it's two days post birthday

it's two days post birthday

so now it's wednesday. and as the title says, it's two days past my birthday. but my birthday really isn't over yet. i feel like i've been attending parties since the surprise one a few days ago.

adrienne and i celebrated my birthday with my dad on monday. (which was my actual birthday) we went to a barbecue at my dad's friend's house. (who also happens to be his boss) it was cool. we had cake. we sang songs. we ate vegan burgers and grilled veggies. it was good to spend some time with my dad. i'll probably see him once more before i go off to hartford.

tuesday, i got lunch with rob. it was good, i haven't seen him in awhile. afterwards i went and got flowers for adrienne to surprise her, but she wasn't home... and i didn't have any water to put them in, and the doors were locked. so i figured i'd just fill up one of the empty flower pots in her yard with water from the hose. hose no worky. so i went around back thinking maybe the door was open there, but it wasn't. however, i did spot some outdoor chairs with water puddles still on them. it rained yesterday morning.

i poured the water from one of the chairs into the pot, but as soon as i had drained all the water from the chair, the pot started leaking... i forgot there were holes. duh. anywho, i decided i'd go to the coffee shop down the street and get a bottle of water or something. but then i found a bottle in my car and used that to hold the water logged in the second chair instead. i then arranged the flowers in the bottle and left it on the steps for adrienne. i decided to go to the coffee shop anyway.

i ran into a few friends there. and lloyd, who i didn't recognize without his hat, so i didn't say hello. he ended up coming to adrienne's house and i saw him there anywho. after that a bunch of us went to jeff and lisa's to hang out with the bannons for a band and fanbase night. gotta show our fans we're real people too; we're not just rockstars.

all in all, it was a great day. turns out my friend amanda would trade many things important to her in order to keep dolphins alive. i didn't know she was so passionate about the not so fishies.

SURPRISE! (well, kind of)

SURPRISE! (well, kind of)

i had the most perfect surprise birthday [party] yesterday. it was wonderful.

many a month ago, i asked for a surprise party. so a few days ago olson calls me up to go catch a movie on saturday (yesterday) we went to see indiana jones, the new one. it was good, but only really because it was indiana jones. as a movie, not as good. but anywho, we went to pick up lisa afterward, cuz she and jeff had to take off to go to a small gathering at a friends house right after jeff dropped me off. right as we're pulling up to my house, i see stephen ferguson in my front yard.

surprise party.

it was sweet.

and the perfect amount of people, and the right combination of people. we ate, a lot. we broke open a pinata. we sang songs. well maybe no songs. but it was great.

indiana jones, 6 stars out of 10.

hanging out with friends for a night. off the charts. there are some things money can't buy. but for everything else, there's mastercard.

book store

book store

maybe there's a job out there for me at a bookstore where i tell people about all the books i love that they should read. i'd be terrible working at a regular bookstore i think, because i'm a bum at organization. i'm good at it when i want to be, or when there's a structure to follow (aka, alphabetical order by author) but i'm not fond at doing it very much... far too tedious.

i was in barnes and noble today. i bought a new journal and something for my lady. can't tell you what it is. she might find out. :) the journal is cool... it reminds me of a bible. leather bound with a bookmark string. they had ones with silver edge pages, thin like bible pages too, but those were over 20 bucks each. i don't need to spend that much on a journal. 12 was even pushing it.

it's been hard holding off buying little things i want. my birthday's coming up, and the majority of the little things i want are on my birthday list, but i'm miserable at waiting for anything. it's okay though. it's only in a few days. but i have no idea when the party is. what did i get myself into?

it this was were today them

it this was were today them

mixed up and jumbled title? i know. but it's okay. i had a full day today. it was a blot of fun all over. :) anywho, here's the general overview:

woke up. probably later than i was expecting to, but i don't remember what time exactly. watched the golden compass. i thought it was well done, but not as good as i remember the books being when i read them growing up. after that i brushed my teeth and went upstairs with the purpose of getting a breakfast/lunch. my mom needed help with photoshop stuff for an assignment, and i exchanged my services for a (oh man, so good) grilled cheese and tomato sandwish (yes sandwish... it was that good) and an empire apple.

anywho, i helped her out with that, but i still had some fundraiser stuff to mail out, the post office was closing soon, so i brought the stuff i needed to mail, along with my netflix movie to the post office. i had the idea to stop by the church to pay a visit to people there, rob, jeff, lyle, any of the teens in the worship band who would be practicing, and kevin. i ended up seeing all of them. and rob's new son... he's amazing.

but anywho, i ended up going upstairs, and they asked me if i wanted to hang out and play drums for the nite. i said, "sure" and i had a lot of fun. probably the most fun i've had playing drums at church in awhile. it was really cool being able to just jam out and not have to think about anything else except that it was great that i could give it my all and not have to worry about being too loud or playing something wrong. it's a freeing feeling. being in studio for a week and having my drums set up has made a big improvement on my playing as of late... i've actually been able to sit down any play.

anyways, enough tangent. after that i went out with zach and lexie to fresh city, then to starbucks (no coffee, don't worry) i ordered a carnival cookie (you know, the giant one with chocolate chips and loads of m&ms) the baristas found it hilarious that i called them carnival cookies and didn't stop laughing about it for a significant amount of time. they were still laughing after i had sat down and was halfway through the cookie. also, fresh city makes a delicious organic hummus and veggie sandwich. very delicious.

it was great to see a ton of people today. i was desiring substantial human interaction. i've been like that all week... which is weird, cuz i'm an introvert to a large extent, but i go through spurts where i feel like if i'm not around people or doing something, i'll explode. it was good to have some interaction today, and really good to see the people that i got to see. i was glad to hear how they were doing, and catch up at least a little bit on their lives, since the majority of them i haven't seen since christmas break, or last summer.

anywho, i may go to bed now, being with people makes me asleepy. nite.

how was i out of the loop?

how was i out of the loop?

something i didn't know about was that last year they released a napoleon dynamite game for the nintendo ds. the game was horribly reviewed (probably because it came out 3 years after the movie did) mainly because it was a horrible game (no, no it wasn't) and there was no chasing llamas with ligers (this is correct). no, really folks, just check out the screenshot and decide for yourself... the game has no sweet music or sweet quotes from the movie either according to reviewers. lame, i know.

a new look

a new look

so... my blogger look has been messed up for quiet awhile now, at least on my end... mainly because i had done something stupid with classic templates awhile back (trying to do everything via html) and messed something up big. i finally, today... figured out how to reverse it. none of my quick buttons were working (like the email one, or quick edit) annoying. now they work. problem solved. anywho, rents got back from france today, they took a lot of pictures. my birthday is in a week. kinda crazy.

wow

wow

so recording is all done and people for the most part are out of my house... it's an odd feeling having it to myself again. anywhos, i'm headed over to adrienne's new house in a couple of minutes to pick her up and go to dinner at panera. i'll come back here afterward to clean up a bit and set up my stuff for living here for the next few weeks before leaving again.

speaking of leaving and hartford stuff... my hartford blog got marked as a spam blog today, and i had to request review in order for it to be opened back up again. lame. i guess it's a good thing i haven't sent out that email yet, letting people know about my adventures and whatnot. will do that in a couple of days when it's back online...

anyways, off to adrienne's.

to the turnaround

to the turnaround

a few posts back, i commented on how i feel like i'm at a flux. or maybe i didn't post it, but i definitely did write about it on my livejournal. i'm obviously kidding, only about the livejournal though. :).

the summer has now actually begun. i've been at my house with chris bannon for the past week and it's been awesome. we've been recording saint soren's new ep. yes, that's right. it's hot and cookin'. my parents have been away for about a week in france now, they come back on saturday... but until then, it's jam city folks. jam city. anyways, we've got five tracks laid and they're sounding pretty smooth. i dig em.

in other news, i finally finished all my fund-raising setup (albeit a tad late) for my missionary work this summer in hartford, connecticut with hartford city missions. i'm excited to say the least. i started a new blog about it here, it's also in my links section if you'd like to check it out later.

cloverfield

cloverfield

so, this movie. i'm not gonna lie: kinda boring. also very short. i just saw it tonite. i'm usually not a scary movie kind of person, but on the recommendation of a few friends, i decided to rent it from netflix. i started watching it on my computer, and after about 20 minutes was extremely motion sick. i decided to take a break and finish it after grabbing a snack.

so that's what i did. yea, i wasn't that impressed. it's a cool concept, but it left me kind of... well... hanging. figures. the guys who made lost made this movie. cloverfield 2 perhaps? who knows? i won't go see it, maybe i'll rent it. if it's like this one all handcammy i definitely won't go see it. anywho, to rate it... 3/5 stars. that's on an 7 star scale too. i know... it was good, the characters were genuinely frightened, and behaved in ways that i would expect if those situations actually happened. so yea.... 3/5.

musak

musak

so death cab has matured so much as a band, but a lot of it has to do with gibbard at lead. it feels like he's finally discovered that he has a voice. also, the lyrics to their new songs are so much better, a lot of times when listening to transatlanticism i think to myself, "wow, he could honestly sing... anything... and it would go" but this cd, the lyrics feel well placed and intentional. just as on the opening track:

I descended a dusty gravel ridge
Beneath the Bixby Canyon Bridge
Until I eventually arrived
At the place where your soul had died

Barefoot in the shallow creek
I grab some stones from underneath
And waited for you to speak to me

In the silence it became so very clear
That you had long ago disappeared
And I cursed myself for being surprised
That this didn't play like it did in my mind

All the way from San Francisco
As I chased the end of your rope
'Cause I've still got miles to go

And I want to know my fate
If I keep up this way
And it's hard to want to stay
Away

When everyone you meet
They all seem to be asleep
And you wonder if you're missing your dream
You can't see your dream
You can't see your dream
You just can't see your dream

A dream

And then it started getting dark
And I trudged back to where the car was parked
No closer to any kind of truth
As I must assume was the case with you

a constant reminder

a constant reminder

and yet again, i am reminded of the reason that i play music.

tonight i went to a death cab show with a very large group of friends. it was... incredible. they're such unbelievably gifted musicians.

how great is the God that made us in His image? i can't know, but it's okay.

huh, who would have thought?

huh, who would have thought?

now who would have thought from the start of this blog that there would be posts about men's fashion. i certainly didn't. but today, i'd like to talk about men's overalls. according to wikipedia, "an overall is a type of garment which is usually used as protective clothing when working. overalls have sometimes been items of fashion, especially in the 1990s." personally, i can't figure out why they ever went out of style. they're sexy. i mean, a clothing item commonly worn by toddlers is bound to catch some lady's eye... right?

could this be problem?

could this be problem?

i'm very tempted to think that there is a typo with this advertisement. with the way it is written there, it sounds as if it's typed the same way borat might say it.

and i said to myself...

and i said to myself...

..."why haven't they always made chips this way?" they'd be especially good for dipping with the rounded edge; it just makes more sense.

i cry every time i watch this

i cry every time i watch this

... but i don't cry because its especially moving. it's a 2 minute long commercial, usually placed during the commercial slots for fresh prince when it's on during the wee hours of the evening. anyways, i'm not meaning to come off cynical, but it's such a terrible commercial in a lot of ways. think about it. anyways, here it is:

make an an 80s cocktail sarge...

make an an 80s cocktail sarge...

hey, i can't embed this since it's been disabled. but you click the link and it goes

vid 1 (with bubbles)
vid 2 (sans bubbles)