A few thougts on the last 7 years...

[Listening to: The Silent Groove - Inside My Mind from the album "One To Give"]

As the clock winds down on my teenage years, I figured I'd take this time to reflect on the last 7 years of my life. I've been told a countless number of times that my teenage years would be my best years. The following is for those who told me that:



My teenage years were probably the worst years for me because I've spent those years trying to pick my self-esteem and self-worth up off the floor, dust it off and get it to flourish like it once did. I haven't gotten there completely, but I'm almost there. I've been told that those were the years where you find yourself. Guess what? You never stop finding yourself as long as you're alive. There is so much in all of us that we can discover, and it takes longer than your teenage years to find them. My mother is XX years old (like I'm gonna tell you how old she is, she'd freakin' kill me!) and she's still learning about herself and what she's capable of doing. I could go on about what people have told me about the teenage years, but at this point it's pretty pointless. In short, all I've heard about the teenage years has been total BS when it comes to me. All that I hope is that everyone else's teenage years turn out better than mine.

With what I said, it may seem that my teenage years absolutely sucked. That's not entirely true. With what I've learned from these last 7 years I can look toward this new chapter in my life knowing that I'm worth more than I've given myself credit for. That I've been blessed with abilities and talents that can get me as far as my imagination and drive can take me. That I've been blessed with a great family who have my back no matter what. That my mother can be a good friend as long as I stop being a hardass. That I have friends that will deal with my crap because we all have one thing in common: we're all crazy as fuck! To all the friends I've made in these years (as well as before these years), Thank you. Thank you so much for making my teenage years not suck ass and being tight with me. My wish is that the friendships we have forged may continue till we're all old and gray and God willing even longer.

So in short, the teenage years were alright, but these next years are going to be a lot more promising than these last seven years. The real world is ahead of me, and I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pretty psyched about it. If there is any quote I can use to sum up my teenage years, it's this:

"Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up."
-Thomas Wayne, Batman Begins

I'm not sure if any of this made sense to anybody, but I figured since this is going to be the last entry before I turn 20, I'd get some things off my chest so I can take a deep breath and prepare for this new chapter in my life. Peace to all, until then....

Newest sneaker acquisition...

These are the first non-blue sneakers I've bought in about three years. It's completely different from any other pair of sneakers I've ever bought. I never thought I'd be interested in a pair of sneakers like those. I've seen people with the Steve Madden-style sneakers and they looked good on them, but I didn't think they were for me. Probably one of the main reasons I bought them was because they're Skechers, and I swear by that brand! I originally saw a pair of this style in black nubuck, but it wasn't in my size, so I got these. Plus these will hold up better in the rain, so I can't really complain. I don't know, I've never been this excited about a pair of sneakers before, then again this is the first time I've never had a pair of sneakers like this. I've broken out of the ordinary. Then again I've always been out of the ordinary, I wear Skechers!

SSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

...OOOOOOULIVE! Yessir, Soulive was in concert at Prospect Park tonight as a part of the Celebrate Brooklyn festival. It was coined as a free show, but as it turned out it was only $3. $3 is a good deal if you ask me. You know I jumped at the opportunity to see one of my favorite bands for $3. I tried to see if St. Clair or Darrell could come with me, but they were busy with a few other things, so I went to the show with my mother. My mother loves Soulive so I knew she'd like to go see them. The show opened up with a group called Antibalas. They're a Worldbeat group from Brooklyn. They were very good. At first I had the "hurry up and finish so I can see Soulive" attitude, but I got into the music and enjoyed myself. After they finished their set, I moved closer to the front of the stage so I could get a good view and go nuts when Soulive came on. I don't even have to tell you whether or not they put on a good show, if you don't know by now, I feel sorry for you. I got a chance to see them last year and they put on a great show then, but this show absolutely kicked the last show's ass! They went all out with this show. As they made their way to the stage, I saw this really tall dude in front of me stand up in anticipation. He had to have been about 6'9" at least. Since I never got his name, I'll just call him the Tree.

Me: You ready man?
Tree: I'm ready, you ready?
Me: I'm ready, I've been ready!

From that point, he was my Soulive buddy for the night. The Tree and I enjoyed the hell out of that show! We were both awed by Eric Krasno's (the guitarist's) ability to just wail on his guitar, and how he was able to convey different feelings in his solos. Everyone was pretty solid tonight, especially Rashawn Ross (trumpet) and Ryan Zoidis (tenor and alto sax). There were a couple of points where things were a bit off, but nothing that detracted from the excitement of the show. I tried to remember the setlist in order, but I got too caught up in the show and lost track. I'll get it soon. They played a bunch of old songs and a bunch of new songs from their upcoming album Break Out. I was happy that they played Steppin', that is one of my favorite songs. I was hoping they would play Cachasa, which is from the new album, but they played Reverb and Vapor, which made up for it. Man that was a great show! The Tree had a good time, I'm sorry I never got his name. My mother had a great time as well. I'm so freakin' happy I got to see them. This makes up for the two shows in May that I missed. I also have a crapload of pictures that captured the magic that is Soulive. I had to adjust the settings on the camera manually because the flash was basically worthless, and due to my inability to hold the camera still, a lot of the shots came out shaky. But there are many good ones, I'll have those up by Sunday.

I thought the concert would be the high point of the day, but nope, it gets better. I get home, and on the answering machine is a message from Summer Youth Employment Program, I've been selected for summer work! I GOT A JOB!!!! W000000()()()()7!

ZOMGIGOTAFREAKINJOBANDIGOTTOSEESOULIVETHEGREATESTJAMBANDAROUNDRIGHTNOWI'MSOHAPPYRIGHTNOWIDON'TKNOWWHATTODOWITHMYSELFHOLYCRAPHOLYCRAPHOLYCRAPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!

Phew. Miss Muffy said it best: "What a great fuckin' day to bake some muffins!"


Soulive (l-r): Alan Evans (drums), Rashad Ross (trumpet), Ryan Zoidis (sax), Eric Krasno (guitar), and Neal Evans (Hammond B3, clavinet and bass keys)

The Week that Was...Really, it was...

[Listening to: 311 - Champagne from the album "From Chaos"]

A somewhat eventful week. I've spent most of the week trying to splat drywall compund on my walls, so far i've got two-thirds of one wall done. It's harder than it sounds. With the one wall i've been trying to work on i've used up about 25 pounds of compound. It'll be done slowly but surely.

In events unrelated to drywall, I had an appointment with the dermatologist on Tuesday. I have a few skin conditions that need to be taken care of before they take over my skin completely.... Not really, but I want them taken care of. My dermatologist has an office in Manhattan that's easier for me to get to by train than the Brooklyn office, so I decided to go to the Manhattan office. I had never been to that office before, so I had to figure out where it was. It's on Perry St between W. 4th and Bleecker St. in Greenwich Village, which is on the west side of Manhattan. Me, being the genius that I am, didn't look to find the right train to catch that was closest to the office, and took the train that had one of the cross-streets to the office. I get off the train at Bleecker Street, and I don't see the office anywhere. As it turned out, I was on the east side. I ask around where Perry St. is, and someone finally tells me to just keep going straight. I figure, "How much farther can this place be?" 20 minutes of walking down Bleecker St. later I finally find Perry St. and the office. At that point I was just happy to get out of the heat. I got there about 9:45 am and it was already 90 degrees out. I get there, sign in, and grab a few drinks of water from the cooler.

While I was waiting to meet the doctor, I took a bunch of drinks of water to keep myself from passing out. As I was getting some water, this really cute woman bent over in front of me to check out some magazines. As she was bent over, this scene from a movie called Secretary came to mind. In the scene, Maggie Gyllenhaal was bent over on the receptionist's table as James Spader slapped her ass like he owned it. Thank God for will power.

My dermatologist is cool, but one thing that kinda bugs me out about her is that she has two different colored eyes: one brown, one green. It's not a subtle difference either. It kinda reminds me of DIzzy Devil from Tiny Toon Adventures. I let her know what's going on, and she prescribes some medicine for me to take and i'm on my way. I didn't feel like going home just yet since it was only 10 am by that point, so I took a stroll around Greenwich Village, ultimately ending up in Hudson River Park. It's a really nice park, basically a collection of fixed up piers. I chilled out there for about a half hour, ate, then went home.

Friday, went to go see Batman Begins.

OMFG HOLY CRAP THAT WAS THE SICKEST MOVIE I'VE SEEN IN A WHILE MORE SICK THAT REVENGE OF THE SITH AND THAT WAS A SICK ASS MOVIE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!11onetwhothree1

Saturday, my mother and I ran some errands, then we got bored because it was nice out and we didn't want to go home, so we went to the zoo. Only we didn't go to the zoo because we got there three minutes too late. We ultimately decided to go to the park since it was only about 50 feet away from the zoo. I'm glad we went because the park (Prospect Park) is in the process of being renovated, and the city is doing an amazing job on it. I took really good pictures since a whole bunch of random birds came along at opportune times. My mother and I explored parts of the park we had never seen before, it was really cool.

Sunday, mom and I went to get more drywall compound and wider taping knives. Then we found a Native American powwow going on at this airfield. We spent a few hours watching tribal dances and checking out the various trinkets and goods for sale. I bought a recorder with a turtle design carved on it. It plays pretty good, and I figured out one octave of the C major scale already. I should be playing songs on it in no time as long as I keep at it.

Now that I've covered the whole week in one long ass post, it's time for me to go to bed. Let's see how this week fares. G'nite!!

Taking Care of Business, and working overtime...

Well, not really overtime, but I've got something to do and i'm getting it done. Git-er-done!!! Sorry, couldn't help that one (fucking Larry the Cable Guy, such a....) Anyway, my mother is getting a new couch for the living room, and she wants to fix up the room before the couch comes in. I have a bit of work ahead of me, but I can do it. My mother wants the walls to be smoothed out because they have a stucco design that she put on them when she first moved in, so first I have to sand down the walls. That in itself has been an adventure.

First I started off sanding the wall with a hand sander, and that was a pain in the ass to do. My mother told me to go out and buy an electric sander, so I buy one, and it fucking dies on me. Great. I went back to the hardware store today to exchange it with a new sander. I talked to one of the workers and he said I needed a better sander to do the job i'm doing, so he suggested a belt sander. Fortunately for me they let me pay for the belt sander minus the cost of the broken sander, saving me $30. W00t! The funny part of that whole situation was that the boss of the store started to get on the manager because he thought that nobody told me how to replace the belt on the sander, even though the manager showed me himself. The boss was giving everybody shit about it so one of the workers begged me to tell him that I was shown how to replace the belt. He calmed down after I explained everything. Crisis was averted, I got a new sander, and all was right in the world. Holy crap that is a powerful sander! I sanded down 5/8 of the wall I was working on in 20 minutes! I should theoretically be done with the rest of the walls by tomorrow! YAY!!

Step two will be a lot easier. I will be slapping drywall compound on the wall so that it will be truly smooth. After that, step three will be a breeze. All I have to do there is paint. Hopefully things will go as planned.

I've hooked up my own work outfit, let me know what you think...

Nothing happened, followed by periods of more nothing happening...

Things have been pretty uneventful as of late. Pretty boring. Trying to lose some weight, we'll see how that goes. I hung out with St. Clair last week. Jamming insued. Fun was had. Still no job. I'm still here. The End.