This is the end...

So after realizing that it had been almost three months since I last made an appearance here, I think it's ok to officially call it quits.

At least for now.

The thing is, I've fallen victim to Facebook and I find it much easier to update and keep up with. Anything that I find worthy of social commentary will be located there.

We may return at some point, but don't hold your breath.

Thanks to those that ever stopped by!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1184196377&ref=profile

But I fell on black days... How would I know that this could be my fate...

Today I would like to talk about the tale of two musical acts. While I may be a bit premature in one judgement I feel compelled to talk about it now, so oh well.

Let me start with the bad news that I'm certain about...

Chris Cornell, what has happened to you over the last few years? We used to be so close and now I feel as though I hardly know you. In fact, I can barely even look at you. From the designer jean endorsements and "Billie Jean" cover to the tour with Linkin Park and your new album produced by Timbaland, where did we go wrong? Was it something I said? Did I piss you off somehow? If the guy that once melted my face with songs like "Hands All Over", "Loud Love", and "Slaves & Bulldozers" is now truly happy paying Timbaland a million bucks per track to produce so he can sing over loops and drum machines, then so be it. But if you think for one second that you are going to gain more fans than you are going to lose by heading in this direction you are way off the mark. I'm all about re-invention and not rehashing out the same stuff over and over again (i.e. Audioslave), but seriously...



And now to the good news!

Metallica, it's good to have you back. Granted I'm only basing this on two songs so far, but after years of empty promises it seems as though you have actually come through this time around. "The Day That Never Comes" sounds like it could have been on "...And Justice For All" and "Cyanide" seems to at least deliver the goods live, even though I have yet to hear the studio version. In a year where R.E.M. put out the comeback album of the century, it appears as though you won't be going quietly either. I am of course reserving the right to take all of this back once I hear the whole album.

So there you have it. In less than a day I have heard new music from two of my all-time favorite artists and it has left me with the mixed emotions above. One is now dead to me while the other seems reborn. I suppose it could have been worse if they both sucked horribly, but why couldn't they have both blown me away?

Now playing: "Bye" by Elliott Smith from the album "Figure 8"

It's only a quarter to three...

Well at least it was when I got here, but I am at work after all so I suppose that should take precedence.

- Why hasn't there been more of a fuss over the Chinese women's gymnastics team? They all look like they are 12 years old and cannot be a day over 14. There is hard evidence that supports this yet a blind eye is turned probably because somewhere somebody's family is waiting to be tortured if they take away their medals. But they're such wonderful hosts...

- Is that Jamaican runner's last name really "Bolt"? C'mon...

- R.I.P. Leroi Moore of the Dave Matthews Band. I've always been rough on the DMB but I always respected the talent of the guys in his band and Leroi was the best at what he did.

- Erin and I had a bit of a miscommunication through email yesterday that ended with her going ALL CAPS on me when she ended with "I HATE YOU!". We have now agreed to talk on the phone if at all possible.

- $5 Quizno's > $5 Subway

Now playing: "Freak" by Belle & Sebastian from the album "Storytelling"

I want to rock n' roll all night...

Keep It Simple Stupid

This will be my new philosophy, so let's get to it...

-Xavier is beyond walking now, almost to the point of running. While it's good to see that he's making progress, parenting has suddenly become a little more challenging.

-Barack Obama will be in our town tomorrow but tickets were basically gone before the word got out. That's probably a good thing knowing the kind of conservative nut jobs we have in our area.

-Michael Phelps should be the next Terminator, as he is clearly a machine and not human. I'm kicking myself for refusing to watch the first few days of the Olympics because I thought the coverage at night was all on tape delay. Of course once I realized this was not the case I was able to watch his last three events as they happened.

-My "rock" band played a show for the first time in years and had less than a week to prepare, but we actually pulled it off all things considered.

-My "church" band has been recording some originals for the last few weeks and hope to have something together for when we play Day in the Park on September 13th.

-Madden NFL 09 is actually pretty good and fun to play this year.

-Erin has discovered the series of books known as "Twilight", courtesy of our neighbor, and has become obsessed over the last couple of weeks and is finally on the last one.

-Eddie Vedder played two solo shows in Washington DC this past weekend and yours truly did NOT go to either one. Somewhere somebody named Erin is proud of me.

From this point forward, I'm going to list the song that's playing on my iPod when I get to the end of the post. Why? I'm not really sure, but since 99% of my posts will be made while I have my iPod playing, I thought it would be fun to keep track. For the record, there are currently 10,396 songs on my iPod and right now it's playing...

"Metal Heart" by Cat Power from the album "Moon Pix"

All these words that I hear spoken... just promises broken now

Hey look at that! Today is the 27th and my last entry was on the 29th, so I appear to be right on schedule.

I did make it to the Pearl Jam shows last week so that was a blast as always. Seeing Ed pull some 13-year old kid on stage to jam on "All Along the Watchtower" (with his guitar no less) was really cool. I couldn't help but think that how for the rest of his life he can tell his friends that he was on stage with Pearl Jam. Anyways, here he is in all of his glory:



This makes a total of 18 times I've seen them now and I have to say the DC show on Sunday was probably the best overall with the VA Beach somewhere in the 10-18 range.

Our house is still treating us well. Yes there are boxes that still need to be unpacked but overall things are in great shape. There will be a trip to Lowe's this weekend to get a weedeater and some yardwork tools, so that should be fun.

Our vacation to the beach is coming up next week. To say that I'm anticipating a long road trip with our son the day after the 4th of July may be an exaggeration, but I know once we get there and settled in it's going to be great.

I purchased a PS3 earlier this month, so the circle is now complete. While it doesn't have a ton of games to offer that I can't already play on my 360, it's nice to have a Blu-Ray player so we can add to our HD-DVD collection.

I won't be making any more promises about how often I will visit, especially with a vacation right around the corner - but here's hoping I can find some consistency.

There's so much to tell you, so little time...

Well rather than wait an entire month to catch up on things, I figured since it was a slow day at work that I would remind myself of what this whole blogging thing is like. I won't use the fact that I haven't had internet at home for the last couple of weeks as an excuse, since the majority of what little I have done on here has been while I'm at work.

So anyways...

We were able to get out of our old house and into our new one without any major incidents. The moving itself was a pain, but that's unavoidable. Had it not been for some great friends and awesome family, I really don't think we would have survived or been out in time. We still have a good number of boxes that we haven't gone through and we've been there almost two weeks.

But these past two weeks have been soooooooo nice...

This is probably the third time in my life that I feel like I have really accomplished something. The first was marrying my wife who is probably out of my league and the second was becoming a father when our son was born (I'm listing these in strict chronological order in case you haven't figured that out). I mean I always had plenty of "things" growing up and had a good roof over my head, but I really feel like I'm living in someone else's house right now. Just to be clear, it's not THAT extravagant. It's just SO much nicer than our first home it feels like we're both out of our league right now.

There's still a lot to be done as we haven't even brought our dogs home yet, but for me it has made our last house a distant memory.

I'll leave it at that for now, but I promise there will be more to come for those of you literally on the edge of your seat.

Your Light Made Us Stars...

I found out today that a guy that I went to school with who was a couple of years behind me passed away yesterday. He was found in his bed and apparently died in his sleep. I last saw him at a friend's wedding and he was as nice as ever. He used to come into the music store I worked at for so long and would talk music with me. He truly could light up a room and was genuinely a super-nice guy. I wish I had a better way to honor him, but for now here is his Facebook page where others are sharing their thoughts:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=507026673

Livin' After Midnight...

Yesterday brought with it some fun and interesting events. The coolest thing by far was taking little Xavier to his first baseball game (Thanks for the tix, Johnny!). As soon as we stepped foot out of the car a foul ball came rolling right to us so we immediately had a neat little souvenir to remember the event by and to date accordingly. The Hillcats did lose 8-7, but they were down 8-1 in the 8th inning, so they made a great game of it and almost pulled off an amazing comeback. All in all it was a good time had by all.

About 15 minutes after we got home, our power went out. Now we noticed some police cars up the street when we got home but figured that there was just an accident. It turns out that electric poles can just ignite and catch fire, leaving almost 1000 people in the dark. It wasn't that big of a deal since Xavier was already asleep and we have already eaten, but it was still annoying to know that I would have to set the majority of our clocks again.

Now I have my hobbies like anyone, but the one I get the most grief for (not necessarily from my wife, for the record) is playing video games. Never mind the fact that the average age of a gamer is now over 30, it is still viewed by many as being for kids and that it's an immature waste of time. Regardless, I only play at night after everyone is on bed, so I'm not taking time away from anything else. Well last night marked the midnight release of Grand Theft Auto IV, and even though I knew I would be going to bed almost immediately after I got home IF I did go out, I am still fascinated at these events and always end up going, even at the last minute like I did last night (our power came on at 11:57, which ended up motivating me to go).

If nothing else, going to these midnight sales reassures me that I am certainly not the only one dumb enough to go out at a crazy time to pick up a game that I had reserved and that would still be there the next day. And it definitely reassures me that I'm not the oldest guy around playing video games. I'm curious as to what the early sales numbers are for this game, as many have predicted that it will keep people from going to see the first "blockbuster" in theaters this year, Iron Man. If this is true then it just further cements the legitimacy of video games as entertainment and art, just like music and movies. It was a bit alarming to hear people talking about how they were planning to stay up for hours on end or calling in sick to work just to play the stupid thing. I may be guilty to some degree for being there in the first place, but for me it's more about seeing some familiar faces that I no longer run into since I have stepped out of the world of retail. And yes, I was in bed within 15 minutes of getting home.

It's so easy, easy...

Well it turns out that this whole house ordeal may end up getting done almost as quick as the pregnancy, so I'm hoping that my wife's next project is for us to win the lottery.

And yes, the house is ours and papers will probably have to be signed daily for a while to get everything completed for the sale of our house and the purchase of the new one, but there will be a day when all will be said and done where we will just be able to sit down in our new home and reflect on what we accomplished in a ridiculous short period of time.

I hope you like it babe, because we're not doing this again unless Xavier makes us rich one day.

The waiting is the hardest part...

Well, a lot has happened since I last chimed in, so let's start from the the top.

All that hard work that weekend seems to have paid off as we sold our house after only two days on the market. Woo-hoo!!!, right? The problem is, we didn't go house-hunting because the last time we put our house on the market, nobody made a single offer in over two months, so we figured it was be silly to get hooked on a house only to be disappointed and not able to buy it. We figured that it would be a nice position to be in after what we went through last time. Now let me address a vicious rumor that's going around the news regarding the current state of real estate. At least in the Lynchburg area, it is NOT dead. In fact, it seems to be a super-awesome, never-been-a-better-time-than-now, ideal time to buy AND sell a house. The first 3 or 4 houses we asked our realtor to look at were all under contract within days of being on the market, so there you go.

Now after looking at a number of houses last weekend, we finally decided on the first one to make an offer on. Now the catch is that someone else had put a contract on it, but they haven't sold there house yet. Since we have sold ours, we would like to think that gives us the edge (the sellers agree), but the other buyer has 48 hours to decide if they want to risk paying two mortgages for however long or to just let it go to us.

So the 48 hours will be up tomorrow morning at 9:45. At that time we will either be on our way to actually pulling this off in a very fast manner, or back at square one. I for one hope that I can start memorizing what our new address will be at approximately 9:46.

Everybody's working for the weekend...

Wait, make that ON the weekend.

Well our house is officially on the market as of today. Now while this is exciting it wasn't possible without a ridiculous amount of effort and hard work by yours truly and a makeshift crew of willing participants.

First off, on Friday we figured we would go out for the evening since we knew we would be working all day Saturday and Sunday. Absolutely nothing was touched or done in the way of de-cluttering or cleaning that we knew was going to have to get done eventually. So unless bringing 7 or 8 new CDs home and playing "Rock Band" deep into the night somehow helped prepare our house for selling, nothing was accomplished.

Next came Saturday. Our goals for the day included, but were not limited to, pressure-washing the deck, painting the kitchen, doing some touch-up work in the bathroom, and moving a few large pieces of furniture down to the basement. Oh and the yardwork but I'll get to that in a minute. We were fortunate enough to have the help of my brother-in-law and his girlfriend, as well as my Pearl Jam-partner-in-crime and his fiance for the day. My main project was painting the kitchen while they worked on the other stuff, which just further supported the fact that I am not a painter as it took me somewhere around 3 hours to paint it. And technically it was only half because the paint below the chair rail is a different color and didn't even need painting.

So about this yardwork. Let me state for the record that I don't mind doing yardwork myself. While I don't have a wide array of landscaping tools at my disposal I will use what I have to make the most of it and try to get it looking as good as I can. But since we had so much on our plate for the weekend, I had made arrangements to have a good friend of my family to work on the yard since he does that sort of thing for a living. And yes, I was going to pay him. He had originally told me that he would be there around 9:00. Well, 12:00 rolled around and I actually called him to see what was up and he said he would be out in about 2 hours. Well, needless to say he never showed. My mom ended up speaking to him Sunday and he apparently came down with a virus after I talked to him and was really sorry. So what was our backup plan? Let's just say we didn't have one. We do have a neighbor that also does this sort of thing for a living but we gave him absolutely no notice on a Sunday and he wasn't able to help us out.

And that brings us to Sunday. We had decided to skip out on church given the circumstances to give us a little more time. We weren't expecting any help but were ecstatic to get a call from my brother-in-law asking if we wanted him and his girlfriend to come over for a little while to help out. Now we didn't know for certain that nobody was able to help out with the yard until around 3:00. This gave me around 4-5 hours of daylight to try to cut grass and trim our shrubs. Oh and it was rainy and rather cold. Well the lawnmower pulled it's annual "you haven't used me in months so I'm not going to start" routine so there was nothing I could do. What I could do however is have my wife run over to the neighbor's garage and borrow various tools without their knowledge (don't worry, we were given permission years ago to "help yourself whenever you need it"). I proceeded to trim our shrubs the best I could given the conditions and was told that help would be arriving in the morning. The only thing is, the weather was even worse this morning, so the yard still needs work but the realtor was still able to get some pictures for the listing, with the idea that they will be replaced once we are re-acquainted with sunlight.

In the end, we were up past midnight on Sunday to get everything we could packed away and in the basement. I swear that if anyone sees the amount of stuff that is already packed in boxes that they would have no idea where we had it to begin with. But like I said in a previous post, at least that much is done if we do end up being successful in this endeavor.

There's rows and rows of houses...

So we will be putting our house on the market for the second time in about a year and a half next week. The difference between this time and the first time? We're actually making an effort to make our house look desirable during what appears to be the worst possible time in history to sell a house. This weekend holds the biggest challenge yet, which will include some painting, powerwashing, yardwork, and more de-cluttering.

Speaking of de-cluttering, we have a lot of stuff. That's actually why we need to move. Well, that and a bigger kitchen, more bathrooms, and central heat. The good thing is that it's an opportunity to "pre-pack" if you will. You know, pack everything away that you know you won't be using but are too stubborn to just throw away. That way if we're fortunate enough to find ourselves moving at some point, then a small battle has already been won.

My wife likes to obsess about something at all times, and once she obtains it she moves on to the next. I'm afraid that our overwhelming success at having a baby as soon as we tried may spoil her into thinking it's always that easy. Of course she knows it's not, but regardless of whatever is next on her list, I hope this one will be over with as soon as possible.

Just can't find the time to write my mind the way I want it to read

So maybe I should start saving some of these for days I have nothing else to talk about, but with tomorrow being Easter and all I figured I'd make up for it since I don't foresee having much spare time with family functions and all to contribute here.

Anyways, I came across a thread on a message board recently that I found interesting and just challenging enough to spend a few minutes on. If you're not a "list" person you probably want to stop now. But if you're one of those people that would come up with all sorts of "Top 10" lists while sitting through class then you might have fun with it. So here's the deal...

List your all-time favorite bands A-Z.

Now before you think that this sounds stupid, it's actually a great way to compile a list of artists that you like in a very unbiased way. No decades. No genre. Just one per letter.

Do you like 20 bands that start with "S" more than one that starts with "Z"? Probably, but therein lies the fun. The only rule I like to stick by is to be consistent on whether you use a first or last name of an artist. For example, one guy put Bob Dylan under "B" and Neil Young under "Y" because I don't think he was much of a Yes or Yo La Tengo fan.

But the point is to have fun with it so if you have to cheat then so be it. So without further delay, I share with you my list of my absolute, all-time, most excellent artists for every letter of the alphabet. I am aware of some glaring omissions, but I think this most accurately represents what I would actually listen to (for today at least).

Adams, Ryan
Black Crowes, The
Cure, The
Dylan, Bob
Eels, The
Flaming Lips, The
Guns N' Roses
Hendrix, Jimi
INXS
Jane's Addiction
King's X
Led Zeppelin
Metallica
Nine Inch Nails
Oasis
Pearl Jam
Queen
R.E.M.
Smashing Pumpkins, The
Tool
U2
Velvet Underground, The
Wilco
XTC
Young, Neil
ZZ Top

Now do I REALLY like ZZ Top? No. But I like them more than Frank Zappa, so there we go.

Oh I sincerely miss those heavy metal bands...

Have I mentioned that we love music? Not only do we actually own thousands of CDs, we've also been known to enjoy going to a concert here and there.

Now we've been together since the very end of 1999 and I would say that from then up until 2007 we probably went to around 30 shows. (Note that this is an estimate with a margin of error at +/-20) Now while some people can pull that off in a year or less, we never felt like we missed out on anything we really wanted to see.

We will refer to those years as B.X.

What exactly does that mean? It's quite simple. Before Xavier

Now let me beat everyone to the punch here and state that we were more than prepared to give up on things that aren't baby/child friendly when we decided to start a family. The rewards are far greater than anything you've experienced beforehand, so it's really not something you think about. Have we taken him out to eat with us from an early age so that he becomes accustomed to being out in public? Sure. Have we taken him to the movies? No. Do we think it's appropriate to take him to a concert? Of course not. (When exactly that day arrives will remain to be seen for a while, but we both agree that we want him exposed to good music in it's purest form from a fairly early age.)

Now I bring all this up because we once told ourselves that if we couldn't both go to a concert, we wouldn't go at all. For the most part this hasn't been that hard to accomplish and there have been a few exceptions, but now we're in a situation where if there is a show that one of us wants to go to, we have to decide whether those days are truly over or if there's a very obvious solution to it. So here's what I'm thinking... basically, if there were to be a show that I want to go to then I see that as an opportunity for Xavier to have some quality bonding time with mommy for what really boils down to a couple of hours once you take out the time he will be asleep. And of course if mommy wants to go to a show or anything for that matter then I fully support her and will be more than happy to return the favor and stay home.

Let me stress again that this isn't a question of priorities and I don't believe for one second that doing things like this take anything away from your family or makes you a bad parent. Of course I haven't exactly shared this way of thinking with my wife so I can't say that this plan will actually go into effect, but maybe when Xavier was born on the exact day that I had originally been selected to go on a business trip he was trying to tell me something...

Oh did I mention that Pearl Jam is coming around in June?

Maybe all I need is a shot in the arm

So it would appear that when it comes to this whole blogging thing, I fail.

Not that I stay awake at night worried that I don't always have something to share with the internets, but apparently there were some expectations when we set this thing up.

Right now, the only people that even know about this are people we see all the time. Now I know that there are ways to try to make others more aware, but I have to decide whether I would want strangers or people I may not know so well see what a crappy blogger I am. It's like "Hey, check out my blog!" and knowing that if they do they will say "That's it? Remind me again why I want to come here?!"

Now unlike my wife, I tend to not really care what others may think about me or how we live our lives. But if I put my name on something I want people to know that I'm putting some effort into it.

So with that being said, I plan on making more entries, more often. Maybe I'll post three one day and none the next. Whatever the case may be I'm going to try to stop over-analyzing things and share my thoughts on whatever may be on my mind, no matter how stupid or insignificant they may be to those that may actually read them.

...but you turn right over to the TV page

I work in a call center environment. In this call center, we have TV's attached to the ceiling every few rows that are there to show us our "statistics" throughout the day. Things like how many people are waiting, how long they've been waiting etc. Lately they've just been off because I think the software system used to track the info was messed up.

Well that was until today. And no, they weren't turned on because they fixed the software. It's because the ACC basketball tournament is on.

Now you may think this is silly, but I would go as far as to say that 90% of the employees here are fans of either Virginia Tech, UVA, UNC, or Duke. Don't worry, the other 10% just don't care about sports.

Now I will be the first to admit that I am a sports junkie and I'm quite happy that this is the only time of the year that they think it's necessary to have the TV on to something other than scrolling numbers. In fact, the only other time I've seen the TVs turned to anything other than the ACC/NCAA tournaments was on Election Day in 2004 so we could watch the real "Red vs Blue" battle go down.

I'm sure the TVs will be on again next Thursday and Friday as the opening round of the NCAA tournament gets underway, but as much as I love sports I have to wonder why is this universally accepted as being ok to watch yet we can't watch CNN or any type of news channel to keep up with what's going on in the world?

Maybe they've come to realize that we spend our time on the internet anyways and don't need to have yet another distraction.

Whatever the case may be, for four days in March the afternoons at work seem to just disappear.

Drop, drop, dropping it down...oh, so gently...

So we're both fairly big Nine Inch Nails fans. Not just for the music (even though he was nice enough to release an album the day our son was born), but because of the ways that Trent Reznor finds to be on the cutting edge and fan-friendly at the same time. Now I'm not going to go on and on about the details (that's what Google is for), but he recently followed the blueprint that Radiohead laid out last year and is going digital with his new album.


Well, sorta...


One look at the order page will show you that you have options. Now don't get me wrong, we all know the real selling point of the sold-out $300 version was getting Trent's autograph, but are you telling me that's the only way I can get the vinyl?


Now being a big Pearl Jam fan, I've become used to the fact that vinyl isn't as dead as everyone might think, as some of their vinyl that was originally free for fan club members or sold on their website for under $50 now sells for around $500.


I realize that I'm in the minority when it comes to still appreciating vinyl and I can understand the nature of wanting to make something very limited and unique for your fans, but isn't that what the autograph is for? For all I know he could plan on issuing a standard vinyl pressing at some point but for now it appears that this was the only way to get it and I just feel that the majority of the fans who paid the $300 could really care less about the vinyl.


But hey, it also includes the high-def Blu-Ray version so you can truly experience both ends of the audio spectrum, which is ironic because I think the only group of audiophiles smaller than those that still listen to vinyl are the ones with true high-def Blu-Ray audio capabalities.

I guess it was the beatings... made me wise

So it appears as though our son is already getting the crap beat out of him and he's only in daycare.

When you pick up your child from this daycare (which is awesome, btw), there may be a little yellow note on the sign in/out table letting you know if your child has had a "boo-boo" that day. Usually these consist of simple bumps and bruises and nothing more. Well earlier this week, I was greeted with a note that said he had not one, but two "boo-boo's". Now I should stress that this table is right as you come in the door so you don't see your child until well after you make your way past the table. So anyways, I had no idea what I was in store for but was obviously concerned, even though I hadn't received a phone call from anyone stating that Xavier was working on setting the single-day record for "boo-boo's" at this particular location.

It turns out that on occasion, Xavier can be the object of everyone's attention at the daycare including the people that work there. Well apparently his best "little buddy" got jealous at him getting all the attention and proceeded to try to rip his eye out. Thankfully, she missed and only scratched his head. The other "boo-boo" came when he was pulling himself up on the changing table and fell, presumably while he was trying to escape.

Now I'm sure this is just the first in what will be many, many incidents where he's going to get hurt and we won't be there to do anything about it (and for all I know, he could be the one dishing out the pain next time), but the thought of him being attacked by anything, no matter how small and harmless, really freaks me out and is going to take a lot of getting used to.

Ahhh... the joys of being first-time parents.