|
|
Blog - February 2003 |
|
||
|
This page stores my blog entries from February 2003. The entries are dated February 6, February 7, February 9, February 14, February 17, February 24, and February 26.
Weird Dream / Drums / Club Frustrations Thursday, February 6, 2003 I had this weird dream last night. As usual, I don't remember a whole lot about it, but it was strange from what I could remember. I was in an apartment (which apparently was mine), and my cat was in the room. She had black fur, but her skin was some other color. At one point, I knew she was sick. Once I realized she was sick, her skin turned a deep purple, even though I could clearly see her black fur sticking up on end. It was at that point that I woke up. My counselor and I had talked about a previous dream I had some years ago, and she said that animals can sometimes represent friends. A quick search of a dream interpretation web site didn't help much. From what I could tell from that site, it could be a sign that I'm worried about losing the support of someone I love or care about. I don't think that's the case for me, but we'll see what my counselor thinks about this one. ***** My snare drum has come out of hibernation and now sits behind my desk chair in my room. Now I can practice on it again! I really should bring my bass drum inside and play with both at once; the variety of new rhythms I could produce with both would make practicing much more interesting to me. I found out that I can get a replacement rim for my old bass drum. I may have to buy a new pair of drum heads, since I don't think they sell drum heads individually. In looking at my snare drum head, I may have to replace that, too. It has numerous yellow-ish spots and spot patterns all over it, though maybe it can just be cleaned. I have to check my hi-hat frame to see if it has the nuts and such at the top to hold a set of cymbals or not. In the end, I may be better off just buying a new one with cymbals. We'll see as time goes on. ***** Although I enjoy working with the dance club's web site and e-mail list, there are times that I get rather annoyed with some of the people who e-mail me. I guess that it's normal to feel that way. Recently, I had two people in a row say that they couldn't find certain bits of information about when and where the dance club meets (or, will meet, once we have a schedule and rooms reserved). Now, once didn't phase me, but when I had two or three in a row tell me they couldn't find something, I grew a bit concerned. I looked to make sure the information was there; it was. I had a good friend, Gabe, check the site and look for the information; he found it without a problem. So now I'm left to wondering what would cause someone to just plain not see something that would bite them in the face. I know that many kids these days seem to expect teachers to give them the answers and give them credit for just about anything. Though there are people who are just like that, I tend to find that a bit unlikely. The semester has started at CSUS, and I know college students can be awfully busy (I certainly was as an undergrad). So, these people could have had only so much time to look things up and might have missed the details they wanted. If you think it is too difficult to find the location, time, and meeting days on this site, certainly e-mail me with what you think and how you think it should be improved. Honestly, I think it's fine, but then I'm not on the user-side of it. ***** Things are going well otherwise. The job search presses on, though I haven't had much of anything just yet. I have started a project with my maternal grandfather towards building wooden cases to put around my samurai helmets on my dresser. We're having a great time with it so far, though I'm having minor problems figuring out what I want in a way of trim along the top and bottom. I'd like to draw upon Japanese architecture and have a similar form, so I'm thinking of sloping trim for the top, but leaving the base trim flat and slightly rounded at the top. If anyone has any ideas, please e-mail me.
First Jury Experience / Grape Candle / Valentine's Day Friday, February 7, 2003 In reading someone else's blog, I was reminded of the first time I was selected as a potential juror. I believe it was during the first year I was eligible to serve, and I was in that phase where I was wearing a lot of black, had long hair, and had a fairly long mustache/goatee (vandyke) growing. I was attending UC Davis, which is known to be rather liberal (is there a university that isn't liberal?). I didn't last very long on that panel; they let me go pretty much right off the bat. I've never had any love for serving on a jury, so I was happy. (My maternal grandfather who'd love to serve and never gets called in or selected. I've been called in nearly every year. Is there a corollary to Murphy's Law that covers this?) ***** On a more minor, silly stance, I'm burning this purple, grape-scented votive while writing this. My mom received it as part of a gift, but she couldn't stand the strong grape scent at all. So, she gave it to me. At first, I thought I could tame this pungent piece of paraffin by sticking it in my drawer of candles (which resides in my desk that my computer sits on). This drawer has some votives that are vanilla-, cherry-, and other-scented, so I thought I could beat it back with them. After a few days, I opened the drawer and could smell nothing but grape. I tried to find a better place and ended up placing it in my closet. One can't complain about smelling like grape, can they? Eventually I got a bit sick of it and am now burning it so I can get rid of it. It's really not that bad-smelling of a candle, but it's not quite my realm. ***** Valentine's Day is coming up, and it's now beginning to look like "just another day." It's too bad, really, since I've always had visions of spending at least a part of that day with some ultra-special girl. Romance in the air. Red roses, wine, and nice walks alone, talking about whatever comes to mind. During my darker years, I'd get rather annoyed and angry about Valentine's Day, feeling like crap every time it came around. I don't feel that way about it anymore. But, if I ever end up with someone and am still around with her during Valentine's Day, then Romance Dave will come out and play. <smiles>
"Too Fast For Love" / This Weekend / Spring Training and Baseball Cards Sunday, February 9, 2003 Album of the Moment: Motley Crue - Too Fast For Love I have this odd (or not so odd?) state where I'll have a song or album stuck in my head. Contrary to popular belief, this is usually a good thing for me. The aforementioned album is one I bought recently which made up a part of my birthday present from my parents. They gave me some money and a credit slip for The Beat, and this is what I bought. Two of the songs -- "Live Wire" and "Piece of Your Action" -- I have heard on their now-out-of-print "Decade of Decadence" album. Although I have been listening to this album for only the past couple of weeks (and only infrequently), one song, called "Public Enemy #1", is really cool and nothing like what I thought it'd be. The title made me cringe similarly to seeing that Fear Factory had a song titled "Back the Fuck Up", which sounded cliched and horribly lame. But not so for the Crue. "Public Enemy #1" maintains that hard-edge Crue sound, adds some catchy-ish riffs, and even utilizes a little vocal harmonization on two short sections of two different stanzas. The whole sound creates a wonderful aural experience. The rest of the album doesn't disappoint, though a few points make me laugh (e.g. when Vince Neil sings the refrain for the title track; it sounds like a chipmunk or something). It seemed that the bass levels were a little too high on the remastering, but that might be whatever settings I have the assorted listening systems set to around here. It's a pretty good album, though not as good as their later creations. Definitely a good buy, though. I guess this will replace the music reviews I used to do. I still have fun talking about things I buy and what I think of them. Out of five whole notes, I'd give this album a 3. ***** Due to not feeling all that well at the end of this week, I stayed home this weekend. Boring? Nope! I found the energy to get a lot done around my room and in the garage where some of my stuff is located. My Apple IIe stuff takes up only 1.25 shelves on my 3-shelf bookcase, which allowed me to put my roleplaying stuff in there. That move allowed me to move my old school books to where my RPG stuff used to reside, which then allowed me to move my Metallica "Live Shit" box set and other cassettes up to the shelf above my bed. I now have just about all of my books on shelves (a couple still reside under my nightstand). I created room in the garage to put my two big bins of sports stuff out there (a more appropriate place), allowing me to create room to put my shoes in my closet (given the size of my shoes, having them in the closet helps on the floor-space desire). The only thing I didn't account for in my closet is my snare drum. That's currently set up behind my desk chair, so I can just turn around and practice or pound out a tune humming through my head. I think my snare drum will probably join my bass drum out in the garage or wherever I'll set them both together when I move out. ***** Spring training started today! I love baseball and the baseball season. I'm loyal to the San Francisco Giants and Chicago White Sox, and it'll be interesting to see how both teams do this coming season. I realized recently that very few of my sports cards (about 95% are for baseball) are in plastic sheets, so that's something I should work on sometime in the near future. I kept a few boxes from cards I bought in the past, but those aren't going to be good enough for the long-haul. I'm sure I have a few valuable cards laying in there (e.g. Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and various other ones) that have gone up in value since I stopped collecting. I went into a sports card place for the first time in years last Thursday or so, and I started to get that happy feeling about the possibility of collecting again. Who knows? Maybe I'll finally get those Mike Schmidt and Carlton Fisk rookie cards I've always wanted.
Songs in My Mind / Reedian Philosophy: Spiritual Reflections, Part I Friday, February 14, 2003 Songs of the day:
Not sure why those songs were floating around in my head. I had some Operation Ivy running through my head some time before. To top that off, I was listening to FM102's Flashback Friday, listening to some older R&B that I remembered from my middle school years (no rap today, and that was probably because it is Valentine's Day). I almost thought about requesting NWA's "Express Yourself", but I suppose that wouldn't have been quite right for the mood of the day. <grins> ***** I had this odd sense of consciousness when my grandfather said that he'd been reading things on my web site, including things I wrote on the old "Gripe Vine" page. That was one thing, but it seemed odd that he actually agreed with some of the things I said about religion. Naturally, I didn't remember a thing that I said. It actually got my brain running around again about trying to formulate how I see things in a spiritual sense. So, for this blog entry, I thought I'd explore things a little and do some formulation of what I believe. I think I'll start with some religious background. Within two generations from me, I can count at least three different religions that my family members follow. For me, my parents baptized me as Roman Catholic and took me to church up until I was about four years old. I remember being told that we weren't going because my parents had too much to do, and there wasn't enough hours in the weekend to do things and relax as needed. Somewhere along the line, my parents decided that I should make my own decision as to what religion I should follow. Being a person who was highly concerned about alleviating boredom, having friends, and meeting girls, I did what came naturally -- I didn't choose a religion at all. By the time I reached high school and went to Jesuit, I kind of saw my tenure there as an opportunity to see if I believe in what I should believe, given I was baptized a Roman Catholic. Well, due to many things, I ended up not believing in it and set off in my own direction. "So what, Dave, do you believe?" you may ask. Well, this entry will be the start of that soul-searching. Dave's Spiritual Reflection #1: The Afterlife If I recall correctly, a religion is usually partially defined by its view of the afterlife. The afterlife is something that many people ponder and fear to some degree or another. For the most part, my views of the afterlife are the only things that I really have fairly well set in my mind. My way of addressing what goes on in the afterlife is pretty simple: I don't worry about it. That doesn't mean I don't have beliefs about what goes on after one kicks the bucket, though. I've had some rough spots with people who have died. Despite some of the horrible things that had happened, I'm neither upset nor regretting what happened. I feel at peace, because I believe that when people die, they learn what really goes on in life and with their loved ones. They learn everything, including things you have never told anyone before. And it's all ok. Maybe this says a lot about what I believe happens to people when they die. One possibility is that, when I die, I will be at peace. If I had (any more) mental disorders or diseases, then I would be relieved of them. I guess those ailments and quirks stay on Earth, making them challenges that we have to face and overcome in life. One's thoughts become clear, and you gain this knowledge of everything that happens and has happened. I'm not certain if you really know everything, or if you only learn everything about people and events you've encountered in your life. That's something I'll have to ponder for a bit. A devil's advocate might say, "well, something or someone must have instilled that knowledge into your thoughts, and that could only have been <insert pre-fab deity here>." My philosophy or spirituality does not make any assumptions about what or who controls things, assuming that anything or anyone actually does. My reason for this is simple: I'd rather not make a wrong assumption. If there is a deity or deities in control or observing life and the afterlife, I figure I'll find out what it is (if anything) soon enough. There are too many corporeal concerns to think about and work to solve, and I find that my energy is best served towards doing what I can to do my best in life and what I can see and experience here on Earth. "What about reincarnation?" someone might say. "Surely if you get to know such intense details about the world that reincarnation would not be feasible and would be pointless." Reincarnation, if it were to occur, would certainly be possible and explainable in my philosophy/spirituality by a simple action: your spirit's memory is erased prior to returning to Earth. It's possible that incomplete erasures could explain why some people insist they lived a previous life. I'm sure I haven't covered everything concerning the afterlife. Next time, I'll talk about life on Earth and the challenges one faces. I will also talk about where morals fit into things (and maybe tick off a hard-core Dr. Laura fan if I'm lucky). These thoughts are merely attempts on my end to put in writing what I feel I believe. A spiritual belief is primarily based on what a person feels and not necessarily an extension of what one thinks. If you have any comments, thoughts, or even elements I can ponder and illuminate in my philosophy, feel free to e-mail me.
Dance Company Performs! / This Weekend / Joe Millionaire Finale: Some Thoughts / Reedian Philosophy - Spiritual Reflections: Part II Monday, February 17, 2003 Saturday, I attended the Annual Ball put on by the Davis Social Dance Club at UC Davis' Freeborn Hall. I've been in a weird mood in that I have barely any motivation to dance. (I think I got spoiled by having Ariane around so much when she was here.) Feeling the need to get out, I attended the Ball to at least see the Sacramento Ballroom Dance Company at CSUS perform. Many other companies and troops performed that night, but I wanted to support the Company, who is a sister group of the CSUS Ballroom Dance Club. They were great! The Company performed a Latin Medley, which included some Rumba and Cha-Cha. If you catch wind of them performing somewhere, make sure you see them! ***** I felt horribly drained this weekend. I had general plans to get together with an old high school friend, Jason, but it never materialized. For most of this weekend, I felt a desire (need?) to do something, yet nothing that came to mind sounded interesting or seemed to entertain me. I did start work recently. Looks like I'll make this weekend a good rest weekend and see about doing something next weekend. ***** I watched the finale of "Joe Millionaire" tonight. Frankly, it ended just as I hoped it would, and the twist was something I expected (and, from what I remember, was speculated in some forms of media). I think Evan did the right thing in picking Zora, since it seemed obvious to me that Sarah really didn't want Evan for him. Unfortunately, I didn't watched the whole series, but just two episodes told me all I needed to see about Sarah. Sure, Zora may be awfully hesitant and uncertain to trust, and she might be a bit "Disney"-ish at times. Certain things like their mutual genuineness and their similar modes of relative poverty were certainly good starts. I believe that Zora will open up to Evan much more now that she's certain about things between them. ***** As a continuation of my "Spiritual Reflections" series, I'll touch on the points I needed to answer from last time. The two thoughts left over from last time concerned the challenges one faces in life and their significance, and the other element centered around morals and their place in my philosophy. I visit this blogging board that houses the wonderful blog titled, "True Porn Clerk Stories." A different blogger, Sugar-Snit, wrote about how her friend had gone through all sorts of problems and issues through her life. This person got to a point where things were looking up and looking good ... and she died. Apparently she hit a tree while driving. Not drunk, and the blogger doesn't mention any knowledge of the real cause of the accident. Sugar-Snit ended her entry with the question, "why make me wade through all this shit just to knock me off right when I'm getting the hang of it?" This response had me thinking (and responding to her) about such a scenario. For the aforementioned scenario, I posited that maybe overcoming her life problems was her major accomplishment in life. Then, her deity-in-favor felt she was ready to go. My philosophy tends to be a bit scientific at times, since I'll still believe that people will die when their bodies simply fail them to the inevitable end. When someone dies too young, like Sugar-Snit's friend, I tend to believe that it's for a reason. Sometimes the reason isn't always clear, though one possibility is that a person achieved exactly what they needed before going. Everyone goes through trials and challenges in their life, and it seems like newer generations have more to deal with. Many people aspire to gain many things in their life, including a house, wife/husband, cars, and a continuation of the family through bearing children or adoption. Others dream of owning their own business. These elements might be things that people might need to do in order to succeed in life. With others, sometimes just tackling their demons is all that is necessary. Dr. Laura allegedly said on the air that people who do not follow a religion cannot have morals. This utter rubbish made me think a little about it. In my belief, morals began long before any concept of a religion ever existed. I guess Reedian Philosophy would contain certain core morals; I'll have to compile a few for a later blog entry. I know that they'll center around a modified version of the Golden Rule. I say "modified" because "Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You" would still leave violence open as an option. Reedian Philosophy would be pacifist in nature, since I believe it takes more thought, patience, and tenacity to discuss things openly than it does to beat it out of someone (or, appropriate to the times, bomb the hell out of them). For the next time I ponder thoughts of life, I'll list some core elements of the morality that Reedian Philosophy would entail.
Note on Blog Updates / Songs in my Mind Today / Life Update / Grammy's February 24, 2003 It looks like my posts might end up being weekly updates of my life. It'll certainly be more frequent than that when exciting and happy things happen. Right now, I seem to be in a quiet period, waiting for the storm. <hums The Doors' "Waiting For The Sun"> ***** Songs of the Day Metallica - "Orion" Basic Radio - "Meat Market" I'm sure nearly all of my readers have heard of Operation Ivy (or, if not, definitely Rancid). Well, Tim and Matt were in a band called Basic Radio just before Operation Ivy. This site has two mp3s from that project, and "Meat Market" is by far my favorite. ***** Short life update: the job search is rather slow. I'm working on figuring out what I do want to do. So far, I have a lot of possible "not"s: teaching, accounting, administrative assistant/secretary/receptionist. I've had thoughts of an editing/writing career (heavily siding with editing) or maybe something to do with web site creation or online content. There are so many possibilities, and it's so hard to figure out what I really want to do. Something will pop up that'll feel right, and then I'll just grab it and run. On the computer end, I've been a little busy. I finally purchased "Paint Shop Pro 7 - 10th Anniversary Edition" by Jasc. Back in about 1996 or 1997, Jasc put out a demo of Paint Shop Pro v4.12. Many people may remember this demo as "the 30-day demo that won't die." It was great to have a demo that I could use for nearly 900 days over the 30-day limit and not have it shut itself off like it was supposed to. I'm very happy with the program, and I bought this Anniversary Edition for the program itself and the extras. We'll see how much fun I can have with it! Also on the computer front, I bought Ahead's Nero Burning ROM. Annoyed with my previous experience with Adaptec's Easy CD Creator and seeing that Roxio hadn't really improved it stability-wise, I turned to Nero and haven't had second thoughts since then. I kept ECDC 3.5 around for the CD Insert software, but I created a Word Template that I can use instead. This, combined with the spindle of CDs I bought, makes me set with respect to my backup and CD-making needs. Now, all I'll need is Macromedia's Dreamweaver, but it'll be a very long time before I can get that. ***** I watched the Grammy's this past weekend. I don't recall watching it ever before, though I might have when much younger. My favorite parts were Simon & Garfunkle's performance, Yo Yo Ma, N*SYNC's tribute to the Bee Gees, and Eminem's thank-you speech. Frankly, I felt there were too many "Lifetime Achievement"-type awards being given out and not enough of the actual awards for this past year. The recipients of those Lifetime awards certainly earned them, but it seemed rather overdone and boring. Some people might wonder why I didn't mention the Clash tribute. My opinion: nice, but Dave Grohl belongs behind a drum kit.
Basic Radio / My Day Today / My Dad's Truck February 26, 2003 A follow-up on the last post on Basic Radio: I found a second, slower version of "Meat Market." Although it's only encoded at 112/44, the recording is much crisper than the 128/44 version I found before. Frankly, I like the faster version better. It seems to flow and move a lot better. If I can determine all of the lyrics for it, I'll certainly post them on my Music Page. ***** Today was an interesting day. Actually, not a whole lot happened, but I was productive with my time. I attempted to install my old hard drive that failed on me nearly four years ago. No luck; it made the same noises it did the last time I had power to it. It'll sound like it's spinning up, but after a bit I'll hear a somewhat loud "clunk" that sounds like something metal hitting something. I couldn't get my computer to recognize it, so Seagate's software tools were of no help. I got my rebate requests ready for my Paint Shop Pro v7 10th Anniversary Edition and for my 50-pack spindle of TDK CDRs. In total, I should get $60 back. That will drive my cost for Paint Shop Pro down to $29.99 (plus $6.20 tax on the original discount price of $79.99) and $2.99 for the CDRs (plus the $1.01 tax on the original $12.99). I will be very happy once I get these and my heavy income tax rebates. <grins> ***** Tonight at about 6:20pm, a person driving a white sedan slammed into the back of my dad's red truck. Fortunately, all three of us were in the house at the time, though we could clearly hear the collision. When we got outside to see what happened, the other car had driven off. Our truck, which had been parked in front of our house along the street, was pushed a little more than a car length (the truck's length) forward and up into the driveway of our neighbors, narrowly missing one of their cars. The impact bent the left-rear corner of the bed in towards the cab, and the bottom part jutted down and pinned itself against the rear tire (not punctured, and just enough give to allow my dad to back the truck into our driveway). I figured that the White Car hit about a foot or so of its right front against the truck, and the person probably sped off in panic. Some witnesses saw the car as it drove off, and one of them was in an old Volkswagon Beetle. That person drove behind the White Car and saw it hit our truck; unfortunately, she couldn't follow that car very well (old Beetles aren't known for high speeds). The police came and wrote out a report, and a separate report should be mailed to us to fill out. This occurrence pisses me off on too many levels, especially since my car was a relatively minor victim of hit-and-run in front of my house as well (that, and the fact that my dad's birthday was yesterday). This is a clear example of the lack of respect and responsibility that entirely too many people in this world have. Respect seems to be a waning quality, where insults and other aspects of disrespect have arisen in its place. Sure, such things can be funny on TV or in movies, but some people take it too far and mistake cinema for reality. I know the younger generations tend to have a harsh lack of respect for the older generations. Native Americans and other groups value their elders because of their wisdom, and that wisdom comes from experience.. It's experience that the older generations have, and the value of that experience cannot be measured. Granted, we may not agree with their stances, but that does not mean that we should not listen to them. What they may say or think may not be immediately applicable to our lives, but at some point we might see how it will. I've seen and experienced situations where people would not take responsibility for their actions. I remember back as a freshman at Jesuit when I was in Mr. Farrell's English class. Mr. Farrell was an awesome teacher. An intelligent and laid-back person, Mr. Farrell would not put up with any crap from us. One day, someone stole a classmate's hat during class and had it hidden somewhere. Mr. Farrell held us in just before the bell sounded, and he demanded that the hat be given back. Nobody moved. He even threatened to give the whole class detention if nobody spoke up, and he even said that the person would be forgiven if he would just give the hat back that instant. Again, nobody said a thing. I had never experienced such a horrible situation before. I don't know if our classmate ever got that hat back, but that situation was abysmal and an insult to the school and its beliefs. Some people seem to believe that they can beat the temp agencies or just seem to not have any motivation to work. I guess I see this as a certain level of a lack of responsibility: responsibility to oneself. I took a short-term position with a place called Riddio Construction in the summer of 1999. I think I arrived there with two or three other people who were new. It was a Friday, and I remember that because the supervisors usually brought doughnuts on Fridays. After an hour or two, I looked around and felt that some people were missing. It turns out that two of them arrived, had a doughnut, and left. Somehow they were paid the four hours for showing up, but that's probably all the received. To me, this falls under both topics: responsibility to oneself to do the best you can and earn a living; and respect, as in respect for their own work and work discipline. I could go on and on about this, including talking about those dead-beat dads who knock up their girlfriend and take off on the first syllable of, "I'm pregnant." People need to start respecting, of themselves and of others, and taking responsibility for their actions. Maybe kids these days will eventually see the errors of the previous generations and change themselves for the better. Maybe they are already doing that. Whatever the situation is, I hope it happens soon. |
||||
