Semi-Job

UPDATE: For all those concerned about the missing instructor: He's fine. There was just some miscommunication. He showed up later in the week right around the time when his message reappeared in the proper person's inbox.

Yay. I have a job... for the next two weeks, that is. I'm teaching at one of the best high schools in the state when it comes to percussion, and getting a good rate o' pay to do it.

How it happened is that I know the guy who runs the program, and one of the instructors who was supposed to be there kinda disappeared. Granted, he apparently got married only a coupla weeks ago, but even though he was very hyped to teach, he hasn't shown up and hasn't returned anyone's calls. So, as a backup, I'll be in the suburbs for the next two weeks, staying at Schmuck's.

This is actually a good development, as it will give me money and reduce the amount I'll have to borrow to cover my rent and bills, while at the same time, I'll be able to finish up my bartending exam and get that ball rolling.

Though I doubted it, this drumming ability is essentially saving my ass here.

Good stuff. And please, leave comments on any post you feel deserves one. I'm all for a discussion on anything I post on.

Piece.

Sweet & Lowdown

Everyone must rent one of my favorite movies: Sweet & Lowdown.

Starring: an incredibly excellent Sean Penn.

Horrible and beautiful at the same time, this is probably the BEST Woody Allen-Related film.

Rent and enjoy.....

Tsunami'd

RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






oh wait, don't.

Added: Daily Howler

I've added the Daily Howler to my political links. I should have had it there in the first place, but for some reason or other neglected to.

It's a very snarky look at various media inconsistencies and outright bullshit. I've been reading it for a couple of years, and while I don't necessarily agree with all his conclusions, much of his writing does tend to make me produce "mordant chuckles" as he puts it. Definitely check it out, and I highly recommend looking at his archives regarding the 'lies' of Al Gore (i.e. he said that he invented the internet.)

OK, back to Normal

I managed to get myself back to a normal sleep schedule.... Let's see how long it lasts....

UPDATE: not long. did some recording work late last night and woke up at 8:30pm today.....say lah veee.

Big Bird: R.I.P.

According to the Washington Post via Daily Kos diary:

A House subcommittee voted yesterday to sharply reduce the federal government's financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children's educational programs as "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," "Arthur" and "Postcards From Buster."

In addition, the subcommittee acted to eliminate within two years all federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- which passes federal funds to public broadcasters -- starting with a 25 percent reduction in CPB's budget for next year, from $400 million to $300 million.

This is all in coordination with the administration's efforts to stack the CPB with republican inquisitors so as to remove PBS's perceived liberal bias.

I like PBS. I don't like pledge drives. Taking the slippery-slope path, it looks like PBS will have to do pledge drives all the time or start putting in more commercials than they already do just to stay on the air.

I don't watch Sesame Street anymore, but I bet alot of kids still do, and this kind of thing is ridiculous. Couldn't we just buy one less stealth bomber?

Random Things

Just some random stuff for you to check out...

Kingdom of Loathing: This is an addictively Silly (yes, it deserves a capital S) web-based role-playing game. It has the basic RPG format, like Hit Points and magic, but with insane details. The character classes range from Disco Bandit to Seal Clubber, and you can work on skills such as cocktail-crafting and meatsmithing (this is making items out of the game's currency: meat.) Everything is drawn in stick-figure format, which adds to the silliness. Some of the notable monsters I've encountered so far are Briefcase Bats (a briefcase with bat wings) and Cans of Asparagus. Tons of pop culture and obscure references everywhere. Also, the game is turn-based, and you only get a certain amount of turns per day, so you can't waste all of your time on it!

The Darth Side: Someone who watched the Star Wars movies way too many times came up with this hilarious blog. Its Darth Vader's day-to-day musings on his pursuit of the Rebel Alliance. Funny stuff, especially the parts where he complains about his leg.

Thats all for now. My sleeping schedule is still a little, um, strange. Right now I am trying to stay awake long enough to watch the first Cubs vs. Red Sox game since the 1918 World Series. The only problem is that I've been up since 5pm yesterday, so I'll be knocking on the door of 24hours awake.

Gotta go, The Price is Right is coming on......

on the Dark Side of the Earth

The sun's coming up now, and soon I'll be going to bed. But I just want to let you all know that the past few days have been very productive in terms of the music/recording thing that was initially the big draw for me to return to Chicago

As I noted before, we finally got the equipment and software working, and as of today we've recorded 4 new songs, all while taking baby steps in learning how to use all that stuff.

Previously, we (Me, Donnie & Brandon) were separately playing around with the software, trying to figure out how they work and what we can do with them.

Today (if you count 1am as today) we all got together and pooled our findings.

Shit! In just a few hours, we figured out more than in the last few months!

Also, I made a track yesterday while showing John (the talent) what I know of how the software works. He liked it enough that he wrote a song for it overnight, and got it recorded today. Good Good stuff.

Its all going to get alot better.

p.s. no job yet. and no time for your silly questions about it!