"Woke up this morning, and got yourself a gun"

I just finished watching the second season of the Sopranos. Man, I love that show. I haven't had HBO since it's been on, so I borrowed the first season and downloaded the second. I think Tony Soprano has got to be one of my favorite fictional characters now. Next to Forrest Gump, maybe, Homer Simpson (up to recent seasons of the Simpsons which I will rant on about later). And.. I don't know... Jesus? haha... Grandma Soprano is pretty hilarious, too. I think I like Tony so much because he's this big important tough guy, the way a lot of guys think they are. But inside he's really just sad and finding his place in the world. I think some people shy away from the Sopranos because they don't like mobster movies or shows, but it's way more than that. The character development is so deep. They build up such wonderful multi-dimensional characters. Then they whack 'em. haha. Really I don't watch much tv at all (this quote is on a website I just discovered that you may agree kicks ass), but HBO has some awesome stuff! I love Six Feet Under, too. But Tony is the man. I feel for him. Sometimes I feel as if it's myself who's in the "waste management business". Only I don't have a "goomah", my "stugots" aren't quite as big as Anthony Soprano's (he let's me call him "T"), and I'm not a member of a "borgata". "Che peccato!" I leave you tonight with this... "Col tempo la foglia di gelso diventa seta". Capisch? No? Fagettaboutit.

Spanish Midget song...

Here's a customized song by request for Toxic Ned. It's a song about his quest for his best friend, the Spanish Midget. How PC! http://www.bordfans.com/SpanishMidget.mp3

Drunken birds...

This is a funny story... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6982867/?GT=6190 Seems they'd been hanging out at a college house in Oshkosh or something, where they had like 5 kegs or some shit. And there was this hot chick that totally wanted to get it on. She was from some sorority. Holly Berrie was her name, I think.

Rock and roll show...

Tonight I saw Mulligan Stu play. They rocked! It was at the Annex (free shows on Wednesday nights are awesome, especially when you don't have a job!). They played my second favorite Descendents song, "Bikeage" and said "if anyone knows the lyrics to this song, come on up!". Are you kidding me? That's like telling a crack addict "if anyone here likes crack, we've got some up on stage, so help yourself!". I guess I am a crack addict. Only instead of crack, it's being-on-stage. So, obviously I went on stage and sang it with them. I love when bands do that!

We just found ourselves a drummer today, and I'm fuckin excited to get out and play again. All we need now is a bass player who can sing. Not an easy thing to find, but we thought finding a good drummer would be the hardest part. Granted, shit could still fall apart at any moment. I don't know these guys that well yet. But they both seem cool. Mitch on drums, and Chris on guitar. The new stuff will be more punk and faster. I'll almost certainly lose my voice after every show until I get used to it. But it's gonna fuckin rock. My mom may not like it as much, and my friends who say "The Monkey song is my favorite!" will certainly not take to it as well as B.o.r.d., but oh well. Nothing can replace B.o.r.d., it was a unique experience. And the future will bring new experiences and fun. Right now in my life I'm a little jaded and slightly pissed off. Not at anything in particular, just in general. So the pop rock thing might have to wait. Granted, the way I write songs will certainly guarantee that all the new songs WILL be catchy and fun, that's just the way I am. But they also will be a little more emotional, and maybe I'll sing a little more "drastically" for lack of a better word. We've written one full song so far, and we'll play one older B.o.r.d. song and two of the newer ones. I'm sure we'll also pull an old B.o.r.d. tune out now and then. The problem is teaching the newbies my old songs. What a pain. I mean, they learn quickly, but some of this shit is 8 years old! But what must be done must be done.

I'm still writing stuff that won't be used in the new band. I'll eventually record some decent demos of those and put them online. You just wait and see.

Speaking of songwriting, I still wanna write some "custom" songs for people, 'cause you can make good money doing that if you do it well. (People SELL songs on Ebay that they write for you... how cool!) So, for practice, keep posting or emailing me suggestions for song ideas. Anything. If I like it, or think I can do it well, I'll write a song (probably a short one) and record it and put it online for ya. If you read the Sunspot discussion board, you'll find links to two songs I've written for others so far. I think I may write songs until the day I die. Let's hope that's a lot!

Weird dreams...

Man, lately I've been having the strangest dreams. Actually, my dreams are almost always strange, but the past couple weeks it been stranger because I've remembered them more vividly, and I've been having more than one a night.

Last night Jameel (my friend since 4th grade) and a I were astronauts. We were strapped onto this contraption that resembled the Power Drop ride at Six Flags and given oxygen tanks with mouthpieces like the ones you use diving. Oddly enough, I guess that's all we needed. Oh, and a backpack full of notebooks for data entry for whatever we happened to be studying on our trip. We were rocketed away, and it took about 20 seconds for us to get to the moon. We didn't fry up when we hit space because, well, this was a dream. We used the oxygen tanks, but no one else on the moon needed to, really. And the moon was terraformed and cities had been built. I must've known this, but I was still surprised to look out past the city we were IN to find a Chicago-like metropolis in the distance. Basically, this place was exactly like Earth (atmosphere and all), except the ground was a little squishy. For part of our excursion I wasn't wearing shoes, so the squishy ground was a bit unnerving. We wandered into a worn down shack and saved some peasants who couldn't breate normally like everyone else. We also walked around looking at the city. It wasn't very scientific. I remember getting onto the rocket a few times. It was fun. (I'm reading a good sci-fi book right now called Hyperion, and some of this dream may have come from that).

Then I had a SECOND dream. (The other night I had three awesome ones which I may write about later). Sunspot (band you probably already know) was playing a show in a large hallway of a school or something. The opening band kinda sucked, but I passed the time talking to Wendy of Sunspot's dad about why I don't like the Dave Matthews Band. He's a nice fella. In real life AND in dreams! Then I made fun of Sunspot for taking too long to set up their stuff. Dylan (Erika's brother) came over to us and asked what my website address is. He must've been doing shots with some friends in another room, because he looked a little tipsy. Mike of Sunspot was wearing a green chef's apron over his clothes. That might be a good look for him. I think I woke up before they played. That's okay, because usually when they are in my dreams, they play songs I don't recognize or really, really strange covers.

There are some recurring characters in most of my dreams... My cousin Kevin is probably the character most often in my dreams. Sunspot is the band I most often see. I fly or float around a lot (this might be OOBE's.. and flying is NOT sex in dreams... SEX is sex!). If I'm inside, it's often a large building like a mall, stadium, school, etc., and almost never a place I've been to before. Lately I've been doing good deeds in my dreams (like the three dreams I had a few nights ago). All this stuff may "mean" something, if you look it up in a dream book, but I can usually figure it out if it means anything at all. Sometimes I think I might be dreaming actual events from the past or future of either someone else or myself (I just read a book called "Past Lives, Future Lives" and it was really cool, whether you believe in reincarnation or not). When Erika is in my dream, we usually both look different, which might mean we're reincarnations who meet up in other lives. Isn't that sweet! A lot of my dreams add to the recurring sense of deja vu I get. Seriously, I get it ALL the time. Sometimes I'd actually bet MONEY that I saw or did something before, or will in the future. I should read "Psychic Ability for Beginners" again. As soon as Erika's done. Maybe it will shed some light on this!

Today's news...

Okay, well there wasn't much news today. I woke up around noon, showered, ate some Total (extra fiber rules!) and brushed my teeth. Then I called the job agency I'm working with, and it looks like I have a pretty good chance of getting a position at this printing place. Nothing great, but something I'll have to do between sleeping and rockin' if I wanna pay the bills. Fuckin' bills. I picked up E from work a little early. We came home, ate some stuff, and played D&D. That's right. I'm an official GEEK now. I used to be a NERD until I drank away all my "useful-knowledge brain cells" in college. I was never a SPAZ. Some might consider me a WEIRDO, though. I like to take the path less travelled... and leave booby traps on the other path. I'm definitely not a FREAK, either. My wardrobe is pretty inconspicuous, barring the t-shirt that says "Simon says go fuck yourself" on the back. (It's a George Carlin shirt.. I love that guy). One of these days I'm gonna forget I'm wearing that when I'm visiting Grandma or something. I don't think I'm a LOSER. Just a GEEK. Which is the cooooolest of the put-down-word categories. It means I like Star Wars (although I don't memorize it.. I memorize Back to the Future), Babylon 5, and other sci-fi, and I play Dungeons and Dragons. "Roll the dice to see if I'm getting drunk!" So.. um... I need to get more than two people to read this blog shit. So, if you actually READ it, post a comment or something, or email me. Then I'll know who my audience is, and I won't make fun of your moms. Or I will. More.

Anyway, often in my sleep I come up with crazy shit like songs or jokes. The other day this Jay Leno-esque monologue type joke was just IN my head when I woke up. And it made sense, which is rare.... "So, did you hear the Bush administration are working with NASA to send astronauts to Mars within the next fifteen years?... Unfortunately, they don't have a plan to bring them back home." Pretty good, huh? I'd send it to Conan, but I think it's a little too political. You don't want to alienate people when you're a celebrity. I, on the other hand, am well known the HOUSE over! COUPLES of people see me as an important musical figure! Sounds like something Strongbad would say. Aight... that's enough for today.

Sometimes we forget...

We have it pretty good, ya know? I was randomly checking the internet TV stations on Winamp today, and came across a meditation video that looked like yoga. I was feeling tense, so I tried doing the exercises. I've never been able to meditate very well when I've tried, and I don't know if hypnotism could work on me. But these exercises were relaxing. I felt really refreshed after doing them, it was awesome. It's called Falun Dafa, or Falun Gong. It's one of many schools of meditation from China. This one, however, is different. Thousands of people are dying because they're doing it. After feeling refreshed and invigorated, I decided to read up on the net about this, and became tense again, and extremely depressed. Apparently, the Chinese government outlawed the practice of Falun Gong in 1999 because they feared it. It's popularity was growing exponentially, and the Chinese goverment thought it was a threat to their power or some bullshit. You may have heard the news story in 1996, I think it was (it's on the website), when 5 people lit themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Supposedly, they were followers of Falun Gong, and thought the fire would "lift them to heaven". There was a lot of controversy over this, however, because Falun Gong says killing and suicide are both sins. Plus, the policemen in the area just HAPPENED to all be carrying fire extinguishers at the time. Coincidence? Anyway, there are stories galore on these sites.. www.fofg.org and www.falundafa.org if you want to read something that will get your blood pumping and your sense of rebelion aflame. Stories of horrible torture and persecution. Beatings and detaining of practitioners of an innocent new religion that, technically, isn't completely a religion at all. Mostly, it's meditation to help you relax and feel peaceful. It seems to work well, and I think I'll see if I can keep up with it. And they don't even ask for money (unlike most religions). You can download the books with their philosophies, and videos of the exercises for free.

You see, what pisses me off most about this is that it's not a story of something that happened in the 1600's. It's happening NOW. What the fuck? It's amazing to live in a world where in one country (America) people like Howard Stern can get on the air and say anything they want, and American citizens are so saturated by free speech that hearing about naked, oiled-up lesbians doesn't even phase us anymore. And then in another part of the world, people have bamboo sticks shoved under their fingernails for doing some fucking stretches in comfortable robes! Holy shit.

And THEN, what pisses me off on TOP of that, is our "leader" isn't quite as apparent in his corruption and evil ways as China's, but it's still there. Why not send US troops over to China to "liberate" it? Why Iraq? I'll tell you why... Iraq has oil and China has good take-out food. And we need oil. Who the fuck is left in this world who doesn't have an agenda? You know, most of the time I'm a very positive person. I believe you make the most out of life while you're here and I don't often worry about things. But sometimes I take a step back and look. Look at everything. But I can't do it too often, 'cause it's too god damn sad most of the time. I think to myself, I give Earth another 300 years, tops.

Then I look at what's great in the world. And believe me, there's a lot. I don't mean to bum anyone out with this post, I just get to thinkin' sometimes, and it's good to know I'm not the only one thinking. I could be like the majority of "Idiot America" and just drown out the pain of the world with my television. Watching Nascar and eating fast food. But I can't. It's just not in my nature.

My blog hurts.

So, people go on this "internet" thing I've heard so much about, write about their lives, and the world can read it? Hmm... like a diary for people who can't stand keeping secrets. Awesome. To tell you the truth, I expect the only people who would read mine are my girlfriend, my mom (as soon as she gets a computer) and the handful of friends I have that spend over 5 hours a day online.

Well, I totally forgot how to do that HTML stuff, but maybe it will come back to me someday. Eventually I wanna update the bordfans site with all our MP3s, some video, etc. Mostly just for myself, so I have it all archived in one place.

I just watched another episode of "Six Feet Under". It's an HBO show we've been renting (fyi: on occasion I may use the term "we" to refer to "Erika and I", however I do not condone the perpetual use of this term in this way; I will write a whole blog on "crazy things couples do that I hope 'we' don't" later!). It's a fuckin great show! You should rent it sometime. I guess they're in the sixth season or so. We rented it on a whim one day, and now we're hooked. Anyone own the Sopranos? I only saw the first season, and I liked that too. I try not to get into too many TV shows, 'cause I don't wanna end up spending all my time in my bedroom watching TV while the world goes by and I wither away. Shit, I don't even have a TV in my bedroom. And shit, I've only swore THREE times in this post. I fuckin love to swear. If I keep up this blogging crap, you'll find that out more than you probably need to. :) ... fuckin' smilies.

Testing...

I can't believe I'm blogging. I've become a complete dork.