushed over to play with jody's mohawk. the b stringers were all out while we were there with the exception of the plastic girl, and damn she was nice. so we ducked out after the 80th round of the drink girls asking us if we needed anything...which means within 20mins. so we went over to trixies. now i'm not a huge fan of trixies besides the really hot girl working there when we had rob's bachelor party. there are no drinks. the age of the guys in there is young and even more stupid than your average normal strip club goer. but they have the dungeon. having been there for the intiation of lil pat and rob, i figured this would make for a good laugh. and i had worn my good belt. upon asking who was good for the dungeon, i was referred to kirsten dunst' younger and thinner sister, who happened to also be a demon incarnate. the pic links above should prove that. after she beat john's ass, john thought it would be fun to pay for me to go up there. despite it not being my bachelor party, i went ahead and did it just so i didn't have to listen to whining. after she laughed at john's belt, i went ahead and gave my belt back up. previously i had the idea that yes, it stung, but it was basically getting a tender red ass for an hour. little did i know that rainbow colored bruising verging on welts would follow, and she went easy on me compared to john. john finally threw down a dollar to get her to stop since he felt the pain himself. after that we said fuck anything else and drove home with our wounded asses. the rest of the night was spent in typical loner style, playing call of duty 2 on the 360. ah, we are the party animals.

troy, this sentence is just for you and your sexy ass.

well, mozzy just about became chicken fluffy last week. my fat feline life partner took his one and only ride in the scooby. he kept whining at the door and loves car rides so i decided to take him to get food one night. last week i climbed in the back to condition the leather and was greated by nice claw marks in my leather. it was very difficult not to go buy a wok and create my first asian cuisine. fat ass is lucky i like him. needless to say, lesson learned, the hard way.

anna lies is still out and about, attacking the hill again this friday. however we're going to be winding down next month to start rerecording the freshman album and auditioning singers. chances of us getting a singer, -34.72%. grae is still breaking in our new drummer as well as make a practice. seems life issues are still getting in the way. hopefully this will come down next month as well.

gokarts! the newest fun, and newest laugh, was this past weekend's trip. i had planned a trip to indianapolis saturday for john and my cubemate at work, jeremy, to go to the gofart track that chris had taken us to back when i crewed for him up there. now jeremy and his girl are attached at the hip. i gave john the option of bringing shannon as it was going to be weird with angie there. shannon agrees and says she'll race as well. other plans of going to the zoo were made for angie. well, and for me to pet the dog sharks. so after john arrives half an hour late, we all pile into the scooby and began the trek. we make it about 1/3 of the way there and we have to pull into the rest stop. amazed, i stand there with shannon and angie as john and jeremy run to the restroom. everyone piles back in and off we go. finally we arrive at the gokart place and everyone starts getting excited. we get upstairs and open the door to see a sign saying "private party". you have to be shitting me. a private party on saturday?!?!?! the guy tells me to come back at 7pm. of course this has been an ongoing razzing for me. it just wasn't what i expected. long story short, we went to the zoo and putzed around. then played minature golf. and finally, made it to the karting. shannon bails due to being tired and starting her crimson tide or some female bs. so it's john, jeremy, and i. after watching the melee of the foreign idiots before us, everyone is starting to get some nerves. we don the helmets, climb in, and start off on what will be 8 minutes of brutal bliss. the track was SUPER sticky compared to my previous time. the upper deck offered so much lateral force that i was having trouble keeping upright in the seat enough to keep the pedal floored. also the lower section had a huge rough spot at the base of the downhill. all in all, i bruised my inner thigh on the steering column and my middle back on the seat. i'm dying to go back though. of everyone that day so far, i managed to have the second fastest time. not too shabby. i know with another session, i could have taken the first spot. they are doing a 3 hour enduro here soon that costs 300 to enter. had i 300 to throw around, i'd jump in. it would be hell since 8 minutes beat me up, but damn i'd love it. so now i'm stuck on kart racing. perhaps this is my entry level fun. only time will tell....

09.02.07

        here it is already september. time flies and i'll be damned if i'm where i'm supposed to be. so much going right and yet so much still fucked up. so here i am post gig watching jarhead. talk about bringing up old bad memories. so anna lies once again kicks ass. the phoenix hill show wasn't as clean for me as it should have been, but it still was a good show. fair to midland lived up to their reputation on and off stage. they were super nice guys and put on one hell of a show. jeff loved it and if jeff loves it, then it must be awesome. another funny, minus if you could see my typing at the moment, is that i waxed the car this morning but didn't have enough time to buff it. so the band was joking that i could wax on, but not wax off. this is partially correct since now that i've waxed off, the hood and roof aren't budging a whole lot. although i must say the wax should be protecting like a mofo. another thing. now i never considered myself racist. i don't care about your fucking skin color. however i do have a problem with the way you are raised and the morals/lifestyle you adopt. now i had to deal with all the black people working off of west broadway. i chalked it up to the area and living conditions. then the places around my new job. they move in, service and food goes south. now i have some black girl at steak'n'shake giving me attitude. bitch, i'm tired, i just played two shows AND ALL I WANT IS A BURGER AND NO FUCKING ATTITUDE. but hey, i'm ok. anyway, those that missed the show tonight really missed out.

08.27.07

        anna lies lands another great gig (thank you, troy). we are opening for fair to midland, a national act signed by serj from system of a down to his label. i really like these guy's sound. i'll make sure and drop a link at the bottom of the post. also opening is a band called thomas medicine. i like their myspace sound but with the crappy sound guy at wicks this past weekend, i didn't get a good feel for their live performance. show is saturday at pheonix hill for those not on my spam email list for shows. let me know if you want on the list. Fair to Midland.

grae also has a new drummer. YAY! no idea on how long before you'll see us out again, however. keep your eyes on the page for more info to come.

08.18.07

        varsity blues. probably the best movie mtv could have happened to have an association with. the art of making football look cool to non-football peoples.

so, anna lies played headliners. anna lies played a goddamn awesome show to a lot of people. if you missed it, you probably suck. living out of town NOT excluded. ton o fun. i want to thank tiny, jody and jeremy, and john and shannon for coming out. especially shannon for dragging out there with inner ear infections to listen to the melee. we came, we rocked, we kicked ass. be looking for our cd soon.

08.07.07

        so i just got back from lexi with the outback. speaking i waited for hours to get the damn thing, it was too dark to see if everything is to my liking. but i got a free meal. sidenote: there are also too many red miatas on the road. after wandering around lexi and drumming up some old memories, a thought crossed my mind. lexi seems like a nice place to raise a family. yeah, i know. i'm out of all booze and too lazy to go get more. obviously i'm chemically imbalanced for the moment...maybe chemically balanced is more like it. anywho, for more band shiznit, anna lies is playing headliners on the 17th. you can get tickets from us for 5 bucks....if troy ever gets them. otherwise, we'll smuggle you in as band members. just bring a kazoo. video of the day.

08.03.07

        another update?!?!?1 fuck yes! i just wanted to say that if you haven't seen the new bourne, DO IT. it's badass. i still have a chubby. also hot fuzz is pretty funny. not quite as good as shaun of the dead, but still funny. unfortunately i have to report that grand theft auto IV has been pushed back from it's october date until 2008. looks like i'll have to make due until then.

08.02.07

        almost time to get into rock mode....

so i took my car in the other day to get some "issues" fixed and have been stuck driving a newer altima. it isn't near as nice but one thing made me laugh. first thing i thought as i started to drive was "this feels sporty". i'm pretty sure this shows how loose the outback's suspension is. i'm thinking an altima feels sporty. i've also been talking with the owner of the place i bought the car and might be working out something cool. chances are, it'll be nothing. but it's kept me intrigued. the hotrods have also laid anchor over by my job. it's been fun looking at all of them buzzing around in the area. speaking of the area, i had an unusual thing happen at subway by work. lately i've been getting the meal deal but replacing my drink with a couple of cookies since i keep gatorade in my desk. however the girl informs my the other day that i can't do that. well hunny bunches, i've been doing it for years. "i don't know who let you do that, but you aren't supposed to." sure, i'll just take my sandwich. she's nice, just not very bright and wears WAY too much makeup. so fuck it, i went to kroger and bought my own chips and cookies. TAKE THAT YOU SUBWAY FASCISTS! anywho, shark week has been on so if you've missed it, sucks to be you. watching a great white breach the water and fly like john's silly birds is quite awe inspiring.

that wraps up this installment. jody, be safe on your trip this weekend and i hope to see the rest of you at one of the gigs. i have quite a few vids for you today. thisis what my coworker and i are thinking about getting into (complete with the initial d soundtrack, takumi!). i dug up this video since i've liked the album since college. and last i give you the bombay dub orchestra.

07.29.07

        the late night/early morning loner update. due to my recording session getting postponed saturday evening, i decided to kick some ass on call of duty and then go to the jazzfactory for a funk/jazz group that tiny was talking about. before this happened however, i got it in my head to sink up the laptop and xbox 360. after 2 hours of frustration, i finally achieved the fruit of my loins, i mean labor. i can stream music from my laptop, look at pictures, and stream video. what's really cool is that i can be listening to a playlist i've made while a game is going. i can play, stop, and skip through it during the game play. badass. anyhow, so i go to jazzfactory for some nice wine and some great music. tiny misses out because he's playing redneck land with f250's and railroad tracks. heh. i get there about 10-15 min into the set. the place is packed and i'm in the 10% of white people there. i also grab the last open seat at the bar. now tiny said these guys looked interesting but i didn't expect them to be as fun as they were. it was sort of a los hombres calientes group but without the bayou, louisiana influence. they put on a great show. the end was fun as they actually came out and strolled through the crowd went crazy. i still have no idea what the group name was, but those with the intelligence to check the jazzfactory's schedule can figure out out. consensus is that i need to go there more often than 3 times a year.

07.28.07

        exciting stuff happening! anna lies is picking up more gigs. august is going to be a busy month. bourne ultimatum comes out on the 3rd and i am pumped as i loved the first two. i'm thinking about seeing the midnight show and just be dead on friday. saturday we're playing out at a new venue for not only the band, but myself as well. sunday is the penis thrill show. also going on next weekend is the beginning of the wrc season's second half in finland. they've had record entries this year and the fight at the top is close enough to keep it very interesting. rally radio on the wrc site should be up again so that you can listen to the action live across the web.

now for my story on purchasing "my first xbox360".....

it all began on a bright sunny day with birds chirping and me almost wearing my best buy outfit walking into best buy. so i start looking at tv's. after a while, i decide on a 37" phillips for $1099. it didn't have the pc hookup, but i could overcome that. the guy tells me it's 18 months at 0% interest on purchases over $1000. perfect. so i go and apply for the card and then wait around for about 15min. finally the lady gets back to me and informs me that i've been approved for $750. well, that's awesome lady, but it doesn't help me. so i left with no tv and now a credit card i have to cancel. and this is just the beginning.

so i head to ebgames to return the controller and call of duty 2. i asked the guy if ebgames did the money back in 30 days thing if microsoft dropped their price. he informed me that they did, but that he had not heard of a price drop and microsoft usually tells them. ok, mr know-it-all. so i putzed around for a while and then decided to take the plunge. bought the xbox360 pro and call of duty 2. i also added ebgames $50 warranty on it, as i can walk into the store and switch it out rather than wait on microsoft which is supposedly at 3-6 months on turn around at the moment. i happily skip home.

in the process of plugging it up, i notice that i have two options on video, component and rca. motherfucker. my tv is rca or svideo. goddamn best buy accountants. so i plug it all up and then turn it on. dolby digital comes on the receiver and the welcoming screen comes on the tv. then BAM, the lower right light on the ring of death comes on red and the screen flashes to "hardware problem, contact microsoft support". so i packed it all back up and took off for ebgames. i'm pretty sure the guy shit himself when i walked in the door. so i get it swapped out and he gives me one "fresh off the truck". go back home and plug it up, voila, it works.

so then i get into setup. it won't accept my xbox live info. so i go to the website and put in all my info when it dawns on me that i signed up with my old phone #. so i get through all that, go back to the 360 and it STILL won't let me on. finally i say fuck it and create an offline profile.

so i pop in call of duty. it says reading disk for 5 minutes. take it out and pop in mirrormask. it launches no problems. so i look at the call of duty cisk and it looks like someone acid jismed on it. i tried wiping it down and then it just errored instead of trying to read it for 5 min. after watching mirrormask, i finally get my xbos live account to work. YAY! success at something. so then i try my old games. i only play 3 games, colin mcrae 05, toca race driver 3, and grand theft auto san andreas. out of these, gta san andreas is the only one that works.

so now i have a system that only plays one game and has a worse picture. i must say i'm questioning my logic and ebgames. however, i downloaded and played a few demos, including the new tomb raider which was THE game that made me want a ps1 and the game we played all christmas break my freshman year of college. ah the memories of shaun, bobbie, mike, and i all huddled around the tv playing tomb raider. the new one is fucking awesome. so should i get that game, i may forgive microsoft and disappear from humanity once again.

update since i wrote this (and slacked on posting it). picked up call of duty 2 again, as john and i are having too much fun playing it. turns out tiny is a sharp shooter, but he can't drive a tank. i don't think he fits in them anyway. and now for your music picks of the day.

07.25.07

        exciting stuff is happening in the hood. first off, welcome back tiny. i'm glad you came home before the germans thought worse of us 'mericans. this weekend was fun. big rock show on friday, recording for anna lies on saturday, and john's first autocross on sunday. oh how i had talked about how i never really saw anyone really do anything bad at a louisville autocross..... so we start off the day perfect. i get there about 20 minutes before registration closes like normal, give the runthrough to john, and we start pulling shit out of the cars and putting the number/class on the side. for all the times i've autocrossed, tech closed at 10:30. well that changed and i was unawares. so john and i roll over to tech to find no tech going on. now being it this is john's novice event, i figured he needed to make the novice walk. so i sent him on his toddler walk while i run around harassing poor jamie about getting our cars tech'd. luckily one of the guys jumped over to do it for us and sent me on my merry way. finally i get to walk the course. after the first turn i came to an intersection and stood there for 5 minutes wondering what in the hell i was supposed to do. my first thought upon finishing my walk was "wow, what a course to through a novice into". this proved to ring true in the first heat. the corner i was working baffled few drivers. a couple just stopped, confused where to go. however, a few decided t go whatever way the deduced was the way in their split second chance to make a decision. fortunately it wasn't towards us, unfortunately it was back towards cars in the beginning of the course. so i spent my time running after these stray cars with my little red flag playing traffic director. john's time comes to get out and start burning some rubber but i'm technically not allowed to ride along with him since i've yet to run the course. in comes jim moore who is one of the fastest and most experience guys out there. so john ends up getting two runs worth of instruction from him and goes on to improve his time immensely, breaking into the 59's which he had deemed impossible. pumped that john had done well for his time out, i climb into the grocery getter for my war with the sts class. to my surprise, i'm listed as 3rd place within two runs. how, i'm not sure. third run starts the bs of my last time out. second run is my quickest and it starts downhill.

and here's were it gets ineresting. i'm talking to tiny about areas where i can maybe drop some time when tiny goes "oh shit" and then the announcer goes "oh my god". i turn around in time to see the trees shaking on the side of the parking lot and everyone running towards them. turns out a honda s2000 tried to save it before taking out a timing light and instead jumped the curb towards the railroad tracks. after surveying the site on lunch today, it appears the car hit almost five feet up the fence and split/laid over a tree about a foot in diameter. the driver was luckily unhurt minus his pride and wallet but the car was definitely in need of some front end/suspension work. now the funny part is that they chase most of us off, which i agreed we didn't need to all be there but they handled it poorly. so noting that it's going to take a while for them to pull it out, tiny and i hang out under our tent. watching them try to figure out what to do was getting pretty funny when tiny pipes up and says "there should be some benny hill music playing right now." i about shit myself laughing. the scene completely called for it. after a while of dicking around, they called a wrecker and the event. long story short, i ended up 2nd to last, john was only a second of winning the novice trophy, and we were hungry. so we rolled out and wrapped up the evening with old chicago and then some billiards at oliver's. not too bad for the weekend.

band stuffs, the section for my band members to read about themselves. hahaha. bastards. so grae had a drummer interested and disappeared. other than that it's been eating, recording john, and playing xbox 360. jody has also been mapping out drummers performances on some songs. there are some interesting notes to be taken on differences in style and mainly, who kept the steadiest beat. speaking of drummers, troy has now finished all the drum tracks and percussion tracks on existing anna lies material. cristyn will be adding in her guitar parts shortly and i'm pretty sure they are hiring an orangutan to fill in for me in the studio. be looking for some higher quality recordings on our myspace site as well as us performing at pheonix hill on august the 5th. details on the show are located on the myspace site. if you can't find them, hit me up and i'll help you out. also look for us in some radio spots. a local underground music group is putting together a cure for cancer type benefit cd. we are going to be the band on the radio spots and beginning of the cd tracklist.

mozzy wanted to say something as well, so i'm going to turn this section over to him. meow. meow meow meow. meow meow. meow meow. meow meow meow meow. meow meow meow meow. meow meow meow. meow meow. meow meow. meow meow meow meow. meow meow meow meow. meow meow meow. meow meow. meow meow. meow meow meow meow. meow meow meow meow. meow meow meow. meow meow. meow meow. meow meow meow meow. meow meow meow meow. and more to come......

07.15.07

        amazing how hanging out on the patio with the pussy, smoking a stogie and drinking a beer can help bring one down to earth. so being the manly man i am, i had to call to make sure they weren't putting hobbles down. turns out he's already found a good home. yay! in other news, my growing of the hair (due to laziness more than any thought that it would work) has come to an end. shit is getting hacked off. i'm still also waiting on something my ADD and beer just forgot thank to the pussy interrupting me. damn. anywho, be looking on the future to possibly hear about other things in the works like project s and jeremy scoring a different, more fun ride. btw, transformers rules and i dont feel like doing the writeup. go see it in theaters. now for a little cultural taste. many don't even bother to follow the links but i hope those that do enjoy the cultural diversity and passion of the music. now for your trip to spain

07.15.07

        i missed posting up on 070707. my chi will forever be marred. nothing spectacular to share. grae is still drummer hunting and anna lies is still vocalist/viola hunting. i figured i'd post up as i'm bored and it's a saturday night. i'm so annoyed at not having anyone now that i can't see straight. seems all the market offers is someone toting baggage or shaping three of me. we won't even go into the mentally unstable. sort of makes me wonder if i didn't stupidly let something go that i shouldn't have. blame it on being immature or just plain retarded (see preceeding post on the retarded bit). definitely frustrating nonetheless. for instance: lexington, works with horses, has roughly the same type personality as me but more laid back, nice body with bumps in the right places and smaller stature. seems like a really good thing minus the distance, but not the first time i looked to lexi (jenn). turns out she has a psycho ex in the military and has just short of a restraining order on him. #$@%! i just want to beat myself in the head. are there any girls out there that have a nice body and accompanying brain to go with it? good with kids? are mentally and financially stable? why is my cat obviously cooler than me? i think i need some acid to find these answers.

07.03.07

        i have a ton of fun stuff to share, so go ahead and get a beer and a snack before sitting down to read through the last weekish.....

we'll start off with the swaybar install. previously i'd purchased a rear swaybar to remedy the terrible understeer in my outback. i also went ahead and bought oil and a filter to do an oil change early, as i was about to put 500+ miles on the car driving to illinois for my aunt linda's funeral. the goal was to do the swaybar install friday after work, see mungus at the pink door that night, oil change on saturday, then play the gig saturday night. scratch the gig, as our promotors lost the venue and all the gigs there. but that's a whole other can of worms. further more, little did i know (or did i) idiocy would rear its ugly head and smash this plan all to hell anyway. thursday i go to pick up the bar from fedex, as there was no ups option. now anyone doing ups pickup knows that ups is in my backyard. fedex is not. in fact i might as well have driven to colorado and picked the damn thing up. i had to drive all the way to utica pretty much. i slide into fedex' parking lot at 9:03 and hope they aren't sticklers on time. lucky for me, they aren't. fast forward to friday. i'm giddy as a school girl finding her first battery operated flashlight. get all my tools together and head out to the car. the lugs on the outback are 19mm so i go to grab my 19mm for my breaker bar and can't find it. no biggie, i'll use the tire iron in the car. after getting the car on the jacks and the wheels off, i start removing the oem swaybar. this proves fairly easy, with only the endlinks needing a little pb blaster to loosen some rust. now subaru brilliantly designed the swaybar mounts by basically dropping a piece of sheetmetal off the rear subframe and adding two little gussets. this setup wouldn't last against a toddler and a playschool hammer. the swaybar i purchased actually came with a kit to strengthen this area. the process requires the removal of the two rear subframe bolts....which happen to be 19mm. son of a bitch. i try the ratchet and no dice. after trying the ratchet and using the crescent wrench as a handle extender, i decided i better get the proper 1/2" drive socket before i have ratchet guts on everything. so i start calling people i think could either have the socket, or could pick one up for me. out of 5 people, troy is the only one to answer his phone and he is down with the sickness. barring anymore possible hammering and cussing, i throw the wheels back on and head down to home depot. fate had conspired against me, as the road crew was starting to funnel the traffic to one lane each way while passing under the train bridge. this means it took me an extra 5-10 minutes to drive down taylorsville road. finally after more cussing, i make home depot. now at lowes, you can purchase individual sockets. my assumption was that home depot would be the same. assumptions are bad. so i was going to have to purchase a $20 socket set because i needed a 19mm. &^#@! i grab the set and head to the uscan line thinking "let's get the damn thing done". well it turns out that it's difficult to make purchases with your wallet in the pair of pants that you aren't wearing. most people would quit at this point, as the cards were obviously not in my favor. but no, i moronically march on. after another roundtrip through construction hell, i finally get back to where i was previously....except now the subframe bolts come off with no fuss or mess. jeremy is now happy. after getting the first bracket on, i check the instructions to see how to attach the lower hardware. the lower hardware that wasn't put into my kit. jeremy is now unhappy. what are we on? strike 4? so i grab my bag'o'bolts that consists of leftovers from the camry and rx7s. unfortunately i have bolt lengths of 1/2" or 4". i need 1". (these numbers are made up for the story) so i proceed to use what i have to and now have 3 times the screw length needed for no reason at all. brackets secured and a potential stall in the project averted, i move on to getting the bar mounted. now this should be the easiest part. i've already surpassed the time it took to put the motor, radiator, and oil cooler in the rx7. carefully threading the bar through the exhuast, i start to move it in position to get the mounting brackets on. damn thing doesn't seem to want to fit. at this point, i'm so tired and irritated that i'm straining a gut to make it fit. i just can't seem to get the ends where they need to be as the middle keeps hitting the spare tire depression. maybe they never tested if this bar actually fit the outbacks.... while lying under there, the black guy that does weird things like sit in his car at night for hours with the car running and the headlights on decides to come outside to have a conversation on the phone. which i can hear everything that is said of course. so however's on the other line wants him to go somewhere, to which he responds. dawg dawg dawg dawg dawg dawg dawg dawg i can't afford a fouty dolla cab ride, dawg. YOU FUCKIN KILL ME, MAN! I HOPE YOU DIE! and then after about 2-3 minutes of silence, turns around and apologizes to.....the entire apt complex? i'm still not sure. about 10 minutes pass and he comes outside and sits on his steps and just starts bawling. i mean full fledge 5 yr old bawling. pretty much in the same attention getting way. now i'm pretty sure this guy is in his mid twenties at least. so for another 10 minutes or more, it was really awkward. after this, the guy across from him comes out on his deck with some girl. by now it's been dark for a couple of hours and i'm lying out under the car with the maglight. mostly just lying there trying to figure this problem out but occasionally straining to get the bar in. so i get to listen to this guy tell stories to the chick for well over an hour. boring, horrible stories. then i could have sworn he made a comment on me being under the car for so long. if i had known for sure that he had said it, i would have told him i just enjoyed his shitty stories so much. i felt as if he should have owed me a beer for making that hour that much worse. so i wrestled the bar back out and said fuck it. it was after midnight and this had already taken way too long. sorry mungus, i'll have to catch you another time.

saturday morning rolls around and i decide to post up on the outback forum to see if someone can give me some ideas. upon looking at the photos i had taken of the stock bar, i notice one important detail. it is arranged the opposite way. this is one of those moments where you wonder how you've made it to where you are. you want to walk outside and see if the shortbus is sitting there waiting for you. i had decided in my head that the adjustment holes on the swaybar needed to be horizontal to the ground. that's just the way it had to be. i never even questioned it. or considered that maybe they wouldn't be due to susension droop since it was unloaded. or perhaps that the trigonometry didn't care about gravity like i did. hanging my head in disbelief, i went back down there and had it on within 15 minutes. of course by this time it was missing a good bit of its powdercoat. althought there was plenty of red on the exhaust and underbody of the car now. oh well, it's on and works. unfortunately it bumps me out of the stock class in autox. however the car would have been no fun otherwise. in order to get it to handle well enough stock, i'd have to set the toe out in the rear pretty drastically. having used this trick on the camry, i know it can work well, but cause some very scary moments if you have to dive on the brakes. i'd rather keep this scooby shiny side up longer than 3 months. not to mention it will start eating rear tires. not that the stock tires would be a loss....i just don't have money to replace them at the moment. pleased that i had finally installed the swaybar, i move on to the oil change. the sky was already clouding up heavily and i figured rain was on its way, but figured i could get the oil change finished in time. once again, jeremy is wrong. after draining the oil i begin my battle with the filter. before i hadn't a problem. however i must have gorilla'd the filter on the last change as i couldn't get this one to budge. of course about 5 minutes into wrestling it, the rain starts dropping on my head. now i've been pretty hardcore on working on cars before. where chris needs a garage, carpet, and unused creeper, i lie in water pooled gravel of an april shower battling fuel line. this would not be the day though. i wasn't under the gun and most of the showers were lasting 10 min tops. after a couple hours of colin mcrae rally, the blacktop seemed to be drying. i grab everything and head back out. of course the water had pooled the most where? that's right. in my parking spot. oh well, little water never killed anyone. anyone working on a subaru will know that you have to reach between the headers for the filter. getting any sort of removal tool in is difficult at best. even the screwdriver stab is pretty much impossible. luckily, the trusty belt didn't fail me again. once i had the loop on the filter, i just tossed the overtop the header and voila. note to anyone trying this, make sure and use this to the minimum. otherwise the oil will run down onto your belt and it'll be permanently used for removing oil filters. no, this hasn't happened to me because i'm a master. and i have a blackbelt. with the oil change under my belt (cue drums), i called up troy and we decided that it would be better to do the band/cookout on sunday. saturday night gets devoted to chris, dougie, and some ufc smackdown. of course chris let's me play forza motorsport 2. not having been a fan of the first, i was quick....too quick to judge the second. for my first vehicle to use on the game, i choose the hochi roku. for the non-japanese/non-initial d lovers, this means 86 standing for the chassis designation of the toyota trueno (corolla in the states) of AE86. this car had a little over 100 hp and i figured it was a safe starter car. it's known for it's driftability. turns out this was not the car to start with. the oversteer was horrific and every time i'd overcorrect and put the car into a tank slapper (ass end wagging back and forth). frsutrated, i was ready to call it quits. chris talked me into upgrading the car so we bought a suspension, etc for it. after some chassis tuning, i went out and whipped some ass. i'm still sure that a stock 86 wouldn't handle anything like that, but the game was fun. so now i want a 360, forza2 and chris huge fucking tv. yes, i have screen envy and there is no cream. also as per normal, i don't leave until 4am.

now we fast forward to tues. i'm leaving early for illinois and leaving fatass in the care of jody, who i must commend in taking care of the cat and not breaking anything or clogging my toilet. we won't name names. i65 is pretty uneventful other than getting stuck behind a cop for 1/4 of it. however upon hitting i74, thunderstorms start rolling in. when i mean thunderstorms, i mean visibility of 200-400ft tops. i basically sat in the passing lane to avoid the cars pulling off and kept the vehicle in front of me to where i could just barely make out their taillights. between the downpour and construction, i74 became a burden. despite all the fun, once off the interstate became the more interesting part of the road trip. yahoo's directions turned out to be a little vague. i end up follow east il9 knowing damn well i need to go west, but that's what the directions say. after driving through pekin, home of the world's largest sundial, i decide i better turn around. so i drive il9 west. illinois sucks at marking their highways. they have these tiny little signs and i learned the highway number is marked on the top. however, il9 and il24 where together for a while and then split. the signs only read il24. now my guess is that the larger highway is placed on the sign. my thought at the time is that il9 turned off somewhere and i missed it. so i turn around.....again, and head back to the main intersection. i've probably logged 30-40 miles out of my way at this point. finally i stop at a gas station and make the mistake of asking the guy at the counter. in a ice thick foreign accent he says "i'm sorry, what is it you are asking?" luckily an older guy standing in line jumps in to sort me out. turns out i was going the right way, illinois just can't mark their roads very well. as soon as i pull in, shaun greets me with a croquet mallet. little history lesson. years ago, we started trying to play croquet. not really knowing what we were doing and becoming bored with standard croquet, we started extreme croquet. this consisted of many hoops being 30ft+ away from each other, under trees, through the vineyard, through wire cages, over tree roots. you name it and we've done it with croquet. of course thanks to my touring of illinois numerous corn and bean fields, we don't have the time. after getting ready we head to the viewing. shaun had warned me that linda didn't look like herself and that, in complete truth, she looked like a wax figure. there was a very nice setup displaying old pictures and things of hers and honestly, that should have been it. i know linda wouldn't have wanted herself displayed. i guess it was a good thing for my grandmother and my grandfather, who has parkinson's desease, to understand that she was gone. however being the oddd family we are, i kept hearing her voice in my head. the truth laiden, offbeat humor that linda always had. this of course, made everything much easier. my father, shaun, and i basically stood there and talked to whomever wandered over. the three top wallflowers. that and watch my grandfather. he'd take off and you'd have to go catch him. they were having another visitation in the other room and he'd go stay over there for a bit talking to people. that night i ended up meeting "hobbles". hobbles is a poor little starving kitty that was dumped around the farm. it wouldn't walk on it's right front leg, but would use it to catch bugs that seemed to be it's diet. hobbles hung out with us for a while and settled on my lap as noone else wanted to deal with the razor sharp claws of an outdoor cat. the next day we had the funeral. now shaun and i were a little nervous as we had never been pallbearers before. visions of us accidently losing aunt linda came to mind. of course none of that even came close to happening. infact the coffin wasn't near as heavy as i thought it would be. all in all, it went rather smoothly and everyone stayed together very well. afterward we had a family lunch since everyone was down. old pictures were brought out and everyone was enjoying themselves. my mom had shaun bring the shirt that she made him. this shirt is absolutely hilarious. it's an old pick of shaun when he was little. the shot is taken from the base of the stairs as he's climbing them, buck naked with a blanket in one hand. of course my mom had to show all the family much to shaun's chagrin. that afternoon we finally pulled out the extreme croquet and the battle was launched. i came out the victor, but not easily. our courses where tough. all in all, we lost 3 mallets to the carnage. as our post games wind down, we piled into the truck with my mom and went down the pasture to check out things. i borrowed some of the rubber boots so i could merrily splash through the "crick". my mother is becoming increasingly paranoid of everyone else's driving despite that she's the one constantly getting in wrecks or dragging mirrors down the side of her car. so of course she panicks as i roll up on the edge of the creek. shaun and i bail for the creek as i go stomping in only to feel a cold sensation in my left boot. yep, there's a huge split across the heel. damn. so we go back up to the top and stare down the good 20ft into the creek at everything. shaun spots a large turtle right under us. i, of course, decide that the croc hunter had nothing on me and i'd go wrangle me a turtle. what's the worst that could happen? i mean, my foot's already soaked. so i trot back down and work over behind it. about this time, i notice it was some long claws. fuck it, i'm still bagging this thing. so i saddle up behind it and slowly drop one hand to its shell. quickly i grab the other side and haul it out of the water. i'd say the shell is a good 14-20" wide. and his head tilts back, beak exposed and mouth open. yep, it's a snapper. a very healthy snapper. now what am i going to do.... so while i'm looking at him, i notice his head slowly pull back. well aware that he's getting ready to try to strike, i grab a little tighter. BAM! he throws his head out hard and sooner than i thought, scaring both mom and shaun. they jump and yell which helps startle me more so i toss the turtle and go bounding out of the creek. this seriously should have been on video. we laughed so hard that i about wet myself. more. now ealrier i had made the mistake of giving hobbles some ham. now he thinks he's part of the family. the next door neighbor who helps my grandparents is all country and has no problem with killing anything not human. so i figure that the next day, i'll have to take hobbles to the humane society before he finds the business end of a shotgun. so we hang out on the porch for a while and then hit the sack. in the morning everyone leaves but me as i still have to call the humane society. of course they don't open until 10am....central time. after getting it all squared away, i stuick hobbles in the car and take off. not even to the bottom of the hill and hobbles decides to hide under my pedals. so i ebrake the car to a stop and toss teh cat back in the passenger seat. not too long after starting off, he heads to the backseat and disappears. after i had stopped in the lot, i started looking for him and no kitty. as i lean back further i see this head pop out from under the driver's seat. a little squirming later and out pops a cat. it was like watching my seat give birth. so i chuckled a bit and went in to find the place. go figure, they moved. back down the road we go and finally to hobbles new home. unfortunately i forgot to make sure that they don't euthanise, so i have to call them back and make sure hobbles is going to kitty heaven prematurely. he was an extremely lovable kitty so i'm sure he'll get a home. he should thank his lucky stars he didn't drive back with me. the storms that precursored the trip was a foreshadowing for the trip home. both 74 and 65 were racked with strong storms. i found that the outback is very vulnerable to crosswinds. between the high rideheight and the soft suspension, it loves to flail around the highway. at first i thought it was hydroplaning, but once the rain let up and i could see better, there wasn't any standing water yet. then i followed a semi through one and he was whipping me around like a ragdoll. it was one white knuckled drive, but it made it go by quickly and i like the adrenaline.

then back to work. bleh. as i'm typing all this, the light went out over me. heh. so yeah, back to my boring job. turns out i didn't get the job i interviewed for monday. i figured i wouldn't since i really wanted it. so friday night cristyn and i went to see tool. john and shannon couldn't make it as both their mothers went into the hospital last week. thankfully, they've been released and in good health again. the tool show wasn't on pair with the nin show or even tool's last tour, but was still good. now the fun started saturday, as johncalls me to meet him and bob for some tux shopping. shannon is already a little worried about letting us go alone. and rightly so. john has me meet him at some vietnamese tai cat burger tofu place off breckenridge. of course of still tired as hell and get completely turned around and lost. so i arrive about a half an hour late. luckily the waitress is cute and finds this all very funny. enough so that i decide it's worth getting shot down after our meal. before that however, i have to figure out if i want cat or dog. i choose the mystery taco salad. i choose wrong. it's pretty nasty and the waitress said she wouldn't have recommended it. luckily, she recommends good desserts to make up for it. mind out of the gutter. i also decide that i'm going to try their green tea. i've noticed that green tea varies greatly. some i like, some i don't. this is the first i've had in which i could make a fair comparison of the tea and fish water. it seriously tasted and smelled like some fish foods. talk about a compliment to my taco kitty salad. on to the tux place. now we've decided that no matter what we get, we have to assemble something terrible keep shannon on her toes. after picking out so great looking classy tuxes, i get myself measured up by another cutie. around this time a group of black guys had wandered in as i'm spouting off my impeccible humor trying to score bonus points as the witty funny guy. this does relatively little with her, but the new group is eating it up like sunday afternoon barbeque. after dressing me up in the worst ensemble we could muster, i laid it on thick again and even got a comment from one of the guys about my style. since he's black and i'm cracker, i take the compliment to heart. i actually have style. kick ass. hopefully there will be a good part two when we go back to try on and size the tux in a couple months. after buying a cigar and a trip through willis music, we take our excitement over to cingular....i mean at&t and unleash john on the iphone to see if he can break it. these phones truly are badass. and for the price of a low level laptop, i expect it to be.

the rest of the day is spent watching 1408, which is good but not worth the theater ticket. now saturday night gets interesting. i meet chris and dougie out at akikos for a frat boy get together. we all know jeremy loves frat boys and akikos. but hey, it's an in and out deal. of course. well, after having a beer and chris say three times we are leaving, i finally say i'm out and just leave myself. finally he and dougie call to say they've left. we're heading to big dave's outpost. i wasn't aware of this until john says something beforehand, but this place is pretty much a lesbian bar. i don't care but i'm guessing that chris will. so we bumble around trying to find where to go for this band his friend wanted him to see. this proves futile. so we ask the lesbians. they warn us there are lot's of lesbians up there. sure. i crack some jokes, chris plays it cool and we're off. turns out there is a ten dollar "donation". not feeling right that i can't pay it, i stay downstairs. looking for something to do, i decide to shoot the shit with our lesbian friends. upon asking them if it's cool if i sit down and shoot the shit, she informs me that it's fine but lesbians don't like to be hit on. what the hell? i could almost feel drama creeping in so i just laughed reaffirmed what i had said and excused myself. stupid bitch. luckily they have smithwicks there, so my frown turned upside down quickly. after a time upstairs, dougie and chris seemed to figure that was enough fun for them. we head over to tk's pub for redneck fun and playhouse on stage. cute little asian jen from my apt complex and her boyfriend are there as well as a couple decent looking girls. playhouse is down to 3 members now, but still puts on a good set for being a cover band. i also was going to try for my third strikeout of the day but i was snaked by an unnamed member of our party. thanks, buddy. that's pretty much all of story time. hope you enjoyed the read. up next is the news.

in band newz, grae is still in the hunt for a drummer. john has started recording guitar parts of our previous material and jody is remixing our latest song for you to ogle on myspace. anna lies is still charging forward on material, completing a good bit of a new song on sunday despite my hangover.

in car news, the new swaybar is great. despite it being a 22mm and the oem stock front only being a 19mm the car is still neutral in handling. i was expecting a very tail happy car and it isn't. slightly disappointing, but still far better than stock. i still have two harder settings to try as well, but i'm a little leary that ii'm going to snap one of the stock endlinks. since my helmet is good until 2010, i'm going to get my money's worth. this sunday i'm running my first autox in over a year. i'm classing in sts and will promptly get my ass handed to me as i'm on the stock shitty bridgestone re92s and my only mod is a rear swaybar. it'll still be fun though. someday i'll be able to afford to race competitively. also spent some more time helping john on his xb. we installed new headlights and a grill. total horsepower is up to 50 now. the car is looking sharp. perhaps he'll kick me over some pics to put up on here.

in health news, i'm sick. for some odd reason i'm getting a cold in the middle of summer. i think it comes from running so hard the past week and a half or more. added to that, the snappy tomato pizza i go to for lunch shut down. this has totally thrown off my chi as well as my stomach. i about ran into the door the other day as i didn't expect it to be locked. i actually like snappy tomato more than ceasers, and i love my ceasers. sad, sad day. i think that about wraps it up for now. i've spent a good half day of work writing this. typing so hard the lights went out. you can't buy awesomeness like that. beer for the week is kostriker in a minikeg.

more to come, including more of jeremy's randomly picked music videos and a review on transformers, which i just watched.

06.20.07

        yesterday i received one of those calls that you know are coming, but are never prepared for. my brother called me to inform me that my aunt linda, my mother's sister, had passed in her sleep monday night. she had lupus for most of her life and we had grown up knowing that there were somethings she couldn't do, such as much sun exposure. but it always made her more unique. she always had a different outlook on life and refused to follow the norm just because someone said that's the way you did it. she didn't go out of her way to be different, just marched to her own drum. despite only getting to see her every few years, i always loved hanging out with linda. one trip my brother, mother, and i fly to nyc for the week and she treated us to the big apple. in the past year or more, the doctors had her on some heavy medicines as her lupus was getting progressively worse. unfortunately, these medicines slowly destroy your kidneys. what a break, huh? so she had started dialysis recently while the doctors looked for a kidney to transplant. my mother had been tested and i was going to volunteer next. not that my kidneys are probably worth shit, but i figured i'd try. a little while back she had collapsed in the apt and slipt out of consciousness. nadene, her roommate of 30yrs thought she was going to lose her before the paramedics arrived. it gave everyone a good scare. we all knew it could happen again, but we didn't really expect it this soon. things seemed to be looking up. one of the things that has bothered me and will probably continue to bother me for a while, is that i was going to email her a couple nights ago and didn't. i was lying on the couch after a long weekend and thought about her and that we hadn't talked in a bit. of course being tired and half in and out of sleep, i decided to email her the next day. anyone that knows me past a day can see where this is going. so i completely forget in the midst of everything happening. a couple days later and i'll never have the chance again. so take heed from my mistake. our time here is short and it doesn't wait. spend the most time you can with those you love, as they may be gone tomorrow.

06.13.07

        yahoo news: earnhardt junior is about to announce his new race team. i'm so beside myself with anticipation that i about fell asleep on my keyboard. so onto something interesting. made the first payment on the outback yesterday. sort of feels good. i'm still dying to get a rear swaybar on it before my front tires complain anymore. this past sunday, john and i went out to watch the autox at papa johns stadium. consensus: john is scared of loud, fast cars and i'm dying to get out and try to flip a new scooby. (interjection, esurance radio ads are annoying as hell) one of the guys on the outback board i post to said that his autox was allowing sa95 helmets. if this is the case, that extremely makes me interested in getting back out for at least one or two. last thing i wanted to do was be stick in a sopping wet loaner helmet. i feel dirty just thinking about it. in larger racing news, i found my way back to the wrc. like a proper subaru board, subaruoutback.com has a rally heaven section that not only allows people to think about not really posting about rally, but also has downloadable races from a european channel. i can finally watch wrc races again. i'd say i was like a kid in a candy store upon discovering this. with john's new interest in le automobile, he decided to download them as well only to find that macs (the king of multimedia) suck and won't play the files. psh, silly fruit lovers. so, if you have any interest in rally, you have until august to catch up with the first half of the season. it's been very with loeb having an intersting season, to say the least.

band stuffs. well, our drummer that we praised so much for learning so quickly showed his ass quite nicely. despite having a discussion and solution over money, he decided to stand us up on our last gig. i just can't speak highly enough about his class and character. so grae is back in the hunt for a drummer. we still played the show sans drummer and actually pulled it off quite well, even with john's creative song restructuring. the night after, anna lies played highland's taproom with mungus. grae had already been banned for being too loud so i was expecting anna lies to end up in the same boat. however, troy decided to up the ante by telling the bartender (and owner) that we brought earplugs for people. i was wondering if he'd even let us go on. luckily we managed to make it through 4 songs or so before being asked to turn down. a big thanks to tiny, jenn, my mom, and my bro for their exumberance and/or loud jeering.probably one of the key moments was when tiny responded to the guy asking us to turn down with "if it's too loud, you're too old". i about pissed myself. i also figured that shit was going to start flying. luckily, everyone is scared of the big softy. except the big black guy that scared him outside. but that's a whole other story. all in all, we rocked out and had a tighter set than last time, as well as nailing our new song. not bad for only two performances. anna lies will be playing the dugout on the 23rd if you want to hear the awesomeness. i expect you guys out there with no lame excuses. drag the families along and just lock them in the car while we play.

tool is also touring around here again. i just picked up tickets for john and his fiance, cristyn, and i for the cincy show. the new album is pretty abstract so i'm curious as to the liberties they'll take with them on the stage performance. i'm sure there will at least be a little evolution. i'm also going to need to find a place to drink before the concert or take a loan out to get a beer...

so i finally watch idiosyncrasy after listening to jody talk about it and our old drummer quote the "baitin'" part 20+ times. a practice. it was actually quite funny but more so, scary. it's almost a documentary of humans' mental decline. in a way it's sort of like a modern kids movie as it appeals to both sides. the people it's making fun of won't realize it and will be laughing at the movie. the people the movie is targetting will actually be laughing with the movie. needless to say the mental drummer was the former and jody the latter. i definitely suggest watching it. i wouldn't consider it a buyer but it's good enough for a watch or two.

a for work, i know you guys were enjoying my vietnamesque rambling but i've been either busy, lazy, or comatose lately. i have quite a bit i'm trying to do and most of it not as successfully as i'd like. i'll see if i can't get back into my creative juices. that line has spawned enough jokes in my head that i don't even want to think where you are taking it. i'm also thinking about letting mozzy write his own page, but we'll see. i don't need any incriminating evidence floating around the interweb. anyone interested in it, send in your vote/requests/spam. in audition to your moment of zen today, i'd like to offer some band suggestions. i bought the flogging molly dvd yesterday. for those unfamiliar, i've posted at least two of their videos as the zen of the day. they are an irish punk/folk band. it's music that just makes good, happy, drinking fun. or get in a bar fight as tiny says. i highly suggest checking them out. on the same ticket is the dropkick murphys. far more popular and more punk, but definitely a fun group there. a more ska/punk band that i've really enjoyed listening to lately is streetlight manifesto. this group has a lot of energy and overall really fun songs. their album is hands down next on my list to buy. another band that i've enjoyed lately is mustard plug. (that's a silly name) yes, it is. now go listen to them. your moment of zen.

06.03.07

        seems that i can not break out of the cycle that i so typically deal with. every time things appear like they are going well, or a stroke of luck might be upon me, it all goes in the shitter. it will sweep in and hold you just long enough to make sure the fall is a little further than you expected.

05.26.07

        baltimore. ah, nothing like rich people and ghetto coexisting in a dysfunctional, homicidal utopia. on the first day i worked a few hours before getting a call from my parents that they were rolling through the ville. i cut out and end up meeting them at the rest stop on the way to lexi. departing the rest stop, i was following the family easter egg piloted by my mother. figuring i was going to settle in at 70mph but low and behold, mom has her lead foot on. we bounce through 64's heavy traffic at 75-80 all the way into west virginia. however the nice twisty highways gave her a little spook so we backed off a little before our first stop. i believe the stop was in huntington, but i can't really remember. my dad decided to eat at panera bread. i'd never made it to the one here but figured it would be an interesting eat. the food was pretty good after you get past the yuppie factor. however what really blew me away was the amount of hot girls. this is west virginia. there aren't supposed to be hot girls. there are shitty cars and trucks, flannel, and occasionally a pay-at-the-pump. so i'm completely baffled. apparently things have changed since our last snowshoe trip. the rest of the highway trip that day was interesting. people randomly slamming on the brakes. trucks peppering my new car with rocks. along the way, i've determined that maryland is racist. i went by a sign that said to watch for maryland's animals and then past a sign for negro mountain. hmmm. that night we stay at this really nice comfort inn. first we go over to eat at the texas steakhouse. and yes, it's a ripoff of texas roadhouse. ordering drinks, i decide to get a killians on draft. "sorry, we don't have killians on draft anymore." then why on earth have it on your menu. so strike one. i end up getting some summer wheat ale or something. the waitress brings it out in a boot glass. good lord. we go to order and they can't make what my mom wants because the oven is broken. strike two. so we finally get our food and i'm killing crab like tom hanks in castaway. i remind my mom that she didn't get her milk. she says something to the waitress and the wairess comes back with "we're out of milk". strike three. sometime during this, one of my crab bodies jumps on the floor for an escape. however it's plan didn't come off well, as it just ended up being kicked around between my dad and i as we fought on who's chair it would reside under. that night i decide to go take advantage of the hottub and my mom decided to come down to catch up on everything. turns out there is this beautiful polynesian girl in the exercise room. needless to say, i decided family time was more important than macking time.

that wraps up the fun. all the pics are on the link in the sidebar. as soon as my mother gets me her pics from the trip, i'll start loading them up. this could be a year....

05.12.07

        two more gigs and then it's on to working on new material for grae. last night's uncle pleasants gig had us playing with a very talented band called shatterstone. i highly suggest people go out and catch them. anna lies is going to be getting out to play in june, so check back for dates or check the anna lies site.

i felt like touching on something that recently happened that has sort of had me perplexed in thought. not that it takes much... so in the cleaning of the second bedroom, i came across a box of jenn's stuff including some diplomas from the car dealerships she worked at. now this stuff never mattered to me. hell, i'm not even sure where my murray state diploma is. but i figured stuff like this is important to her, so i had the decision of taking the easy way and dumping it or opening up communication after a year of silence. being the conscientious person i am, i figured it would bother me to trash them. so i email her, mostly expected not to hear back. a couple weeks pass. finally i get some emails. apparently my blackcraft email is throwing people's mail back at'em. so anyway long story short, i ended up taking the stuff over to her work. she wasn't in the front so i leave it with the guy at the counter. i figured i'd get a thank you email or something. nothing. so i hit her back up just to make sure she got the stuff. bs conversation is exchanged. fini. the whole thing was just weird.

next installment will be documenting the awesomeness of my bro's gradeation. wooohoo! your moment of zen.

05.07.07

        new car (see scooby link on the side bar)! more work crap! gigz! woot!

so this deal came up on an outback that made it worth trading in the durango. with gas prices climbing higher and higher, i thought "why pay for this thing when i can have a virtually new car?" so voila! '06 subaru outback 2.5i limited. the only thing this car is missing is a turbo. i love it. props to john for getting out of his jeep finally as well. you and your fiance will look darlin' in your scions. ;)

05.02.07

        so i decided to keep a work diary. we'll dub it the diary of death since my new job is going to take me there. link is in the sidebar....

this past friday anna lies debuted alongside grae at the derby festaville stage on the riverfront. despite the day being shitty, it was a fun time. pics of both bands are up on the myspace sites. i started a new job and it sucks. grae is busy playing out this month so i'll drop the schedule on here as more people in louisville are checking this. also included is a show on the internet. and now your moment of zen. watch and enjoy. aye!


exile 9th
uncle pleasants 11th
aiiradio.net 12th (online show)
rustic frog 18th

04.29.07

        ain't that the truth. and now your moment of zen. and now your moment of zen, too.

04.05.07