Calvin - Laptop = Sad Panda.

Well, my laptop is off to HP to get repaired. It took me some time to actually send it off because I didn't want to let it go. There is a strong chance that I will be without it for up to two weeks, so I'm pretty bummed about it. I thought I'd be alright since I have my mother's desktop to keep me from going completely insane, but not the case as it turns out. Her computer is slow as FUCK. It has a 1 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM. The processor is registering at 994 MHz. I knew I wouldn't be able to do any sort of graphics work on it, which I can live with, but Reason keeps crashing on it, and it's pissing me off. So no music creation for two weeks, which puts a damper on my plan to finish a couple of songs I was working on before the year was out. What sucks even more is the fact that I came up with 4 ideas for songs this week alone. No idea what I'm going to do about that.

But in the meantime I can do other stuff, like actually work towards finishing the typography book I started reading so long ago. And then I can begin reading the typography book and CJ let me borrow. CJ also let me borrow his copy of "The Watchmen" graphic novel. I can read those in the meantime. And also concentrate more on my math class! I'm almost done with it! Only two more classes and the final on the 22nd to go! W00t! But in the meantime I'll make do with this computer...maybe I'll be able to fix it and get Reason to work! One can dream....

Victory Is Mine!

A couple of victories for me in the past week. Last week I had a pretty important test in my calc class. And I scored 100!! The only thing that is kind of a drag about that incredible score is the fact that it was out of 110 points. Ah well, a 100 is a 100, and it's the first 100 I've scored on a test since the 10th grade, so there. Happy Happy Joy Joy! The class is going great, and I'll be done in a month's time. W00t!

And now victory # 2. I received an email from HP stating that I am eligible for a free repair of the left hinge on my laptop. This hinge has been broken for well over a year now, and it's been a severe pain in the ass trying to open and close this laptop. It's been the only real reason I don't take my laptop out of the house...that and the fact that the battery life is shite. The downside to this is the fact that I have to send in my laptop to HP and have them repair it, which could take up to two weeks between the time I send it off and the time I get it back. That sucks the fat one, but hey, they're going to not only fix the hinge, but they're going to fix the plastic casing that houses the lcd screen since it was damaged by the broken hinge. My lappy will be good as new once again!

The reason it's going to take some time to fix is because there are quite a few people that have the same problem. I knew this from a while back because of so many people on various message boards complaining about the same problem. I figured it would just be a matter of time. HP has finally heeded all the complaints, and for that I say to HP: "Thank you, it's about friggin' time!"

Just to make sure all my important files are safe and secure, I've taken the liberty of backing up all my files. Times like these that make me glad I have two external hard drives.

Time to go to bed, it's 4am, and I have to wake up in about 3 hours.

REJECTED!!!1

So, on Friday I filled out and handed in my degree application. Monday I find out it was not approved. So kiddies, Calvin's not graduating in January! Whoopeee! *rolls eyes* According to the evaluator, my grades won't be high enough to graduate after this semester, even with best case scenario. I'm kinda sad about it in some ways. I really wanted to graduate and start anew in January, but clearly that's not going to happen. With my plans derailed (again), I have to remap my course of action. Or should I say, map it out. The good thing out of all this is that I get to hang out with the new people I've met this year for just a bit longer, I get to sing with my a cappella group longer and participate in the ICCA competition, and I get to boss people around at the Commons more. The extra learning of stuff won't be so bad either. The only real bad part is that my mother is super pissed right now. So pissed that she called my dad. My dad's not pissed at all. Mainly because he understands how difficult college can be. He's gone through similar situations in college. And apparently my sisters are having trouble in college as well grades wise. So it's good to know someone's on my side. Actually my mother is the only one not on my side. My grandmother, my aunt and uncle, my dad, they understand that this shit's not easy. I've struggled so much with school, and at many times trying to keep my fucking sanity. She should be fucking glad i'm still here trying to tough it out. My brother never made it past freshman year of college. They kicked him the fuck out. I'm not giving up on this, i've gone too far and i need to finish this. If it takes me till this May, then shit, so be it. Let my mother be mad, that's not gonna stop me. the end of the road is near. How near? About 7 months. Ah well!

</rant>

If there's anything I've learned in my bloggings, it's that I sure can make a good rant!

In the good news department, Halloween's coming up! WOO!! I'm trying to plan out my costume right now. I reckon the goth look will be my theme this year. I've checked out the Hot Topic web site for ideas, and I have a general idea of what I want to go for. It's going to kick ass! Once I pick up my check today, it's all a matter of convincing people to take me to the mall and my plan will be under way. I shall be taking pictures. Many pictures. I'm making sure people cherish this sight, because I'm not sure when or even if I'll ever do this again. Needless to say, if I can pull this off, I will turn some heads! well, here's to hoping! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a midterm to study for!

WOOOOOOOO! *crash*

Stuck in Solitary Confinement....

...for until at least 4:30pm today. Right now I'm sitting in the sound booth of Wilde Auditorium working as the sound tech for an event that will be going on all day today. At least I got lucky, I could've been the tech that opened up, he had to be here at 5am. And I have my computer here in this hole. So I'll be fine. Maybe I'll get some music editing time in. Sweet!

Let's see, anything of interest happen in the past week. I got to see CJ, Jessie, Laura and Christian over the weekend. I got to be Scottish for a few hours. There was a Scottish festival in Goshen, CT on Saturday, and CJ, Jessie, Laura and I hung out there for a while. We saw some pretty cool events, an awesome Scottish band, and bagpipes! Sunday, CJ, Jessie and I caught up with Christian and we loitered at his place of work for a few hours. It was fun!

Classes are going pretty good right now. Last week threw me off in terms of keeping up with schoolwork, but I'm back on the trail this week. That's about it for right now. Time for music making and solitary goodness!

Well, that was unexpected....

This past week, for lack of a better word, sucked ass. My friendship with Carla hit an unexpected and quite abrupt end on Saturday. Needless to say, I'm not in the most shining of moods right now. Not going to get into what happened (if you really want to know, drop me a comment or email and I'll tell you), but all I know is that in the end I did what I thought was right, and if that means her being mad at me for the rest of eternity, so be it. At least my conscience is clean and I can keep it moving.

Actually the "keep it moving" part has been harder to do than I thought. It's almost like four years of friendship, good times and hard times are worth toilet paper, and it's kinda hard to let go, especially the feelings I had for her. Today I feel good enough to say that I can keep going, but I just needed some time to be emo and purge some sadness. I'm quite thankful for the group that had my back in the whole incident, I'm not sure how things would've turned out without them.

And on top of that, I have another friend that's in the midst of a tough spot right now, in a situation that by comparison makes mine look like nothing, but the same way she had my back last week, I've got her back. All I hope is that in due time things will get better, for all of us. Being a sad panda is no fun.

As bad as last week's situation was, I still want to be Carla's friend, I just don't know if the feeling is mutual. A lot of things go through my mind right now: Is she ok? How is she feeling? Is she still mad? Could she still want to be friends after what happened? I dunno, I'm trying to tread lightly, trying to figure out if I should make a move or play the waiting game? Bah.

Just a quick update....

Mother Nature: still a bitch
My sinuses: much better
Hallucinations: none since the expired Claritin incident
Weekend: AMAZING (I'll explain in a future post)
Stomach: Almost caved in on itself (will also explain in a future post)
School: Sucks, but is going good
Presentations: Had two of them in one week. My CS professors hate me, but both presentations are done and I'm happy they're out the way
Summer Job: I have one, and I'll be staying on campus during the summer which will kick lots of arse
Friends: Great
Life: Good

More to come later....

Piss....

Not a good week for me. I've had midterms, food poisoning and terrible bouts of depression, grumpiness and hunger due to the food poisoning and lack of sleep. The food poisoning was partially my fault because I was trying to experiment with a recipe for egg drop soup and apparently I didn't cook the eggs all the way through in the last batch I made. I woke up the next day and felt like death. I had to miss work that day, which sucked. I felt better the next day, and decided to go to a diner in Bumblefuckshire, CT with some friends and enjoy a Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich. The next day I felt like death squared. It was bad news, especially since I had to work that day to make up for the hours I missed that Thursday. I managed to make it through the day, and then died on my bed for a few hours. I woke up in a really shitty mood between not feeling well and not being able to eat, which sucked because there was to be a party in my dorm later that night. I wasn't 100%, but I was able to function through the night, cook and wash dishes. I wasn't in a good mood for most of the night so I stayed in the kitchen and hummed to myself (when I'm not in a good mood I become very antisocial, and it didn't help that I was kinda depressed because I was sick). I didn't feel like talking to anyone so I kept to myself for most of the night (which is kind of bad when you're throwing a party), but towards the end of the night I took a risk and had some food and I felt a little better (had a few moments of nausea here and there but I was alright) and I ended the night playing some guitar. A good time was had by all. I felt better today save for a piercing headache, but hey, what can you do. Not looking forward to tomorrow, getting one of my midterms back...I don't want to see my grade. Ooph.

And now tonight's top stories....

[Listening to: Aleda - Chemical Drive from the album "The Invention of Time"]

Spring break was a crapload of fun. To sum it up in four words: friends, Aleda and drinking. Originally I thought this spring break was going to consist of me sitting in my house all week doing nothing but watch tv, but fortunately for me two good friends decided they wanted to take trips to New York and made life much less boring for me. Jessie was on her way to NY the same day as I was, so that saved me a nice bit of money since she takes the Metro North from New Haven instead of the Greyhound bus. We hung out for most of the day, we scouted out areas to find a tattoo parlor so she could get a tattoo (shoutout to Chris for helping us scout out). I didn't get to see the final tattoo (and still haven't, I have to ask her), I had to run home and put my bags and everything down and settle in, but from what I saw, it looks damn good. Later in the night we took a stroll to the Barcade, enjoyed the atmosphere, enjoyed the games, and enjoyed a shot of Jager in honor of CJ who couldn't be there because he was all the hell away in Chicago. The next couple of days my friend John came down to NY. He stayed with my mom and I for a few days. It was a lot of fun, especially since he was the first friend I've ever had stay over at my house. We made the most of it, heading over to the Barcade as well as various places in Lower Manhattan. It was a smurfing good time.

What made this break even more awesome was the fact that John and I got a chance to hang out with Aleda in Williamsburg. Colin, the lead signer offered John and I copies of the new album so we met up with him, Joe the drummer and Joe (JoeBass) the Bassist at this spot where JoeBass bartends. We laughed, we drank (too much), we had a good time. The highlight of the night was when I was trying to give myself a rest after three beers, and then Colin said "c'mon man, you know you want that 4th beer! I'll buy it for ya!" In reference to the fact that I tried three of the four beers on tap there. I did want that 4th beer, but not at that particualr moment, I told him to give me about 10 minutes. 3 minutes later, "Hey Joe, give this guy his beer! It's been 10 minutes." I was about done after drinking that one. After we parted ways with Colin et al, John and I decided to head off to lower Manhattan to get ourselves in trouble. We get to Union Square, and John says to me, "I don't have the bag." The bag referring to the bag that contained his mother's birthday present as well as both our CDs. We then frantically looked back and forth to backtrack our steps to see if we could find the bag. After over an hour of running back and forth between Brooklyn and Manhattan, we gave up. Most likely John left the bag on the train, and someone picked it up. Piss. We headed back to the bar and sat to sober up and lament. We asked JoeBass if he had any more copies laying around. Fortunately he did, and we waited until his shift ended and went over to his place and recieved our new copies. I made damn sure I held on for dear life to my copy. It was all worth the wait. The album is incredible. I've never air guitared, air bassed and air drummed in the same song or the same album for that matter. This album gets me pumped like no other. I have to call up Colin and JoeBass to let them know how I feel about the album. I'll get to that later.

That Saturday, Jessie made another appearance in NY, so John and I met up with her and walked around Midtown for a while and reveled in all the people crowding around bars for St. Patrick's Day. Overall Spring Break kicked asssssss.

---

Right now I'm working on a song in Reason tentatively titled "...An Epic Encounter". It's a pseudo-orchestral sounding piece consisting of drums, timpani, full string section and horn section made up of french horns and trombones. It's going to kick assssss! It has this epic video game boss battle feel, and I like how it's coming out so far. It's about midway done. I'm really looking forward to this one. One thing I found out though that kinda bugged me out was the fact that it sounds strikingly like the music to Dark World from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It sounds a lot like it, which is strange because I've never heard the song, or even played A Link to the Past for that matter. Weird. Maybe I saw one of my roommates play it once and don't remember. Ah well, I'm still finishing this song. At least I didn't consciously bite off the song like some composers do. John Williams' Star Wars theme is based off of Erich Korngold's "Kings Row" title theme song. I regret nothing. NOTHING!!!!1 k, I'm done.

To say I've had a great week would be a gross understatement....

The following post is rated L, for wicked hella long.

So it's been a little over a week since I turned 21, and it's been such an awesome time for me so far. Let's start with the big day itself:

Thursday was the day I had been waiting so long for, though I have to say, it felt like just another day. I didn't feel any different, and I wasn' quite as excited as I thought I would be. It was more like a "Alright, im 21! It's about time...I'm hungry, I wonder what's in the fridge" sort of feeling. Probably because I had a test in my class that day. Speaking of that test, it didn't even happen, because the professor didn't show up. He was "running late" and had to postpone the test until that Monday. That was a waste of time. I wasn't too upset, it was my birthday, and I had the whole day ahead of me. I wen't with my mother to the store to pick out my birthday cake, it was a hard choice between cheesecake and carrot cake, but I stuck to my favorite, the cheesecake. Mom, grandma, Rodney (my big brother who we picked up from the airport the day before, greeting him with an embarassingly sincere welcome home involving party favors and lots of yelling) and I enjoyed some pizza before getting ready for the night ahead.

That night we headed to Chelsea Piers to catch a ride on the Spirit of New York for a nice three hours on the waters surrounding Manhattan. Getting there was a bitch, though. My mother knew how to get there, but getting into the pier's parking lot was a big hassle, added to the fact that we were caught in the middle of a torrential downpour. So it's hard to see, there's traffic out the ying yang, and time's flying by before the boat sets sail. Fortunately we found a parking lot to use and we could walk to the pier. The downside was that it was raining so hard that it using an umbrella was pretty much worthless. I was kinda upset because I had fixed my hair so nicely and it was pretty much ruined, or so I thought. We finally get to the boat, shake my hair out, and it looks exactly as I fixed it, only with a bit of a wet shine to it.

I got a nice surprise when I got to the pier, when I saw two of my cousins, Ilene and Ronnie, there waiting for us. They decided to tag along for the trip. It was a nice surprise for me. It took a little bit of getting used to being on the ship because I kept feeling woozy, but I got used to it after a little while. The whole ride was relaxing, albeit a little cold for a while since we all were sitting close to an air vent. There were three performers that sang at various times during the night, they were amazing. the highlight of the night was when two of the performers asked my brother and I to join them in one of the upcoming songs as The Temptations. Before either of us could say anything, my mother said "Of course they do!" So we put on the outfits and we performed as The Temptations. It was a lot of fun, we had to follow the lead of the performers, I did the best I could, Rodney did his own thing, but we both had a lot of fun doing it. Overall the cruise was lots of fun, good food, good entertainment, lots of fun memories, and the weather had cleared up before the ship left. I got a bunch of calls from friends and family during the night, which made me feel really good. It was a great night with the family, one that I'll never forget.

---

Monday, I took the test that was supposed to be on Thursday. I didn't study for it at all that weekend. I finished it in about a half hour and hoped for the best. As I was walking home, I passed by my old junior high school, like I always do when I walk home from that class, but today was different. I noticed a man putting up some flyers outside the school. He had his back to me so I couldn't get a good look at him, but he looked very familiar, so I took a shot in the dark and called him. "Mr. Habib?" He quickly turns around to see who was calling him, he faintly recognizes me, so I give him a few hints to see if he'll remember my name, eventually the light bulb goes off in his head, "Calvin!!" We shake hands and we start talking for a little while and catch up. BTW, Mr. Habib was my math teacher in 7th and 8th grade, he was probably one of the best teachers I've ever had. After a little while he invites me to come in, the city is sponsoring free school lunches for the summer. I resist at first, then I give in since i have a hard time saying no to free food, even if it's shitty school lunch. I enjoy my free meal, which was not bad at all, they seem to be improving on the school food.Mr. Habib was telling me how some of my old teachers were doing. They all seem to have gone on to bigger and better things, which is awesome because they all deserve it. Mr. Habib asks if I want to talk to two of my old teachers, Ms. Guercin and Ms. Donovan, who were my 6th and 7th grade teachers. Of course I wanted to talk to them, i haven't seen or heard from them in the better part of a decade. Ms. Donovan wasn't home, so I left her a message, and I was expecting Ms. Guercin not to be home, and I was thinking of a message to leave her, but then she picks up and I'm kinda thrown off, so I scramble to say something. All I mainly did was tell her my name and she immediately remembered me. I spent maybe a good 20 miniutes talking and catching up. She's an assistant principal at a school in Long Island. It sounds like she's doing very good for herself. I let her know where I was working, and since she's familiar with the area, I may get a visit from her as well as a few others one of these days. I hope she drops by and visits, I'd love to see her. I had a lot of animosity towards her in the past, but that was during my angry and confused period in my life, mainly caused by that school, but that's a story for another day. I'll be visiting Mr. Habib at the school every once in a while to see how he's doing, and enjoy a nice school lunch.

---

Wednesday, I got back the results of my test and all of my homeworks. all my homeworks, A. The test, out of a possible 105, I got a 97. So basically I pwn3d balls in that class, and I didn't have to take the final exam, so W007 to me. I stopped by the school and hung out with Mr. Habib for a bit, enjoyed some school food, and headed home. While surfing on the internet, I saw that guitarist Kaki King was performing in Manhattan that night, so I decided to check that out. It was a 21+ show, so this would be the first time I could check out a 21+ show legally, and it felt pretty damn good. I whipped out my brand spanking new NY state ID that I got in the mail two days after my birthday (The DMV was really up on it!) and got in with no problems. As I waited for Kaki King to start her show, I enjoyed the act that was playing before her, The Scott Sharrard Band. They were a trio that did Funk mixed with Soul and Jazz. They were great, especially when Scott Sharrard started tapping into some George Benson. I decided to sign up for the mailing list and buy his album. Right after they finished their set, Kaki King and her band came up and started their set. I had seen her on Last Call with Carson Daly a while back and was instantly intrigued by her playing style, fingerpicking in very odd tunings ala Ani Defranco. Seeing her on tv is one thing, seeing her live is something out of this world. The soundscapes that she and her band churned out had me almost in a trance. I was sitting next to this couple, Mike and Tasha, and Mike had seen Kaki King live before, and he was blown away by her. He went to check her out again. The first two songs she played wasn't like her previous songs, so Mike was literally in his seat pouting about it. Then the next song she played was in normal Kaki King fashion, so he became more upbeat and got into it more. It was a great set, and I enjoyed it. So much so that I'm going to go again this coming Wednesday to see her again.After her set ended, I talked to Kaki King for a few seconds, then headed off to the exit. As I was leaving, I noticed Eric Krasno, the guitarist from Soulive, just hanging out, mingling with his friend. Now Eric Krasno is one of my guitar heroes, so I'm standing there completely starstruck, plus I'm really surprised at how tall he is, about 6'2" - 6'3". So I just go for it, I walk up to him and introduce myself, and we start talking for about 5 minutes, maybe more, I lost track of the time while I was talking to him. He told me about a lot of things pertaining to himself musically, including new Soulive album details, his solo project, who he's going to be collaborating with, etc. It was awesome. I was really pleased by how down to earth he is, not a speck of snob in him. He's just a regular guy, only with incredible guitar skills that people admire. Best of all, I got a picture with him.I don't think I've ever cheesed that hard in any picture I've ever been in, but hey, you'd be cheesin' like that if you met one of your heroes!So in summary, being 21 really whips the llama's ass. I hope this can be anywhere near this awesome in the future.

Buggin' out, buggin' out, 'in' out, ya buggin' out, buggin' out, buggin' out....

Got a few things to talk about here. The last few weeks have been pretty decent. Had lots of fun stuff happen. Classes will be over in a week, which I'm quite excited about. I got a chance to see two awesome bands in two weeks. Last Wednesday St. Clair and I caught an all acoustic show with a whole bunch of different acts, but there was one main act I was there to see, Jody Shelton and the Falls. Chris Heinz from Root Valdez plays drums for that band, and that band is awesome so I had to go and see them live. They put on a show like noone else. They had flair, pizazz, and most of all, TALENT! They did a number of cover songs, including Hank Williams' Ramblin' Man, which was awesome. What made that night even better was the fact that Colin from Aleda was there. He has a sense of humor unlike anything I've ever seen. He completely ripped on this one singer, who was really talented, but not all that good looking and had weird looking teeth. She got it something awful from Colin. He asked St. Clair if he'd hook up with her, and he said maybe. That was when Colin got out of his seat and started walking towards her acting like he was about to get her number for St. Clair. I wish I could have taken a picture of St. Clair's face when that happened, I've never seen a grimace of fear quite like that before. Overall that was a great night.
The next day it was a trip over to the Lucky Cat to catch QB3. QB3 is a group formed by Chris, Fred G. on guitar and bassist Emek Rave. Talk about some talented ass mofos, man. They tore it up hardcore. They had a guest saxaphonist, Nick Gianni, that dude's got some soul. The crazy part about it was that they hadn't rehearsed anything beforehand, they just got together and played. They even hammered out two songs from their album The Form of Space, "Knee Deep Devotion" and "Electric Monk", both of which came out great! I really have to step my game up on the guitar, and jam with people more. Speaking of which, Fred G's still open for jamming, he also invited St. Clair to come along. That's gonna be AWESOME!!!11 We just have to set up a time to make it happen. I can't wait! The great thing about all of them is that they have a deep respect for all of their fans, they'll just hang out with them after the show like it's nothing. Chris really appreciated me coming out ot see both his shows. I was just glad to make it out to see them.

And now for some serious business. I'll be turning 21 soon, (and by soon I mean hours from now) and I usually take a retrospective look at my life over the past year. Last year, I had a nice big finger for my teenage years, but as for the preceding year, I have no animosities towards it. I enjoyed the hell out of it, even though academically it was the pits. I learned a lot of ups and downs of life, but I also learned to live a little more. I learned a lot about beer. Lots and lots. Hefeweisens and Witbiers are my personal favorites. Now that this birthday is coming up, I won't have to worry about being underage or getting into trouble (like I almost did that one time). So on that note, I bid age 20 a fond farewell, and a great many thank yous for the memories. I will miss it deeply. Now I can move forward to age 21 with high hopes and lots of enthusiasm. I say BRING IT ON!

House is a great show....

Just thought you should know that. Anyway, the last few weeks have been on the up and up. Things peaked pretty bad between my mom and grandmother, but after that day things settled down. A lot. My grandmother has been losing her things less often. She's been laughing, fussing less...it's weird. My mom and I are on high alert all the time, but things are good for now. I started summer courses at Medgar Evers College on Monday. I was supposed to be taking two courses, The Growth and Development of the U.S. and State and Local Government. I go to Growth and Development first, the class sounds like it's going to be interesting, and the professor knows his stuff. I go to State and Local Government afterwards...nobody's there. I'm sitting in the class like an asshole for about five minutes, then I go see what's going on. The registrar tells me that the class is cancelled...as in not going to happen. I was a wee bit pissed off. I did get a refund for that class though.

The next day, I go to G&D, we're waiting for a guest speaker since the professor said that there was going to be one. The man comes in, sets himself up, and tells us, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but you guys have been screwed." Apparently the professor from yesterday was reassigned, and the professor today was the last minute replacement. This guy knows his stuff too, but unlike the professor from yesterday, he is well travelled, knows 18 languages (fluently), Masters, Ph.D, the whole nine. I'm gonna like this class.

That's about it for now. Oh yeah, two things. I've been writing down dreams I've been having lately, and I'm gonna put them up on this blog eventually. And I'm going to start a countdown to my birthday since it's this month.

23 more days.

Stuff I did this week....

Large amounts of nothing was done last week. The weekend however was different. Saturday I went to my friend Will's house in Medford, Long Island. It was a long ass trip. I took the the subway to the LIRR, where I had to switch three trains to get to the middle of nowhere, but it was a pretty smooth ride. Josh and his girlfriend drove in from New Jersey to join us. Will lives in a nice neighborhood and his parents are really friendly, but to say I felt out of place is an understatement. I was probably the only black person within a 5 block radius. The ratio narrowed out when we made it to the mall. We had a hella fun time at the mall. We first stopped off at Ruby Tuesday because we were all starving. After we ate we went back to Will's and hug out for a few hours. We talked, we laughed, I played Will's brother's guitar and we all sang the Trogdor theme. After the revelry, we went to a party that Will's friend Al was having.

Here comes the high point of the day. Al's dog comes to see who's at the door. At first the dog was fine, sniffing around at the door as we were coming in. As we get settled in, the dog starts barking at us. I'm looking at the dog barking, and I notice it staring right at me. It didn't look like it was gonna attack me, it looked confused more than anything. I'm guessing I'm the first black person it's seen in a while...or ever for that matter. Josh said to Al , "I don't know, Al, your dog might be a racist!" That incident didn't stop me from enjoying the party. After a short while, the dog and I became good friends. He looked at me nervously while I was sitting down, so I gestured him to come over. I let him stiff my hand, and after he did that I guess he realized I was ok and we were cool after that. The party was good, everybody around me got wasted, with the exception of Josh, Angie (Josh's gf) and Will. I made sure Josh didn't get drunk because he had to drive back to New Jersey, not to mention he offered to drive me home. I met a girl named Brigette at the party, we talked for a good while, she seems like good people. Maybe I'll see her again one day. After the party, we dropped Will home and headed off into the darkness.

Today I had to stay at home to let the super fix the ceiling in my. He'll be fixing for the next two days because the ceiling is basicaly broken and needs to be replaced. Ah well. I'll be here trying to fix my website. I got an email today from my webhost saying my site got suspended because my site was taking up too many resources. I called up my webhost to find out whats going on, and apparently my blog is being overrun by spammers and all this spamming is slowing down the servers, in turn slowing down other websites. Interestingly enough, the blogging software that i'm using, b2evolution, is one of the most popular among spammers. The operator I talked to personally uses WordPress software, so I'm gonna try blogging with that for a little while, and if I like it, I'll be blogging with WordPress. We'll see how it goes.

Jus' trying to stay busy....

This year has been a relatively slow one so far. I've been making failed attempts at trying to readjust my sleep pattern. So far no luck. I've managed to get my bedtime to 5am. Ah well. I've been keeping my brain busy programming some random programs, playing around with Fruity Loops, playing guitar, and redoing the main page of my website. I haven't had much to do these days, with the exception of hanging out with Darrell and St. Clair.

I visited my dad and sisters on Saturday. I hadn't seen any of them since early last summer. I figured I'd come over and visit since Saturday was his birthday. We didn't really do much. We ordered a pizza and rented the Honeymooners remake on Pay-Per-View. It wasn't bad. A decent comedy.

I downloaded the Half-Life 2 demo on my laptop. It ran pretty smoothly at 1280x800 widescreen resolution, which surprised the hell out of me, since the graphics processor is kinda on the low end, or so I thought. Second Life runs like ass on this laptop. But it has to be pretty good for it to run Half-Life 2 as well as it did. I'll definitely be buying Half-Life 2 now.

That's about it for now. I have a rant on my mind, but i'll save it for later.

Welcome Back, Me!

Yep, I'm back home, got here Wednesday night. Had to hitch a ride with my friend Jay, who stuffed all his belongings from his room in his two-door POS Chevy, yet he was able to fit me and my stuff in. he drove to Huntington, Long Island, and from there I took the Lond Island Railroad into Brooklyn. While waiting for the LIRR, I was hanging out with this vendor outside the station named Jason. We were pretty much venting to each other about the transit strike, and how much it fucked over so much in the city. Metro North and LIRR weren't affected by the strike, so i was able to get to Brooklyn, and my mother was able to pick me up from there. It feels really good to be home. After the last three weeks, I need this time off, to regroup, readjust my sleep pattern, and get some guitar time in.

And now, for Christmas w00tn3ss recap. My mom and I did major cleanup in the house and got our Christmas tree up and decorated before midnight. After we got the tree up (and after my mother got finished wrapping my presents), we exchanged gifts. I bought her a deep fryer and kitchen window curtains, my mom got me two sweaters, a pair of black jeans (something i desparately needed), and a (drumroll) WAH-WAH PEDAL!!!!!111!1 I am the proud owner of a Dunlop Cry Baby wah pedal. I suck with it right now, but with practice and lots of patience, i'll be badass with it. This was a good Christmas. My mother cooked, as always. She made so much food, I'm gonna be nice and fat by the time all that food is gone. But, I'll be fat and happy. W00t!

One more thing before signing off. My mother and I were curious to see how long my hair actually is, so we decided to find out. My mother brought out her hot comb and went to town on my hair. The result:

That was the first time I was able to comb my hair in about 4 years. It was a good feeling. i wish it could stay like that longer. After about a day, It started to frizz and curl inwards again. Today I had a ?uestlove 'fro going. Tomorrow i'm gonna wash my hair and repeat this process. Hopefully things will work out a little better. That's all for now. G'nite!

HP + FedEx = Love....

[Listening to: Supergrub - Submerged from the album "Communicator"]

So, I gots me a laptop now. The HP Pavillion zv6000 I've been jabbering on about. It's a kickass laptop too. It came in like record time too! It was supposed to be out of build and shipped by the 12th and be shipped by 5-7 day shipping, but it got shipped out on the 10th and came the next day! What makes it really crazy is the fact that the laptop shipped FROM FUCKING CHINA!!!!!! You don't believe me? Here's a summary of the shipping process via the tracking number:



I'm still blown away about how fast this came in. I'm enjoying every second of my new toy here. I've dubbed it "The Lappy". I've been using this nonstop for the last few days. I had to test out its wireless capabilities, so I took it to the library and tried it out. That's right, I went to the library! The wireless access there was amazingly fast! I had fun in the library, especially since my friend Jeff was there with a few of his pals. I'm totally in love with this laptop! I had been reading up on it, and according to some of the websites, the internal speakers weren't going to be brand name, just generic speakers. My friend St. Clair has the zv5000 and his came with Harmon Kardon speakers. Turns out HP installed Altec Lansing speakers in this bad boy, and I couldn't be happier. I can crank up these speakers LOUD! I fell asleep by my laptop one night and forgot to put up an away message, so for the rest of the night all poor CJ heard while trying to sleep was the sound of people logging in and out. I was out cold because I didn't get that much sleep the night before, so I basically hibernated that night. TV, lights, loud ass laptop, all in front of me. Slept through it all.

I feel kinda bad because my desktop has kinda been pushed to the side now that I have this. It hasn't been turned off though because i've networked that and the laptop together with my router and now I have a nice roundabout network where both computers can interface with each other and share files, and I can even print on my laptop even though I didn't install the printer drivers on it. Networking is so tits. My whole setup is tits. I'll have pictures of it as soon as friend Josh McPuss comes back with my camera. Where the hell is he? I have to find him. Time to end this. It's 4:32 in the morning.

One overdue update coming up!

[Listening to: Shudder to Think - Red House from the album "Funeral At the Movies & Ten Spot"]

Well, things have been pretty good on the homefront. Let's start with Friday. I hung out with Jessie for a little while, then her friend Chris wanted to come by and visit. At first I had no idea who he was, but when he came, I realized it was the same Chris I met a week or so before and we've been trying to set up a time to get together and jam. We all hung out, and his friend Connor came along and joined us. I broke out my guitar and we played various songs. Chris is pretty good, and Connor is great, then again he's in the Hartt school. The night went by and we went our separate ways for a bit. I hung out with Josh in the 7s. Chris calls me up and asks to come over with a few friends. He comes by with four others with him: Foon (sp?), Rachel, Melissa and Hana. Chris was shot down by Hana earlier in the night, but they stayed cool. Fun was had, we hung out with a lot of random people, and sometime during the night, we lost Foon, Rachel and Chris. So Hana, Melissa, Rich (Josh's suitemate) and I just hung out in the 7s for a while, until Hana got a call from Chris saying he was jamming with a few people in Regents. We all go and see what was up.

Chris was jamming with his friend Ian, and Ian's friend from home Jason. Jason had his acoustic guitar and a folder with about 34 or so original songs with him. His songs were good, a lot were based on life experiences. He's been though a lot in his short life. Hana and I decided to join it the songs. As it turns out, Hana is a vocal performance major. She knows a thing or two about singing. Such a beautiful voice she has. After a song or two, Chris wanted me to join in the singing since apparently I "have such an amazing voice." So in one song, Jason sang, and Hana and I harmonized. It came out amazingly well. Hana and I we both shocked at how good it sounded. Everyone else was blown away. The highlight for me was when Jason asked me to help him sing one of his songs, the first verse he'd sing, the second verse I'd sing an octave higher. I'm so sorry I wasn't able to record that because that song came out fantastic. The good vibes and good music went on until around 7am. We started around maybe 3am or so. We all went outside to take a break around a quarter to 6, and we noticed the sun rising. 'Twas mighty beautiful. I had to run and get my camera from my room, and also my sweatshirt because it was ball-freezingly cold outside. I got some nice pictures walking around the Village. Around 7 we all decided to call it a night, or a morning, because Jason had to head back home. We all had a great time, we all hope to catch up with him again.

After I got some sleep, I got a call from Chris around 1pm, I was still in bed. He and Connor were jamming, but I wouldn't have been able to make it, so I caught up with him and Hana around 3 for lunch. I also ended up meeting my friend Thaddeaus, who plays keyboard. We asked him to join us in our jamming, so we all went to his room and jammed with him for a little while before he had to go out. Afterwards we all hung out in the gazeebo by the pond and played a bunch of different songs. We caught up with Rachel and Foon from the night before. Foon knows his way around the guitar. Josh came along and watched us jam for a bit. After jamming at the pond, it started getting cold, so we moved our session to Josh's dorm. I bought my electric guitar with me so I could finally crank up my distortion the way I want. We had a fun session there, especially since people kept coming in/alternating. Chris left to take a rest for a while, and Connor took his place, Josh joined in on bass, and Chris' friend Ned came in with his electric. We jammed for about an hour or so there. Dave called me and asked what I was up to, and he came by not too long after. He knew I had my electric guitar with me, and he also knew I learned how to play Coheed and Cambria's "Welcome Home", so he bought the lyrics with him, so he, Josh, Connor and I did an impromptu rendition of it. It turned out decently. Throughout the night Dave and I played our Hott Lixx songs. After a while everyone I jammed with went on home, so it was just me, my guitar and my distortion pedal. I then proceeded to just jam out on my own. I played for a good hour, maybe more. It's been officially named "The One-Hour Guitar Solo" by those that have heard it. It was a freeing experience just knowing that I wouldn't get in trouble for playing obnoxiously loud, and I took advantage as much as I could.

So, yeah. My musical odyssey lasted for about 10 hours or possibly more, I lost count after a while. It was an experience I'd love to have again. I met and vibed with new people, and made new friends. How can you get any better?

Back In the Swing (2005 Edition)

[Listening to: QB3 - Before Dawn from the album "The Form of Space"]

Happy September everyone! I'm here back exactly where I was in May, sitting on my side of the corner in my dorm, on my computer. I moved back to school on Sunday after a long period of not knowing if I'd be able to get all my stuff back up to school due to the fact that my dad is on some "all about me" shit right now. But it's all good, I have a mother that rolls with the punches, a very good driver and friend, and a very brave aunt that let us borrow her minivan for the day, so all went well. Classes are going to be a bit hard this term, but I'm ready to take on whatever is ahead of me. I'm also planning to find a jorb in order to pay for the laptop that I want to get. I'm pretty optimistic about this year, especially since RLC 111 is looking pretty bright the second time around. Room 1101 has two new suitemates. In the place of Kyle (who ended up in Park River somehow even though he was status 3 that lucky motherf.....) is Gary, a senior and Communications major. He's pretty laid back and cool. In the place of Ron (who transferred to Worcester State since he got his Associate's Degree) is Curtis, an electrical engineering student from Hong Kong. Really nice guy, hard to understand at times but we all like him. Darren and CJ are still here, I'm very happy about that.

Now that I got that out of the way, I have to talk about Friday before I headed back to school. Friday night, St. Clair and I went to see an Indie Fusion group called Root Valdez. They were performing at this spot called The Lucky Cat in Williamsburg. It's a nice little spot, I like the intimate feel and vibe of it. I had talked to Fred Gerantabee (the guitarist) and Chris Heinz (the drummer) on this forum for Indie label Ghetto Crush Industries. They persuaded me to drop by for the show. What a great show it was. Along with Root Valdez was a band called Soleo, and Acid Jazz/Funk group. They were incredible! Their band hits were on point and were their specialty. There was this Salsa song they played, that was the highlight of their set. I wish I could hear it again and again.

Soleo and RV switched sets through the night, keeping things fresh and giving the bands a rest between sets. Root Valdez killed it on their sets man! They are such a cohesive band, that in the first song, the bassist was running a little late, so the keyboardist and Fred G played bass notes, and the bassist came in during mid song and joined in like he had been there the whole time. I have to say, Chris Heinz is a hell of a drummer. I had never seen any drummer play 16th notes so cleanly with one hand and 32nd notes without missing a beat. He also did some crazy sound effects with his drum kit, like echo with no effects pedals or anything. Just watching him work his magic was entertainment in itself. Fred G had his guitar hooked up to his laptop using a MIDI pickup, and he had a bunch of different effects using his copy of Reason, and he had some wild sounds coming from his guitar. It was great watching everyone contribute to the surreal sounds that resulted. The saxaphonist was absolutely on fire through the night. He played tenor, alto and soprano sax throughout the sets and even the flute! I don't know what else I can say as to how awesome these guys were!

I got a chance to meet and chat with Fred and Chris. Both really cool guys. Chris recognized me from the message board, which was really cool. Fred said whenever I'm in town to let him know and we'll get together and jam or he'll buy me a drink or something of the sort. I will definitely take him up on the offer to jam, because I'd like to learn a few things from him. Maybe I'll take him up on the drink as well! I also got to meet the sax player, though I never got his name, and I also got to meet Joe Hardy, the bassist from Aleda, a very cool Indie Rock group.

Ah, let me tell you about Ryan and Jill. St. Clair and I decided to take a breather outside for a bit, and while we were out there, we met these two people named Ryan and Jill. I'm not sure if they were a couple, but anyway, we were sharing stories of where we live and where we used to live. Ryan had lived a few places, including Crown Heights at one point. He talked about how he moved from Western Mass, to Crown Heights, to Vermont of all places, and back to NY. His Vermont story was hilarious! He talked about how boring his Vermont town was, and everyone in the town was bored, so they decided to sleep with each other just so they could have a story to tell. Everyone knew who was sleeping with who since the town had only about 40 or so residents.

Ryan: They would wake up one morning and say to themself: "You know what, I think I'm going to sleep with Bob's wife. That would make things interesting."

That story had St. Clair and I rolling. Ryan kinda reminded me of David Cross just a bit, both in appearance and the way he talked. Ryan and Jill were cool people. Jill was realy cute and petite, she had to have been at most 5' tall.

Root Valdez was getting ready to close out the night with one last track, but had to end abruptly because all acts, according to the bar's policy, are supposed to wrap up at 12:30. It was around 2:30 at that point.

Fred: Alright, we're gonna end tonight on a high note! (Someone in the bar notifies him of something) Okay, I guess we're gonna end it here. I think that note was a C#! (Laughs all around)

I was hoping to hear Mind's Eye, and I think they were gonna play it for the last song, but oh well, it was a hell of a set, with songs from their latest album and songs from QB3, a previous album. I left that night with a new found appreciation for two great bands, new friends, and some amazing pictures! St. Clair had an equally great time. What a great night that was.

And now I'm back to the old grind, but what a way to top off my summer!

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!!

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.

This is going to be long one...

Disclaimer: Anyone who has a problem with warm fuzzy feelings, epiphanies, electronics, job hunting, or just doesn't give a crap may want to avoid reading this. You have been advised. Thank You.

Well, this has certainly been an interesting week for me. Let's start with last week. I caught up with my high school chorus teacher, Mr. Dibenedetto last Wednesday. We caught up on old times, and he told me that the chorus was holding their spring concert and invited me. I was able to make it, and I'm glad I did. All of Brooklyn Tech's choruses were there. Brooklyn Tech has 4 choruses: Girls' Chorus, Freshman Chorus, Mixed Chorus and Chamber Chorus (Chamber is the more advanced chorus). There was also a chorus from Berlin, Connecticut there. They were an upstart chorus that worked with Tech's music department all year. They did a great job. The Chamber Chorus performed Bach's Magnificat, which was beautiful, along with the accompaniment of Tech's Orchestra.

One thing that topped off the night was that I saw my Jazz Band teacher, Mrs. Ashley. The most fun I've had in high school was playing in Jazz Band. Between all the interesting characters in that band, Mrs. Ashley's abstract musical sense, and my wanting to nail the other guitarist because she had one of the nicest asses on a white girl I've ever seen, it was a blast. It was also the time I was at my musical peak. After Jazz Band, things haven't been the same between me and my guitar. I miss those times, and I missed Mrs. Ashley. She was so shocked to see me. It took her a second to recognize me, but when she did, she jumped back in shock. We caught up on old times. Apparently this year's band was much smaller than the one I was in. There were no guitarists and no bassist. The keyboardist had to play the bass notes. Apparently they turned out pretty good (probably not as good as our band). It was really good seeing her, I'm definitely going to have to stop by the school and visit her one day.

And now on to Monday. My cousin Luther aka Champ called me up and told me that he may have some work for me helping him with some accounting business. I stopped by his restaurant to see what was up. I ended up being his indentured servant for the day. I helped him pick up supplies for his store, and then I had to haul all of them into the basement. One thing that he talked to me about when I ran into him last week was the importance of being fit and me trying to lose weight. They way he explained it to me, he was brutally honest about it, which was alright, the first time. But for the whole day he basically drilled into my head how out of shape I was and how I really need to do something about it before it's too late. At first I thought he just liked to hear himself talk, but as the day progressed and I started falling apart, I began to realize that he does care about my well-being, granted he didn't need to point out everytime I ran out of breath. One thing I also didn't need was the fact that he pointed out the fact that i've been growing my nails long. I've explained this before, I have nails on my right hand for acoustic guitar fingerpicking, and I tried to explain it to this fool but something didn't click in his head and he gave me shit about it all day. These nails aren't going away, if he doesn't like it, tough shit. All things aside, I really do need to get in shape. Losing weight would be good, but I need to build my cardiovascular system up first of all. The weight will come off along the way. I'll have something to motivate me to go to the gym during school. This is something I'm going to have to be serious about, I don't want to be dumpy and out of shape forever. Champ, thank you. And fuck you too.

Oh, yeah, I still haven't been able to start on this "job" of his because he's been so frickin' busy. Feh.

Moving on, I GOT A DIGITAL CAMERA!!!!!!!!11one

Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z10, 3.2 MPixels, 8X Zoom, craploads of manual features and other good stuff. I heart this camera so much. It came on Wednesday along with my internal USB Card Reader. I didn't feel like fumbling around with camera software because I have Photoshop, and also I don't feel like hooking my camera up to my computer whenever I want to upload pictures, so I bought the card reader, so when I want to load up my pictures, I just take the memory card out of the camera and stick it into the reader, and my computer recognizes the card as a disk drive. Very convenient, and hella fast too. I decided to take my camera for a test try today, I decided to go bike riding since today was a beautiful day. I'll put up the pictures in my gallery. They came out hella good! I mean hella HELLA good! Not bad for a $174 camera. W007 what a steal!

I took a long bike riding trip today. I rode around Brooklyn, Prospect Park, and then I made my way to Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge. I stopped at the South Street Seaport and ate. Funny story, I was up at the food court, and I'm being hounded by free samples of chinese food. One counter I took a sample, and then they hounded me to buy food from them like I owed it to them. She had the plate and spoon in her hand waiting for me to say yes, but before I could say anything, she was like "Yeah you want it" and started scooping Chow Fun into the plate for me. I decided to take it, mainly because I really like Chow Fun. It was a good thing I ate because it gave me enough energy to ride back home from Manhattan.

That's about it, not much else happened besides me looking for work, not very interesting. Oh yeah, I also bought a cap for my big head. It has the Knicks emblem on it in black and white. it looks really nice. Alright, I need to go to bed, I'm really tired from bike riding today. G'nite!