APE was BANANAS

a full detailed account to be reported soon.

Seems just about right
Dead-end theories of things I love to hate
There's nothing like seeing your face, your smile, on a daily basis.
Hell, if I saw you once in a year, that feeling will not have been erased.
When you give me that look, however brief or protracted, I am simultaneously destroyed and rebuilt.
It's a sin what I think of you sometimes, but I can seriously live with that guilt.

In my mind's eye, I can remember every detail, the minute features that make you what you are and unique.
I'm a devil, you're an angel, it's chaotic cacophony when I think, melodic symphony when you speak.

There's nothing about you that I don't love, but it's what I become that I hate.
A walking catastrophe, absent-minded, my thoughts register too little, too late.

What is this that you've done to me? What voodo did you do, did you do?

My waking moments are filled with images of you constantly.
Ambiguity is the rule to the way that we play this game.
Lucidity is what I want, and it's that fact that's the real shame.

Existence is vapid and shallow at this lowest of lows, and my hopes are rapid and fleeting like death throes.
FUCK the doubt, fuck the dark history, fuck friendship and it's benefits and gains.
I AM THE BULLET, YOU ARE THE TRIGGER, POINT THE BARREL AT MY HEAD AND BLOW OUT MY BRAINS.

Valentines didn't turn out as uneventful as I thought. I ended up rolling out to Dobhie's house, since that's where most of the adults went to gamble. They had an ample supply of food to eat, which was good enough to keep me occupied. The cool part was that I was able to drive my dad over there in the MERCEDES. Hell yeah. Geno and Dobhie were there that night, and they told me that there was actually something to do on Friday night. Too bad my phone had died early on Friday, and I was unable to give him a call about it.

Hm. So Sunday has shaped up to be another surprising day in a string of days that have...well, surprised me. Went to church, big woop. BUT, being at church is always something to look forward, if only to spy on the really hot girls that go there. But this Sunday took the fuckin cake when it comes to a church day that has THE HOTNESS. For one, I spotted a cute girl that's also my classmate. Rad.
And then...as the offering is about to moved up to the priest at the altar, I see HER. (I'm sorry if I'm starting to confuse you readers with my many references to a "HER") This is not the same girl as I have ranted about before, this is the long standing Crush of all Crushes, dating back from AT LEAST 8th grade back in Samuel Jackman Middle School.
Ok, so she is bringing up the offering, and I could barely comprehend the moment, as I was sincerely DUMBFOUNDED by seeing her here, of all days, of all places, of all times.
I picked up my jaw and reinserted it with my mouth, and quickly shook the dumbfoundedness off. This girl is the queen supreme of my dreams, she physically and personally blends the best things I like. As she walked past my aisle to return to her pew, I kind of give a quick glance up, but just as quickly duck low so that maybe she doesn't see me as she walks within a mere two feet of my position.
Church mass ends, and I make my way out, hoping to get home as quickly as possible to shake off the feeling of just SEEING HER. You see, I have been communicating with this girl recently by way of Friendster. And even through this rudimentary form, I can still sense how rad she is after all these years. Sadly, I'm still too pussy to even TRY to get a number or a more personal way of talking to her. Actually, I'm just hoping that one day soon, I will genuinely bump into her somewhere out there, and we will have a grand conversation in which I can gain her number in a worthy fashion.
But anyway, I wait outside for the rest of my family to filter out, and this girl has already gotten in her car and is leaving the parking lot. My dad is right behind her car in our mercedes, and I look towards him, but catch her eye. She gives me a quick wave and that beautiful smile, and I return it. My existence has temporarily been validated.
Enough of that.

After the hub-bub of church, I was finally able to get to the important work at hand: designing websites. So far, I've just about finished respark's main site. For now, this page will be every visitor's welcome, with more content to be added as I figure it out what to add.

Somewhere during the day, Elissa gave me a ring to tell me that she, along with her sister Arlene, are to stop by my place. Arlene had a research paper to work on which involved my participation in a survey. Cool enough.

Later during the night, I got a call from Jun, telling me the things I've been waiting for since Friday. He scored me two things I requested of him. PROPS homeboy.

Now, I'm once again neglecting webdesign work, and randomly lollygagging online with my peers, one of whom I'm giving some pointers when it comes to sequential art. Yay. Too bad some of the key people I'd hope to be online right now AREN'T on. WAY too many people leave their away messages up.

Happy Valentines Day, fuckers

So this is the infamous day, and I have successfully dodged the possibilities of my further humiliation. One year ago, I went out on a date with the girl I thought could be THE ONE, or at least, THE ONE until I actually found the real deal holyfield. All was well with the date, until I did something that forever changed the course of that night and our relationship. I broke my 6 CD changer. This event led to all kinds of fucked up shit, from her ex-boyfriend joining us on that date to me eventually not wanting to see her for a while, and then her randomly showing up and resparking a retardedly doomed thing. BAH.

This year, I saw the omens far ahead of time, I knew what I could do and what I HAD TO DO. As far back as before the cabin-trip, I knew I was recklessly hurtling to this day: Valentine's Day. I even referred to this day many blogger entries ago, that in the struggle of love between man and woman, Valentines Day was the inevitable D-Day for the war's turning point.
The difference in this year was even more clear as the V-Day approached. Thursday was a good day, TOO good a day. It was our official end of the week, as my school had Friday and the coming Monday marked as holidays. That night, there was a party/BBQ at Jen's house, where it was essentially the usual crowd, dominantly male and mostly single. Alex was already feeling the grasp of Valentines dark side, where the depression of singlehood can feel like there is no bottom. I was at that edge with him, but at the same time stradling the opposite side: risking my dignity and actually going on a date with a girl who's I'm starting to see as a representation of THE ONE. But Thursday was the HIGH point of this horrible period of time. Friday would come to be the nail in the coffin.
For once, the old gang was almost fully assembled: Ryan was driver, Orlando/Frank had come out of hiding, Jaime was the legal representative, and Alex and I were there for the ride...or I thought. Alex was still in the throes of sickness, but came along with us; I had hoped his addition to the party mobile would prove this Friday to be a great night to be out. FUCK, were we wrong. As we strolled into the downtown maze, all was quiet, eerily quiet. Infusion, a new cafe that opened up a few weeks back, was desolate. We tried getting in touch with friends who could point us to a fun thing to do: no dice. We dropped by Hollywood Video to see Nolan, still no idea what to do. We headed back to my house to re-coup. Nothing. So we end up getting a call from Nolan on his way out of work. We chill in the shopping plaza parking lot, still coming up with a plan of action on this, yet ANOTHER "Fun Friday." It seemed the entire city had slept for that night.
Finally, the option was taken to go to Mr. Perry's to have a late snack and hang-out. Lo and behold, Perry's was the busiest place this night.
Luckily, Mr. Chris Lee was there to surprise us with his presence, and we ended up just hanging out shooting the breeze from that point on.

And now, it is Saturday, St. Valentine's day. It's 6:40, and I am doing nothing. Have I succeeded in evading a possible replay of last year? Or have I failed to drive myself out of this rut? Maybe I'll figure that out in the coming days.

FUCKSHITASSFUUUUCK

I just checked my bank account online, and I've got the bill for buying respark.net... $333.60. HOLYSHIT. Help, anyone?

Hahaha, don't worry about it. I've got a meager amount of savings in there, which means I'll be throwing in the minimum for a while. Until I get a job, that is. If not... I AM SO FUCKING SCREWED UP THE ASS.

So, the belt is going to have to be tightened from here on out, every penny pinched. Whatever pitance I get will go straight to the bank, to keep me afloat above the dark depths of Davy Jones' locker of bad credit rating.

On the bright side, my risky venture has some signs of worth, as I think I was able to recruit (with the immense help of Travis/Diabolicol) this talented mofo that goes by the alias Fel.
Also, my mentor and hero Wil (dub317) has resurfaced, with a new site in the works. We had a pretty cool convo goin on tonight, in which he urged me to make a photoshop tutorial for him. Imagine that, my old mentor is asking me to teach him a thing or two. That's crazy.

But eh, the dreaded Valentines is fast approaching, and I'm out of viable options to consciously dodge that night. Will I cave and ask this certain girl out? Or will I stay ice cold and try to find a party to drown away the memory of last year's horrible date? (Please refer to blog entry 2/09/2003-2/15/2003)
I sure as hell can't try to go spend-crazy this time around.

I should really get off this before I forget about the many projects I've got to get out of the way. Ta-ta.

We come with the boom to bring you your doom

RESPARK the fuse

Ho-ly shit. I was 'lucky' enough to bump into HER on my tardy way to class this morning. I was somewhat jittery, but I can attribute that to the fact that it was quite cold at the time. But yeah, we exchanged a bit of small talk, glad that she recognized me. well, its not like it was hard to do so, since I gave her a surprised look and slightly exclaimed, "Oh hey! It's you." Smooth man, real smooth. anyway. SHE TOTALLY ROCKS MY WORLD. except I have NOFUCKINCHANCE at her. it's okay, everyone is entitled to their dream.

Speaking of dreams, when I got home, I took a mid-day nap, because I had nothing better to do (and I was waiting for the DNS to finally load my goddamned account). Within the nap I had, was probably one of the oddest vibed dreams I've had in recent memory. It was winter in the mountains, possibly the next cabin trip with the friends. The same crowd was present, plus Alex. In one moment, I am happily enjoying the outdoors with 'the girl,' (not the same one mentioned earlier in this post) when I ultimately foul up the blissfulness of our time together. I think we were lightly rough-housing, when she pushes me back a bit. I push her back, and taunt her to come at me. She does so, with this angelic smile on her face. Instead, I actually let her playfully pounce on me, but I counter her momentum and viciously toss her aside. I smiled briefly, with all the childish whim of a school-yard bully. She, rising slowly from the ground, flashes me this glance of pure hatred and dispondent loathing. I realize the stupidity of what I had just done, but it was too late. She got up, wiped the tears forming from those beautiful big eyes of hers, and runs off back to the cabin. I try to chase, but she's ahead of me and inside. When I reach the cabin, I ask my cabin-mates where she's gone, but all they tell me is that she came in and ran outside through another door, crying. FUCK!
I catch up to her outside, where shes leaning against the wall, with her back to me. I try to approach quietly, and slowly whisper her name, trying to show that I'm truly and deeply sorry. She's still crying, and tells me to go away (or rather, to "Fuck Off"). I come closer, and put my hand on her back, rubbing it, to give her a sense of assurance of my genuine intentions. She gives me a slight glance, but still won't accept my presence. I grab both of her shoulders and try to turn her towards me, to face me and look me square in the eyes. TO UNDERSTAND THAT I CARE AND HOW MUCH I WANT TO REGAIN HER TRUST AND FORGIVENESS. I try to explain, with all kinds of worthless excuses, and she quiets them all when she tells me, "You really hurt me, I never expected you to hurt me." CRAP. I start sputtering how much I care and that I'd never intentionally hurt her, and I can see that her coldness is starting to soften. Somewhere in my stammering, I must have slipped in the forbidden words of "I," "Love," and/or "You." At that point, I am essentially professing my hidden love for her. She now knows this.
A voice from inside the cabin calls out, and my attention is divided for a fraction of a moment. But in that slight frame of time, something happens that even my own mind (which created the dream) could not understand. My head is turned towards the door I left open, but she grabs my face and pulls me in close. Her lips, those insatiable lips, closes in on mine, and in an instant she is kissing me. I am stunned momentarily, but it does not take me long to realize that THIS is what I've always wanted. We're kissing, and it feels better than anything I could imagine in real or fantasy. And then it stops.
More people are calling out for us, and possibly looking for me or her. We look towards the sound of their voices, hesitant that they might come upon this moment. Instead, I lift my hand towards hers, assuring her that it's ok, fuck what they think. I tell her, "don't worry about them." We kiss once more, and then...
DAMMIT, I wake up.

FUCKFUCKSHITFUCK.

Wild Nights

Friday may have been just another lame Friday for some, and in truth, it could have very well been one for me. Rather, my Friday was spent in an old 'past-time' that me my group of friends enjoy: REVELRY. That night was host to a party of such harrowing magnitude that has not been seen since the week-long fun-fest of this year's cabin trip. Think of it this way, the only person that WASN'T intoxicated in any way was NOLAN. That, my friends, is saying alot, as he did not even partake of the "chief" as Alex puts it (and oddly, he's the ONLY one I know who puts it that way). It started off with a few phone calls the day before, giving me word that Diana was hosting Cindy's 21st birthday at her place. Within minutes of me being told about it from the lady herself, I was semi-bombarded with queries from a couple of people about the party. I am not one to start or instigate drama, but somehow, I knew I would be in the fuckin THICK of it by attending. Lo and behold, I was the agent of such dramatics that I am somewhat regretting my actions.
Okay, Friday night, I meet up with Alex at his apartment, looking to kill some time before the scheduled 11pm party start. After a few minutes of deliberation, we could not find anything action-packed enough to sate our boredom. It seemed like our night would replay into another one of those "Fun" Fridays. Already, we're heading towards the inevitable insanity that was to come. He and I stop by Adam's place, to chill and get our slack on. We grab a six-pack of Sierra to spark the early buzz and play eighty or so games of Tekken. Before we know it, 11PM is rolling by, and it is nearly time that the party is to start. And so the quandary becomes clear: Will Adam go to Cindy's party with us? OHSHIT, that would be CRAZY. For those not in the general know, Adam and Cindy were together for quite a bit a while back. I would not say they are on the best footing with one another. The possibility is considered, and Alex and I urge Adam to attend, with the most malicious of grins on us. Essentially, we thought we could at least score some shock-value, as in, "Holy shit, Adam is here!" Instead, I chose to forego the 'surprise' guest appearance of Adam, and minded the sentiments of Diana and Cindy. I give Dee a call, asking if I could speak to Cindy. Being the 'insider' that I am, I would use my standing as being good friends of both Diana and Cindy to work the situation to our advantage. Knowing that Cindy was questioning inviting Adam in the first place, I knew that she could not refuse, on this the day of her birthday. BIMBAM, she says yes, after hesitantly asking Diana if it's ok.
SCORE! I have just bought Adam a ticket into a party we knew would be crazy. It was the beginning of the semester, parties aren't exactly abundant around here, so anything we would come across was guaranteed to be unique in it's own way.
And so it was. Although I stopped at around "Round 2," I remember that the others got to at least "Round 5." Diana's balcony was once again home to the smokers of the party, which comprised of more than half the kids there. Roberta and her brother Eli were there, as well as Jen, Rob, Nick, and Pat. Jaime rolled with Ron, and Jasmine & Kiel were present as well. A friend or two of Diana's made late appearances, and Nolan came right after his shift ended at work. As usual, Eli provided the veteran experience of concocting drinks, while the rest of the kids lounged about getting increasingly inebriated with each passing hour. At the height of the festivities, almost half the people at this small kick-back were lit, and all but one person was at least buzzed. For a while, Nolan and Jen went AWOL in the direction of the swings, and five of us wandered out to the park looking for those same swings. Nick was the unofficial champion of liquor drinking, as I had not seen him stop once when it came to taking shots. Kiel was quite elevated, but his liquor consumption was fairly low that night, thankfully. Alex was hit pretty badly when it came to the liquor, as he had not drunken this much lately. It also didn't help that his Ms. B. declined his drunken offer to stop by the party. At the peak of the night's drunkeness, the DRAMA that I inadverdently caused had reached an inescapable crescendo. Adam and Cindy were faded at this time, and I had watched them engage in mild small talk, all the signs of amiable conversation. At this point, I spotted something that I knew would happen: they were re-enacting signs of lovey-dovey mushy shit, full-on cuddle/embrace mode. In my mind, the words OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT recycled endlessly. Not many people put too much attention in this, since they were all caught up in their stupors, and what was I supposed to do? I played it cool, hoping that this would not escalate into very loud WHATHEFUCK's. Hell, I had warned Adam of this earlier, and tried to make the point clear. NO HANKYPANKY, this is a casual 'friend-zone' party! Alas, my fear had come to pass, and to top it, Diana walks past them on the couch, and is still coherent enough to finally see this and says with a surly, yet reprimanding voice, "Whats THIS?"
Shiiiiiiit.
All in all, there wasn't any major hitches, Alex didn't get into any fights as he had forewarned, thank heavens. The most concern I had to express over my compatriots was towards Pat, who kept asking people to slap him. He's an odd drunk. By the time 4am rolled by, I was reasonably clear-headed, and Ron was just as sober, as he had stopped drinking at the same round as me. Jaime gave me back my keys, since Ron and I entrusted our keys to him earlier in the night. Nick and Kiel played hockey on Diana's pool table, and unfortunately Dee was at the point that she was either up or out. She was out when they were playing hockey. Alex crashed on the round chair, only to awaken with Jen and Jasmine curled in the couch with him. Much to Pat and Kiel's encouragement/dismay. The party eventually filtered out, and I over-shot my initial plan of getting home by 3am. Oh well, that's the 'party' life. Hah.

HAHAHAHAHHA

wed.feb.04. 5:04:50pm
Auditory therapy
It's been a while since I've been to a decent concert (Hieroglyphics being the last one I really went to), and it hasnt been since summer of 2002 that I actually went to a real rock concert (Warped Tour 2002). Radiostar playing at CRC doesn't really count. Ever since last summer, when I found out about bittorrent, I've sampled a ridiculously insane amount of music genres. A year ago, I wouldn't have half a fuckin clue that %90 of the music I've listened to since then even EXISTED, let alone played good music.
I don't mean to name-drop like OH-SO many "hipster" fucks like to do out in HXC, scenester "indy-land," but I think it's worth mentioning (at least to me, personally) all the bands and performers I've genuinely listened to and seriously enjoyed. And no, not the kind of "oh, I like these guys because it's what the cool kids listen to." Most of the band names the "cool kids" drop are usually lukewarm at best with me.

112
Possibly my most favored R&B group, they've come back after many years of nothing. A must-listen, considering they're GREAT sexin' music.

311
The very beginnings of all things rock for me. I first heard their debut album back in middle school, when a classmate let me borrow the CD. Seeing as how they've endured since I had my first listen, I just had to indulge myself and finally get their From Chaos album.

Aesop Rock
This man is smooth. The lyrical content, the flow patterns, the vocal delivery. One man wrecking crew of the hip-hop world. When he finally catches on with the rest of the deluded fuckers, I'll smile from ear-to-ear as mainstream is shown, "what's really good." Plus, he's white, so fuck Eminem, hahah.

Atmosphere
Another cool emcee, with more of an angsty edge about him. The only album I have of him, God Loves Ugly, deals a lot with romantic rejection and shit. Still pretty cool.

Belle & Sebastian
A scottish indy/folk rock band I keep reading about online. I decided to give them a try and downloaded a bundle of all their EPs combined. Not bad, not bad at all. The vibe coming from them is totally serene and holistic, and has a slight calming effect on me. Good enough!

Blackalicious
South Sac represent! Actually, I've known about these two for a while, it's just that I was able to get a hold of their A to Z EP recently. Gift of Gab is monstrously great.

The Blood Brothers
Gah, I actually have "Rey" to thank for once in my life. I mean, I respect him, but not hanging all over his nuts like the majority tends to do. But whatever, moving on! This band is crazy. Like some kind of primal scream music, where I'm enthralled for an unexplained reason. It's hard to find their music on the net, as I believe that their quite "underground" that rarely will anyone have a complete discography. Which explains why my compilation is highly incomplete. From what I've heard so far, Burn, Piano Island, Burn and March On! Electric Children rock me hard. "Siamese Gun," and "Cecilia and the Silhouette Saloon" are tracks I find myself singing to uncontrollably.

Brand New
Oh shit, this is THE band. Not quite "underground," not quite "mainstream," this is the sound that made me love punk rock again. Deja Entendu is a solid album, but it's Your Favorite Weapon that got me hooked. I'm just missing one song from their Safety In Numbers split LP. "Mix Tape" is actually starting to sound awesome to me lately.

The Clash
I suck, but they DEFINITELY do not. I think you deserve to kick me in the face for being a true punk-rock poseur by not having listened to The Clash earlier.

Cursive
I liked Domestica most, and generally a hodgepodge of selections from Ugly Organ, Storms of Early Summer, Such Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes, and Burst and Bloom. Have yet to fully hear The Disruption EP and the 8 Teeth to Eat You split LP. This Saddle Creek band has probably been the mainstay of my playlist ever since I caught on to them via Ryan of defuser, whereas I will generally burn a CD or send my iPod and wipe its presence from my hard drive. "The Night I Lost the Will to Fight" and "Art Is Hard" are particular favorites. I titled an English 301 essay after the song "The Game of Who Needs Who the Worst." Heh. I'm not particularly fond of their Saddle Creek counterpart, Bright Eyes, though. I don't really see what other people like about them. That voice, man, that voice. I'd rather listen to a bitch-made crooner like Chris Carraba than Conor Oberst. Personal pref, don't hate.

Dead Prez
I want to be a militant black panther because of their Let's Get Free album. Too late now, I should have bought this album years ago.

Death Cab For Cutie
Whoa. So I said I couldn't stand Bright Eyes' vocals, but somehow Death Cab's vocalist gets to me in a good way. Which explains why I dig The Postal Service as well. From their latest album, I like "Passenger Seat" most, for personal reaons.
Death Cab's other albums are really good as well, and I'm especially liking the sound of You Can Play These Songs With Chords!

The December Drive
Actually, they kind of suck. I like one track O.K., but the rest doesn't jibe well with me (yes, I said JIBE). Well, it's not as bad as listening to Against Me! and that new album As The Eternal Cowboy. That was weird, Jaime even attests to it. Unless I downloaded the wrong album...? But yeah, December Drive is pretty whack, but still a lesson in music sampling.

Deltron3030
I'm slow on music, and I hate myself for never grasping the greatness of this album. I need to upgrade my grey matter.

Electric Six
Where have you been all my life? These guys are crazy-badass. All their songs are highly danceable, like the disco version of Hot Hot Heat. VERY good. Their album Fire is the hotness to the max. I'm glad this kid, Devin, mentioned them. And I think they're playing at COACHELLA!$*#. HOTDAMN!*%@

God Speed You! Black Emperor
Another great blend of rock stylings and another music genre. Something like an experimental fusion of symphonic sound with that "indy" rock edge. And there's no vocals, so it's perfect soundtrack music for meditation and shit. GENIUS. There are more albums in their repertoire, but I was only able to listen to Yanqui U.X.O. I have no idea what the album title even means. I think Bobby recommended this band once. Danke!

GORILLAZ
Old school, I know, but I was finally able to listen to their whole album. M1-A1!

HIM
His Infernal Majesty, a cool Finnish rock band. They've got this hard rock sound to them, but in fact, their album Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights is really about sappy love. Which is good. Their symbol is the heartagram, a great perversion of the pentagram. Their kind of music is dubbed, "Love Metal." Hah, awesome. These guys are great, reminds me of 80's hair bands and their monster ballads.

Hot Hot Heat
HHH is RADNESS in a paper-bag. Retarded analogy aside, the band is great. The lead vocal, Steve Bays, rocks the keyboard like no ones business. "Talk To Me, Dance With Me," is the FUCKIN song. If I could, I would not hesitate to seduce "Ms. B" with this song. Alex knows who I'm referring to. This artista chick, Elysse caught me onto them, despite the fact I would have heard about them on the radio and tv anyway.

Incubus
I've been a more serious fan ever since their Morning View tour came to my town (and I scored two free tickets) and they rocked the fuck out of that arena. I never knew the intensity of "Circles" and "Privilege" could cause the pit to transform into a human wave of gyrating bodies. At the Pennywise show during Warped Tour 2001, I was literally lifted off the ground for a mere second or so, but during this concert I SWEAR I didnt feel the floor for at least 2 minutes. That was rad. I consider "Drive" to be one of my favorite songs ever. A Crow Left To The Murder is sounding really good, too, and I'm glad I was able to get it the night before it was officially released. A megalomaniac is one psychopathologically afflicted with delusions of grandeur and omnipotence.

Interpol
Another great band debuting with a major release album. I had heard of them before, but as usual, had no idea what their sound was like. Now that I've heard it, I love it. It's mellow with tracks like "Untitled and "NYC," but doesn't hesitate to break your neck with "Say Hello To Angels" and "Roland." They've been around the scene, but I was far too ignorant of the music in those days to have been able to embrace this.

Jay-Z
Greatest rapper alive, eh? The point can be argued until the Annunaki come, but the point that is irrefutable is that The Black Album is fucking grand. He pulled out all the stops and went out with the perfect bang. Aside from singles, "Change Clothes" and "The Threat," I truly dig "Lucifer" and "My Name Is Hov."

Ludacris
What happened, maaaannn? You were doing great with Back For The First Time and Word Of Mouf... and then you drop this? Aside from "Stand Up," the only other track that I would find worthy of bumpin in my g-ride is "Hip Hop Quotables." Chicken and Beer is a weak album, nowhere near the sheer bumpnitude of Word of Mouf. For shame.

Mad Capsule Markets
I will make a movie and use their music as the soundtrack to my action sequences. It's going to be instupituous.

The Mars Volta
More rock goodness. The boys of At The Drive In split and would later form two new bands, Spart and this. I remember when Alex first bought their latest CD, De-Loused In A Comatorium, and he bumped it pretty loud in his apartment when we got back. The feel of their sound was unmistakable, and I knew I had to fully enjoy this album sooner or later. Thanks to a trade of music CDs between Alex and I, I was able to swap Incubus' new album, The Postal Service, and The Strokes' Room On Fire for this CD, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a compilation cd called OM Lounge 8. Pretty fair fuckin trade. ROCK.

Muse
Another great find thanks to Elysse. At first, I thought, "Oh, another one of those bands," where I categorized them as some kind of indy rock band with lead vocals that sound whiny. After running through Absolution, I retracted that assumption, because to ASSUME is to make an ASS out of U and ME. Mostly me. I didn't hesitate to get a hold of their older albums, Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry when I had a chance.

OutKast
Ahhh shit. The fiery hotness, or rather, the ice coolness, of this duo is unmatched. THE BEST of southern stylistic cadillac playa rap, because it is more than evident that everything else sucks donkey balls (Ludacris exempt). Loved ATLiens; adored Stankonia; Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is the best double-CD delivery EVER. I want to one day do a rock cover of "Hey Ya!"

Phantom Planet
Just got a hold of this CD today, and it's sounding good to my ears. Not groundbreaking or anything, but it's still passes the test of buzzworthiness. Although I've never fully listened to their last one, The Guest; "California" was a well-received mainstream hit.

Placebo
One of the best bands to ever grace my humble ears. I have no idea how I heard about them, but I would thank whoever exposed me to this band endlessly if I could. After listening to them (as well as most of the other bands mentioned), I formally denounce The Used. Because they suck. Must find Black Market Music and their first, self-titled album. "Bulletproof Cupid" and "Second Sight" are the shit.

The Postal Service
If you've heard of them, then you should already know how great this collaborative duo are. If you haven't, you fucking better go to the goddamned record store and check this shit out. Think electronica, but with Death Cab For Cutie's vocals. Which it is. And it Rocks, capital "R." The beats are infectious, the vox permeates the groove, and voila, instant rock-your-face. "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight," "Such Great Heights" completely defines the validity of this albums ownage. The best part is that it's like listening to old school NES game music. Shitchyeah. Reminds me of Elkland, too. +++

The Strokes
FUCKFUCKFUCK. I <3 this band. Is This It? was great, Room On Fire expands on that same principle. I didn't even realize that I was jammin to this album a full month before it was even released. Thank you, bittorrent. The whole album is pure goldengoldengolden.

The Sex Pistols
More punk rock goodness. Between this and The Clash, I feel like laying waste to my previous punk rock musical tastes. Fuck Blink182, Sum41, Allister, The Starting Line, A Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, etc.

The White Stripes
Elephant is a rad album. The music is catchy, the lyrics engaging, and the overall vibe is great. The cool thing is that I can easily learn just about any song on that album, since it's so simple and effective. I've got "Seven Nation Army" and "The Hardest Button To Button" nearly understood, ready to rock & roll.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Another big thanks to Alex for letting me borrow this CD. Just by listening to their latest album, Fever To Tell, I can already say that I like this band a lot. Like other punk bands out there with female lead vocalists, this band does not dissappoint. They make me miss the good old days of Tsunami Bomb and Lucky Strike.

Hopefully, I'll be able to fully sample the sounds of Every Time I Die, Story Of The Year (maybe), The Pixies (I better!), The Shins, Boys Night Out, Aceyalone, Snow Patrol, The Darkness, Ladytron, and whatever albums or bands I've already mentioned.

Prepostericity prolongated

Fortunately, no more random calls came in today, and ESPECIALLY not from Claudia, thank the deities. Instead, the night degenerated into something of a replay of the other Friday, where we were in desperate need of something fun to do. The "KidD" dropped by eventually, and we chilled like it was 93 til as usual. The usual rabble and conversation were juggled, from the eternal struggles of man with womankind to postulating future events to be experienced. The looming shadow of SDCC is starting to envelop our mind states.
After a visit to Borders, we searched out and kidnapped Jaime as he was walking home. We dropped by Hollywood video to see old boy Nolan. Renee was there, which was another random appearance of unexpected people into my day. Jaime rented some obscure movies, and we proceeded over to the Taco Bell nearby for some grub after some intense deliberation. The night was capped by a routine visit to Jen's house, where Rob, Nick, and Pat were hanging out waiting for Jen to get home.
All in all, this ridiculously "random" day of odd phone calls actually transformed into the same kind of nights we had back in the summer: cruise around, hang out at Jen's.

You can say it was a 'respark' of days past in days present. Hot shit.

postscript: I'm highly incensed now by the prospect of going to Coachella in May and the Atmosphere/Eyedea concert this Friday. ROCK!

postPOSTscript: Not to mention going to this rave/party being thrown by my friend Nick called Squareone on Ryan's birthday. ROLL!

Prepostericity

This is unprecedented. I've gotten an unexpected amount of calls today, from sources that are the least likely to ever call me for anything important. For one, Jaime called me this morning around 11am, because I had left an away message up after I got back from dropping off the little sister to school. It said something about waking me up at 10am, and obviously Jaime failed at the task, but he at least tried. I was finally awake enough to get out of bed thanks to him, and headed to school a bit late.
After class, I checked my phone to see that I had a missed call during class. Usually, I could expect a call from Cheryl over something trivial but THIS was something else entirely. It was a missed call from Diana... I called her up, and we had a short catch-up conversation while I drove back home to grab something. After my last class, I dropped by her place to give her a copy of Incubus' new cd "A Crow Left To The Murder" and hung out with her for a couple of minutes.
Later, my cousin Geno called me up to tell me he's dropping by to borrow my guitar class textbook, and probably roll out with him to the Guitar Center.
Then, Alex the Kidd gives a random call to me, asking to kick-it.
Hot damn, is this "Get Social" Tuesday or something? Geeze, my week is barely half-way over, whats with everyone wanting to chill so suddenly?
Feh, what next, a call from Claudia? As if I didn't earn that surprise during the cabin trip, hah.

Fuck Maslow

I've come to realize that the sum worth of my life can be defined in five or so cycles of activity.

1) The process of sleep and rest
2) The modes of eating, digesting, and excretion
3) The constant, romantic struggle with women and sexual urges
4) Daily usage of digital information via the world wide web
5) Drawing shit.

So there you go, fuck your principles of self-esteem, security, social acceptance and self-actualization, Abe. And tell Sigmund to suck my dick, he'd probably get a real kick out of that, eh?

The Village

M. Night Shyamalan's newest movie. Most def a movie to catch when it comes out in July.

Yesterday, my communications studies class took a slight, pleasant turn in my favor, but for naught. I was fortunate enough to get grouped up with three other classmates in the back area where I sat, one of whom is this really cute girl in the class. Everything was going fine, and we were about to finish preparing a group presentation for wednesday. However, the instructor had the genius decision to whisk me away from the group, only to group me with two of these white guys sitting in front of me, who did not meet the requirements of grouping together. If you were to hear me speak that last sentence, you could probably sense the minute level of derision I add to the enunciation of said classmates I was unfortunately grouped with in the end. My luck runs out once more.

Fuck, I finally got my Transformers Season 1 DVDs back. Now, who ever has my Transformers Season 2 part 1, "The Returner," and "Equilibrium," please, feel free to return those DVDs sometime before I die, ya?

And, yeah, I had this 'vow' to 'quit' smoking until such time that I might somehow defeat the addiction daemon, but have decided to hold that off. One, this 'vow' was made out of respect and the sake of a friendship, which I'm starting to lose sight of. Meaning, I am once again depreciating the value of a relationship I once held dear (d'oh). And two, I figured I'll just move the improbable task of quitting smoking into a different, more manageable timeframe. Lent. 40 days and 40 nights. If I can willingly abstain from masturbation for three months (which I've done in the past. Twice.), a month and 10 days without smoking should be a breeze, right? Maybe I'll try and include alchohol consumption into the mix AND sex. HAH.

A Change is Going To Come

Hold onto your hats and valuables, kiddies, this rock is about to roll.

Yeahhh. I had a total of 2 hours sleep last night, thanks in part to an extra long session of Jedi Academy. Those Dark Jedi had me craving for rematches and flawless duels. At around 11:30am or so, I was going through mild symptoms of disorientation, and my peripheral vision started to 'wiggle' to a very disturbing degree. It was cool and not-cool at the same time. I'm still kind of feeling weird as I type this, like things are real and not real at the same time. Like I'm in the Matrix and somehow I feel like there's something wrong with the world? I dunno, its odd. I attribute it to the abundance of Jedi Academy I've been playing, like when I activate Force Speed and the world kind of stretches like in The Fast and The Furious. Something like that.

Ok, so classes are coo, but books are KILLER. I can barely find my textbooks online. But it's coo, there's a very healthy amount of cute girls surrounding me in just about each class, which is great. And now I lost sense of what my point was. Bah.

There's nothing like slashing stormtroopers while on the back of a taun-taun.

Once again
I've said this quite a few times in the past, buuuuuuutttt...I've been blogging way too often lately. GAWD, the volume of thoughts I've transcribed on here is near-retarded. I should be drawing or something. EH. I've just set this silly little slacker goal/limit to my artistic productivity which goes something like, "I can't really get back to drawing [comics] until I buy more art supplies. This 50 lbs paper isn't working for me, I need to get a hold of either A) heavier quality paper, or B) bristol pads." Thats a really lame excuse. I don't even know the principles behind 50, 65, 70 lbs paper quality. I remember my friend Terence once explained it, but I'm a dumbass whose memory is completely fucked most of the time.

On a less-heavy note, Dewon had me rolling in laughter today. Ah, I've forgotten how ingeniously funny he is. Hopefully Henry throws a party in which we can all hang out like the good old days of highschool; I miss that crowd of friends.

I got lost today, like a common freshman. I walked into a class I partially believed was mine, because I didnt print up or write down my entire class schedule. I was bewildered; I fooled myself into believing the Comm Studies class I walked into was the one that was on my schedule, and that the original professor I thought I had was replaced. The room was crowded, and I stood in the back of the room with a couple other late-comers. I had hoped this professor had gone through the role-call, in hopes that I could clarify whether I was enrolled in it or not. Instead, the professor was instituting this "introduce yourself" exercise. I had the idea that I'd wait until they come to me, when I would say something stupid like, "Hi, my name is Rodney, Rod for short and... I don't know whether I'm enrolled in this class or on the waiting list...but I'll play along with this game anyways." I eventually figured that this class was, indeed, not the one I belonged in. I think I wanted to stay in that class to pull off this stunt just because there were a couple of really cute girls in there. Oh well, my other Comm Studies classes have plenty of girls in there for me to impress with my dashing good looks and rapier wit. Bah.