The Journey

I haven't written in my blog in five days, mainly because I haven't had time to sit down on the computer and type. School and driving really are keeping me on my feet as well as a certain crowd of people. It's good to know that people care about my swearing and are helping me to stop doing so. Every time I swear or curse, I get hit somewhere on my body. Isn't that good motivation to cease? Thanks Jess and Caroline for your support! Those two, such balls of energy and crazy fun. Same goes with pep band. We got two new tunes that I'm really excited about learning. Higher Ground and Walking on Sunshine. Christine does an excellent job singing (when does she not?) and the whole rhythm section is just rockin' it! The first basketball game is this coming Wednesday, an exhibition game against Randolph-Macon. With the amount of work I'm doing and putting in, I can clearly see myself becoming a better person. I still have occasional roadblocks but that's part of the learning process. The path of opportunity is opening itself to me and I'm doing everything I can to walk along confidently and with my head held up high. Here's to my new self-awakening and journey to a better me!

O Clap Your Hands

All ye people, shout unto God with sound of triumph!!

Gah, I've got choir music stuck in my head. I guess that's cool because finally I've become more comfortable and confident with my vocal abilities. Obviously, I'm not letting that develop into an ego but I really am starting to nail down my lines. Yes, this makes me quite happy because originally I was very skeptical about choir. I guess I also owe it to the people I've met IN the choir that made being in rehearsals fun so thanks guys! I really don't have much else to talk about. I just hope the concert goes very well tomorrow night as well as the football game. Like I'm worried we won't crust Detroit....Please don't let me eat my words...CRUSH EM BOYS. :)

So Near, So Far

Today just passed by me so quickly, I didn't notice much. I was very out of it because I wanted to sleep. I swear, I can't keep driving all the damn time. I've decided that I will be moving out no later than Mid January. I seriously have to because it'll make my life so much easier. I've got a lot saved up and the apartments are very VERY close to campus. The average rent is about $1200 so with others helping to pay/live, it'll be cheaper. Of course, if I find nobody, I'm still gonna move out. It's just gonna be tough to pay each month on my own but I'm sure I will manage. Somehow.

I'm getting my music for guitar down. Still having trouble on a couple songs but spending more time on them will help me to improve. Choir concert on Sunday! Dress rehearsal first at 10am Saturday. Ugh, isn't that a pain in the ass. We have a gig with the Green Machine for the football game but it's supposed to storm. Maybe it'll be cancelled or maybe it wont' storm. We'll see. Either way, busy weekend for me. Tomorrow night I'll be spending the final night with Wendy/Hunter/the kids. Then they're off to Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Lucky them, I wish I could go. I'll go visit them every now and then to hang out and maybe ski/snowboard. Either way, looking foward to this weekend and I'll hope for the best!

Hands On In Between

Pretty random title for a post, isn't it? Well this is Paul Van Dyk's title of his latest album. I've been listening to his stuff quite extensively as of late. He's much more upbeat and dance-oriented than Tiesto, in my opinion. Tiesto's got the love and romantic side of stuff down to a science but now I see why Dyk is liked a whole lot by the hardcore fans. Anyways, the titles on this album strangely converse with my feelings; Complicated, Get Back, Far Away, Castaway, In Circles, New York City. Ok well the last one doesn't, but I thought it'd be funny to put it in here, hehe. I'm telling you people. Trance is the best music for me to listen to when it comes to calming me down. It's extremely upbeat and although they talk about sad or depressing subjects sometimes, at least they have exhilariting music to go along!!

My day wasn't too interesting, I just ended up doing the same old. I guess I feel much better now that I'm in possession of my guitar. I played for hours today and it felt extremely comforting to just wail away at my repitoire for Juries. I'm starting to get better with those pieces too, except for April in Paris. I'm still confused as hell as to what inversions of chords I have to play. I'll just wait until my teacher returns from his gig. Speaking of gigs, I'll sure as hell be getting more of those!!! Woo Green Machine! I've totally entered into Mason Spirit mode, and it's about time. My family kept saying "when are you gonna go to those games?" Well, I'll be at almost every one of them now, except I'm with the band now!

Yeah, so I'll conclude this post by saying that I hope you people make the right choice in a few weeks, voting the right man into the Oval Office. You all know who to pick. Now go. :)

Daily Update

So I got my guitar back today. Finally! I can't wait to play it tomorrow. :) And I just finished revising my english essay! I didn't read the stuff for Hamlet but we'll just go over it in class anyways. School was pretty chill today but I didn't get much done. Keyboarding wasn't too bad. I got through my assignment but am not looking forward to the next one, ugh. Theory was easy because I already know how Neopolitan Sixth chords are constructed and used. I'm doing better with the choir music but I still need to work on preps and counting. History midterm was a breeze. It seriously took me no more than 20 minutes. I wonder if people actually read this. Hmm. Anyways, overall it was a meh day. The weather's getting so nice! Yeah it's cold every now and then, but at least it's sunny! I should start taking more pictures. I'm bringing my camera tomorrow. Oh yeah, I got work tomorrow too but no pep band reherasal, boo. Oh well, we'll rock this Saturday that's for sure. Go Green Machine rhythm section! Yes, that includes you too Christine, haha!

Green Machine

So if there's any reason why I haven't updated this blog enough, I've got two words. Green Machine. Ever since joining pep, it's really got me on my feet in terms of learning the music and playing with the band. Our rhythm section is pretty beast. Seriously. Charlie and Ted keep the groove on bass while John pounds away on those ferocious drums. Dave rips it up on guitar and I back him up, with the occasional soloing going on whenever he's not around. There isn't much else to talk about really. I'm just living life to the fullest. I want to take pictures of these events but I'm too busy to do so. I'll find someone in the band to take pics on my camera and I'll put them up on facebook.

Short and Sweet

Not gonna take the time to make a long post here. Lots of shit has been going on and I'm dealing with it. Some good, some bad. Either way, it's getting taken care of. Tomorrow is MASON MADNESS and I am PUMPED! I can't wait, it's gonna be pretty fucking epic. I feel so welcomed in the family and it's a wonderful feeling. I hope my guitar gets fixed soon, I miss it. BOSS has the most amazing pedals. I don't know why I haven't acquired any more than the DS-1....well that's gonna change tomorrow! Yay for special financing deals with my credit card!! Alright, I'm out.

Tortured Soul

Why must I feel like complete shit. Why must I get yelled at for every single action of mine. I swear, if all I'm going to be hearing is arguing and bullshit, then please just chop off my ears right now. I can be a musician and be deaf, I don't care. I'm just sick and tired of crap. And to make matters worse, my damn guitar head snapped in half from my neck. My Epiphone Dot Studio too. I love that thing, yet the things I love seem to just anger me these days. Doesn't that suck? Hell, even making music is angering me. I tried to come up with a chord progression for a song and I got pissed off. For no reason too. I just don't want to be doing any work. I want a week off. I just want to be free. I feel so trapped and confined in my own little prison. How do I break free? The key is gone and it pisses me off trying to find it. Knowing my luck, it's around here somewhere but I'm too oblivious and stupid to see it. Yep, I'm obviously a retard. Everyone can agree with me on that one, right? No? Oh well, I agree with myself. Selfish much? Maybe I am then. So if that's the case, why would anyone want to associate theirself with me? If you're gonna bitch and complain about how selfish I am, then don't be around me. It's that simple. Do I do it on purpose? Not really. I just know that I must look out for myself first, then others. Perhaps this is a philosophy that is uncommon to you all. Well, deal with it. This is me and you can accept me for who I am or leave me. The choice is yours, not mine. All I know is that I'm struggling here to find myself and free this chaos within my tortured soul. I clearly said this before, but I need to do this on my own. With no help from anyone. Because only I can free myself. So, here's to finding the solution to my problem before it's too late.

Life is like blocks of Tetris...

Seriously, why am I so hooked on Tetris again? Is it because of its use of coordination and thought? I swear, my reflexes are getting MUCH better by playing this damn game again. I love seeing other people try to beat my score but failing miserably. The only one who got close to my Marathon score was Jessica, but she can't beat me haha! Jeanine got close in Ultra but nope. She can't beat me either. Nobody can! Muahaha. Well maybe someone will, but then I'll crush them right back!

In other news, I'm feeling better. Let's just hope I can continue to stay this way. Pep Band! I got the call from Doc Nix to backup D-Roth and/or jump in whenever he's gone woohoo! I thank Christine for setting up this meeting, so thank you so much for referring me to him! Speaking of music, I just got this Digital DJ System mixer by M-Audio at Best Buy today. I picked it up because it was tax-free weekend in the store and only cost me 10o bucks. I'm anxious to try it out very soon after I finish burning Paul Van Dyk's The Politics of Dancing 2 compilation. Yeah, call me crazy for getting into the trance/dance scene but hey, it's a lot of fun to be involved in. I can't tell you how much I love being in a state of ecstasty while I'm on the dance floor. It's an invigorating feeling that I never want to go away. Just like my love for Jeanine. <3

Stress

Why am I so stressed out? I really need to calm down. My thoughts are going at about a million miles an hour. I'm doing everything in a speed that is extremely uncontrollable. Hell, I'm even typing fast right now. I should probably slow down otherwise I'll never be calm. But how can I? My keyboarding midterm is tomorrow! This is my last level of keyboarding and I have to pass if I don't want to repeat the class again/fall behind. Same goes for sight-singing III. I'm going to do what I should've done a while ago and that is write my schedule down on a piece of paper. I figured this should help me stick to the plan and make adjustments accordingly if needed.

At any rate, I really don't feel too highly of myself. No, this isn't me asking you for pity. This isn't me asking you to tell me if I'm a good person or not. This is just me feeling like complete shit about myself. I personally don't believe that I'm a great person, and I've got proof. Hell, I've even stated before that if I met me, I wouldn't be friends with me. Seriously, I can't find any good traits about me other than I actually care about others' feelings compared to most men. I'm not a good lover though. I'm not good enough for anyone, that's for sure. Changes definitely need to be made. I really need a big makeover because this Gary isn't working for me. Maybe you all can agree with me here. I don't want people to lie to me about this subject. Perhaps I really am an annoying idiot who just talks and talks and doesn't shut the fuck up. *sigh* I'm just unsure as to what the future holds for me. I've always said only you can determine your future. Well if I keep going like this, my future is going to do nothing but stress me out and hold me back. Fuck, I'm on a train bound for hell. I need to stop this. Lord, please help me. I'm crying out for help, please answer my call...

The Good The Bad The Ugly

I swear, I should just move into Guitar Center. I practically live there. I've gotten to know the people that work there and they all love me. They know how much of a valuable customer I am. Finally, I've applied for a Guitar Center credit card and got approved. So I went out and bought my BOSS Micro BR! I've put it to use and oh man it's quite amazing. I'm bringing it with me to school everytime I practice so if you see me busy as hell, I'm busy recording (finally!). My guitar teacher kept saying I should record my chord changes so I can improvise using them. I kinda suck at my changes so I'll see if I can record my guitar teacher playing them. Otherwise, I'll just do it myself.

In non-guitar news, I've been a bit stressed out as of late. It really sucks, because I just feel so confused, hurt, bogged down and lonely. I hate this feeling. Maybe I did it to myself. Maybe others have caused me to feel like crap. I really really don't know and I don't want to be pointing any fingers here. So I'll just take the safe route and blame myself. Why? Because it's probably the right thing to do. I'm going to continue watching TV and relax before calling my love. No more ranting.

Victory!

Before I go on about the stuff I listed previously, I'll start off by saying Hail to those damn Redskins. Talk about a gutsy performance. They came back from being down by 2 touchdowns to win 23-17. With 4 wins in a row, I think it's safe to say we're a playoff contender. Don't mess with the Skins. :)

Ok now on to my topics. I've recently discussed the pros and cons about getting a macbook with my mom and Hunter. My original intent was to buy a laptop that will get me through school and other small personal uses. But now that I'm heavily involved with music and I've got lots of goodies to help me record music, I need a system capable of handling those duties. Macs are pretty popular when it comes to recording software usage and music notation things like Finale. Plus if I get a mac, I can finally use my KeyRig25 MIDI controller. FINALLY. So it'll cost me about a grand plus tax. Not too too shabby. I'll see how much I can save up until lets say late November/early December.

Concerts eh? This past summer, me and Jeanine didn't really go to "concerts" but instead, we ended up going to Ibiza. Pretty much the best place ever/best thing to do on the weekends. I remember always having trouble with what to do on the weekends. Well whenever we're free/able to, Ibiza! Plus we can easily get put on the guestlist. Hoo-rah! Over the course of 3 months, we were able to see the top 3 dance artists in the world: BT, Tiesto and Armin Van Buuren! Woo! I can't wait until we go back. Which better be soon.

I would talk about nerdy guitar stuff butttt I have to continue reading. I just finished eating dessert and got distracted with thinking about writing in my blog. Ok back to work! I gotta work on keyboarding too ugh. All work and no play! I wanna play guitar....I wanna see Jeanine. I'll see her tomorrow. At least I can talk to her tonight! :)

First Post

Well well well, here I am giving this another shot. I'm hoping this time around, things will go to my liking. Anyways, it's been six weeks since school has started. So far, school is going very well this time around. I made it my goal to start off my sophomore year without stress and crap lingering around me. Have I achieved it? The semester isn't over yet and anything can happen, but I'm very optimistic in this sense so I'm gonna go with a yes I have and will continue to achieve it. I'm getting my practicing done and my school work is vastly improving from last year. I've become so accustomed to practicing very often that my guitar skills aren't lacking at all. This is a good sign that I'm practicing my guitar the correct way. I probably owe it to my ability to listen to other players around me as well as receiving very useful advice on what I should be doing. My teacher is simply amazing at what he does. I really hope I can be just as good with my students. Oh my students! I'll talk about that next post so I can have something to say. I just wanted to make this brief. I figured last time I talked about stuff, I kept going on and on but barely had anything to talk about for the following post. I know better and I don't make the same mistakes twice. Anyways, this concludes the first (fourth, really) post and coming up on the next one is...

-New computer?
-Updates on concerts/events!
-Nerdy guitar stuff (maybe this is on the third post)


[Note to self, I shall make a list at the end of each post to know what to talk about next time.]