Posted July 9, 2010 at 3:58 pm by Severed Head
Early job>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Can’t sleep>Digestion issues>Lack of nutrients>Better schedule eventually!
Long messy all-over-the-place rant-type deal
Guitar, Life, Limb, Music, Philosophy, Time Paradox
Posted June 29, 2010 at 9:14 pm by Severed Head
When I went to see CAKE (for the fourth time! second this year even) the other night, before they played Guitar, John went into his usual brief description about the song and how it was written in a very tall building. I’d heard this many times from the other shows and from many bootlegs. But this time was different. He talked about the meaning of the song, something he so rarely does. He said something along the lines of, “This song is about taking something and just throwing it away. What would happen if you just threw away something really important? Something as OH SO IMPORTANT as music?” When he said this, I laughed hysterically because of the crazy layers of what he was saying, and because the audience was cheering, probably not fully comprehending what John was saying. CAKE have been playing music for years, and I’m sure John has had to give up a lot for music, and over 10 years after the song was written, clearly, he has still not given up on music itself.
I remember reading about it before and writing about it on this website somewhere, but I read about it again recently: Scott Lucas, another frontman from one of my favorite bands, Local H, was talking about, in an interview, how he never left himself any option. He played music because that’s all he left himself. I really feel like that is what I need to do. I’m not sure how exactly I came to this conclusion, but doing anything else has always seemed a bit unsatisfactory to me. I get such a ridiculous amount of job and fascination with all things music. I view playing my instrument as a lifelong journey, not just some temporary outing. More or less, I think, going into the ASU school of music was an effort to prove to myself that I’m a serious musician. And a real one. And here I am! Almost done, and loving it.
But I have another degree coming. But will I do anything with it? And for that matter, does the actual music degree matter? Not really. I don’t want to do shit with either of them. I just got a job with Apple, and I love the company, though I’m kind of iffy about the job sometimes… Well, not even really. I feel like I’m way ahead of my coworkers in my technical support skills, and I genuinely like helping people. It feels good when I get off of a call and my customer is really happy that I was able to help them. Or when I check my customer survey scores and they are awesome! BUT. I guess the big thing right now is that I’m helping people over the phone, and that part kind of sucks. But there are advancement opportunities. And also, the timing sucks. A few weeks ago, for the past few months, I had somehow become a morning person, and was waking up early every day, and didn’t seem to have too much trouble dealing with it. Now, however, now that I’ve taken a 6-3 shift (after trading in my 12:30-9:30 shift!!), I’m no longer a morning person. I can’t stand it, and I can’t get to bed. I’ve been a night person all my life, so what the fuck? This schedule only has 5 and a half weeks or so left to run its course though, so it’s not all bad.
But like I said, I love the company. I can genuinely see myself having a career with Apple. I’ve loved them my life, and they treat me fucking awesomely.
But I don’t want to get too caught up. Not if the alternative is being a musician, whether or not I have healthcare or financial stability.
I suppose I never explained the relevance of the CAKE song, Guitar. Here is the chorus:
If I threw my guitar
Out the window so far down
Would I start to regret it?
Or would I smile and watch it slowly fall- fall- fall?
So… I’ve been thinking about the opposite. Not throwing out music, but rather, throwing out everything else. Most of the crap I own doesn’t have that much real meaning or use to me. Is it really necessary I have all this stuff and waste my time with this crap when I could be playing music? I could be writing songs right this moment, or learning songs, or practicing with a band.
Just some thoughts! I don’t know where I’m going with that or what I want to do about it, or hell, what I want to do with my life. This issue has come up a lot lately. Whenever I get together with my mom, she and my stepdad always ask me at least 5 or so questions about what I am doing after college. And I don’t know. And, from what I can tell, nobody knows. Hell, most people I know get about 2 years into their majors and go “FUCK. I don’t want to do this! I want to switch to this major, but it might take another 2 years, so I won’t”…
My chemistry degree started as something I might like to do. Then changed to the degree I’d use to backup my music career. Now I don’t want to do that at all… My ideal backup career would be something in psychology. A counsellor or therapist of some sort. I think I’d just find that fascinating. I often find myself studying any interaction between humans and analyzing the shit out of everything. I can’t stop. To be able to have that as my job and have people respect my opinion would be wonderful.
But still, right now, it doesn’t really compare to music.
I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts lately, one of which is the Nerdist podcast. Bill Burr, a comedian, was on today’s episode. They were talking about a comedian who said, regarding becoming a comedian and finding your style, “Go out and do 100 shows. Come back and see where you are at that point”… I really feel like that’s what I need to do with music. I just want to get out and play a fucking shit load of shows. Write my own music, particularly, and see what kind of stuff I like playing. Stop trying to be cool, and just play music. Not that I’ve ever really made a conscious effort to be cool, as anyone could tell if they listened to some of the samples of music I’ve recorded… I don’t know. I guess it’s really hard to evaluate the stuff I write, but I know what stuff is cool, and what stuff is not cool. But I guess I probably shouldn’t care? I have no idea. Haha.
But fuck… Basically, I guess I should just get out and play some music and see what happens. See what reactions I get, see how I feel (Again with the analyzing of all human interactions! I cannot stop!)….
Music, Philosophy, Pissed off rants, Propaganda, Robots, Time Paradox
Posted June 28, 2010 at 9:35 pm by Severed Head
It doesn’t get more pop than Bowie! But is is good fucking pop. What the fuck happened, music scene?
Information Hoarding and Fucking Up/Becoming Free
Awesome thing of the week, Time Paradox, Website
Posted June 27, 2010 at 4:34 pm by Severed Head
This article/blogpost/wtf-ever is basically a continuation on my thoughts on the internet, and the digital age, and the omnipresence of technology and the unlimitedness of the databases available to us…
I guess I would describe myself as kind of an information hoarder. I have a bunch of files on my computer just full of text and shit, and often, I don’t even read them. Organizing such things can be incredibly difficult.
For example, I have a file on my computer that is made up entirely of notes. Things to do throughout the day-stuff I have to get done, sometimes important passwords, really great ideas that I can reflect upon later to see if I still think they’re worthy, etc. This is all in one giant text file in the most boring font you can imagine because all it is is some fucking notes, which a bunch of line breaks between varying pieces of information. Every now and then, I’ll skim over some of the most recent stuff in this giant file, and it will provide with reminders or information I need.
I’ve thought a lot in my life recently about all of this, and I’ve decided I want to get rid of this kind of completely unregulated clutter/mess that I will probably never get back to. Just clear out. And some fuck up somewhere along the line has gone and done it for me. I restarted my computer today, and my text file was suddenly empty. Normally, I have Time Machine setup to have all of this kind of stuff backed up, but, recently, as a result of quite a few events, mostly installing a new hard drive, the Time Machine was erased, and I turned it off temporarily. Basically, I forgot to turn it back on, and now there is no possible way for me to recover that notes file. While this initially pissed me off, I’ve already come to accept it (total time to go through those stages of grief: less than 5 minutes?)… There could be some really important things I lost, but honestly, I really don’t know. I’m going to start anew, making my notes more organized and more though-out. I’m going to use them in a way that’s easy to review for reminders, and a way that’s harder for important information to get lost.
Hopefully. I’m trying to look at this as an opportunity.
Now, there are still a bunch of other little bits of information I’ve stored through bookmarks (links to funny pictures that I want to post on here, interesting articles, etc.), and the thing is: I RARELY go over this stuff. A lot of it is fascinating and, provided I put my time in, it could really all help me out. But it’s holding me back in a sense from reading new stuff and writing new articles on here.
It really is a lot like hoarding, except that it’s all digital. I think I’m pretty good at getting rid of actual physical stuff that is no longer useful to me (minus some video games/consoles–mostly because I don’t know what the fuck to do with them… Continuing with this side note, I’ve hacked my Wii in such a way that I can basically play any NES/SNES/GB/GBA/GBC/N64/Genesis/Game Gear game I want on my Wii wirelessly with the use of a Wiimote and a classic game controller, rendering most of my game systems, except my PS2 and my Wii and an actual GBA, useless (although I only do have a few games for the GBA, so I might as well get a newer DS and some flashcarts or something)), but I seem to have a difficult time getting rid of a link that I haven’t fully read/haven’t shared with anyone yet. Not all of these funny pictures/articles/ideas really need to be shared with the world, and, every now and then when I do start to look through them, and there is a dead link, it’s not like I really know what was there in the first place.
I guess we’ll see how it works out. For years, this website has been my dump for ideas/links/whatever and it’s all terribly organized, but I like it that way. This is the one place where I really feel I can store my thoughts in an articulate manner and, because it’s on the internet, and, in some sense, available to the public, I feel the need to actually think and to create quality work.
I know I won’t get out of the habit of compulsive list-making or taking extensive random notes or writing down all of my ideas, but I really hope that this time, I can do it in an organized fashion that has me getting a lot more shit done.
Quick Thought: The Internet and Intelligence
Philosophy, Propaganda, Robots, Time Paradox, Website
Posted June 16, 2010 at 9:15 pm by Severed Head
Some people feel that having such a vast array of data available so easily at your fingertips will make us stupider. We will no longer have to learn anything, because we can always google it and learn more about it than most would know in a semester-long class in college.
I, however, make the opposite argument. Since we have so much fucking data available to us, you have little to no excuse as to why you don’t know something. If there’s anything you wanted to learn how to do, I’m sure there’s a page on the internet that talks about it extensively.
Just a thought!
Coming soon: I hated Arizona before it was the cool thing to do
Pissed off rants, Time Paradox, Website
Posted May 3, 2010 at 8:06 am by Severed Head
I know I’ve said many things on this site are coming soon, and I still have some lists of stuff I wanted to write about, but lately, Arizona has been getting a bad reputation because of the immigration laws, but I want everyone to know that we were a terrible state before that, too. I’m looking forward to writing about the main reasons why my state is terrible, quoting sources of studies to confirm that we are one of the worst states in teen suicide, suicide in general, red-light running, firearm deaths, etc.
Awesome thing of the week, Music, Robots, Time Paradox, Website
Posted March 19, 2010 at 12:43 am by Severed Head
Just in the last few minutes I found this article, which is really quite amazing. My favorite part is the discussion, and I really feel like I could talk about this stuff forever.
With all of my friends who have large collections of music, I always ask them how they organize it. I didn’t realize there were so many people out there that do this too. I really feel like this thread should evolve into a message board with just questions and ideas regarding music collections. Specifically, the following topics would be very interesting: Software used to access it (iTunes vs. Windows Media vs. cetera), Proper tagging (use of MusicBrainz? How to handle genres), playlists, capitalization, etc. I am just a huge nerd for all of this kind of stuff.
Speaking of which, I’ve gone about the task of setting up an HTPC situation. For those of you who don’t know, HTPC is an Home Theater PC… But this is an HTMac. Basically, the idea is to have all of your media hooked up to your TV. So, from my TV, ideally, the end product is this:
A computer hooked up to the TV, very easy and quick to turn on.
A remote interface (right now, my iPod Touch)
A nice interface on-screen(XBMC w/Aeon)
Access to streaming services (specifically, YouTube/Netflix/Hulu/Any other new TV sites I’ve discovered recently)
A database of stored movies and TV shows
Now, my particular situation is somewhat unique right now. A lot of other people will just scrap up an old PC and strip it down to what it needs to work. Currently, I’m just using my laptop and an external hard drive, which I have to lug over to my TV every time I want to use them, but it really does seem a lot better than just watching them on my laptop’s screen. Soon though, I’m looking to purchase an old MacMini and a 1 TB NAS drive. The NAS drive would allow me to access all of these movies and TV shows wirelessly, but I’m not really exactly clear on how all of that works.
One feature I really want, that doesn’t seem readily available, is a shuffle feature for TV shows. I don’t have cable right now, but I do have a fair amount of TV show DVDs. I have a few episodes on my computer so far, and I’d like just to be able to put them on shuffle, as if I had a TV station composed entirely of shows that I love with no commercials. That really seems like the ultimate HTPC situation.
I also seem to be one of the few XBMC users who wants to store deleted scenes from DVDs and TV shows, and have them link up with the movies/TV episodes themselves. I’ve finally figured it out a solution, but it’s not exactly satisfactory. Right now though, it’s only a matter of ripping everything to my external hard drive
Coming soon: Piracy is in the news, and I want to defend the pirates. But not in some stupid way like Cory Doctorow. His point seems to be that “the industry” are restricting the user’s copying of data to very specific ways, which really don’t make a lot of sense, and I completely agree with this. My beef with Cory is that he doesn’t seem to come right out and go “Fuck you guys, stealing is so awesome and convenient that everyone should do it,” but posts a lot of articles suggesting things like “Suing pirates seems wrong” and “Shutting down torrent sites seems wrong.” He seems to avoid the idea that this is stealing, and that these sites have a bunch of movies/music that people are downloading for free to circumvent any sort of payment system.
But maybe I’ve simply misinterpreted something here or there. I’m not posting all of my opinions yet because I’d like to do a bit more research first…
Also, check out this site for healthcare: Top 10 facts to know about health care reform… There are a lot of uninformed/misinformed people out there with strong opinions, so here’s a neutral source with good information. Please read this if you’re going to speak out about these issues. You’d be amazed at how many vehemently angry people are just completely wrong because some stupid fucking chain e-mail got to them first.
Wow. This has become like an actual blog again, and I’m acting like people read this. WEIRD.
See my top bands at least once
Fun, Fun Facts, Lifelist, Music, Time Paradox
Posted March 13, 2010 at 12:07 am by Severed Head
The doesn’t include the obviously un-doable aspect of the dead or broken up! At the time of original writing, my top 11 were:
The Offspring
Paul Gilbert (saw 3/14/07)
Static-X (saw 11/11/01… and 12/13/03, 7/24/04, 6/13/05, 11/09/05, 4/4/07, and 10/29/07)
Local H (saw 6/6/08 (in Hollywood!), 11/9/08 (in Tucson!), and 11/10/08)
Queen (saw as Queen + Paul Rodgers 3/31/06)
Radiohead (saw 8/20/08 (in Seattle!))
Cake (saw 9/13/01, 1/27/06, and 12/31/09 (in Seattle!))
Andrew W.K.
ballboy
Primus (saw 12/9/06)
Muse (saw 12/12/04, 7/22/06, and 9/20/07)
Andrew W.K. and ballboy are the only 2 bands on the list that I haven’t seen… For ballboy, a trip to Edinburgh may be in order! All of the bands I would still consider among my favorites, although I’m not sure if I would include Andrew W.K. up there or not. In terms of bands, the only one I could think of who could replace him would be Nick Cave… Whether I changed them out or not, I have not seen either perform. That said, Andrew W.K. is coming on the Warped Tour, but I don’t know that I would want to sit through a bunch of terrible bands to see him play a short set. I guess if he were one of my favorite artists, then I would. But that’s part of the question then, isn’t it? Either way, ballboy is going to be the most difficult one to see (or Nick Cave if he is added to the list)
Letter to Jake about playing music
Awesome thing of the week, Comics, Conspiracies, Dreams, Fun, Fun Facts, Grammar, Guitar, Life, Limb, Lists, Music, Philosophy, Pissed off rants, Plane, Propaganda, Robots, Snakes, Time Paradox, Uncategorized, Website
Posted July 25, 2009 at 11:58 pm by Severed Head
I think maybe we should just start booking gigs here in Phoenix. I will find some that you and I can both make in terms of dates. If we get booked, I’ll really quickly record some shit and send it to you, and we’ll basically jam some songs off of that at the show since we won’t really have time to rehearse.
Just to get the ball rolling and play some fun shows. What do you think?
Posted April 8, 2009 at 11:06 am by Severed Head
I want to become a knight. It would be awesome. Apparently, knighthood is most often appointed to “High Court judges and senior civil servants.” How fucking great would that be?
Really great, that’s how much.