The Sound of Music

My baby was born today. A healthy 3.18 kg, six-string G-tar. Beautiful Cherry finish on a Mahogany body. Black pick-guard. Terrific tone, and pick-ups. The price was right, but what I didn't know is that it was right at a 25% mark down! So it was more awesome than I thought it was! Probably a whole lot more I could go on about but most of my readers probably wouldn't understand. It's a good thing you don't have to, and comments like

"Sweet axe"
-Binks Oct. '07

Are appreciated more than enough. Even if you feel like adding some sarcasm* it's still appreciated!
*Warning: Sarcasm not appreciated. If it turns out Binkle was being sarcastic he shall hence-forth be known as Professorvonstinkypantsface.

The trip to the local music store has become a somewhat regular, and very enjoyable trip. You get to talk to interesting characters, there's almost always someone playing some nice music that fills the store with a warm atmosphere. Looking at the variety of the Guitars, and cocking an eyebrow at some of the price tags. A couple things I took notice to on my most recent trip.

This is my new Guitar. Or, the closest possible replica I could find. Certainly it paints the picture of my description. I'm just so proud of it! But I noticed something else, perhaps more interesting in my travels.
I found this. This Metal-Acoustic Fender Resonator. It must have been at least 5 kg in mass. I had never seen anything like it. Or, at least, I didn't think I did. As it turns out the Metal-Acoustics give off a very different sound than the regular acoustics, and you might recognize one of those sounds.


It's pretty awesome to hold the same guitar that one of the greats, or for me, the great Mark Knopfler uses. Maybe, when the day comes that I have a hankering for the Cold-Steel Beauty I'll throw down the dough for a Resonator. But for now, it's time to practice until my fingers bleed with my Les Paul.


This will be my last Music related post for a while. I swear!

Classic Metal, New Gear

Shortly after school started I was able to complete The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The ending of the game was just the right amounts of climactic, epic, and all around snazzy. Unfortunately, like the rest of the game, it wasn't very challenging. I was never really hard-pressed to figure out what I had to do in order to complete a puzzle, or fight an enemy. The boss fights, although cinematic in presentation: were way too easy. There are something like six towns spread out through the game, without many side-quests, and not but a few mini-games to be found. Come on! What ever happened to archery ranges? Those things were awesome!

All of those things aside, the fact remains that it was still a Zelda game. Of course it was an adventure worthy of my many (many) hours of log-time. The game, much like everything else in the series, is just plain fun. The near-artistic blend of puzzles, adventure, action, and story was as fun as it always is, but this time the ending left me wanting more. Perhaps there was more to be had, or maybe I've started getting into deeper games, and the standards of a full game have risen? At any rate, it was by no means a bad game, and was an adventure I would recommend to everyone who has access to it.

After that embarrassingly long Zelda adventure, I had previously promised that I would pick up a Wii, and a copy of Metroid Prime 3 and/or Resident Evil 4. However, something has come up. Two games that I had ignored throughout the life-span of the GCN have caught my interest and I could not pass up a chance to play either of them. MP:C and RE:4 will have to wait, for now I must play through Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. Plus, Half Life 2, and Episode One still have to be completed. Civilizations III, and Phantom Hourglass constantly call my name. I think it could be sometime before I even need to get my hands on a Wii, which may come as less of a shock than I think it would.

And, without the promise of Guitar Hero III for the Wii I've decided I must become my own Guitar Hero. I've already purchased the Best of Dire Straits song book, to go with my CD of awesome, and I think it's about time for a nice Electric Guitar. Something like…this:

Fuck. Yes. That is all.

All the Trouble and the Strife

Hello world.

I know, I know, I'm late for my post! Hey! I don't need you to yell at me! Can't you see I'm sorry? Come on, you know this is my busy time of year. Now don't you cry like that! I'll make it up to you, darling. In fact, I'll do it right now! I'll whip out two glasses of the good font, and we'll have our post right now just like we always do. No! Better than we always do. It'll be a magical evening, just like when we were dating, and we can rest under the stars together. . .

Let's never fight again, world!

Part I: The Strife

Where did I last leave you in the - hopefully- many versed ballad of my life? Ah, yes. I had just started school, and everything was going fine. But, just as the car going down the road at 310 km/h you'll feel like you’re on top of the world. Somewhere down the road, however, you will begin to swerve very slightly, and bam! You're rolling over the highway, almost instantly disintegrating whatever crazy-ass vehicle you used to get going that fast in the first place.


Well, the whole E situation kind of blew up in my face, as I sort of figured it would. What I didn't know is that E had broken up with her previous boyfriend while I was on vacation in the Rocky Mountains. I.S., (who I'll refer to as Tank: the son of a popular Science teacher.) was there to comfort her, as friends do. I had been hanging out with Tank and E for most of the summer, and had grown used to the fact that they would probably end up locking lips eventually, and I would remain a mutual friend of both of them in the meantime. However, I also expected them to maybe tell me when they started going out, or when a significant event happened in their social lives. Like breaking up with a boyfriend.
After I returned from The Rocks I got together with the two of them for a few hours, playing some Tekken, and Guitar Hero, and then finally going on my way. No one had informed me of that anything was going on, but I noticed that they had began to talk amongst each other is hushed voices. I tried to make it seem as though I didn't really care, but I knew I was being left out of something, and due to minor paranoia, kind of figured they were saying bad things about me.

A week goes by, and I get no word from them.

School has started, and I return to my friends from the Grand Table of Lunch. We're all conversing, and having a merry time. Things quickly get back in-swing, and it's the good old days all over again. I get the chance to talk to Tank and E during Physics, but they seem a little pissed off at me. This only further added to my suspicions of them bad-mouthing me. As one particular day, a couple weeks in, comes to a close, I catch up with Tank at his locker. I talk to him about getting together on Friday with E, since it had been so long since I had gotten to spend time with either of them. Having worked several nights a week, school, homework, and other things to worry about, I hadn't gotten a chance to really talk with them in quite sometime. So Tank finally lets me in on the situation, and apparently I'm an asshole for having a goddamn life outside of them!
They seemed to think that I was ignoring them, and just reverting back to my old friends, and that sort of Jazz. Due to having to work about 22 hours a week on top of my homework, and other things I had not been able to do anything with E and Tank since that last day in the summer." Well, shit," I said "I'm asking if you guys want to do something now, aren't I?" The two of them agreed to it, and we planned the Friday as the time.

Of course, this gets into a very long story, but I'll just tell you the ending, to spare the reader of minor, uninteresting, and equally unimportant details.

We had come into my house, to out of the rain. We all dropped into a chair in the Den, and I thought it would be a good idea to change my soaking shirt, as well as grab the two of them some towels to help the wet situation. I got back downstairs, and offered to pull E and Tanks bikes out of the rain, and into the garage. Unfortunately for me, as I came back from putting the storing the bikes I heard an awful sound coming from the den. Sort of like the sound of pulling a nerf dart off the wall. The smack-pop shook my head as a dozen emotions went through me at the same time. The loudest one was probably anger. I was right pissed off. I was pissed off the whole night, but I tried to hide it. When we went out for Pizza, (Tank had to leave for work) E seemed to catch on to my pissed-off mood. I threw up a smile, and went on with the rest of the night. The fact that they were making out didn't bother me as much as the fact that they didn't tell me, and still haven't (however by now it is painfully obvious).

And in my own house! That's the worst part of all! I had to find out by walking in on them in my own goddamn house. That is betrayal at the highest level! And the two of them going at it seems to leave me with the position of Third Wheel, which has left me out of doing anything with them since the Friday of crap.

Part II: The Trouble

Despite my awkward, and frustrating social situation my quest for higher education presses on relentlessly. After an awesome showing of cardboard boatery, my group placing fist out of a combined class of 60, my marks for Physics seems hopeful. However my Math marks seem to be in peril, with a test approaching quickly, and my understanding of the lessons is slipping slowly. However, I have struck speaking grounds with an incredibly bright, and pretty I might add, young lass who has moved to the desk right in front of me since the beginning of the school year. She may be able to help me with my math problems, and save my marks from drooping further.
Guitar has easily become my most enjoyable, and perhaps my most challenging class. New techniques are difficult to master, and note-reading has never been a strength of mine. However, because I love the class, so much I have put a boat-load of effort to keep up, and I think I'm starting to close the gap between the rest of the class. Putting a hell of a lot towards finger-picking and bare chords, I've yet to become Music Literate. However, I've decided to put way more of my time towards practicing Guitar, and less time towards uselessly sitting on the computer. With time, and only time, will I get any better with my instrument. The difficulty of senior guitar is made much better by the attitude Mr. C has towards teaching it. As long as you are making a serious effort towards any sort of improvement he'll give you respect for it.
My math and Guitar will come together someday, and to quote the poster above the chalkboard - a poster I look at every single day - "Just because you can't do it doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Only that you should try harder."

Part III: Do the Walk of Life

To tell you that things have not gone a tad askew in the past month would a complete lie. I'm slipping up in my school work in the most important year to date, and a friendship seems to have blown up in mid air, with an unknown casualty count. Things are reverting back to normal slowly.
In honor of Kyle's 16th birthday five of us went Paintballing on the past Wednesday. This event shall get a post all of its own. A.K., (taking a page out of Liam's book shall receive the nick-name Kalashnikov to avoid future embarrassment.) the unbelievably pretty girl from Math, is willing to help me out with my math issues during lunches. This can only end up being a win-win situation, and other positive things to be posted about in the very near future. No matter how bad you wreck your rocket-car, so long as you’re alive: you can always salvage the pieces and have the long walk back home.