Another foray into music

My brother and I occasionally challenge each other to cover the same song by ourselves then after a month of procrastination we play them for each other and laugh hysterically. I usually overdo it and either give up or turn in my overcooked song. I promised myself I would do neither this time.

It was a long battle between my horrendously underpowered computer and myself to compose and record a cover of Henry Nilsson's "One." I think I did a decent job considering my lack of recording ability and instruments not to mention a shoddy singing voice and a key that was way too high for me. Here's what I ended up with.

Rather than try to come up with something original I just did a hodgepodge of the Henry Nilsson and Aimee Man version. Sadly, it's one of my better tunes.



I did a slightly better mix and did what I could to cover up the nastiness at the end.

Yup... It's friday again.

It seems like less and less time is passing between each Friday. This is good I guess because I'm still finishing all my work. The only bummer is that my 32nd birthday is getting here fast.

1. Holy fuck it's hot!!!

It's no secret that I loathe summer. It's the primary reason I left California. I don't understand how anybody can like sweating profusely unless they're taking part in the physical act of love making. It baffles me whenever I hear people talking about how they can't wait for it to warm up. Maybe it's because I don't like tanning or wearing bikini's. Either way this summer thing has got to go.

2. Making peace with the neighbors
I've been a home owner for a short time but I think I'm getting better with the whole neighbor thing. While I wish we lived in a neighborhood that had strict rules with regards to what people can do I generally don't mind what the riffraff are doing these days. Generally everybody takes care of their yards to some extent.

Whenever I start to get annoyed I simply think about truly crappy neighbors and consider myself lucky. Growing up I lived near people who had notoriously bad yards. I'm sure you've seen them. Mower sitting in the middle of the yard completely engulfed in overgrown tall grass and weeds. I've always wondered how it got to be that way.

Obviously that's not the preferred storage place for a mower so the owner of it had to have reached that point while mowing. Did they run out of gas? Did they decide that the first strip they mowed was enough for them so they vowed never to mow again? Maybe the homeowner had a heart attack and nobody bothered to put his mower away. These are the things that keep me up at night.

3. Am I the only person that notices these things?
My lovely wife recently brought it to my attention that I notice the strangest things. Things a normal person wouldn't notice or question. Perhaps it's because I'm hypervigilant and everything annoys me. Anyhoo here are some of the strange things I've noticed.
In a "Revenge of the Nerds" movie there was a robot at their frat house bringing somebody a sandwich. My first thought was, "Are we to believe that the robot made that sandwich?" Clearly the robot was capable of little more than carrying things and rolling on wheels so somebody would have had to have made the sandwich then put it on the tray. Why couldn't they just walk it out there? It would have been a whole hell of a lot quicker. If I was that robot I would have attacked them.

We were watching "Taken" the other night and there was a scene where Liam Neeson was using a bag of groceries to sneak into an apartment building. I assume it was to appear like he was coming home and waiting for somebody to open the door. The bag was full of baguettes and had fresh produce sticking out the top. It was a huge bag. The logical side of me said he needed the large bag of groceries to keep his hands full. The analytical side of me pondered him at the grocery store buying a lot of obviously expensive shit that he had no intention of eating. Why not just buy a crap load of rice or something. It would still be heavy enough to maintain the desired illusion and you wouldn't be out $40 for all those gourmet items.

Hey, that's a neat song.

I like to think that I have good taste in music but when I listen to what the general population listens to I'm fairly certain that I love crap. Here is some crap that I love.









I've made peace with the fact that I'm a little out of touch. Just a little.

Four For Friday

...because five is too many.

1. Insects
I have nothing against insects or at least I had nothing against insects. I can ignore swealtering temps during the summer for the most part but all these damned bugs need to die. If they're not hitching a ride into the house on my shirt or eating my plants they're biting me. A moth just flew into my coffee cup. Fuck 'em.

2. Lawn care
I just wanted to say that my lawn is freaking incredible this year. I have easily the best lawn in my neighborhood if not the entire county which puts me pretty high up in the running of best in the state. In the grand scheme of things I really don't do that much. I mow and edge at least once a week but and I water whenever nature refuses to do it for me. I seed and fertilize every other month as well. I can mow both the front and back yard (two passes for each mind you) in less than an hour. Why the hell can't my neighbor manage to at least water and mow more than once a month? It could be that the mowing process takes him 2 hours. He prefers to bag his clippings because mulching (what I do) doesn't yield as healthy a lawn. Apparently his thin, blotchy lawn is healthier than mine. Go figure. I'd like to tell him that he wouldn't have to bag it if he'd just mow the damn thing once a week. I'm tempted to start doing it for him.

3. Self starters
I love self starters. Unfortunately I don't get to deal with a lot of them. Instead I get people who know they're being sent some place to fix a specific thing. Upon arrival they stand there and complain that nobody has provided any instruction on how to go about fixing it. I'd throw a fit if I took my car to a mechanic for an ignition problem and he spends three hours making phone calls to God knows where for instructions on where he should start. IT'S YOUR JOB TO DO SOME EXPLORATORY WORK AND FIND OUT WHAT IS WRONG!!!

4. Road Trip
It can't get here soon enough. I need a vacation.

WDW Trip Report - Day 8

Anticipating crippling sickness the next morning I packed it all up the night before in case I needed my morning to sleep. Of course I wake up feeling pretty much fine. I have the worse luck ever just ask anybody. I don't win contests... hell... I don't even find quarters in the street. I find gum pennies that turn out to be gum.

I ate some breakfast that just wasn't as good today as it had been on other days. I still had that disconnected feeling which didn't bode well for the flight home.

Our bus was running a little behind so we sat out front for awhile or at least I did while Jill walked about and snapped some more photos. The bus eventually showed up and got us to the airport pretty quick.

We were pleased to find that the security lines weren't as bad this time. We zipped through fairly quick and had plenty of time before our flight arrived. Yup. Still sick.

On our way into Omaha my ears refused to pop thanks to my ever lingering illness. My eardrums survived so that was a good thing. Chilly temps greeted us but the bus to the parking lot was ready and waiting for me so I didn't have to stand out in the cold as long as I did last time. The car was still there and unlike our last outing wasn't covered in a foot of snow. I picked up the wife from the terminal and home we went.

All in all a good trip. I can only imagine how great it would have been if I hadn't been sick. We'll just have to try again some time.

Disneyland in September. Woot.

WDW Trip Report - Day 7

Our last day of Disney fun!!! That is of course unless you're me or my poor wife.

Jill got up at her usual time so she could get ready to go to the park. I mustered up the strength to get out of bed and hit the shower. I didn't exactly make it and ended up right back in bed. I slept while Jill finished getting ready and went to get some breakfast. She brought me back something to eat so I could take some drugs. I felt like I was going to die.

Eventually I was able to get myself out of bed and into the shower. I didn't want to ruin Jill's last day but at this point I was certain that I wasn't going to be able to have any fun. Still I managed to get myself moving. Once I was up and dressed I felt a little better and we were off to Animal Kingdom.

We got our safari on which was good and bad. I had forgotten about my illness with the help of a screaming child and a fat guy sitting on my left leg. It was kind of funny after awhile. I hope I gave them something. Jill got some good pictures so it wasn't a complete loss.

After the feeling returned to my left leg we hit up the trails which we kind of missed the last time we did them since we saw most of it through the camera. It was really nice to actually look at the animals. The fresh air and sunshine was doing me well. Take THAT illness!

My appetite was still nonexistent but if I had any intention of getting through the rest of the day I'd have to eat. I forced some lousy french fries down my gullet and we were on our way again for some more sightseeing. I don't know why nobody likes this park. Even when I'm at death's door I still got wrapped up in all of the little details.

We decided this was a trip to discover new things at the parks so we took the train to conservation station. Shortly thereafter we took the train back to the rest of the park.

Standing and waiting for the train wore me out a bit so I had to skip Expedition Everest because the line was pretty long. I was feeling pretty low at this point due to being sick but I also knew I was ruining Jill's trip as well. I have yet to make it up to her. I'll figure something out babe. Dinosaur didn't have a line so we squeezed it in before doing a little more shopping.

I was pretty beat so we went back to the hotel so I could take another nap. When I woke up we had a late dinner then went back to the room to pack it up. I was finally starting to recover at this point but it was too late to go to any more parks. More than anything I just wanted to sleep in my own bed.

This is how I ruined day seven of our trip. Thanks for reading. One more entry to go.