Let’s Hope Your Resolution’s Made.

I'm not sure how I feel about this past year. Sure, every year has its ups and downs and in the end, everything seems to even out. But this year was a little different. Some things were really awesome and some things made me feel the worst I have felt in a while. While this in theory should have technically evened out, I don't think it did. I think it ended up just by a smidgen on the negative side. However, this year definitely made me realize some things that I'm glad I discovered sooner than later and that's a good thing.

School and all it's related activities: 2009.

With this year, another school year passed. Another couple of semesters involving schoolwork, homework, studying, useless number crunching, hating the people in your classes, loving the awesome new people you are fortunate enough to meet, and so on and so forth. This year was different from my past semesters in that I was super fortunate to meet some people through an on campus organization that I joined. I found out how much we all have in common and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of hanging out with those people and learning about them and their interests. It's not everyday that you can meet people with common interests and values at a school where you feel like almost everyone disagrees with everything you believe in. So that was neat. Another cool thing was that our band started to pick up a little bit. Nothing very serious, but it sure has become a lot of fun. Getting out and playing some shows really helped me get through the semester. You need some activity that you really enjoy to keep you sane when school picks up and starts to get annoying. But in the end, we are all at school to get some sort of education and its starting to hit me that I need to start taking career finding a bit more serious. There's so many people in my classes who know exactly what they are going to do and when they plan to start doing it. I guess it's kind of hard for me to decide if this is good or bad. On the one hand, they have more of a sense of security in that they've taken the time to think things through and decide on a path to take. On the other hand, they've in a sense left less room for spontaneity and "going with the flow". Which is the more important of this give and take situation? You tell me. One thing that I am certainly sure of is that I do not want a job where I walk in everyday watching the clock waiting for the day to end so I can get out of there. But somehow it keeps occurring to me that that is exactly what I am going to get out of college with a degree in finance. It's hard to not have any idea what you want to do with your life. I realize that it's very likely that many people feel this way and that in the end, it usually ends up working out somehow. I'm just not sure if it's safe to bank on that and let things run their course. Honestly, I'm so confused as to how people in my classes enjoy these things. I mean, the subject matter is not terrible, but is it interesting enough to them to base their life and career around it? Another thing I realized about my school and classes is the extent to which the competitive spirit goes. With all this talk about the Aggie community and the friendships that people build, people would be surprised how far students are willing to go to gain the upper hand even if it means cutting down another student in the process. The things that grades will do to people.

People and all its related activities: 2009.

Like I said earlier, I was super stoked to meet a lot of awesome new people this semester. I never really felt at home in College Station/Bryan, but a lot of these people really changed that for me. It felt so good being able to talk with people about things you don't normally have the opportunity to talk about with people at A&M. Sadly, I do however feel like things have changed with my older friends. These friends will NEVER be lost to me no matter what happens, but at some point you have to sit and look at the size of the widening gap between you and them. When it starts to become very evident that you have very differing views and philosophies on life, what can you do? I am completely afraid of the possibility that I grow even farther apart from these people. I want no such thing, but is it avoidable when you can start to see huge differences? I hope it is, but at this point I just cannot tell at all.

So, the other day, a friend of mine and I were talking about relationships and things like that. The conversation basically ended in them telling me that they think I am almost automatically labeled as a "friend" upon talking to someone of the opposite sex. At first, I was slightly offended, but on second thought I realized that they are completely right. Why would they say that? I have no idea. But either way they were definitely on to something. After thinking about this for a little bit, I realized there is nothing inherently wrong with this. It's cool to have friends. Friends are good things, right? Yes. But, it also hit me that at some point I would probably like this cycle to stop. Going to stuff like Fest made me realize how much that would have ruled to have someone to share that experience with. Maybe 2010 is the year for things to change? Possibly or possibly not, but let's be optimistic!

Hopes: 2010

This year wasn't all that bad. I made some great friends that I am glad I met and hope to continue to stay friends with for the rest of my college career and hopefully onwards of that. I hope 2010 is a year of change for me. I want to be more serious about finding out what I want to spend my life doing. I want to be serious about my health and take better care of myself while away from home. I want to be able to create meaningful relationships with people. All of these things are what I consider my main goals of the year. And I think that they are all achievable goals.

I hope everyone has a super kick ass New Years. Everyone is due for good time after another stressful but exciting year. Also, if you're not doing anything on the 9th, you should come out to a show we are going to play. As per usual, it may not be great musically, but it should most definitely be a fun time where we can all gather and bring in the new year. Bring in the new year 8 days after we already brought it in? Yes. Don't ask questions. Logic was never my strong suit. I'll post more details concerning location and such at a later time. 2010, let's do this.

We Don't Give a Shit About Anyone.

So I think this last week may have been the greatest week in terms of music in my life. Scratch the think part. I know for a fact. I saw so many fantastic shows the past few days that I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am to blogz about it all. I got to hang with friends and see some awesome live music. What more could I ask for?

On Monday, I ventured over to Austin, TX to see the Bridge 9 Tour. The show started off with Ruiner playing. I really have started to like this band a whole lot. The first time I heard them, I almost immediately was turned off. His voice was too gritty and strained and the music was really heavy for the most part. Over the last year or so, things have drastically changed. This band exemplifies everything you could ask for from music in my opinion. The melody is there, you just have to find it. The vocalist, Rob, belts out heartfelt and emotion driven lyrics that make me shiver everytime I hear them. Unreal. They also have a lot of sing-a-long parts which is awesome. After they played, Crime In Stereo played. They always put on an awesome show. Each time they play live, they are able to perfectly recreate the numerous effects they use on their records. This is usally hard for bands that use experimental sounds in their music. However, Crime In Stereo has mastered it well. They played a good mix of older and newer songs. Next up was Polar Bear Club. Sadly, almost no one at the show was into them. It's a shame because this band is really quite good. They play some really interesting music. Its a mix of punk with some cool post hardcore-esque parts. They also put on really good live show. Either way, they put on an awesome show and the people who appreciate their music probably really enjoyed it. Finally, the band we had all been waiting to see came on. Strike Anywhere has been around for a while and had just put out a new album called Iron Front. This album is arguably the best punk/melodic hardcore album of the year. So fast and to the point. Their set was unelievable. They played a few new songs which sounded awesome along with some of their classics. People really got into them which was fun to see and experience. Thomas, the vocalist, is a really smart and nice dude and his talking between songs was also really informative and entertaining. Strike Anywhere's songs are just so relevant to everything.

On Tuesday, I decided to spend money unecessarily again and see the show again in Houston. I debated the decision back and forth but it was totally worth it in the end. Everyone in Houston was so much more into all the bands than were the people in Austin. Walter's is also a smaller venue and that made things feel more intimate. Each band played almost the exact same set give or take a few songs. All in all, awesome show again.

Here's the fun stuff. On Thursday afternoon, Joe, Sabrina, and myself began our 14 and a half hour journey to Gainesville, FL for FEST 8. Fest is an epic three days of punk music and partying. It started on Friday and ended Sunday night. The drive is NO joke. We passed through Louisiana, Mississppi, Alabama, and various parts of Florida before finally getting to Gainesville. From the moment we got there, the excitement had set in. We waited around a bit and decided to get something to eat. We ate at Boca Fiesta! Boca Fiesta is owned by Warren Oakes (former drummer of Against Me!). He was hanging out at his restaurant and was really nice and welcoming. I had some sweet tempeh tacos that were delicious! Afterwards, we headed over to registration which involved a long line and lots of waiting. Once we were all done with that, it was time for a long awaited nap. 14 hours of driving sucked and we all needed rest. After a power nap, we headed to the first round of shows. I saw Ruiner again and also saw Defeater. I had been dying to see Defeater and they surely didn't dissapoint. We saw some other shows here and there including Small Brown Bike and A Wilhelm Scream (who were unreal). We ended the night at Living With Lions followed by Crime In Stereo. Both of those bands were phenomonal live. We got back to the hotel after that and crashed pretty hard.

On Saturday, we started the day off with some more cool shows. We saw Rehasher, Algernon Cadwallader, Bridge and Tunnel, Andrew Jackson Jihad, The Arteries, Drag the River, and more. All of those shows were so energetic and filled with some super fans. I think out of the Saturday shows I enjoyed Algernon and Bridge and Tunnel the most. We ended the night with We Are the Union and the Swellers. Both put on a fantastic show. WATU was especially fun to watch. People really got into their set. After the Saturday shows, we all heard of an awesome house show that was going to feature Bomb The Music Industry along with some other bands. A bumch of people had been talking about it, so we decided we might check it out. We get to the house and it is jam packed inside and has about 200 people or so gathered along the street outside of the house. It looks like it's going to get busted soon, but we stuck around just in case BTMI was actually going to play. A few minutes after we got there a cop car rolls through slowly trying to get people out of the streets and make room for cars and such. The cop car rolls by and just leaves afterwards. We all figure it was nothing more than a fair warning to kep calm and quiet. We were wrong. About 5 or so minutes later, about 8 more cop cars roll up. Here's a sidenote. We are at a party with a bunch of drunk PUNX. If there is any place on the planet that cops are the least welcome, it was here. One drunk guy starts to dance around in his silver spandex underwear while blocking the police car off and not letting him move. Of course the cops get mad and begin to get out of the car and pat this kid down. They pin him up against the car and go walk around to see whats going on here. Now we all know that one kid who has a jean jacket vest with patches and large boots and smells like he hasn't showered in nearly a week. Well that guy somehow starts to egg the cops on and starts acting really immature and begans cursing at them and maybe even getting physical with the cops. The cops decide that enough is a enough and taze the punx kid. As soon as he hits the floor, the kid's friends come and rush the cop and start beating him on the ground. PUNX. Apparently the cop was hurt bad. Soon after the cops began spraying tear gas and used rubber bulets on uncooperative people. This was a complete and total riot. I had seen no such thing before. It was actually quite entertaining.

Sunday was a bit quiter. We some cool shows. Some of the highlights were Samiam, Chris Wollard and the Ship Thieves, and Strikeforce Diablo. After the last show, we headed back on the road for the long journey back. It seemed a bit shorter, but I'm sure it wasn't.

Fest made me realize a few things. One: I have nothing to look forward to once I get back home. Over the last few days, I've had something fun to look forward to. After Fest, ther isn't much left until Thanksgiving. That' going to suck a bit, but eh. Two: It also made me realize that next time it may be better to have someone to go with. I saw that Joe and Sabrina had a great time together and so did the other people who brought someone along. I had a great time regardless, but it could have been fun to have someone to share that experience with. It also made me realize how much I want to be in a band that tours. bands have so much fun on route to Fest. That would rule.

Anyways, sorry if that wasn't very interesting. I hadn't made a post in a while and I told myslef that no matter what happened I would post something after Fest was over. Oh, I almost forgot! We made a bit of a detour to Nawlins today. We had stopped at Cafe Du Monde for a morning snack. That was fun. Till next time, bye!

It's Gonna Get Worse Before It Gets Better

Dear Piebald: Thanks for making some of the best music ever. I know I tend to go through phases where I think a lot of different bands are absolutely unbelievable and then soon after move on to the next one. But, I feel like it's different with Piebald. When you're bumming hard, there is a Piebald song to make you come to your senses and realize it's not as bad as you think. When you are super stoked on life, there is a Piebald song that will only bring you to a higher level of happiness. Every song on "We Are The Only Friends We Have", is somehow uplifting and beautiful in it's own awesome way. I played a bunch of Piebald on the radio show today because I really want people to understand how absolutely awesome they are. After the Piebald, I kicked people in the face with some Have Heart and Defeater. And while those bands may not put you in the happiest of moods, they sure will make you feel like you're ready to take on the world and destroy human souls.

This has been an odd week. One moment I felt like everything in life was going good, and in a matter of days, I realized that things were NOT going good. I don't want this to come off as a blog where I just talk about my shitty life problems, but for a few seconds that's what you'll have to deal with. And don't worry, the mood will change in a few short paragraphs. So, I'm a diabetic (genetically predisposed). I have this problem though. I really like sugar. You see the dilemma, huh? Well I am supposed to find a doctor up here soon so I can have someone monitor my blood sugar levels. Last time I was in Corpus and they checked it, it was bad. I'm starting to realize that this may actually have an effect on my life. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. "You're just now figuring this out?" Well, yeah, I guess I am. It's hard to live somewhere without your parents telling you to take your medication and all that good stuff. Sure, I can be responsible on my own, but it's just that much harder.

Our band is about to play a show with two legitimate touring bands and we are in no way ready. We have songs and we can play them well, but the problem is that we just don't have enough original songs. Honestly, the people at this show most likely are not going to recognize that most of our songs are covers because they probably haven't heard the bands we are covering. But its still no fun to play that many covers and only have a couple of original songs. We need to sit down and write more songs. Plain and simple. Everyone has such a tight schedule and is so busy all of the time that it makes it so hard to coordinate practices. Hopefully things will slow down and we wil have more time to all get together and start working on some new stuff.

School is harder than I thought. When people used to ask me how school was going, I'd usually respond with the typical "Not too bad, pretty smoothly". THIS IS A LIE. School is hard. Classes are getting difficult. For example I have NO IDEA what we are doing in my finance class and that is supposed to be my major. Something about investing or money or something, right? Who knows. I sure don't. I had a test in management that I thought was going to be waaay easy. Turns out it was the lowest grade I got out of all my first round of tests. The question of whether I'm fit for the business world becomes more and more important to me each day. I don't know if I have that cut throat competition attitude that it seems everyone else in the business school possesses.

Some other things happened that that really bummed me out, but that's not important and I'm tired of this dumb, sappy, unawesome mood. So let's all get stoked on the fact that at the end of this month me and Joe are going to FEST. Its quite possible and even likley that this means nothing to anyone else. But to us, this means we can die happy. If I never go to another show in my life, but I get to go to FEST at least once, I could honeslty probably live with that. I mean I would prefer that such a stipulation would never be put into effect, but if it was, I could deal. Fest is an extravaganza of punk music that takes place yearly in downtown Gainesville, Florida. It happens on Halloween weekend and is apparently the best time some people have in their lives. Three days of pure music, friendship and destruction. A chaotic time indeed, but a very enjoyable time as well. We will be staying at the official Fest hotel with some friends that we worked with over the summer who are playing the festival itself. I am probably more excited for this than anything that has happenned over the last few years of my life. Maybe even ever.

New Swellers album is absolutely fantastic. Every song has that epic moment that makes you realize why they are suddenly getting recognized. Sure, everyone had their doubts about their signing with Fueled By Ramen. I was most definitley one of those people. However, I must say, that I was absolutely impressed with the new record Ups and Downsizing. Some songs are poppy while others sound like they could be songs by A Wilhelm Scream. It's quite the mix of songs stylistically. Me and all my friends talk about how it sucks that they are touring with Paramore and stuff, but in the end I think we are all pretty happy for them and what's in their near future.

Moral of this unnecessarily long and drawn out story is that if you ever find yourself in a rut of some sort, pop in some Piebald and realize that as long as you're alive and have friends around you, things can't really be all that bad. If you want to feel like a hardass, throw in that Have Heart. And if you wanna bum yourself out hard, toss in some Mike Hale. I'm not sure how this is the moral of the story seeing as how majority of what I talked about was unrelated to this. But whatever, I have nothing to prove to you. You're reading MY blog. I'm kidding, come back, don't leave. Please stay....thanks. In other news, I realized I have a weird fascination with Taylor Swift.

Phew, you made it through another post! Congratulate yourself for being alive and well and not having ripped your hair out. It's quite the feat. Till next time, have a wonderful and awesome life.

Oh, and Zombieland was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. No joke, this film will destroy all expectations. If you are into being awesome and doing awesome things, check it out.

Bye, now.

When I look into the mirror, I see a boy not a man.

Its been a long few days. School has gotten into its "destroy all human souls" mode and is going to stay that way until the middle of December. I really wish I did more during those first few weeks when nothing was really happening. All I can think about now is all the awesome things I wish I could be doing. Sadly, I have tests and homework to do instead now. Free time is a valuable thing I wish we could all have more of. Enough of that though. Speaking of, if you ever have free time you should stop reading my shitty blog and should venture over to Justin Salman's blog. Honestly, it's funnier and probably more relevant in all possible ways.

Warning: This blog will probably be scattered and disorganized as it will be representing the millions of scattered and disorganized thoughts going through my head right now. Enjoy (Trust me, I don't think you will.)

Over the last few days, I have been having a really similar conversation with all of the close friends I have. The conversation usually begins with how much we all hate school and essentially hate what we are doing there. We go into college with the mentality that we are going to discover what we are good at and in turn make a career out of that. It's really quite a feeling. I can remember the feeling coming out of high school. I was as excited as anyone was. I was going to have so many things I didn't have before. There would be freedom, more interesting classes, different types of people to interact with, and so much more. Did all of that happen? Well, yes and no. I did find new and interesting people with different viewpoints to interact with and I did find that some classes I took were slightly more interesting or relevant to me. But as far as the whole "what I'm good at" or "what I want to do with my life" thing, I can't say college has lived up to what it is made out to be. I understand that stuff like this also has to do with the amount of effort you put into it. Trust me, I hear that all day from family and people who think they know what they want out of life. But why is it that some people are able to hone in on exactly what they want to do while others are left standing alone wondering why they are even at school in the first place? The concept is difficult for me to understand. Do I wish I knew everything about what I wanted to do with my life? No, not completely. That would take out all of the mystery and make life a lot less interesting. I think a person needs some form of change and questioning in their life for it to be worth while. But, on the other hand, some general idea would surely make things a little easier. Its getting harder and harder to go to class each day and discover more and more things wrong with the career path you are on. A friend of mine asked me today "How did we end up in one of the most conservative majors in one of the most conservative schools in the country?". I never looked at it like that. But he was right. This was obviously a wrong choice. Sometimes you just don't fit in somewhere but have unfortunately just taken to long to figure that out. I ask everyone reading this in all seriousness. What is going to happen to us after college? Are we going to be doing something we love or are we going to get stuck in a ridiculous routine that never ends? Sure, its a serious question. I'm not trying to get really deep with this blog or anything, I just want to know that I'm not the only person who is confused with this right now. On the bright side, there are a few things that are making this experience a bit better. There are a lot of great people here who are willing to hang out and make you feel at home when they know you usually don't.

In other news, I had 4 tests in a span of three days. One on Monday, two today on Wednesday, and one on Thursday. Its relieving that its almost done, but also nerve wrecking to know that I may not have started off the semester as awesome as I was telling myself I would. But, eh, what can you do, right? I need to grow up.

So, at least there's music to make shit better. September is almost over which means October is near! "What's in October" you may ask. Well, let me tell you friends. Number one: Strike Anywhere, Polar Bear Club, Crime In Stereo, and Ruiner show on the 26th and 27th. The new Swellers album comes out September 29th. Ruiner album just came out. So much stuff is going to happen and all of those will lead up to what will hopefully be one of the best weekends of my life...Fest. It's something that most bearded listeners of punk hope to be at part of. Soooo many bands in 3 days. I sure hope it proves to be as unbelievable as everyone says it is. Way too excited.

We have a band that tries to play music. Apparently we might record within the next few months which would be cool. First we have to write more songs, and fix the ones we have already written. But that is a fun process, so I'm excited about that. Hopefully we can play some local shows here and there to get into the groove of things.

Anyways, as usual, I'll go ahead and apologize for your wasted time. And believe me, this time I mean it. I promise my goal was not to bum you out super hard. Everyone has these questions at some point I think and mine happens to be now.

Bye, now.

Please join again next time where we'll talk about happy things like puppies and rainbows.

I Know I'm Small Time.

Sup BROmos? Oh nothing? Well, good! That means you have some time to hang out and read this. Some pretty interesting stuff has happened over the last few days. Some good and some not so awesome. I would venture to say that more things have fallen on the good side though, so worry not. This will not be a sad, broken down rant. So here are some of the good stuff I'll blogz about today. Number one: I got a job of sorts. Number two: I got a radio show on the student radio station. Number three: I made some new-ish friends at school that I think will help enhance the experience of being in ho-dunk Texas. Number Four: We might have some help booking shows for our band this semester.

So, Number One.

So, I had been looking for a job a lot last year and applied to millions of places and hardly got any responses. It may have been due to the fact that when I say millions, I really mean like 6. But that's besides the point. I did get a few responses letting me know that the jobs had already been filled by people who I can only imagine were smarter and more responsible. So, that was good. At least with those I didn't have the whole anticipation factor. Either way, the point is that one of those jobs I applied for finally came through. I had applied for a tutoring service that services the whole Bryan/College Station area. A student needed some help with a freshman level business math class and contacted me. FINALLY. So, that was pretty neat. The first session went well. He's a a good dude and is really in it to learn something and not just get his homework done by someone. I think I would prefer a job like this where we can work out our own times and such.

Number Two.

Last semester I applied to have a radio show on the TAMU student run radio station. Once again, I didn't get a response for what felt like years. The reason I'm guessing was because I was applying for the following semester (which would be now). So apparently it got approved and I believe it starts next week. That should be fun. I get to play whatever music I like as long as it is not charted in the top 100 Billboard or pop charts. I think this will be a fun experience. I can be boring at times, so hopefully I won't be all lame on the air. Maybe I won't talk at all and just let the jAmZ speak for themselves. Who knows. Honestly, there will probably be a total of 4 people listening to it at one time. I never listened to it much when I lived on campus. You can hear it on your TV if you have suddenlink cable service or via dem innernetz by visiting kanm.tamu.edu.
My show is on Saturday mornings from 10 a.m to 11 a.m.

Number Three.

I went to a Have Heart show a little while back with some people I barely knew. However, I had a really good time. It was really quite cool to be able to talk to people about stuff you can't talk to most other people at your school about. We shared a lot of music interests and other general interests as well. I didn't feel uncomfortable around them and didn't feel like I had to hold my tongue in an effort to not offend them. It was refreshing. They are all involved in a student organization called MSC Town Hall which is a music oriented student group for people who are not into most mainstream media. They book shows, have cultural type events and other things like that. I've met a good amount of people involved in Town Hall and it's really making me want to join it. They all seem fun and interesting!

Number Four.

There isn't much to this. Our drummer's old band mate is going to apparently help us book some shows around the area. That'll be sweet!

Some Un-awesome things.

I have a Management 363 course. The class consists of a regular large lecture conducted by the professor and a once a week small discussion group conducted by a graduate student. The large lecture is fine. The professor is really cool and gets her point across well. The small discussion group is pretty yucky. We are graded on attendance and on participation. Here's where the problem lies. Attendance is all OK. No problem with that. Participation is my problem. While in theory I think the idea is good, I don't think it transfers well in reality. As soon as the grad student announced that she was going to grade on participation, the number of people that began to talk and raise their hands was unreal. It got to the point where people decide to leave behind reason and logic and say absolutely anything to get their points. It was obvious that they were saying almost word for word what someone right before them had said. But that didn't matter as long as their voice was heard. There's a certain point where people are obviously fighting to have their voice heard over their fellow classmates and that happened a lot today. Maybe I'm not as competitive as I need to be. I don't like the pressure of knowing I have to say something productive instead of just letting it flow. I don't like not knowing whether I spoke often enough. It seems sleazy for people to just try and have their voice heard over other people's just to get a grade. Maybe I'm crazy and this is just what the professional business world is like. If that's the case, I don't know that that's what I want to do with my life.


School is starting to get hard again. Lots of reading and online homework assignments again. I always love the first week or two of school because it means that you still laze around and suffer no consequences. But now, it's about to get real again. Me no likey.

New JaMzZ?


Well Jay-Z's new album The Blueprint 3 came out just this week. I just listened to it and realized again why I Like Jay-Z so much. He's cocky, sure. But I feel like he also gives out his dues to those who are deserving of them. Most rappers these days aren't the most humble of people anyways. Either way, the songs are creative and have a lot of guest appearances from other artists who are popular in the rap/hip hop and R&B fields. It's most definitely worth a listen.

Polar Bear Club's Chasing Hamburg has started to grow on me as many people told me it would. The songs are weirder and less layered, but nonetheless still better than most of the music out there. Sure, some songs sound like they are featuring Santana, but so what? Everyone loves Santana, right? It's moving up on the list of what is being played most often on my Ipod.

Well, that's all for now. Bye, now.

There Was a Time When This City Shined.

Herro there! So, I'm not sure why you're here. Whether it's your first time here or you've decided to visit again, know that either way you have made a mistake and will now have to sit and read through more of my dumb banter on subjects that have no real value to anyone! Sweet, I'm stoked as well!

So, whats been going on lately you ask? Well, school started yesterday (Monday). It was actually a little less intimidating than I thought it would be. My professors seemed relatively laid back and pretty interesting as well. I have a Management class and the professor is really cool, She seems like she takes care of business but in a fun and interesting way. Then I have this Information Systems Statistics class with a straight INDIAN professor with a heavy accent and that ruled a lot. I have some crazy Asian lady for Political Science and she might be my favorite so far. She was extra funny and really liberal politically which stumped all of the people in class. I, however, was extremely excited. I've had almost all super conservative professors in the past so it'll be cool to see a class taught from her perspective. I have some other professors that were also cool but not worth mentioning. So that's basically how school has been going. I think it will be difficult course work but that it will be taught in a well paced manner.

So, our band had our first practice since last semester. I think we were all expecting it to be kind of shaky since we hadn't played together in so long and all of us were pretty busy over the summer with work and stuff. To our surprise, it went a lot better than we thought it would. I mean, we're nothing special and likely won't be but it was still neat to see that we could pick up from where we left it all. We played some covers to get reacquainted and then attempted to turn one of our singer's acoustic songs into a full band song and that turned out kind of cool. I think we're all excited to play shows this semester wherever we can!

Tomorrow, I'm going to a Have Heart show. I like Have Heart a lot but am in no way a die hard fan or anything. And as far as the other bands go, I've only heard some of their stuff but don't listen to any of them regularly. Have Heart is a straight edge hardcore band that has a pretty large following so the show should have a pretty big turnout which will be cool. Plus they are breaking up at the end of this year so I think it's worth seeing them when I have the chance. I think it'll be fun. I've been to a decent number of shows but never to one that has exclusively hardcore bands playing. I'm pretty excited for that.

So, recently I made an OkCupid profile. Before you start making fun of me, let me at least explain the reasoning behind it. I live in College Station. While there is nothing inherently wrong with the people here, there is a lot of difference between mine and most of the girls who go here's interests. With a profile like this you can, in a sense, find out exactly what you want to know about a person. If I'm at a party and talking to a girl, it's likely that unless we are talking for a loooong time that I will ever find out her likes and dislikes, movie/music tastes, basic life story, religious views, political views, and other interesting stuff. With a profile like this, I can easily find the people who have similar interests and would likely get along with me with a minimal effort. I'm not saying that relationships shouldn't require effort, I'm just saying there isn't anything wrong with narrowing your field down to people you'd be able to get along with. What's the use in talking to someone for so long only to find out that they're only romantically interested in "Bros" or southern boys with cowboy boots? No use. So, that's that. One of my best friend's friend found her boyfriend on there and they seem to be getting along. Yeah, it may seem lame, but what can you do? I know plenty of great girls in different places, just not very many here.

Polar Bear Club's new album leaked. It's called Chasing Hamburg...and it was not at all what I expected. when they announced the release date and stuff, I was so stoked. I actually searched almost daily for a leak. I was going to buy it when it came out regardless so I figured it'd be all right. Today Razzy sent me a link that took almost 3 hours to download only building my anticipation level. When it finally finished, it was hard to keep that level of excitement. It was very mediocre in my opinion (which I realize isn't worth much). Some songs lacked any emotion and power. Jimmy, the vocalist, is known for his gritty emotional screaming as well as his melodic cleaner voice. This album has a lot of melodic clean vocals but almost none of the emotional gritty stuff. It was disappointing. No sing a longs, no anthems, no nothing. Just a couple of cool songs and maybe one or two really catchy ones. I guess Ruiner, Strike Anywhere, and A Wilhelm Scream will have to make up for it when their new stuff comes out. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate Polar Bear Club's new stuff. I just didn't see a logical progression from the previous anthemic sing-a-long stuff. But if they're happy with it, then that's all that should really count.

Well, it's been fun. Sorry if I bored you to death with uninteresting facts about my life. If not, come again!

Bye, now!

Keep Running, Keep Shining On.

Herro there! It's probably going to be my last post before the school year starts mainly just because I've simply run out of interesting things to talk about. I feel like it's back to that lame time where summer is basically over because all of your friends are leaving to go back to school yet you still have a few days or a week to entertain yourself. Don't get me wrong, summer has been awesome. I mean, I did about the exact same thing almost every single night. The day usually consisted of work and the night consisted of going to Romey's house with Justin and sometimes Joe and Sabrina and then usually an adventure to the nearest Whataburger. But oddly enough, that was enough to entertain me. It's cool to just be able to sit and hang with people without really having to have anything specific to do. You know who your real friends are when that can happen and everyone is still somehow relatively satisfied. Anyways, enough of this silly bromance story.

Hmm, lets think about what we can talk about today. Ahh yes! So this week my friend (let's be honest and just say best friend, right?)came into town. We used to be real close, but then he moved out of town and we now go to different schools. Its weird actually how we've maintained a good friendship. In all honesty we don't have ALL that much in common besides the fact that our parents are friends and that we've known each other forever. His visit was really cool still though. It always seems to kind of pick up where it left off. I liked that we could still talk about anything. He's kind of the ladies man with style and I'm kind of the not ladies man without style, so its a rather neat interaction with the whole opposites thing and all going on. Either way, I always enjoy getting to hang with him whenever we get the chance. So, that was cool.

What else...Well I don't have a job anymore. This is kind of bittersweet I guess. I worked almost the whole time I was in Corpus, but put my two weeks in a little early so I could have some "free time". Now, I kind of wish that I was still working. I don't do much during the day anyways. I might as well have been doing something sort of productive. But either way, that was a good experience overall. The people there for the most part are good genuine people and really care about their co-workers. Hopefully I can go back and work there again sometime in the future.

Thrice show you say? Well it went better than expected I think. There was a really good turnout which is really helpful when you're playing a show. The crowd getting into it is always really awesome to see. Some people were more into it than others, but hey, what can you expect? We played decently I would say. It wasn't spectacular by any means but I think the experience was awesome. I'm definitely excited to do it again next year.

School is about to start. Not to stoked about that. For starters, It's hard to find new friends there that share any interests with you unless you're waaay into being a good 'ole southern country boy. I'm not too into that whole culture and the people I live with are not either. I guess I'll stick to keeping the good friends I already have there. A friend of mine would talk about how he wouldn't wear A&M gear around because of the things many people associate with our school. There's a kind of weird stigma. I feel like I am also starting to kind of understand that. I appreciate the education I am getting, but it doesn't help with the embarrassment I sometimes feel for the school and some of the people who go there.

New music? Ok. Well I've recently been listening to some more folksy stuff then I usually would be listening to. One artist I've grown to really like is The Tallest Man On Earth. Just good simple folksy music. Really quite relaxing. Also, some other kind of acoustic stuff like Chuck Ragan and Mike Hale. Chuck Ragan's new album Gold Country leaked and it's very very good. Much better than I had thought it was going to be. I am still looking forward to new stuff from The Swellers, Polar Bear Club, Strike Anywhere, Ruiner, A Wilhelm Scream, Crime In Stereo, and probably many others.

Well if you wasted time reading this, I truly am sorry and would be more than happy to try and work out some sort of reimbursement for you and any other friends that were damaged by my awful writing and useless banter.

Bye now, friends.