Like a computer crash that never hits the ground...

Yeah, computer crashed. Lost all of my music files. All 5,800 songs or so. All of my programs. All of my school files. No more Microsoft Office. No more Photoshop. No more SHIT. That made Saturday really lame. Going through another day of plans not working out with Katie also made it a bad day. But she lives here now, so hey, whatever, right?

WRONG.

So Friday night was Mario Kart Night. Can't remember the last time we had one of those. I only drank one Dr. Pepper that night. Do you know how much I hate soda? All I have in this house is soda and tap water right now. I. hate. soda. Smells like NOT OK soda. FUCK IT. We have fuckin' Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper or whatever it's called. "It's obnoxiously smooth" or some slogan like that. Lame. Tastes like horse shit liquefied.

So all I've been doing since my computer crashed is the only thing I thought reasonable: download everything I lost. I'm downloading a lot of it illegally. Why, you might ask? Well, I got a lot of it legally at one point and then lost it, that's why. So I don't feel too bad. That and I'm downloading entire albums at a time, so like...it's a lot more organized. I'm making sure everything I put on this computer has album art to go with it now. Not gonna be unorganized like before. Also, I'm only going to put on music that I listen to. And I'm going to only put entire albums and not just random songs from here and there. I always hate it when people only have one song from something, so I shouldn't be one of those guys. Like when you find an iPod on a trail somewhere and most of the stuff on it is shit and then you find some bands that you can tolerate and the only thing they have is "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and then you are glad that person lost their iPod because they've proven to not deserve to listen to music.

Speaking of music, after a long, long discussion and quarrel with phones and such today, I Forget finally rehearsed. And! my drum set is once again in my basement at my dad's. Whole thing. Right there. For my playing pleasure. Oh life is good. So we rehearsed with Brandon for the first time. Umm...we need to get approved for the Powder Puff Football game this Saturday. I am thinking about asking Miss Morrison if it'd be alright that I just bring in a guitar and sing her the songs and the lyrics. That's a challenge for me, seeing as the songs we've picked to play are kind of bad for lyrics. How do you rephrase "She doesn't go to the Warped Tour 'cause she says she's not a corporate whore and Fat Mike is a fucking cunt" without anything that could be coined as "inappropriate"? I'll have to figure it out very quickly. Bustin' my balls here!

Got a blister playing drums today. Doesn't surprise me a bit. I can't remember the last time I really played the drums. Brittney and Shane couldn't remember the last time they played their instruments, either. The last time for any of us was probably the last rehearsal like a month ago. That's a longass time. Nick interviewed us after we rehearsed. We wished he'd had a tape recorder because our answers to his questions were very extensive. When he writes it up, I'd like to put it up somewhere for the world to see. He asked us about our struggles as a pop punk band trying to make it in West by-God Virginia.

What would I do without I Forget? That wasn't one of the questions, but that's what I asked myself in the final statements. I Forget is, as I said, like the girlfriend you've been dating for 12 years and if she were to ever break up with you, you'd just want to die. Or, as Shane said, you'd want to rape her and kill her. That's always a more enjoyable alternative with a lot better closure. Makes it easier to get over someone if they've been raped and killed.

I got straight A's on my report card. Have I reported that? I did. I did a great job. However, Rod won't quit asking me about colleges. I told him today, as he was showing me brochures to different colleges he'd collected at College Night the other night, that I wanted to go to college for Audio Engineering and that the guy from Marshall that I talked to agreed with me when I said that there probably are none in the state. So Rod tells me that one college had something similar to that. Did I not go over this in my last post? I said, "I don't want 'something similar.' That sounds like you're cheating yourself out of what you want." And it does. "Something similar." "You ordered the...Triple Whopper? Well here's the deal: we didn't make that...but here's something similar. It's a Chicken Patty." No. Fuck you. Give me the fucking Triple Whopper like I want. Who gives a fuck if my Triple Whopper costs a little more? It's what I fucking want. And no, I'm still a vegetarian, it was just an example. Bringing me to my next thing to mention!

So my dad ordered me Chinese the other night. I was happy. I love Chinese food. Well that tofu did not look like General Tso's tofu to me. Looked like fuckin' General Tso's chicken. I was skeptical. I put it in a nice plate and took it out to the couch. I put a piece of it in my mouth, started chewing it and took it out of my mouth. "I really don't think this is tofu." Upon my dad and Rod's inspections, it was determined that they did, in fact, get the order wrong. "Well this isn't General Tso's tofu, but it's something similar." Yeah, and it could have made me both sick and break vegetarianism. Thanks, asshole. That's why you don't fucking settle!

I gave blood, motherfucker!

love,
Kyle

HOLY FUCK!

I'm gonna make this brief. My life was changed today when I read over this track listing. I mean fuck running my first official 5k race in cross country and finishing wherever the fuck I did on a bad ankle. I did pretty well. But really, that doesn't mean shit. What I'm about to show you involves American Steel covering one of my favorite Alkaline Trio songs on earth. So shut the fuck up. Nothing you have to say is more interesting than that.

Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records:
1. "Young Till I Die," Bouncing Souls/originally by 7 Seconds
2. "Headlights...Ditch," Off With Their Heads/originally by Bouncing Souls
3. "No More Lies," NoFX/originally by Battalion of Saints
4. "Misfortune," Youth Brigade/originally by SNFU
5. "S.O.S.," Lagwagon/originally by One Man Army
6. "Believe In Something," Blue Collar Special/originally by Youth Brigade
7. "Future Dreams," The Cute Lepers/originally by Upright Citizens
8. "Domination," Young Governor/originally by Marvelous Mark Youth Youth Youth
9. "Wrecking Crew," Pulley/originally by Adolescents
10. "We're Gonna Fight," Pennywise/originally by 7 Seconds
11. "It's Empty," Filthy Thieving Bastards/originally by One Man Army
12. "Dead and Broken," American Steel/originally by Alkaline Trio
13. "The Ballad Of Johnny X," Johnny Madcap & The Distractions/originally by Bouncing Souls
14. "Little White God," In The Red/originally by Leatherface
15. "Fade Away Shark," Soup/originally by Pegboy
16. "Fight To Unite," Dropkick Murphys/originally by Youth Brigade
17. "Foreign Policy," Wednesday Night Heroes/originally by Stretch Marks
18. "1000 Miles," Anti-Flag/originally by Unseen
19. "Victoria," Complete Control/originally by One Man Army
20. "We're In!" Old Man Markley/originally by Youth Brigade
21. "Keep On," The Ignorant/originally by Hepcat
22. "Piss On You," Subhumans/originally by Personality Crisis
23. "Scratches & Needles," Ch3/originally by Nils
24. "Pill Box," Lower Class Brats/originally by Lower Class Brats
25. "Who Is Who," The Briefs/originally by Adolescents
26. "Hating Every Minute," Krum Bums/originally by Alkaline Trio
27. "In The Night," Ashers/originally by Bad Religion
28. "I Scream," Matt Skiba/originally by The Brigade
29. "All The Way Nothington," originally by One Man Army
30. "Doublewhiskeycokenoice," Leatherface/ originally by Dillinger 4
31. "Sink With California," 7 Seconds/ originally by Youth Brigade


WHAT THE FUCK, RIGHT?! Krum Bums doing Alkaline Trio, Leatherface doing D4, Lagwagon doing One Man Army, Off With Their Heads doing Bouncing Souls?! AHHHH!!! I really don't plan on sleeping until this compilation is in my hands. And saying all of that, I am, of course, leaving out the fact that...well...MATT SKIBA IS ON THE COMP!

I'm more than a little bit stoked. Anywho, I guess it'd be nice if I recapped on running today. Running sucks, for those of you who haven't tried it. It's the worst thing on earth maybe. Don't know about that, but it sucks pretty bad. Don't do it. It's barely worth it. But it's what I do and I somehow find satisfaction from it at the end of the day. Katie was there. However, we did not see each other before she left. FUCK! Ginger was also there. We, thankfully, never saw each other...not that she has any idea who I am. Josh Montoya finished the race and then passed out form heat exhaustion and went to the hospital. That kind of sucks. We stopped at Sheetz on the way home and I bought $11 worth of junk food. Mmmm. I've drunk more than 3 liters of fluids today. Probably over a gallon, really. Most of it being water. Water seems pretty plain to drink casually but when running, it's like a Christ figure. Only more refreshing and rewarding.

Dammit, now I just want to hang out with my girlfriend and listen to American Steel cover Alkaline Trio. You can hear 30-second clips from each song on that comp I need right here. http://www.amazon.com/Let-Them-Know-Brigade-Records/dp/B002MSJ37O/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1252198079&sr=8-3

love,
Kyle

Yeah, so what?!

I've not written in 4 days, but what's it to ya? How the fuck do you follow that last one up? "Yeah, well you see, my girlfriend joined the Navy today. In other news...well, fuck. That sucks, doesn't it?" Well here's a logical follow-up. Katie is going through with this. She really went to whatever city in Maryland and did her testing, her physical, and was assigned where to go. I didn't talk to her yesterday, the day before, and have you to hear from her today, so I really don't have the insider's scoop. Last time I spoke with her was after she did the testing and she scored better than the rest of the girls. She seemed irritated with me that day, so I've backed off. We'll see how we're doing later today, I assume.

So here's my bad follow-up. I guess it's like gonna be the Green Album to Pinkerton in comparison. Well, maybe not. This is kind of awesome. So Alkaline Trio are recording with Matt Allison again. That's the guy that did their first couple of records and also records with The Lawrence Arms and shit. Producer from Chicago. Very cool. No, fucking amazingly cool. Do you know how good the records he puts out always are? They're fucking amazing. Goddamnit? Oh! Calcutta!? Maybe I'll Catch Fire? This Sinking Ship (I think)? Come on. Their new album is just gonna haul some major ass and that's all there is to it. It'll make Agony & Irony look like the Green Album and this will be up there with Pinkerton, I'm almost positive. Maybe that's not as exciting to everyone as it is to me. What if I said Matt Skiba's going to do a solo album with Asian Man Records? Would that excite you? Well consider that I just said it, because I just did.

Hey Blair, FUCK YOU for telling me Alkaline Trio is lame and un-legit. You can pick on me for some things but Alk3 is like...making fun of a crippled. You just don't do that without looking like an asshole. Come on!

In further news, I've been running cross country for a week now and BOY...it's alright. I think it'll be enjoyable. No band. I'm home now. No 50-pound drums are on my shoulders. I'm laying down instead of standing straight up with my feet and heels together in the middle of a field with the sun beating down onto me in my shirt and shorts giving me a fucking retarded farmer's tan. Nope, I'm laying in my bed typing right here. And here in a minute, I'm gonna go grocery shopping. Tim will be here at some point to finish his work here. My mom paid him $100 yesterday. Good workin' kid he is. Everyone's just getting more physically active, it seems. Let's review:

-I run every morning (and sometimes in the evenings) for miles
-Timmy comes to my house and does manual labor
-Brittney is playing basketball regularly
-Shane still goes to the gym very regulary
-Katie is joining the motherfucking Navy

Those are some major calories if you put them all together, I'm sure. If Katie does this and we're still together through it all, she's gonna come back and she's gonna be able to kick my ass all over the place. I guess that means I have to keep myself in shape through it all. I guess it's a good thing, though, that we're all at least trying to stay healthy. Especially since most of us believe that when we die, it's over and it'd probably be best to stay here as long as we can and be healthy while we're doing it.

We were supposed to have played a show last night but as I had the feeling, it went terribly wrong and didn't happen in the end. Long story, I guess. Everything is a long story. I've been talking to this girl named Alex who is always at local shows and was wearing a Cramps shirt when we played Salvation Army and I told her about the show yesterday and she came with a couple of her friends and what happens? Well nothing. Show can't go on because Jason forgets things and didn't remember us confirming that we could do a show. So we all ended up going out to eat Denny's. It was me, Brittney, Shane, Timmy, Alex the boy, Alex the girl, Amanda, and Alex the girl's friend Kirby who also comes to see us a lot. And we ate cheese fries and drank water because we're collectively poor. Brittney needs $280, so if you'd like to donate to the Get Brittney Some Money Because She Overdrew Fund, please do so. I'm getting her $70 today if she comes over while I'm here.

Anyway, I'm kind of tired because I've been waking up at 7 AM. I have to wake up at 6:30 AM on Monday and get to the middle school by 7. I'm not looking forward to that. I'm gonna run a 5K race tomorrow. That's 3.1 miles for the metrically challenged (like myself). Once again, to the religious ones, pray for me in that and for Katie and I to be alright through this since my regular readers should have a grasp on just how hard, persistently, and thoroughly I've been after her and how much she means to me. Anyone have any stories about people they've known going into the military and how often they get to see them? I'd like to know what to prepare myself for.

love,
Kyle