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Because yes, I have become a myspace geek.
You can find me here
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Back in December, I heard about something going on at the Cabooze. It was a tribute to "The Last Waltz", which, if you're not familiar with it, was the last show performed by The Band. The original show took place on Thanksgiving 1976, at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco. It included a full orchestra playing waltzes, thanksgiving dinner for 2000 people, and a whole slew of guests, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Dr John, Muddy Waters, and a bunch of other people. It was to be a total blowout. A movie was made from the show (great flick, by the way, if you're ever hungry to see a GREAT concert movie, directed by Martin Scorcese (sp?)), as was a great album.
Anyway, I found out more and more about this show, and find out that not only is Chad Whittaker playing bass, but (name) Hurkur from Mango Jam was playing guitar, along with a whole cast of local musicians to play the parts of all the players in the original Last Waltz. THEN, as I'm talking to Frank about it one day, I find out that he's playing in the opening band. Wow, what a hell of a show! I headed down to Frank's place last saturday to go to the show, and when I get there.......I realize I forgot my wallet. I had some money on me, but no wallet. Luckily, Frank being the nice guy that he is, decides to try to finagle something for me. We get to the Cabooze early, so they can soundcheck and all that kind of stuff, and he eventually hooks me up with a laminate, so I don't need to show my id anywhere. The doors openes at 8, and people started to file in. They kept filing in and filing in for over an hour, until the Cabooze was packed full of people. Frank's band got up and played about 6 or 7 country songs, acoustic. It was kind of cool. THEN, The Band gets up on stage and proceeds to rock the fuck out. Everyone was really good at playing their parts, and they pretty much followed the script of the movie. It was most excellent. Probably one of the best shows I've seen. Frank, Michelle, and I got really drunk, then around 11:30 we did paper rock scissors to see who's have to stop drinking so they'd be sober enough at closing time to drive home. I ended up losing, but Frank drove home anyway. I made an attempt to watch Star Wars episode 2, but I fell asleep long before the movie was over. The next day, no one got up til around 2, so I was kind of stuck sitting around Frank's house by myself. I guess I could have gone home, but he's got cable tv, a luxury I can't afford at home (well, I COULD afford it, but I'd really rather not). So I laid on the couch and watched tv. When people finally started to stir, I found out from Frank that he was going to be playing in St Cloud that night with the Yoder boys.
I followed Frank up to Cloudtown and we went to eat at Bravos (one must do that about once a week, or else something bad might happen to you). Bravos is the best burrito place in the world, for those of you who don't know. Anyway, after that, it was time to head off to the Red Carpet, where the boys were playing an acoustic show for the Green Mill's Christmas party. Let me just say that there were some VERY bveautiful women there.....wow. I've been to the Green Mill plenty of times, and I have no idea where those girls are hiding.
Anyway, over the course of the show, we all have a bunch of drinks, and once its over, Andy decides to head home because he has to work in the morning (probably a good idea), and the rest of us go downstairs to have some drinks. So, Tim, Mike, Frank, and I are at the pub, having beers, and Tim gets the idea to go to 'the stairwell'.
The Stairwell is the staircase at a parking ramp downtown. The acoustics in it are incredible. You'd expect a place like that to be an echo chamber, but its more like a reverb chamber. It makes your voice sound HUGE. We sat in there and sang songs and stuff for a long time. I have no idea how long, but it was almost last call when we rolled on down to the Tavern after that. Frank brought along his guitar, and we kind of did a commando raid at the Tavern and they played a bunch of songs in there, totally unnannounced. After that, Frank and I headed to my place. I told him he could sleep in Amy's bed, but he was perfectly comfortable sleeping on the love seat. I called in sick to work in the morning. I had to.
Amy, the prodigal roommate, came home around noon or so, after a good interview at Cub foods (she got fired from her job at the bistro, which sucked, but anyway). We all went out to breakfast (lunch) at Jimmy's Pourhouse. After that, Frank headed home.
Frank is really hoping that he'll be the replacement for Harry in FOY (yeah, the name is staying). That's still kind of up in the air, I'm pulling for him, I think he'd be a great addition to the band.
Monday night at the Carpet was a lot of fun. I was getting served Smirnoff gimlets for $2, ordinarily I think they were supposed to cost like $4, but Kelly, the lovely substitute bartender, hooked it up. Kudos to Kelly. The show was pretty good, the boys are really starting to play with a sort of renewed fire after the changes. The phoenix has risen from the ashes.
Last night, I was talking to Tim, and they booked some studio time at Rock House studios in St Joe. They're going to be in there the first week of March. I guess we can look for an album in May or so. In the mean time, I'm trying to get things going on the website, trying to develop new pages, and teach myself dreamweaver, so I can actually do it with some kind of proficiency. Hopefully I'll be able to do a bunch of cool stuff with it sometime soon.
That's about it for now, its been an interesting week, to say the least. I like it when life is interesting, it makes me want to write about it, and when I write about it, I'll remember it better. I think people read this too, don't they? If you do read it, leave a comment, just curious if I'm just being totally self-indulgent, or if people actually read my filth.Current Mood:  cheerful Current Music: The Legend of John Henry- Johnny Cash |
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Wow!
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Jan. 6th, 2006 @ 12:34 pm
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I'd just like to say that last night's Yoder show was thoroughly kick ass! It was like they were playing with a renewed energy, having lots of fun, and really just totally blowing everyone away. Kudos to the guys for a great show. I guess sometimes changing things up can really help a lot. I'm sorry to see Harry go, not sure what the deal is, but at the same time, I'm really happy to see that the phoenix is rising from the ashes. Look for a new band name, new website, whole new deal coming up soon.
Also, last night was the first official sober night. Although I think its something that's going to have to be eased into, it was a sober first set, a slightly buzzed second set, and a drunken third set. Very good though, the boys were en fuego. Its not often I rave about going to a show, but last night's show was totally awesome.
Got the Goldleaf holiday party tonight, yippee...I don't know how that's going to go, but at least dinner is included. Details later. |
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Well, let me just get started with Christmas, since I haven't talked about that yet. It was pretty uneventful, I went to my sister's place, had a nice bland prime rib dinner with bland potatoes, green bean casserole, and other bland fair. I watched my brother in law dunk the tasty prime rib in ketchup, like he does with everything. It makes me sick to watch that, after watching him do that a few times, I can't stand to have ketchup on anything any more. Yuck! So anyway, after that, we go over to John (brother in law)'s parents' house. More prime rib, overcooked salmon fillet (why not learn how to cook something before you just toss it in the over, its not supposed to be dry on the outside), and other very boring, very bland, very safe minnesota type fair. Then there's the opening of presents, which I think its very lame, then back to Kelly's place to sleep. On sunday, we went to the airport and took off for Seattle. I can pretty much sum up the trip in one word. RAIN. It rained nonstop for the 5 days we were there. The only real consolation was that my mom got me these awesome Bose noise cancelling headphones that make riding in the car, on the plane, anything like that, so much more bearable. We did go on a hike in the mountains one day, in the rain, up to these ice caves that have all collapsed and melted due to global warming. How sad, huh? I fell and hurt my hand pretty bad, but I survived. I made some kickass seafood chowder, crab bruschetta, and a really good mixed green salad. My aunt was asking me how to make all this stuff, and I dunno, I don't use recipes, I just throw stuff together and hope it tastes good. Usually it does. She said "You're the type of cook I love to hate, I always need a recipe". Yeah, I don't measure anything, I don't use recipes, I just know the basic ingredients and what I want it to taste like, so I mix it all together til its good.
Anyway, the flight back sucked....the plane was over an hour late getting in due to the snow in minneapolis. We arrived around 1am instead of at 11:30 like we'd hoped. Luggage took an hour to show up, didn't get home til almost 4am. Sucky. This was on the 30th too, so I had to try to catch up on sleep for the show. I called up Andy, only to have him tell me that Harry quit the band, which sucked, but they did get Frank to come and play. I went out to the Territory around 5:30 or so, ate a VERY good prime rib dinner (I'm calling this a Very Prime Rib Christmas), and started drinking. The show started at about 8:15 instead of 9, much drinking was done, and the after bar was lots of fun. My memories are a bit fuzzy, but needless to say, it was a good time. I was hung over for 2 straight days.
So, what does the future hold for FOY? That's kind of up in the air. Tim, Mike, and Andy definitely want to keep playing together, they've got a really good dynamic, but I think that they'd be helped a lot by having a 4th member. Frank would be a hell of an addition, if he'd be willing to do it. It also looks like the band's going to have a new name soon. They're going to finish up January as Friends of Yoder, take february off to regroup, and then we'll see where things go from there. I'd be updating the website, but for some reason I'm having trouble with that, and I'm not sure if there's going to be much updating to do for awhile. Anyway, that's about it for now.
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Yippee
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Dec. 22nd, 2005 @ 09:07 am
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I'm not sure why, but I'm kind of excited today. I have to quick do the rest of my Christmas shopping and wrap presents and such tonight, then go do my radio show, and then I dunno, I should probably get together with some folks that are in town for the next week or so. I'm headed to Seattle on Sunday, til the 30th. I'm so glad that my mom got the tickets this way, instead of the 26th-31st. Its always kind of a pain in the ass to get off the plane at like 10:30 and try to make it back to St Cloud, and to the NYE party by midnight. This way I'll have all the time in the world. Very nice. Just today and tomorrow left of work, I'm definitely feeling short-timer's syndrome, even though I'm only going to be gone for a week.
I'm pretty excited for Yoder's Eve (New Yoder's Eve?). It should be fun. I'm hoping that Andy or Tim or someone hooked me up with a ticket, I decided I'd rather have that than the cash that they owe me. We'll see. I'd feel like a schmuck if I didn't have a ticket and showed up, only to be turned away. I might cry.
Once again, I'm going to be going out to Seattle, and my relatives are going to tell me how much they all want me to move out there. I'm still kind of wrestling with the idea. I'd like to do it, but I've got a pretty good thing going here right now. I don't know if I'd really dig just pulling up roots and going there. I guess if I did though, I'd get used to it. The stable on Bainbridge Island is still up for grabs for me. We'll see what happens.
I'll try to write more about my trip later on, during, after, all that.
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| » All to myself |
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Yep, the apartment's all mine all mine until thursday! WOOHOO!!! I'm not sure why that makes a difference, but somehow it does.
Dec. 20th, 2005 @ 11:13 am
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I used to not mind it being super cold outside, but not, when I want to let some fresh air into the apartment, it takes 10 minutes and a hair dryer to open the sliding door to the balcony.
Aside from that though, I don't really mind it at all. I guess its because I don't have to be out in it, except for the couple of minutes it takes me to walk to the bar.
Random thought.....the lady who works in the cubicle across from me, the ONLY one in the whole building with a window, keeps the blinds tightly closed. I can see that the sun is shining on the other side of them, but do we get to look out and see it? NOOOO of course not. So essentially, now I drive to work as the sun is rising, and drive home as its setting, and never get to see it in between. Its lovely, I assure you. Not only am I resigned to being totally pale, but now I'm resigned to never see the light of day, at least not until about March. Yippee.
Interesting fact: At the Mexican Village they have a dish call Pollo Fundido, basically its shredded chicken, wrapped in a tortilla, deep fried, and slathered in jalepeno cream cheese (its very tasty, by the way, it comes highly recommended by yours truly). The funny thing about it is that Nick (one of the big wigs there) said that some mexican guys told him that Fundido is sort of mexican slang for 'pussy'. So when you think about the menu, it really reads "Chicken pussy with jalepeno cream cheese". Kind of funny. No further comment, I want to keep some semblance of good taste.
Dec. 19th, 2005 @ 08:22 am
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| » My weekend |
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This is probably going to take awhile to write down, so hopefully my browser doesn't crash before I finish it all.
I took off from work around 1:30 on friday so I could run a couple of errands and then meet up with Andy at my place at 3. Andy shows up at about 3:30 or so telling me that Tim can't make it because he's been puking up blood. Not a good thing at all. Andy's stressing, Harry's stressing, Mike's stressing, and everyone kind of agrees that a three piece wouldn't be bad. Harry and Andy jump in Harry's van and I rode up with Miller. Miller doesn't have a working radio in his truck, so we had to entertain ourselves with conversation, cigarettes, and snacks. We stop in Aikeley just for a minute and Jackson calls up saying that he's going to show up, and Brody (both of these guys are from Jackson and the Burn) says he's coming on Saturday. At this point I'm not really sure if its best to just play with the three piece Yoder, or if its better to bring in a second guitar. Its something that's hard to call.
We get up to Bemidji, unload the gear, get rooms at the midway motel, the cheapest place in town (although it wasn't all that cheap, $52 a night for each room). I think that probably the Americinn or something would have been about the same price. Not as convenient though, as the Midway was about a mile from the Hard Times. The Motel is a typical cheap motel, you get your room key and the remote control when you get your room, and the room is always kind of an odd shape. The one Harry and I are in is kind of long and skinny with a bed at each end, an old table with leaves that fold out, a writing desk which is unusable because there's a mini fridge on top of it, a couple of shitty chairs, and a TV that's bolted onto a mount on the ceiling. Mike and Andy didn't fair as well, and got a much smaller room with green shag carpeting. I'm just glad I brought my own pillow.
After getting settled, we went back to the bar and got some food, along with a pitcher of this pumpkin spice beer they had there. The beer was terrible, at least in my book. The sound guy shows up with this younger kid who he's showing the ropes to. Great, a rookie sound guy for the boy's first weekend in this place. Anyway, Jackson shows up around 8:30, and they all set up and get ready to go. The show starts around 9:45 or so to a nearly empty bar. The first set was a bit rough, as can be expected when you're bringing someone new in without any kind of rehearsal or anything like that. After that, Mike, Andy, Jonesy (this older biker guy who hangs out at the Hard Times all the time), and I head upstairs where Jonesy rolls up a bunch of joints and we smoked them all. He's an interesting guy, definitely been around the block a few times, and a real good guy. I wouldn't mess with him, because he looks like he's cracked a few skulls in his time.
The second set was more kickass, and Andy actually plugged the merch I was attempting to sell. Basically, it was the 4 song demo cd, and some T-shirts that Becky had made. I didn't have any bites all night, but I did give a cd away. Boring night on my part. The third set was pretty good too, what I remember of it (remember, the Hard Times treats bands and their friends right, free food, free booze, all that). After all that, they lock the doors and we all start hanging out at the bar, making our own drinks, etc etc, until around 4 or so in the morning. After that, Harry, the valiant sober driver, took us back to the Motel. We were all hanging out in my and harry's room, Andy went down first, then Miller (after trying to play Harry's lap steel for a good half hour using the room ashtray instead of the slide). Then me, then Harry. I was awakened by Harry's snoring around 8am, which kind of sucked, but oh well, just something to get used to I guess. That's kind of why I left the tv on all night, to give me something other than snoring to listen to.
I wake up and start watching tv, and eventually Harry gets up too. Around noon I call up Andy and we all get together and go to get some breakfast. Miller is still in bed. After breakfast, we cruised around Bemidji for awhile, looking at the pawn shop, the music store, all the usual places to find interesting music stuff for cheap. Around 3 or so we pull back into the motel and wake up Miller. Andy decides to take a nap and the rest of us head over to the Green Mill for drinks and wings. Miller ends up hitting it off with the bartender ("I like you Grizzly Adams") and gets a free giant shot of tequila. Weird stuff.
Harry and Mike decide to go see Narnia, and drop Andy and I off at the bar. This is around 6 or so. When we sat down and ordered drinks, I noticed that the bartender was taking jaeg bomg after jaeg bomb. He took 8 while we were sitting there watching him. This was over a period of about 10 minutes or so. He told us that one time some people challenged him to drink 20 in an hour, and he drank 20 in 20 minutes, and then took another 2, "just to fuck with 'em". Andy and I sat there for a good 2 and a half hours, listening to the conversations around us, plugging money into the jukebox, and eating food. Brody and his girlfriend Ang (?) show up and hang out with us for awhile, then its basically time to get the show on the road. Around the time the band gets started, I notice a strange strange thing. Someone from LONG LONG in my past is there at the bar. Its Allison Hartwig (or hedgehog as Amy called her). She was from way back in the days of my time with Tiff and Hash. Bad news. The sad thing is, she was the most genuine person out of all of them, psycho bitch that she is. Luckily I don't think she recognized me or something, and there was no confrontation or anything like that. That's good. I don't think there would have been any reason for her to be pissed off at me 5 years later, but you never know with those types.
I thought the second night was kind of anticlimactic. It wasn't Brody's fault though, he was basically coming in cold to playing with Yoder, so it wasn't quite as spectacular as it could have been. Had Tim been able to make it, it would have been way more kickass, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. We didn't hang out for as long after the bar on saturday night. Andy, Harry, and I took off around 2 or 2:30 or something, Mike stayed behind to party. We went back to the room and basically fell asleep. We got up in the morning, no sign of Miller, so he must have found someplace else to crash. We all get out of bed and hit the road for Grand Rapids, where we have to stop to pick up Heidi, who's been at her folks' place recovering from back surgery for the past few weeks. She was really excited because now she could finally have a cigarette. The ride home was nice, gotta love having conversation. I guess Heidi's trying to sell her Focus, which I think I might have to consider buying, since it is a nice car, and I am in need of a new one.
I got home around 5:00 or so, maybe earlier, I don't recall, and just relaxed, sat around, and was in bed by 10:30. Not a bad weekend, and there's probably more stuff I need to fill in, but I can't remember right now.
Dec. 12th, 2005 @ 11:14 am
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| » As I sip my coffee |
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Quite an interesting weekend, that's what it was. I'll get more into the road trip with Yoder in a bit, after I have some coffee and laugh a little bit about a comment left on an old entry of mine. It really did make me laugh pretty hard. The entry is here http://www.livejournal.com/users/robbyrob79/138392.html. Sort of a snarky take on some religious stereotypes that I found online and though were really funny. For those of you too lazy to click the link, I'll just post the comment here for you to check out:
"May
GOD bless your soul for saying something like this. I am truly
discusted with this. Your remarks are awful. We all know that GOD is a
GOD of mercy and compassion, but a GOD that has to follow through with
his plan. There is a reason for why he does what he does. If you knew
the word you would know first and foremost not to speak of the LORD in
that manner. Remember on the day of judgement that you will be
accountable for all your wrong doings. I ask that the LORD have mercy
on your soul...
Heavenly
Father who is the most high GOD, I ask that you bless this person who
wrote this message. I ask that you bless him LORD, and do something
nice for him. I ask you LORD to do your will opon his life. Open his
mind LORD to receive the knowledege and the wisdom he needs to know
that you are a GOD of love, compassion, and vengence. Let Him fear you
like never before, let him ask for your forgiveness. Bless his soul
like never before LORD. in Jesus name ... AMEN.
I have faith in GOD
and he is going to do just what he said he will. Because the the LORD
said he is the truth and the light. May GOD bless you."
About all I can say to this is that you shouldn't take yourself so seriously. I know I sure don't. And also, its DISGUSTED. I think if you're going to try to take the righteous high ground, you should probably learn to spell. Now, if the person who wrote this is reading this entry, please, be offended, I invite you to, but in the future, please realize that I am perfectly happy with my own spirituality, and if I choose to be blasphemous to your spirituality, I invite you to no longer read what I write.
Second, to whoever wrote this, thank you for giving me a good laugh, I really do appreciate it.
Dec. 12th, 2005 @ 08:48 am
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Its much easier to fake intellegence than sincerity.
Dec. 2nd, 2005 @ 02:18 pm
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I'm such an ass kisser
Oct. 25th, 2005 @ 10:00 am
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Wow, its been a long time. I need to stop slacking. Once I wake up a bit more today, I'll put an entry about Waterama, naked hippies, snooty rich people, and free food and an unlimited drink tab at Lord Fletcher's.
Aug. 1st, 2005 @ 08:21 am
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Sorry I haven't updated in a long time. I'm working on a narrative, a short story, something like that. Its mostly just in my head right now, but I'm working on getting it written down. I'll do an update in a little while, once the coffee kicks in properly.
Jul. 18th, 2005 @ 08:46 am
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All right.....I'm going to just type up my trip journal and put it on a website with pics and all that kind of stuff. Otherwise its just going to be a pain in the ass here and it'll keep me from actually writing on LJ.
I've got a funny tale to tell about last night. I"ll tell it in a bit, I have to put this juicy thing on here first. This is the text of the white house press conference from yesterday, after it was basically discovered that Karl Rove was responsible for leaking the name of the CIA agent in Africa to the press a couple of years ago. Its hilarious! Anyway, here it is:
( Read more... )
Jul. 12th, 2005 @ 08:44 am
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| » Italy Journal Entry 1 |
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6/18-6/19
I woke up at 6:00 this morning, showered, and got ready. Mom and I got on the road by 8:00. I got to the airport areound 9:45. Flight to chicago was uneventful. I talked to the girl sitting next to me, a cutie in a tanktop. She was headed to Kansas City to help out a friend with her kids or something like that. We talked for awhile, and then her dramamine kicked in and she fell asleep.
In Chicago, I pretty much had to go straight from one plane to the next. I went from the United terminal to the international one as quickly as I could (I had to stop for a smoke, as it was a 9 hour plan ride to Milan). When I got to the Alitalia check-in, there was a huge line, which sucked. I played dumb and just sort of cut in line. No one noticed for awhile, and then this Italian lady started yelling at me. I pretended I couldn't understand her. I basically said I only speak Greek. Her husband kept telling me its okay, and they ended up getting in a bit of a tiff about all of it.
The flight to Milan was pretty boring. Luckily I sat next to this nice Bosnian woman who told me a lot about Italian culture and her life, living through the war over there, switzerland, all that stuff. It was pretty cool to have someone to talk to about that kind of stuff. I've been impressed by the people I've met on planes so far.
The Alitalia food was very impressive. It started off with antipasti (green beans and olives in a vinagrette, a piece of proscuitto, and a piece of hard bread), then a main course of seat bass in garlic butter sauce, and a cup of fruit to finish it off. I had a bottle of white wine with the meal, then red wine afterwards. After that, I fell asleep for awhile.
The cool thing about Alitalia is that between movies (there were 4 on this flight), they have a screen which shows the plane's progress on a map of the world, then zooms in on the area the plane is flying over, and gives flight information, like the distance travelled, distance to the destination, time to the destination, altitude, and airspeed. It was kind of cool watching it.
I woke up this morning after a bout of trying to sleep, but not really being able to. Just in time for breakfast. It was a sort of pastry with chocolate in it, and sort of a ham sandwich type of thing with sun dried tomatoes. Very tasty. I watched the swiss alps out the window and I'm pretty sure I saw the matterhorn. BEAUTIFUL!
Upon landing and getting off the plane, I went to the bathroom and ran into this swiss guy smoking a cigarette even though there were "No Smoking" signs all over. I joined him and talked to him about what he was doing. He just took a job in Syria and was really happy about it. It was funny, I felt like I was in highschool and getting away with something I wasn't supposed to be doing. Funny stuff, this "Smokin in the boy's room".
Its still early and I'm wating for my flight to Firenze (Florence). The Milan airport is all Alitalia colors (green and cold), its kind of funny. This whole time, my flight numbers haven't matched my tickets, so I'm navigating by departure time and destination. As far as I can tell, customs was a joke. The customs man looked at my passport for about 2 seconds and then stamped it. So much for the "You must have had your passport a minimum of six months" rule. Its strange to be sitting here and not knowing what people are saying. I guess forgetting my phrasebook and my notes from my Italian class is just going to add to the adventure. Just another hour or so until I get on the puddle jumper for Firenze. More When I arrive.
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I ran into an American girl, Kate, while I was waiting for my next plane (I also ran into some italian girls too, who were VERY hot and asked me to take some pictures of them). She was interesting. Another single serving friend to make the waiting a little easier. We had to take a bus to the tarmac to meet the plane. It was kind of weird walking up the big staircase to get onboard. When I got on, it was so humid that clouds of steam were coming out of the AC vents, kind of creating a fog inside the plant. The flight was uneventful, but the guy sitting next to me kept praying quietly to himself. I don't get why people are so afraid to fly. I landed in Florence, pick up my big bag (they made me check it, which makes me nervous. Luckily it wasn't lost).
I guess I went through customs in Milan, I just walked through the gate from the international terminal to the domestic one and a cop stamped my passport. No interview, nothing.
Em picked me up at the airport and we made our way to the train station and then to the hostel. It was kind of a long way, even though the guide said it was 200 meters. I think that must be 200 meters as the crow flies. Its behind some big heavy wooden doors on a completely unmarked building, except for the name on the buzzer. Upon arriving, I realized that my camera was missing! FUCK!! It must have fallen out of my bag on the flight to Milan and I wasn't paying attention (ie, it was 2am US time when I got off the plane). I'm going to have to get a cheap camera or something so I don't have to hog up Em's the whole time.
We walked all over Florence, we say a bunch of crazy Piazzas, the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio bridge, and this huge garden upon a hill with a sort of museum/castle on the fron of it. It was 3pm. When we went there, apparently the place closed at 4:30 for what looked to be the most opulent wedding EVER, with all kinds of decorations, a huge stage, table setups for 500 people, all kinds of stuff. More on that when I look at Em's pics again. We went to get some food. Em had spaghetti Carbonara, I had frutti damar pizza with mussels, clams, and squid. We walked about a mile back to the hostel and I FINALLY got to take a bit of a nap. I think we're going to go out again eventually.
Jul. 4th, 2005 @ 09:10 am
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| » I have returned! |
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Yes, yes I have. I'll be typing up the journal I kept while I was there over the next few days/weeks, however long it takes me.
Jul. 4th, 2005 @ 09:06 am
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| » Europe |
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I'm in Bern right now, I love europe, I think I'll never come back. Who wants my stuff?
So much has been going on that I'm going to pretty much have to transcribe my trip journal onto here when I get back to the states. But to sum up.....booze is cheap, italian women aren't easy, and despite what you might think, its HOT in Switzerland. Also, the german language may not be pretty, but Swiss girls certainly are. It seems like there's as many americans here in the hostels as there are anyone else. Its pretty cool to a certain extent, actually being able to communicate with someone. The nice thing is, everyone speaks english here. I love it. I think everyone in Italy speaks english, they're just too lazy to deal with it most of the time.
That's about it......I'll see if I can check in again sometime soon
Jun. 28th, 2005 @ 09:10 am
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| » Just a quick update |
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I'm in Rome! Its almost 1:30am, I'm sitting at what may be the coolest hostel ever. When I'm not so exhausted and wanting beer so bad, I'll write more.
Jun. 21st, 2005 @ 01:23 am
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| » Tomorrow! |
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Well, in 24 hours, I'll be sitting at the airport, waiting
anxiously to get on the plane. Of course, since this is my last
day for 2 weeks, the office manager here gave me a big list of things
to take care of before I leave. One of those is my
self-evaluation. I hate filling those things out. It
sucks. Oh well, I don't have to deal with any of this shit again
for a couple of weeks.
I went to meet with Earl, who made the Friends of Yoder
website yesterday. He's a nice guy and he showed me how to do a
bunch of stuff and gave me a copy of dreamweaver. Yay! I
didn't realize putting websites together was so easy. I figure
I'll be up and running with it in just a couple of weeks upon my
triumphant return to the US.
I went out last night, probably for the last time before I
take off. Andy, Luke, Tree, Deirdre, Amy, Alicia, and I all went
to the Tavern for drinks. The absolute WORST singer lady was in
the Tav, surrounded by a bunch of women who thought she was
awesome. It wouldn't have been so bad if her vocals hadn't been
turned up so loud. It was piercing.
For some reason people are always buying me shots, and I
don't quite get it, I'd much rather have a cocktail or a beer. I
prefer to get drunk at a reasonable pace, not as quickly as
possible. I did have a pretty good one last night though, it was
a water moccasin. Not bad at all.
I'm really kind of giddy with anticipation right
now. I'd be more giddy, except I'm so hung over I can barely keep
from having to run to the bathroom and barf. It'll pass in a
little while though, its the price you pay for going out and getting
drunk.
I weighed my pack yesterday, 44 pounds. That's what
I'm going to be hauling around Italy for 2 weeks, 44 pounds of clothes,
electronics, toiletries, etc etc. I'm just glad that my backpack
is comfy. Here's what it looks like:
The one I've got is more of a reddish color though. I wanted it
to be bright and ugly so I wouldn't mix it up with anyone else's.
Its also sized so that I should be able to carry it on. That
would be awfully nice.
Jun. 17th, 2005 @ 08:34 am
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| » How to become a good christian in 20 easy steps |
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1. Confess to all your friends, associates and church leaders that you love Jesus and intend to become His slave and that you will devote your life to Him. It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not, just saying it will put you in a Christian mode.
2. Join a church, get baptized and attribute your conversion to the priest or minister. Gaze reverently into his eyes as he pontificates about the nature of God. Sighing every once and a while, or wiping a tear will guarantee their devotion. If you join a revival church, fall to the floor, shake your body, put up both hands and yell: JAYsus-ah! NEVER bring up the topic of sexual molestation to your priest, no matter how many boys or girls he may have poked.
3. Every Sunday, make sure you put a large sum of MONEY into the church's MONEY basket. Make sure that everyone in the congregation sees you giving MONEY.
4. When talking with your priest and religious friends, occasionally confuse something that they said with something that Jesus said. This will impress them and they will think more highly of you.
5. Read the Bible, but ignore the atrocities and concentrate only on what seems "good" to you. For instance, discard the parts where God kills firstborns, pregnant women, etc., and only keep verses such as "God is love." Its like taking a sugar coated bitter pill, but it will appear good and that's what counts here.
6. Learn a few basic Hebrew words and whenever you're in a religious discussion, mention them in the context of their original meaning and comparing them to the English version. This will impress others of your Biblical knowledge, even if you don't know squat about theology.
7. Rely on faith and believe in the Bible superstitions, regardless of how silly they may seem. Yes, even the talking donkey, unicorns, and the strolling on water part. Even if you don't believe in them, just pretend that you do; no one will be able to tell the difference.
8. Abandon all reason and critical thinking. This is imperative. You cannot become a good Christian if you question the Bible with reason or skepticism.
9. Smile a lot to everyone you see. Say you love them even when you hate their guts. You must pretend, at all costs, to love your worst enemies even if it kills them in the end.
10. Attempt to convert your unbelieving friends. Make an ass out of yourself to the point of getting them angry. Make sure you always keep smiling and tell them how much you love them. This will escalate their anger and leave you fully satisfied. If they persist, claim that they are in league with the Devil and only faith in Jesus can release them (make sure you keep smiling).
11. If anyone presents reasonable arguments against Christianity, simply go into denial. Say that their tempting only makes your faith grow stronger. Never submit to them.
12. If your antagonists quote a verse from the Bible that contradicts your position, simply say that they're taking that verse out of context. The out-of-context ploy will get you out of many difficult situations and will make it seem that you actually understand the correct context when in fact you don't.
13. Pray. Make sure you pray, not just in church, but in public parks, schools, libraries, and when visiting friends and relatives. Praying out loud is a sure way to convince others of your Christianity.
14. Advertise your Christianity. Examples: wear religious symbols such as a cross; always have a Bible handy; put fish symbols on your car; put a baby Jesus on the front lawn; put a plastic Jesus in your car. Cross yourself a lot.
15. Wear conservative clothes. For the best effect: Men should wear white shirts and dark pants. Suits should be baby blue. Women should wear long dresses and veils. The hair style should be frumpish. Old ladies should dye their hair blue. NEVER attempt to look sexy. Never tattoo your body with religious symbols. Women should never expose their breasts. Men should NEVER expose their genitals.
16. Get married and raise a family. The bigger the better. If you cannot conceive, adopt. Profess family values. If you cheat on your spouse, never make it known to them. Never get a divorce, regardless of how miserable you both feel.
17. When making love to your spouse, make it known that it's for Christ (and I don't mean yelling out Jesus' name). Think of Jesus when you come. After sex, instead of a smoking a cigarette, discuss the works of the virgin Jesus.
18. If any power threatens your Christianity, make sure your political stance aims to destroy that threat (always through love, of course.) If the threat comes from a foreign country, support the military to crush the enemy (always through love, of course). If the threat comes from within your country, support legislation to change the constitution so that your Christian position will prevail.
19. If you're fortunate to achieve political power, use your religious beliefs to direct your actions. It doesn't matter how many enemies you slaughter or what freedoms are lost, as long as your justification is based on the Bible, you will become a Christian of history.
20 The most important of all: Give your possessions away (charity). The Bible says give all you have to anyone who asks (Luke 6:30). May I suggest that for practice, give me all your money. I'm officially asking that you to please give me ALL your MONEY. Warning: If you do not do this, you are disobeying a direct Jesus request. However, if you do obey this command, it will guarantee you a Christian position and you will garner my greatest esteem and respect for you.
If you follow the above examples (especially step 20), you will become an authentic Christian.
Jun. 16th, 2005 @ 12:17 pm
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