So I didn't plan on or want to write this, but it kind of just happened. Motivation at 12:18 AM. Well here's the deal: I have to drive to school in the morning and the last time I drove to school, I crashed into someone at 10 mph. Well it'd be nice if I had some rest before I go driving, so I'll try to keep this very brief. Oh how I want some pancakes.
Brandon Irwin came and played guitar with I Forget at our rehearsal yesterday and he is probably going to become our fourth member as rhythm/lead guitarist depending on the song. That's very exciting to me. That means we can start writing lead and harmonizing guitar parts and playing them live! Awesome! Though, yeah, there's something really sweet about 3-piece bands...but still, some 3-piece bands have added other members and it gone over smoothly. Think Dead to Me (who are like a 3-piece again, so maybe that's a bad example) or Propagandhi! And both of those bands have two lead singers like us! That's a good thing to name off real quick. Bands with two (or more) lead singers:
-Alkaline Trio
-blink-182
-Dead to Me
-Dillinger Four
-Toys That Kill
-Propagandhi
-Teenage Bottlerocket
-The Lawrence Arms
-Rancid
-Randy
-System of a Down
-Dropkick Murphys
-Drag the River
-Anti-Flag
-The Beatles
Okay, so that's not that many, but there are some great names on there! I Forget fits in real nicely, I believe. Anyway, I just wasted like 10 minutes composing that list. I forget what I was going to say. I broke up with Katie. I wrote some of that essay. I did well on the tests I took today, I feel. Jim's surgery went well today. I'm continually injuring myself. I wanna ruin Nick's shit. Someone hit his homecoming sign today and drew a dick on his locker.
So anyway, here's a list of bands with less than one lead singer:
-Sublime
-Nirvana
-Bob Marley
...too soon?
love,
Kyle
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Once again...twice, rather
Going into the studio and rehearsing yesterday did not work out as planned. Does it ever? Instead of going into the studio and playing music together, Jason, after we finally got ahold of him on the way there, said that he didn't know what we were doing that day. "Bullshit he didn't!" Brittney said. We kinda had all confirmed with him separately earlier that day that we were in fact going to come in a little later and rehearse. So whatev, he forgets everything. We're almost ashamed to have the band name that we have when we're around him. So we'll try again today. We're supposed to go in at 2:30.
Today, Brandon Irwin will be joining us and playing with us. Perhaps we're looking at I Forget's fourth member? That'd be neat, eh? We'll see how this plays out. And umm...yeah, so today should be good.
I did not get enough sleep last night because I was booking on my mom taking us to second service at church, but instead we went to the 8:15 service. That sucks. I'm fucking tired. I have two essays to write, some tests to study for (not that I'd do that anyway), and rehearsal to go through today and I have gotten no fucking sleep. As we discussed in Sunday School today, my goal for the week is to get my shit together. I gotta get my parking permit for school, gotta sign up for SAT's since I'm wayyyy late on that, and I just gotta get these essays written and written well and do well on tests. I am a bit overwhelmed. I also have to do better at cross country. I think I've thrown my left hip out or something because it really hurts to walk on it right now. That and I can still feel that side stitch from yesterday.
So okay, maybe today is the look at a new horizon. Still gotta dump that girlfriend of mine. Every time I sit down and figure out how I want to say it to her, it's in a time I cannot text her, since that's going to have to be the method. Even if she doesn't get the text because Ginger reads it instead, well, that's not my fucking problem.
Nick says Ginger Berry sounds like the name of a cereal. I said it sounds like something you'd pick on a tree in a Pokemon game. "Obtained Ginger Berry!"
'Kay, that's about all the coverage in my life I've got for you so far. Oh, maybe I didn't explain how I got a side stitch on my last mile of the race yesterday and instead of running a 6:06 mile like my first mile, the last was 8:25. Yeah, hurt like a bitch. My total time was 22:25. Still not bad, but I can do better. I'll be back at that same track in 8 days now.
love,
Kyle
Today, Brandon Irwin will be joining us and playing with us. Perhaps we're looking at I Forget's fourth member? That'd be neat, eh? We'll see how this plays out. And umm...yeah, so today should be good.
I did not get enough sleep last night because I was booking on my mom taking us to second service at church, but instead we went to the 8:15 service. That sucks. I'm fucking tired. I have two essays to write, some tests to study for (not that I'd do that anyway), and rehearsal to go through today and I have gotten no fucking sleep. As we discussed in Sunday School today, my goal for the week is to get my shit together. I gotta get my parking permit for school, gotta sign up for SAT's since I'm wayyyy late on that, and I just gotta get these essays written and written well and do well on tests. I am a bit overwhelmed. I also have to do better at cross country. I think I've thrown my left hip out or something because it really hurts to walk on it right now. That and I can still feel that side stitch from yesterday.
So okay, maybe today is the look at a new horizon. Still gotta dump that girlfriend of mine. Every time I sit down and figure out how I want to say it to her, it's in a time I cannot text her, since that's going to have to be the method. Even if she doesn't get the text because Ginger reads it instead, well, that's not my fucking problem.
Nick says Ginger Berry sounds like the name of a cereal. I said it sounds like something you'd pick on a tree in a Pokemon game. "Obtained Ginger Berry!"
'Kay, that's about all the coverage in my life I've got for you so far. Oh, maybe I didn't explain how I got a side stitch on my last mile of the race yesterday and instead of running a 6:06 mile like my first mile, the last was 8:25. Yeah, hurt like a bitch. My total time was 22:25. Still not bad, but I can do better. I'll be back at that same track in 8 days now.
love,
Kyle
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Das ist gute!
So I'm kicking ass at cross country this week during workouts, hopefully it will show on Saturday. Regardless of where I finish on Saturday, it's setting up to be an awesome day. Why? Because I got ahold of Jason today and we have made plans to go into the studio and rehearse on Saturday. This will be the first time I Forget has played together since the last Warren show. Awesome. Totally stoked.
Girlfriend hasn't spoken to me. Think we can stick a fork in this one.
Um, been watching some videos on Michael Moore's new movie Capitalism: A Love Story. Propagandhi showed me this show via Facebook called Democracy Now! and I watched the hour of it and Michael Moore came in to talk about his new movie and frankly, I am still very interested in politics. It's weird. I love politics, I'll listen to politics all day, but I hate politics and know nothing about it at the same time. Politics are interesting. Politics are evil. Politics are fascinating. I can't verbally argue my side in political arguments very well because I'm just not organized in that way and don't know every fact about everything and cannot throw statistics and site every reference in a casual conversation. That's why I look up to Michael Moore and Propagandhi. They do it pretty well. Perhaps I should read some Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky.
I was supposed to write an essay tonight and have it for peer reviews tomorrow in College English, but it would appear that I completely forgot to take my book home so I could look back at the essays in it and at least get the titles so I could start comparing and contrasting them. Oh yes, I have not explained the prompt. We are to either compare and contrast two essays on date rape or two essays on immigration and decide which uses the tools of persuasion better. I wanted to do the ones on date rape, but I realized that I'm not sure how different the arguments presented really are, so I may read over the ones on immigration and see what I think about those. I really am not looking forward to writing this essay.
Tomorrow during school, I have to write up a study guide I could have done any other day this week during any of the 5 (give or take an hour or two) hours I spent sleeping in class because I had all of my work done. I also have to do some chapter review questions in Computer Applications. I slept for 2/3 of Microbiology today and all of Computer Applications. It. was. awesome. Then I woke up, went to the bathroom, changed, and ran six sets of half mile runs. 6 8's, Mr. Phillips says. If I run anything on Saturday like I have the three workout days we've had this week, I will be killing in the JV race. I want to get on varsity by the end of the season. I've found my competitive side, I think. I just had to prove to myself that I was capable of running with the faster people and staying with them and sometimes even being faster.
So here's a little up/down rundown in how things are looking:
School preparedness: down
Cross country: up
I Forget playing/recording: up
Girlfriend: down
Political knowledge: up
Overall feeling: I need to get my school work together and break up with my girlfriend.
Oh shit! And Ben, Nick, and I got together yesterday evening at Ben's house, learned a couple of Weezer songs (half-assed, of course), and went in to Psychology class today and played them for everyone. I played bass and sang while Ben took drumming duty and Nick was left on guitar as usual. We played "Dreamin" and "Undone - The Sweater Song." I thought it was alright minus a few things here and there.
love,
Kyle
Girlfriend hasn't spoken to me. Think we can stick a fork in this one.
Um, been watching some videos on Michael Moore's new movie Capitalism: A Love Story. Propagandhi showed me this show via Facebook called Democracy Now! and I watched the hour of it and Michael Moore came in to talk about his new movie and frankly, I am still very interested in politics. It's weird. I love politics, I'll listen to politics all day, but I hate politics and know nothing about it at the same time. Politics are interesting. Politics are evil. Politics are fascinating. I can't verbally argue my side in political arguments very well because I'm just not organized in that way and don't know every fact about everything and cannot throw statistics and site every reference in a casual conversation. That's why I look up to Michael Moore and Propagandhi. They do it pretty well. Perhaps I should read some Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky.
I was supposed to write an essay tonight and have it for peer reviews tomorrow in College English, but it would appear that I completely forgot to take my book home so I could look back at the essays in it and at least get the titles so I could start comparing and contrasting them. Oh yes, I have not explained the prompt. We are to either compare and contrast two essays on date rape or two essays on immigration and decide which uses the tools of persuasion better. I wanted to do the ones on date rape, but I realized that I'm not sure how different the arguments presented really are, so I may read over the ones on immigration and see what I think about those. I really am not looking forward to writing this essay.
Tomorrow during school, I have to write up a study guide I could have done any other day this week during any of the 5 (give or take an hour or two) hours I spent sleeping in class because I had all of my work done. I also have to do some chapter review questions in Computer Applications. I slept for 2/3 of Microbiology today and all of Computer Applications. It. was. awesome. Then I woke up, went to the bathroom, changed, and ran six sets of half mile runs. 6 8's, Mr. Phillips says. If I run anything on Saturday like I have the three workout days we've had this week, I will be killing in the JV race. I want to get on varsity by the end of the season. I've found my competitive side, I think. I just had to prove to myself that I was capable of running with the faster people and staying with them and sometimes even being faster.
So here's a little up/down rundown in how things are looking:
School preparedness: down
Cross country: up
I Forget playing/recording: up
Girlfriend: down
Political knowledge: up
Overall feeling: I need to get my school work together and break up with my girlfriend.
Oh shit! And Ben, Nick, and I got together yesterday evening at Ben's house, learned a couple of Weezer songs (half-assed, of course), and went in to Psychology class today and played them for everyone. I played bass and sang while Ben took drumming duty and Nick was left on guitar as usual. We played "Dreamin" and "Undone - The Sweater Song." I thought it was alright minus a few things here and there.
love,
Kyle
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Today I...
1. Got up at 6:30, got dressed and ready for school, got on the bus around 6:55:20 and slept.
2. Got to school. Went to Psychology class, saw my teacher, who is my sister's grandma, Mammaw Sara, had a short class, and got ready to watch a presentation given by the strongest man on earth about the Columbine shootings and the death of Rachel Scott and the impact her kindness has had on the world.
3. Watched the presentation. Did not cry, which left me sorta disappointed, but I still enjoyed the presentation.
4. Watched as people gave various excuses as to why they did not want to accept Rachel's "challenge" which basically just states that you will try to set a good example and be fair to people and try to do your best in life.
5. Ate lunch.
6. Had half an hour of Microbiology where I wore Timmy's jacket and acted like him by saying "house" weird and by stretching my arms and proclaiming that I haven't had sex in 17 years and don't watch The Office. When Timmy left and our half an hour of work was finished, I slept for the remaining hour as the rest of the class watched game shows from the '80s or some shit.
7. Woke up and went to fourth block, Computer Programming, where I checked my blog, checked punknews.org, showed Mrs. Boden that I'd done all of my work the day before, went back to my seat, and slept until the school day was over.
8. Got dressed for cross country. Ran 6 miles in about 45 minutes. Felt awesomely exhausted.
9. Got a ride home from Rebekah. Thank you, Rebekah. Got my shit together and took it with me to my dad's who followed Rebekah and I into the driveway.
10. Took a bath, layed in bed, ate pizza, took some pain pills, watched the finale of America's Got Talent online and cried as I saw that Kevin Skinner actually won, which I felt he should have.
11. Came back to my mom's, played a little guitar, talked to Tim, realized my school day was completely pointless, wrote this.
12. Decided it is time to go to bed. Half a day tomorrow, followed by an easy partner run. I've been kicking ass in practice. My ankle's feeling better and I like these shoes I've been wearing this week. Maybe they're a placebo.
Downloaded the new Banner Pilot album. I have a feeling it will grow on me and I will love it. I also think that Brittney subconsciously ripped off Chuck Ragan's "Do You Pray?" because she has a song about religion and the first thing it says is "Do you pray?" in the same manner and Chuck and it's the same kind of folk song as his and it's just very similar. Oh, and if Katie isn't going to come see me and I'm not going to be able to talk to her in peace, then I am done. Completely finished. This is getting to be ridiculous.
Dear Landlord is fucking awesome.
love,
Kyle
2. Got to school. Went to Psychology class, saw my teacher, who is my sister's grandma, Mammaw Sara, had a short class, and got ready to watch a presentation given by the strongest man on earth about the Columbine shootings and the death of Rachel Scott and the impact her kindness has had on the world.
3. Watched the presentation. Did not cry, which left me sorta disappointed, but I still enjoyed the presentation.
4. Watched as people gave various excuses as to why they did not want to accept Rachel's "challenge" which basically just states that you will try to set a good example and be fair to people and try to do your best in life.
5. Ate lunch.
6. Had half an hour of Microbiology where I wore Timmy's jacket and acted like him by saying "house" weird and by stretching my arms and proclaiming that I haven't had sex in 17 years and don't watch The Office. When Timmy left and our half an hour of work was finished, I slept for the remaining hour as the rest of the class watched game shows from the '80s or some shit.
7. Woke up and went to fourth block, Computer Programming, where I checked my blog, checked punknews.org, showed Mrs. Boden that I'd done all of my work the day before, went back to my seat, and slept until the school day was over.
8. Got dressed for cross country. Ran 6 miles in about 45 minutes. Felt awesomely exhausted.
9. Got a ride home from Rebekah. Thank you, Rebekah. Got my shit together and took it with me to my dad's who followed Rebekah and I into the driveway.
10. Took a bath, layed in bed, ate pizza, took some pain pills, watched the finale of America's Got Talent online and cried as I saw that Kevin Skinner actually won, which I felt he should have.
11. Came back to my mom's, played a little guitar, talked to Tim, realized my school day was completely pointless, wrote this.
12. Decided it is time to go to bed. Half a day tomorrow, followed by an easy partner run. I've been kicking ass in practice. My ankle's feeling better and I like these shoes I've been wearing this week. Maybe they're a placebo.
Downloaded the new Banner Pilot album. I have a feeling it will grow on me and I will love it. I also think that Brittney subconsciously ripped off Chuck Ragan's "Do You Pray?" because she has a song about religion and the first thing it says is "Do you pray?" in the same manner and Chuck and it's the same kind of folk song as his and it's just very similar. Oh, and if Katie isn't going to come see me and I'm not going to be able to talk to her in peace, then I am done. Completely finished. This is getting to be ridiculous.
Dear Landlord is fucking awesome.
love,
Kyle
Sunday, September 20, 2009
So much new music, my head is going to explode
Okay, http://arisemysoulandsing.blogspot.com
That is like the answer to my prayers. Here is a list of all of the bands I have downloaded albums from and the actual album names of those albums in the past few days that I've been looking for forever.
American Steel - Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts
Banner Pilot - Pass the Poison
Cloak/Dagger - We Are
Cloak/Dagger - Pinata Breaks, Demo Takes
Chuck Ragan - Feast or Famine
Cobra Skulls - American Rubicon
Dear Landlord - Dream Homes
Defiance, Ohio - The Fear, The Fear, The Fear
Drag the River - Live at the Starlight
The Menzingers - A Lesson In The Abuse of Information Technology
The Menzingers - Hold On, Dodge
Paint It Black - Paradise
Paint It Black - Amnesia
Paint It Black - Surrender
Teenage Bottlerocket - They Came from the Shadows
Various Artists - Fest 7 Comp
Now if I can, I plan on purchasing many of these actual CDs or 7-inches in the future. These albums, from what I've listened to, contain some of the best music I've ever heard. Teenage Bottlerocket, American Steel, and Cobra Skulls especially have brought out some solid full-lengths this year. That sight I gave you at the very top can give you a lot of these I mentioned and then some. Goddamn, that's some good music. I finally have Paint It Black's entire catalogue!
So the car I crashed last week is fixed. I am not driving it yet, though. At least not to school. And that's not mom's rules, that's my decision. I need to slowly get back into driving before I jump in the car and drive to school again. This nightmare is hopefully over, though. Now if I can just get the rest of my life fixed up. Need to figure out what the deal with my girlfriend and I is, need to get in the fucking studio for the first time in months and finish this fucking album. Need to get my SAT's done, some college applications sent. I got a lot of shit to sort out, obviously. I also want to do really well at cross country regionals. I did alright yesterday when I ran, but I could have done better and I will not rest until I do my best! But god, I hate running. At the same time, it was driving me mad that I didn't run today. I think I'm gonna run for the rest of my life...
I visited Jim in the hospital today. His lung collapsed and all of this shit because he's a tall and skinny boy and that happens to people like him. And apparently, if it happens once, it's more prone to happen again from then on. That's great, huh? Poor Jim. He still doesn't take anything in life seriously, but I kind of respect that in a weird way. I take too much seriously sometimes, I feel, but at the same time, I feel like I need to buckle down in a lot of areas. But Jim is going to be alright, for all of those wondering. I love ya, Jim!
Saw Jennifer's Body in theatres with Tim, Nick, Alex, and Brittney on Friday. I enjoyed it, though I'm not one for horror films generally. The part where they stab the girl while singing "Jenny (867-5309)" was fucking classic. So was the part about the box-cutter. I'll let you go see it for yourself. You probably won't regret it.
Ummm...and I forgot to mention that I watched the first episode of the new season of The Office on Thursday and it's going to be a great season and Community is going to be a great series, I feel. That's about all I got for you tonight. I love punk music.
love,
Kyle
That is like the answer to my prayers. Here is a list of all of the bands I have downloaded albums from and the actual album names of those albums in the past few days that I've been looking for forever.
American Steel - Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts
Banner Pilot - Pass the Poison
Cloak/Dagger - We Are
Cloak/Dagger - Pinata Breaks, Demo Takes
Chuck Ragan - Feast or Famine
Cobra Skulls - American Rubicon
Dear Landlord - Dream Homes
Defiance, Ohio - The Fear, The Fear, The Fear
Drag the River - Live at the Starlight
The Menzingers - A Lesson In The Abuse of Information Technology
The Menzingers - Hold On, Dodge
Paint It Black - Paradise
Paint It Black - Amnesia
Paint It Black - Surrender
Teenage Bottlerocket - They Came from the Shadows
Various Artists - Fest 7 Comp
Now if I can, I plan on purchasing many of these actual CDs or 7-inches in the future. These albums, from what I've listened to, contain some of the best music I've ever heard. Teenage Bottlerocket, American Steel, and Cobra Skulls especially have brought out some solid full-lengths this year. That sight I gave you at the very top can give you a lot of these I mentioned and then some. Goddamn, that's some good music. I finally have Paint It Black's entire catalogue!
So the car I crashed last week is fixed. I am not driving it yet, though. At least not to school. And that's not mom's rules, that's my decision. I need to slowly get back into driving before I jump in the car and drive to school again. This nightmare is hopefully over, though. Now if I can just get the rest of my life fixed up. Need to figure out what the deal with my girlfriend and I is, need to get in the fucking studio for the first time in months and finish this fucking album. Need to get my SAT's done, some college applications sent. I got a lot of shit to sort out, obviously. I also want to do really well at cross country regionals. I did alright yesterday when I ran, but I could have done better and I will not rest until I do my best! But god, I hate running. At the same time, it was driving me mad that I didn't run today. I think I'm gonna run for the rest of my life...
I visited Jim in the hospital today. His lung collapsed and all of this shit because he's a tall and skinny boy and that happens to people like him. And apparently, if it happens once, it's more prone to happen again from then on. That's great, huh? Poor Jim. He still doesn't take anything in life seriously, but I kind of respect that in a weird way. I take too much seriously sometimes, I feel, but at the same time, I feel like I need to buckle down in a lot of areas. But Jim is going to be alright, for all of those wondering. I love ya, Jim!
Saw Jennifer's Body in theatres with Tim, Nick, Alex, and Brittney on Friday. I enjoyed it, though I'm not one for horror films generally. The part where they stab the girl while singing "Jenny (867-5309)" was fucking classic. So was the part about the box-cutter. I'll let you go see it for yourself. You probably won't regret it.
Ummm...and I forgot to mention that I watched the first episode of the new season of The Office on Thursday and it's going to be a great season and Community is going to be a great series, I feel. That's about all I got for you tonight. I love punk music.
love,
Kyle
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Wow, I have lived
'kay a few quick points and then I'm postin' my "finalized" paper on losing my religion RIGHT HERE ON MY BLOG!
1. Katie said that she is dating Ginger. "Yeah, okay. That's just wonderful."
2. I just watched James from Against Me! smash a bottle over George from Against Me!'s (and previously Hot Water Music if you remember from my previous posts) head. Woaaah.
3. Running still sucks.
4. My mom's car is fixable.
5. I downloaded (very illegally) the new albums of American Steel (FINALLY!), Cobra Skulls, and Teenage Bottlerocket. I intend to purchase all of them when I get the financial chance. And boy oh fucking boy, they are excellent albums. Highly recommend ALL of them.
6. We have yet to make progress on our new album.
7. Here's my story:
Religion has never been something I have claimed to fully understand, though I feel I am not alone on that one. I was raised going to church every Sunday and that really hasn’t changed since I was born, save a Sunday here and there. Religion has been a part of both my parents’ lives for as long as I can remember though it shows more through my mother. My father, I believe is not completely satisfied with many aspects of his life and I think religion and the church are two of those. My mom, on the other hand, seems to need religion and church to stay sane with the world.
I have been raised on what some would refer to as the “Bible Belt.” Most everyone I know has been, too. Here, small towns are often unincorporated and churches are some of the only ways for communities to come together. We aren’t exposed to the rest of the world first hand. Sure, someone is shot at a robbery or someone gets cheated on and seeks revenge and things of that sort happen, but if you look at the big picture, people in small towns are very sheltered. For example, I can think of maybe five black people living in the town of Fort Ashby, I have yet to see anyone who could really be classified as Asian here, and the list goes on and on. Case and point: I grew up in a simple area of the world.
My parents split when I was about three years old and since then I have been attending two churches regularly at any given time. My mom first started taking me to a church in Springfield about three minutes from my house. The church wasn’t exactly child-oriented and Brother Blueball could talk for what seemed to be years. The room smelled like stale old people. The music always seemed to be a dirge. I did not understand how religion was supposed to be a thing to rejoice about when the congregation seemed to be dead. I had always enjoyed going with my dad more at the Methodist Church, though I was not a fan of singing those songs with the little kids. They always, even to this day, sounded like a bunch of brainwashed robots singing rather than kids. One song’s chorus just repeats “Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God,” about a dozen times before it starts a second verse. That never made a lot of sense to me, either.
It wasn’t until my mom started dating my future stepdad and going to Christ Lutheran Church in LaVale, Maryland that I started to witness the more openly joyful kind of worshipping I had always thought it should have been. The pastor there, Pastor Chuck, would tell jokes that I would get, I met kids that I could laugh with and relate to, and the overall experience and atmosphere comforted me. For the first time in my life, I felt that I was “getting closer with God.”
While all of this was going on, I was still going to the same church with my dad and nothing there has really changed even to this day. My dad is still my Sunday school teacher because he’s pretty much been able to pick which grade he wants to teach because the church is dead and lacks Sunday school teachers. He does not even stay for the church service. He talks to the younger kids in the class according to his interpretation of God and to what the handouts say while I work on a different thousand-piece puzzle depending on the year. My brother never behaves because of all of his disorders and because he likes to take advantage of his dad being the Sunday school teacher. My dad has always complained about the people that go to that church and says that they dislike him just as much. I do not understand why he puts himself through what he does. I do not understand a lot about religion.
At the Lutheran church, I met a kid named David. David was a huge fan of blink-182 and NOFX at the time I met him. My sister, Kayleigh, thought he was something else and they eventually started dating. They shared bands they found with each other. I leeched off of what I could and started a steady diet of The Offspring, Green Day, and NOFX. That music was a revelation in my life in itself that brought on many others to come. I was no longer listening to the sugarcoated songs on the radio that have to have lyrics cut to fit everyone’s level of appropriateness. I was listening to songs telling me that the government is stealing from the poor, a guy named Jeff wears Birkenstocks, and that people go through their lives living on false beliefs that give them real happiness. I wasn’t sure how to feel about listening to things like that—I felt hypocritical in a way, but I tried convincing myself that exposing myself to other opinions was making me stronger in my own faith.
When I got the internet, I started connecting with people from the outside world. One person in particular, Melissa, did not believe in Christianity. She believed in Scientology at the time, but I later forgave her since she was only in the eighth grade. When she told me, I became deeply upset and could not quit imagining her burning in what I pictured hell to be. I was in fifth or sixth grade at the time and did not know what I could say or do to make her believe what I did and convince her that all she had to do was accept this guy I had always been told about named Jesus Christ into her life. It was that simple, so I was told. The way I was told, you could live your whole life a sin—raping people, murdering them, stealing from everyone you met, and if you simply asked for forgiveness on your last day on earth, you would be spared eternal damnation and instead live among the heavens. That also didn’t make sense to me, but I accepted it. “Some things aren’t meant to be understood…at least not yet,” I would tell myself.
I got older, my acceptance for different beliefs grew, and I started meeting people in school who did not believe in my lord and savior Jesus Christ. I would worry about them secretly, but I felt comfortable discussing my beliefs. One person in particular I would spend evenings disputing religion with was Isabelle. Isabelle had never been religious. Her mother was not religious, though she was my art teacher from Kindergarten to fourth grade. I was starting to realize that even in my little town, not everyone believed the same things and they were doing just fine in the world.
Isabelle and I started dating in the ninth grade. I remember her telling me that I was one of the only Christian boys she’d ever even consider dating. I thought that was cute. We continued dating and believing separate things, though most of our beliefs by that point overlapped. We both believed that morals had nothing to do with what religion or denomination you belonged to, we both believed that judging people based on what they believed was wrong, and that not everyone would ever believe the same things. That went on for a while and then we broke up about six months later. By this point, I had been listening to a large collection of secular songs and secular bands in addition to anti-religious songs by anti-religious bands. I even had bought that NOFX album that says “Never Trust a Hippy” on the front with Jesus giving the peace sign.
It was inevitable in retrospect, I suppose. I was never baptized. I had been asking questions in my First Communion class at church interested in hearing answers which couldn’t always be answered in a way that satisfied me. I had been asked if I wanted to be baptized in ninth grade and kept putting it off because I wasn’t quite sure what I believed. Pastor Chuck and my mom thought I was interested in God because I asked so many questions and participated more than anyone else in the class.
The day came that really shined the light on me—or that showed me that “the light” I had always been told about was false indeed. It was called the “Zeitgeist Movie.” Some punk band on MySpace I had added posted a bulletin about it with a subject line having to do with 9-11 truth. Unsure about religion, I was very sure I did not trust my government and was really into the 9-11 scam “inside job” thing. Naturally, I clicked on the link and started watching the movie. Almost immediately, it started on this religious rant. First thing it said was, “But He loves you.” Behind that, you could hear a crowd laughing. “He loves you and he needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more.” Alright, I thought, I wasn’t expecting for this to start by making fun of my religion, though I cannot disagree with anything they just said. After the initial “comedy,” they start their first section of the movie called “Part I: The Greatest Story Ever Told” which starts talking about the sun and how ancient religions would worship the sun. They said that the sun is “God’s Sun: the light of the world, the savior of human kind.” Hey¸I thought, I’ve heard that in church! “Likewise,” the video continued, “the twelve constellations represented places of travel for God’s Sun and were identified by names, usually representing elements of nature that happened during that period of time.”
By this point, I was shocked at how much things were actually making sense even in a religious context. I had been able to connect my own dots before, but never had they been this close together and natural. The video continued, “This is Horus. He is the Sun God of Egypt of around 3000 BC…Horus, being the sun, or the light, had an enemy known as Set and Set was the personification of the darkness or night. And, metaphorically speaking, every morning Horus would win the battle against Set – while in the evening, Set would conquer Horus and send him into the underworld…Broadly speaking, the story of Horus is as follows: Horus was born on December 25th of the virgin Isis-Meri. His birth was accompanied by a star in the east, and upon his birth, he was adored by three kings. At the age of twelve, he was a prodigal child teacher, and at the age of thirty, he was baptized by a figure known as Anup and thus began his ministry. Horus had twelve disciples he traveled [around the earth] with, performing miracles such as healing the sick and walking on water. Horus was known by many gestural names such as The Truth, The Light, God’s Anointed Son, The Good Shepherd, The Lamb of God, and many others. After being betrayed by Typhon, Horus was crucified, buried for three days, and thus, resurrected.” That was a lot to take in for me at once. Part of me wanted to throw the computer out the window and scream, “Nonsense!” and the other part of me was intrigued. It was the best sermon I had ever heard in my life and I felt I was the choir being preached to. The movie didn’t stop there. It went on to give examples of other figures in religious history that followed the same basic life patterns, but each appeared hundreds or thousands of years apart.
I was asking myself, Why would they all follow the same patterns and attributes? The movie answered my question as soon as I asked it reverting everything back to the stars. The birth sequence, the movie described, all has to do with astronomy and the alignment of the stars around December 25th, which is the winter solstice. More specifically, the start in the East, Sirius, aligns with the three stars that make up Orion’s Belt which were, at the time, referred to as the “Three Kings” and during that time of the year pointed to the place of the sunrise, or, as you could make into a story, the Three Kings were guided by the star in the East to meet the sun/son during its birth on December 25th. Then, it explained how the days become shorter and shorter until the sun stops moving south for three days due to the earth’s rotation around it and on the third day, it starts “rising again.”
More and more the video explained all of these “phenomena” and how it related with astrology. After that initial explanation, it went on to explain just why religion was used still if all of this was, in fact, true. It told me about the use of Christianity as a way of controlling the masses first with Constantine in Rome in 325, and later into Europe leading to the Dark Ages, the Crusades, the Inquisition, and everything to come afterward. “[Religion] supports blind submission to authority,” the movie told me. And with that, I decided that my time had ended with religion. I am not one for any sort of blind following, after all.
I did not care what happened to me after I died. I did not care what I was told to believe for the first fifteen years of my life. I did not care what my parents, my friends, my teachers, or anyone else thought. I cared that I had finally found something that made sense to me. I cared that I had found closure. I cared that I no longer had to convince myself that everything I was told but didn’t understand was true. I was so angry at the system, the hours, the days, the weeks of my life wasted in church that I did not care one bit of any consequences. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there were no consequences. I could hear, see, and breathe clearly for the first time in my life. I was done living a lie.
Since my big revelation, things have not been perfect. Going to church is an absolute waste of my time, I feel. My mom still thinks I am a believer, I think. I respect my mom probably more than I do any other person on this earth and I really hate to upset or disappoint her, so I usually just leave religion alone and go to church with her. I don’t complain about having to go to church every Sunday as my little brother does more religiously than going to church itself. My mom often thanks me when the service is over for coming with her. That makes it worth it in a way, but I wonder if she’s fooling herself or understands that I could care less if I ever went to church again.
My dad doesn’t really ask and I don’t really tell and that seems to be our policy for everything in life. He still wakes me up every Sunday morning and says, “It’s time for Sunday school.” I’ll then drag myself out of bed, put some jeans and maybe a polo if I’m feeling extra spunky, and get in the car. Then my dad, my brother, and I go to church in the awkward silence that always surrounds my dad. Sometimes the radio will be playing to focus the silence on something else. At church, it’s the same thing as always. I still work on a puzzle. He still directs his lesson toward the younger kids and leaves me alone. I still sit upstairs in the church hearing the younger kids chant God-fearing songs through the floor.
As for everyone else, Pastor Chuck still makes me laugh because he’s still good at telling jokes; I just tune out everything involving “our lord and savior Jesus Christ.” He doesn’t say anything to me other than, “Hi, Kyle. How’s the band been?” David lost his religion before I did. He’s lost more than his religion, though, as he travels the East Coast from state to state, girlfriend to girlfriend looking for a place that he can enjoy for a month or two. My sister, Kayleigh, and my two stepsisters also gave up their faith in God, which serves as a sense of not being the only disappointment to the way my mom raised us. My friends still accept me just the same. I am just as moral as I was before, if not more. I have faith and will to go on but that faith is in myself and the will to go on comes from the wisdom that life goes on no matter how bad things get. I don’t tell anyone where they’re going when they die because I know just as much as anyone else knows, and that is nothing. One thing I know for sure through it all is that I am a much happier, more comfortable person now than I had ever been.
love,
Kyle
1. Katie said that she is dating Ginger. "Yeah, okay. That's just wonderful."
2. I just watched James from Against Me! smash a bottle over George from Against Me!'s (and previously Hot Water Music if you remember from my previous posts) head. Woaaah.
3. Running still sucks.
4. My mom's car is fixable.
5. I downloaded (very illegally) the new albums of American Steel (FINALLY!), Cobra Skulls, and Teenage Bottlerocket. I intend to purchase all of them when I get the financial chance. And boy oh fucking boy, they are excellent albums. Highly recommend ALL of them.
6. We have yet to make progress on our new album.
7. Here's my story:
Religion has never been something I have claimed to fully understand, though I feel I am not alone on that one. I was raised going to church every Sunday and that really hasn’t changed since I was born, save a Sunday here and there. Religion has been a part of both my parents’ lives for as long as I can remember though it shows more through my mother. My father, I believe is not completely satisfied with many aspects of his life and I think religion and the church are two of those. My mom, on the other hand, seems to need religion and church to stay sane with the world.
I have been raised on what some would refer to as the “Bible Belt.” Most everyone I know has been, too. Here, small towns are often unincorporated and churches are some of the only ways for communities to come together. We aren’t exposed to the rest of the world first hand. Sure, someone is shot at a robbery or someone gets cheated on and seeks revenge and things of that sort happen, but if you look at the big picture, people in small towns are very sheltered. For example, I can think of maybe five black people living in the town of Fort Ashby, I have yet to see anyone who could really be classified as Asian here, and the list goes on and on. Case and point: I grew up in a simple area of the world.
My parents split when I was about three years old and since then I have been attending two churches regularly at any given time. My mom first started taking me to a church in Springfield about three minutes from my house. The church wasn’t exactly child-oriented and Brother Blueball could talk for what seemed to be years. The room smelled like stale old people. The music always seemed to be a dirge. I did not understand how religion was supposed to be a thing to rejoice about when the congregation seemed to be dead. I had always enjoyed going with my dad more at the Methodist Church, though I was not a fan of singing those songs with the little kids. They always, even to this day, sounded like a bunch of brainwashed robots singing rather than kids. One song’s chorus just repeats “Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God,” about a dozen times before it starts a second verse. That never made a lot of sense to me, either.
It wasn’t until my mom started dating my future stepdad and going to Christ Lutheran Church in LaVale, Maryland that I started to witness the more openly joyful kind of worshipping I had always thought it should have been. The pastor there, Pastor Chuck, would tell jokes that I would get, I met kids that I could laugh with and relate to, and the overall experience and atmosphere comforted me. For the first time in my life, I felt that I was “getting closer with God.”
While all of this was going on, I was still going to the same church with my dad and nothing there has really changed even to this day. My dad is still my Sunday school teacher because he’s pretty much been able to pick which grade he wants to teach because the church is dead and lacks Sunday school teachers. He does not even stay for the church service. He talks to the younger kids in the class according to his interpretation of God and to what the handouts say while I work on a different thousand-piece puzzle depending on the year. My brother never behaves because of all of his disorders and because he likes to take advantage of his dad being the Sunday school teacher. My dad has always complained about the people that go to that church and says that they dislike him just as much. I do not understand why he puts himself through what he does. I do not understand a lot about religion.
At the Lutheran church, I met a kid named David. David was a huge fan of blink-182 and NOFX at the time I met him. My sister, Kayleigh, thought he was something else and they eventually started dating. They shared bands they found with each other. I leeched off of what I could and started a steady diet of The Offspring, Green Day, and NOFX. That music was a revelation in my life in itself that brought on many others to come. I was no longer listening to the sugarcoated songs on the radio that have to have lyrics cut to fit everyone’s level of appropriateness. I was listening to songs telling me that the government is stealing from the poor, a guy named Jeff wears Birkenstocks, and that people go through their lives living on false beliefs that give them real happiness. I wasn’t sure how to feel about listening to things like that—I felt hypocritical in a way, but I tried convincing myself that exposing myself to other opinions was making me stronger in my own faith.
When I got the internet, I started connecting with people from the outside world. One person in particular, Melissa, did not believe in Christianity. She believed in Scientology at the time, but I later forgave her since she was only in the eighth grade. When she told me, I became deeply upset and could not quit imagining her burning in what I pictured hell to be. I was in fifth or sixth grade at the time and did not know what I could say or do to make her believe what I did and convince her that all she had to do was accept this guy I had always been told about named Jesus Christ into her life. It was that simple, so I was told. The way I was told, you could live your whole life a sin—raping people, murdering them, stealing from everyone you met, and if you simply asked for forgiveness on your last day on earth, you would be spared eternal damnation and instead live among the heavens. That also didn’t make sense to me, but I accepted it. “Some things aren’t meant to be understood…at least not yet,” I would tell myself.
I got older, my acceptance for different beliefs grew, and I started meeting people in school who did not believe in my lord and savior Jesus Christ. I would worry about them secretly, but I felt comfortable discussing my beliefs. One person in particular I would spend evenings disputing religion with was Isabelle. Isabelle had never been religious. Her mother was not religious, though she was my art teacher from Kindergarten to fourth grade. I was starting to realize that even in my little town, not everyone believed the same things and they were doing just fine in the world.
Isabelle and I started dating in the ninth grade. I remember her telling me that I was one of the only Christian boys she’d ever even consider dating. I thought that was cute. We continued dating and believing separate things, though most of our beliefs by that point overlapped. We both believed that morals had nothing to do with what religion or denomination you belonged to, we both believed that judging people based on what they believed was wrong, and that not everyone would ever believe the same things. That went on for a while and then we broke up about six months later. By this point, I had been listening to a large collection of secular songs and secular bands in addition to anti-religious songs by anti-religious bands. I even had bought that NOFX album that says “Never Trust a Hippy” on the front with Jesus giving the peace sign.
It was inevitable in retrospect, I suppose. I was never baptized. I had been asking questions in my First Communion class at church interested in hearing answers which couldn’t always be answered in a way that satisfied me. I had been asked if I wanted to be baptized in ninth grade and kept putting it off because I wasn’t quite sure what I believed. Pastor Chuck and my mom thought I was interested in God because I asked so many questions and participated more than anyone else in the class.
The day came that really shined the light on me—or that showed me that “the light” I had always been told about was false indeed. It was called the “Zeitgeist Movie.” Some punk band on MySpace I had added posted a bulletin about it with a subject line having to do with 9-11 truth. Unsure about religion, I was very sure I did not trust my government and was really into the 9-11 scam “inside job” thing. Naturally, I clicked on the link and started watching the movie. Almost immediately, it started on this religious rant. First thing it said was, “But He loves you.” Behind that, you could hear a crowd laughing. “He loves you and he needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more.” Alright, I thought, I wasn’t expecting for this to start by making fun of my religion, though I cannot disagree with anything they just said. After the initial “comedy,” they start their first section of the movie called “Part I: The Greatest Story Ever Told” which starts talking about the sun and how ancient religions would worship the sun. They said that the sun is “God’s Sun: the light of the world, the savior of human kind.” Hey¸I thought, I’ve heard that in church! “Likewise,” the video continued, “the twelve constellations represented places of travel for God’s Sun and were identified by names, usually representing elements of nature that happened during that period of time.”
By this point, I was shocked at how much things were actually making sense even in a religious context. I had been able to connect my own dots before, but never had they been this close together and natural. The video continued, “This is Horus. He is the Sun God of Egypt of around 3000 BC…Horus, being the sun, or the light, had an enemy known as Set and Set was the personification of the darkness or night. And, metaphorically speaking, every morning Horus would win the battle against Set – while in the evening, Set would conquer Horus and send him into the underworld…Broadly speaking, the story of Horus is as follows: Horus was born on December 25th of the virgin Isis-Meri. His birth was accompanied by a star in the east, and upon his birth, he was adored by three kings. At the age of twelve, he was a prodigal child teacher, and at the age of thirty, he was baptized by a figure known as Anup and thus began his ministry. Horus had twelve disciples he traveled [around the earth] with, performing miracles such as healing the sick and walking on water. Horus was known by many gestural names such as The Truth, The Light, God’s Anointed Son, The Good Shepherd, The Lamb of God, and many others. After being betrayed by Typhon, Horus was crucified, buried for three days, and thus, resurrected.” That was a lot to take in for me at once. Part of me wanted to throw the computer out the window and scream, “Nonsense!” and the other part of me was intrigued. It was the best sermon I had ever heard in my life and I felt I was the choir being preached to. The movie didn’t stop there. It went on to give examples of other figures in religious history that followed the same basic life patterns, but each appeared hundreds or thousands of years apart.
I was asking myself, Why would they all follow the same patterns and attributes? The movie answered my question as soon as I asked it reverting everything back to the stars. The birth sequence, the movie described, all has to do with astronomy and the alignment of the stars around December 25th, which is the winter solstice. More specifically, the start in the East, Sirius, aligns with the three stars that make up Orion’s Belt which were, at the time, referred to as the “Three Kings” and during that time of the year pointed to the place of the sunrise, or, as you could make into a story, the Three Kings were guided by the star in the East to meet the sun/son during its birth on December 25th. Then, it explained how the days become shorter and shorter until the sun stops moving south for three days due to the earth’s rotation around it and on the third day, it starts “rising again.”
More and more the video explained all of these “phenomena” and how it related with astrology. After that initial explanation, it went on to explain just why religion was used still if all of this was, in fact, true. It told me about the use of Christianity as a way of controlling the masses first with Constantine in Rome in 325, and later into Europe leading to the Dark Ages, the Crusades, the Inquisition, and everything to come afterward. “[Religion] supports blind submission to authority,” the movie told me. And with that, I decided that my time had ended with religion. I am not one for any sort of blind following, after all.
I did not care what happened to me after I died. I did not care what I was told to believe for the first fifteen years of my life. I did not care what my parents, my friends, my teachers, or anyone else thought. I cared that I had finally found something that made sense to me. I cared that I had found closure. I cared that I no longer had to convince myself that everything I was told but didn’t understand was true. I was so angry at the system, the hours, the days, the weeks of my life wasted in church that I did not care one bit of any consequences. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there were no consequences. I could hear, see, and breathe clearly for the first time in my life. I was done living a lie.
Since my big revelation, things have not been perfect. Going to church is an absolute waste of my time, I feel. My mom still thinks I am a believer, I think. I respect my mom probably more than I do any other person on this earth and I really hate to upset or disappoint her, so I usually just leave religion alone and go to church with her. I don’t complain about having to go to church every Sunday as my little brother does more religiously than going to church itself. My mom often thanks me when the service is over for coming with her. That makes it worth it in a way, but I wonder if she’s fooling herself or understands that I could care less if I ever went to church again.
My dad doesn’t really ask and I don’t really tell and that seems to be our policy for everything in life. He still wakes me up every Sunday morning and says, “It’s time for Sunday school.” I’ll then drag myself out of bed, put some jeans and maybe a polo if I’m feeling extra spunky, and get in the car. Then my dad, my brother, and I go to church in the awkward silence that always surrounds my dad. Sometimes the radio will be playing to focus the silence on something else. At church, it’s the same thing as always. I still work on a puzzle. He still directs his lesson toward the younger kids and leaves me alone. I still sit upstairs in the church hearing the younger kids chant God-fearing songs through the floor.
As for everyone else, Pastor Chuck still makes me laugh because he’s still good at telling jokes; I just tune out everything involving “our lord and savior Jesus Christ.” He doesn’t say anything to me other than, “Hi, Kyle. How’s the band been?” David lost his religion before I did. He’s lost more than his religion, though, as he travels the East Coast from state to state, girlfriend to girlfriend looking for a place that he can enjoy for a month or two. My sister, Kayleigh, and my two stepsisters also gave up their faith in God, which serves as a sense of not being the only disappointment to the way my mom raised us. My friends still accept me just the same. I am just as moral as I was before, if not more. I have faith and will to go on but that faith is in myself and the will to go on comes from the wisdom that life goes on no matter how bad things get. I don’t tell anyone where they’re going when they die because I know just as much as anyone else knows, and that is nothing. One thing I know for sure through it all is that I am a much happier, more comfortable person now than I had ever been.
love,
Kyle
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Plugged in and ready to fall!
That's my motto for this moment in time! I sent Katie that text asking for a response. Does she or does she not have a second boyfriend? Make my day! I've already crashed a car! Let's see how much more damage we can do!
No but seriously, I crashed my mom's car on the way to school today. It's over 10 years old. It's a '98 Ford Escort and I hit someone's hitch going about 10 miles an hour and it smashed my right headlight, my hood, my front bumper, and my right front fender. Fortunately, my grandpa has two other Ford Escorts that he keeps for spare parts in case my sister or I crash our Escorts. So because I did no damage to the other guy, Zach Bradfield, and the car would be total if we turned it in, we're not reporting anything to our insurance companies and we'll act like this never happened and I'll fix my own car.
This is cool. http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/09/15/breaking-activists-drop-70-banner-off-of-niagra-falls-to-tell-canadian-pm-no-tar-sands-oil/
love,
Kyle
No but seriously, I crashed my mom's car on the way to school today. It's over 10 years old. It's a '98 Ford Escort and I hit someone's hitch going about 10 miles an hour and it smashed my right headlight, my hood, my front bumper, and my right front fender. Fortunately, my grandpa has two other Ford Escorts that he keeps for spare parts in case my sister or I crash our Escorts. So because I did no damage to the other guy, Zach Bradfield, and the car would be total if we turned it in, we're not reporting anything to our insurance companies and we'll act like this never happened and I'll fix my own car.
This is cool. http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/09/15/breaking-activists-drop-70-banner-off-of-niagra-falls-to-tell-canadian-pm-no-tar-sands-oil/
love,
Kyle
Monday, September 14, 2009
Been wonderin'
It was brought to my attention a good while ago but today, I thought I'd reiterate the question: Why the fuck is there a band called Thrash Unreal? And why the fuck do they sound like shit powerpop? Do they not realize that their name is a complete and total copy of an Against Me! song title? I mean, "Thrash Unreal" isn't a phrase used in every day conversation. In fact, I don't even know what it means. I just know it's an Against Me! song and that's where I first heard the two words next to each other and then this band came along. Tell you what, don't waste your time listening to them. I swear you've heard it all before and it's lame.
Also, why am I continually being convinced that Katie has another boyfriend? Is it that she keeps changing her status on MySpace to things referring to how much she "loves love" and how she was "going out with the bf <3"? My shit got erased and I don't remember what was written here. But basically...that's shitty and I want some closure. It's all I ask. It'd be nice to ask that she doesn't cheat on me, but maybe that's too much to ask for. (I hate how my shit was deleted because I'm pretty sure I'd written something good here.)
Anyway, let me tell you about September 13, 2009 in the life of Kyle Wagoner. I guess you could say that I "found my faith in God." That's kind of misleading, though. Anywhere, here's what happened. My mom and stepdad are part of the Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA) and the CMA decided to have a church service together on Sunday. So my mom and stepdad went and I had to go with them. This was not at our church. This was at a holy rollers church where people are free to say "Hallelujah," "Amen!" "Praise God!" "Darn' tootin'!" and anything else they can think of proclaiming as they please. The pastor was part of CMA and was up there wearing jeans and a leather vest with his CMA emblem on the back. He's got glasses and white balding hair and holds the mic with both hands most of the time. He didn't say anything other than "God is good. Praise Jesus. We are all blessed." So basically, he said nothing. So then we sang like 20 songs in a row without stopping. The piano player had a mic and she like lead the singing. There was a big ol' prompter with the lyrics on it. Her mic was turned up too loudly. She didn't have a very good vocal range and had to sing falsetto at a rather low note for a woman. The songs also said nothing. "Holy Holy Holy." "God is good. I love God." Shit like that. I was not a fan. Then, to top that off, when we were FINALLY done singing, the pastor gets up and goes, "Those are some deep lyrics." I couldn't help but make a very disagreeing face.
Well then after about an hour and a half, this guy comes out and he's the husband of the pianist. He kind of had rape face, at least at first. No motorcycle vest, but he was wearing jeans, but he announced that wearing them there made him feel uncomfortable. Boy, this guy could speak. He apparently used to be the pastor at Central Assembly of God--that fucking hugeass church that everyone around here seems to somehow go to even though it's like way out of the way of everything. Anyway, this guy starts by saying it's his job to close the service and tie everything together. Well, he didn't have much to work with in tying shit together since no one had really said anything, as I've said. He read from John 6:something or some shit. It was the story of how Jesus went up to pray and told his disciples to wait for him by the ocean and he'd come back. For whatever reason, they got into their boat and then a big ol' storm came, they all were certain they were going to die and called out for Jesus, then he appeared walking on the water and said, "I am here. Do not be afraid," and the storm subsided and they were instantly where they were heading on the shore. This guy does the only thing I enjoy going to church for--he relates happenings in the Bible to actual life. That actually applies to me...applies to everyone. "Jesus is Lord. God is good," are hallow words that mean absolutely nothing. Well this guy is a fuckin' great speaker, as I said. He provides comic relief in the perfect places. He pulls all of this shit out of his ass that perfectly pertains to what his main purpose is somehow. He's trying to sell this house he built and we're in a fucking economic slump and he's having no luck with it. He was talking about how he's got all of this doubt that it'll sell and he's struggling and what was once his gift is now his burden. He said that the disciples in the boat were in their boat--the boat that they'd caught fish in for years and sold for money and the boat that they had millions of stories to tell about--and the storm came and they no longer wanted anything to do with their boat. He said they, at that point, would have been happy to have torn the boat to a million pieces and burn each piece cursing that it had ever existed. He related that to how he'd love to burn his house down. He then said that a plane had gone down near the house. When he first started talking about the plane crash, I thought he was going to talk about the tragedy and tie that in, but he said, "The plane hit a barn a few thousand feet from the house. My wife and I had left for church around the same time it hit. I don't mean it was just close, I mean it was in a straight line heading straight toward the house. Now, I wouldn't wish that tragedy on anyone, but God, YOU COULDA TAKEN THAT SUCKER OUT!" Anyway, case and point here: he was a great speaker.
This is what I came to realize: Jesus is hope. Jesus is love. Jesus is a savior. I believe those things 100%. However, Jesus to me is me. Jesus is hope that a better day will one day come and gives people reason to keep trying in life. I am 17 years old and on my own, I've realized that even when I think my girlfriend may very well be cheating on me with someone else, another day will always come. I do not need the figure of Jesus to keep myself going. I have not been close to killing myself and need to hear, "There is a way out. Jesus Christ." I am my own fucking savior. It's pretty much Satanism by definition, but if that's what it is, then fuck it. That's what I believe. Jesus is good. Without Jesus, many people would not straighten up and would lose themselves. He is in our hearts. He is inside of us. Yes, that is what I fucking said. He is me. I am my own Jesus. It's all in my head. Does that make sense? The whole experience really made me realize this. But you know what? I don't believe anything in the Bible ever happened. I don't believe Jesus is the son of God or fuckin' whatever. I don't even believe in God. I am not going to try to argue that the world and universe was not created because I am not sure that it wasn't. However, I think it's ignorant to claim that I or anyone knows what's going to happen to us when we die or to think that just because someone created the universe, you can talk to him/her/it through telepathy. All in our heads, I think.
love,
Kyle
Also, why am I continually being convinced that Katie has another boyfriend? Is it that she keeps changing her status on MySpace to things referring to how much she "loves love" and how she was "going out with the bf <3"? My shit got erased and I don't remember what was written here. But basically...that's shitty and I want some closure. It's all I ask. It'd be nice to ask that she doesn't cheat on me, but maybe that's too much to ask for. (I hate how my shit was deleted because I'm pretty sure I'd written something good here.)
Anyway, let me tell you about September 13, 2009 in the life of Kyle Wagoner. I guess you could say that I "found my faith in God." That's kind of misleading, though. Anywhere, here's what happened. My mom and stepdad are part of the Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA) and the CMA decided to have a church service together on Sunday. So my mom and stepdad went and I had to go with them. This was not at our church. This was at a holy rollers church where people are free to say "Hallelujah," "Amen!" "Praise God!" "Darn' tootin'!" and anything else they can think of proclaiming as they please. The pastor was part of CMA and was up there wearing jeans and a leather vest with his CMA emblem on the back. He's got glasses and white balding hair and holds the mic with both hands most of the time. He didn't say anything other than "God is good. Praise Jesus. We are all blessed." So basically, he said nothing. So then we sang like 20 songs in a row without stopping. The piano player had a mic and she like lead the singing. There was a big ol' prompter with the lyrics on it. Her mic was turned up too loudly. She didn't have a very good vocal range and had to sing falsetto at a rather low note for a woman. The songs also said nothing. "Holy Holy Holy." "God is good. I love God." Shit like that. I was not a fan. Then, to top that off, when we were FINALLY done singing, the pastor gets up and goes, "Those are some deep lyrics." I couldn't help but make a very disagreeing face.
Well then after about an hour and a half, this guy comes out and he's the husband of the pianist. He kind of had rape face, at least at first. No motorcycle vest, but he was wearing jeans, but he announced that wearing them there made him feel uncomfortable. Boy, this guy could speak. He apparently used to be the pastor at Central Assembly of God--that fucking hugeass church that everyone around here seems to somehow go to even though it's like way out of the way of everything. Anyway, this guy starts by saying it's his job to close the service and tie everything together. Well, he didn't have much to work with in tying shit together since no one had really said anything, as I've said. He read from John 6:something or some shit. It was the story of how Jesus went up to pray and told his disciples to wait for him by the ocean and he'd come back. For whatever reason, they got into their boat and then a big ol' storm came, they all were certain they were going to die and called out for Jesus, then he appeared walking on the water and said, "I am here. Do not be afraid," and the storm subsided and they were instantly where they were heading on the shore. This guy does the only thing I enjoy going to church for--he relates happenings in the Bible to actual life. That actually applies to me...applies to everyone. "Jesus is Lord. God is good," are hallow words that mean absolutely nothing. Well this guy is a fuckin' great speaker, as I said. He provides comic relief in the perfect places. He pulls all of this shit out of his ass that perfectly pertains to what his main purpose is somehow. He's trying to sell this house he built and we're in a fucking economic slump and he's having no luck with it. He was talking about how he's got all of this doubt that it'll sell and he's struggling and what was once his gift is now his burden. He said that the disciples in the boat were in their boat--the boat that they'd caught fish in for years and sold for money and the boat that they had millions of stories to tell about--and the storm came and they no longer wanted anything to do with their boat. He said they, at that point, would have been happy to have torn the boat to a million pieces and burn each piece cursing that it had ever existed. He related that to how he'd love to burn his house down. He then said that a plane had gone down near the house. When he first started talking about the plane crash, I thought he was going to talk about the tragedy and tie that in, but he said, "The plane hit a barn a few thousand feet from the house. My wife and I had left for church around the same time it hit. I don't mean it was just close, I mean it was in a straight line heading straight toward the house. Now, I wouldn't wish that tragedy on anyone, but God, YOU COULDA TAKEN THAT SUCKER OUT!" Anyway, case and point here: he was a great speaker.
This is what I came to realize: Jesus is hope. Jesus is love. Jesus is a savior. I believe those things 100%. However, Jesus to me is me. Jesus is hope that a better day will one day come and gives people reason to keep trying in life. I am 17 years old and on my own, I've realized that even when I think my girlfriend may very well be cheating on me with someone else, another day will always come. I do not need the figure of Jesus to keep myself going. I have not been close to killing myself and need to hear, "There is a way out. Jesus Christ." I am my own fucking savior. It's pretty much Satanism by definition, but if that's what it is, then fuck it. That's what I believe. Jesus is good. Without Jesus, many people would not straighten up and would lose themselves. He is in our hearts. He is inside of us. Yes, that is what I fucking said. He is me. I am my own Jesus. It's all in my head. Does that make sense? The whole experience really made me realize this. But you know what? I don't believe anything in the Bible ever happened. I don't believe Jesus is the son of God or fuckin' whatever. I don't even believe in God. I am not going to try to argue that the world and universe was not created because I am not sure that it wasn't. However, I think it's ignorant to claim that I or anyone knows what's going to happen to us when we die or to think that just because someone created the universe, you can talk to him/her/it through telepathy. All in our heads, I think.
love,
Kyle
Saturday, September 12, 2009
No, I don't deserve this
It has been one hell of a long day...waking up at 4:20 AM, getting on a bus at 5, sleeping on the bus, waking up around 9:45, getting off the bus, running, running, running a race, trying not to shit my pants, running some more, hurting, watching other people run, watching more people run, watching people get awards, packing shit up, getting on a bus, sleeping on the bus, waking up, going to Ryan's to eat, eating, eating, eating, trying to remember the name "Bovice," getting back on the bus, sleeping, having to piss, debating whether or not to piss in a bottle, getting to a rest stop, pissing, feeling better, getting back on the bus again, sleeping on the bus, waking up, getting to school by the time it's dark, getting off the bus, driving to my stepdad's, eating, eating, eating, getting on here, worrying, worrying, worrying, wanting to sleep but worrying, and now I'm just typing this.
It gets to be a little monotonous! I hope Rebekah is feeling better (she went down during her race and went to the emergency room for 3 hours and she usually wins)! And I hope I'm my girlfriend's only boyfriend...and I wish I talked to my girlfriend more often and more in-depth and saw her more often. And I wish I didn't run every day of my life and have no time to do anything else but go to school, eat, and sleep. And I wish I could get into the studio and finish the new I Forget album...and I wish I had some money...and I wish I didn't owe people money and I wish I didn't have to ask my mom for money...and I wish I had more time in my life. I wish I blogged more often. And I wish I could go see more bands more often...and I wish I didn't have to miss school and spend hundreds of dollars to do that. I wish things were like they were in December. December forever.
And all I wanted today was to watch Rebekah kick everyone's ass! That usually isn't that much to ask! This isn't my week, I guess. At least I'm doing well in school.
love,
Kyle
It gets to be a little monotonous! I hope Rebekah is feeling better (she went down during her race and went to the emergency room for 3 hours and she usually wins)! And I hope I'm my girlfriend's only boyfriend...and I wish I talked to my girlfriend more often and more in-depth and saw her more often. And I wish I didn't run every day of my life and have no time to do anything else but go to school, eat, and sleep. And I wish I could get into the studio and finish the new I Forget album...and I wish I had some money...and I wish I didn't owe people money and I wish I didn't have to ask my mom for money...and I wish I had more time in my life. I wish I blogged more often. And I wish I could go see more bands more often...and I wish I didn't have to miss school and spend hundreds of dollars to do that. I wish things were like they were in December. December forever.
And all I wanted today was to watch Rebekah kick everyone's ass! That usually isn't that much to ask! This isn't my week, I guess. At least I'm doing well in school.
love,
Kyle
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Rough Draft
Okay, I'm writing my first big essay assignment on losing my religion. Test yours out if you're brave enough.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1817848131611744924#
love,
Kyle
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1817848131611744924#
love,
Kyle
Saturday, September 5, 2009
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
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
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Welcome to the Dark Side. May I take your jacket?
So I think this is really gonna happen. I'm going to go to Clear Spring on Saturday, drug myself up real good before going, and Katie is going to come to watch me. That seems like a nice circumstance. However, I have been forewarned of Ginger. Ginger apparently does not know that Katie and I are dating and I think if she finds out, she's gonna bite my ear off or something. Katie told me she's crazy and will kill me. I still stand by my shortest blog post of the year when I suggest to Ginger to go suck a dick. But that's fine. I'm excited for Nick and Ginger to meet. I keep saying that if they get into a fight, it'll be like Gandalf the White and Dumbledore going at it.
So let me be completely honest with myself. School isn't so bad. However, getting home, doing essentials, falling asleep, and being up and ready to take on the day at 8 or 9 PM just isn't going to cut it. I used to at least get home around 4, and if I was driving it'd be 3:30, and I could sleep until 5 or 6 and then go on with my day. There's still time to do something at 5 or 6. But 9 PM? I might as well be wasted. At the same time, I don't know what else I'd be doing with my weekday evenings. It'd be nice to go hang out with someone, I guess. At least this is keeping me in good shape. I ran the elliptical today and did 2,167 strides in 35 minutes. The stride length was "26.0." I really have no idea what that indicates. 26 inches a step? See, that doesn't really make sense because a "stride," according to the machine, is two steps. So let me try this math. If one step is 26 inches, then one stride is 52 inches. If I did 2,167 strides, that's 112,684 inches. Or, in other words, 9,390.333 feet. Let me try to figure out what the fuck THAT means in miles and see if this makes sense. A mile is 5,280 feet. I had to have done at least 4 miles, so that doesn't work. How fucking long is a stride, then!? I don't fucking understand this space technology.
I'll keep all of that information for future reference in case I ever REALLY need to know how far I went today. Tomorrow's recycling day. I need to take my recyclables in and I also need my registration and $5 so I can legally park in the parking lot at school. Other than that and having homework every night that I can usually finish in 10 minutes, school is going pretty smoothly. Computer Programming had me a little iffy at first with the way the class was introduced and how most of the kids in the class are super nerds who I thought would be way ahead of me. That's not true, though, because I'm catching on to this shit way faster than any of them. I guess having a MySpace and fucking with its HTML helps. I don't know, but I finished the four assignments assigned to last the whole block in about 5 minutes. Not worried about that shit no more.
Oh, today I was also supposed to go to my dad's, so my mom advised, but I was so fucking worn out that I couldn't. Sorry, dad...I'll be over tomorrow. Today, technically as we've passed midnight. Maybe that's my cue to go to sleep. Pfft. I was supposed to do a study guide and outline my essay tonight. I didn't do either of those things.
love,
Kyle
So let me be completely honest with myself. School isn't so bad. However, getting home, doing essentials, falling asleep, and being up and ready to take on the day at 8 or 9 PM just isn't going to cut it. I used to at least get home around 4, and if I was driving it'd be 3:30, and I could sleep until 5 or 6 and then go on with my day. There's still time to do something at 5 or 6. But 9 PM? I might as well be wasted. At the same time, I don't know what else I'd be doing with my weekday evenings. It'd be nice to go hang out with someone, I guess. At least this is keeping me in good shape. I ran the elliptical today and did 2,167 strides in 35 minutes. The stride length was "26.0." I really have no idea what that indicates. 26 inches a step? See, that doesn't really make sense because a "stride," according to the machine, is two steps. So let me try this math. If one step is 26 inches, then one stride is 52 inches. If I did 2,167 strides, that's 112,684 inches. Or, in other words, 9,390.333 feet. Let me try to figure out what the fuck THAT means in miles and see if this makes sense. A mile is 5,280 feet. I had to have done at least 4 miles, so that doesn't work. How fucking long is a stride, then!? I don't fucking understand this space technology.
I'll keep all of that information for future reference in case I ever REALLY need to know how far I went today. Tomorrow's recycling day. I need to take my recyclables in and I also need my registration and $5 so I can legally park in the parking lot at school. Other than that and having homework every night that I can usually finish in 10 minutes, school is going pretty smoothly. Computer Programming had me a little iffy at first with the way the class was introduced and how most of the kids in the class are super nerds who I thought would be way ahead of me. That's not true, though, because I'm catching on to this shit way faster than any of them. I guess having a MySpace and fucking with its HTML helps. I don't know, but I finished the four assignments assigned to last the whole block in about 5 minutes. Not worried about that shit no more.
Oh, today I was also supposed to go to my dad's, so my mom advised, but I was so fucking worn out that I couldn't. Sorry, dad...I'll be over tomorrow. Today, technically as we've passed midnight. Maybe that's my cue to go to sleep. Pfft. I was supposed to do a study guide and outline my essay tonight. I didn't do either of those things.
love,
Kyle
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Everything in moderation...especially life
A significant event in my life...an event that changed my outlook on a certain subject or object or person or some shit. That's basically the prompt I have to follow for our first real essay in College English. This one, however, is 4-5 pages long. Now I absolutely hate talking music and girls in school for papers. Really do. I feel condescending or something. I read what I wrote yesterday in front of the whole class. I talked about "beating [my] friends to manhood" and about finding that poop under that rock and everything else I mentioned yesterday. I name dropped a few bands I've seen and felt like I was being condescending and stupid saying that. I also named some Alkaline Trio songs. You know, I really hate it when any other kid goes up in front of a class and names bands and songs and lyrics, so why would they not feel the same about me? Then again, they name Nickelback and Buckcherry and their shitty songs, but still. They're thinking "What's a Dillinger Four?" as I keep reading. Oh well, it was from the heart. I liked it. Good essay, I feel.
Anyway, but to not write about girls and music but still write 4-5 pages? That seems like a tough one for me. So I figure I could talk about either the time in my life I lost my religion or the time I quit putting up this past summer. When I had that night of revelation and came here and said "Chill." and that I was not putting up with unnecessary bullshit. And if you ask me, all bullshit is unnecessary except for that that fertilizes fields.
Anyone want to vote? I think the religion one would be fun and I think the teacher would support it since he's real chill and awesome. The other one is kinda yeah. The Broadways sound like Jawbreaker if Brendan Kelly and Chris McCaughan were in Jawbreaker.
EVERYONE I TRY TO TALK TO GOES OFFLINE! I hate this having 3 hours to myself on school days. It's bullshit. I got home at about 5:45, got some food, and fucking crashed. Just went down. You know what I did when school ended? Got my clothes, changed into my shorts and a t-shirt, went to the commons, and was paired up with Nick to go run for 45 fucking minutes. What part of "I have a bad ankle and I should not be running on it" does Coach Phillips not understand? Running on it does NOT make it better! It needs to heal! Once more, I am going to Clear Spring on Saturday and I would love to be able to run then. Ruining my ankle now isn't going to help my case. Right now I'm ranked last of the cross country boys. I fucking hate this bullshit. Let me rest! REST!
Anyway, I digressed, so I crashed at 6 this evening. Then I slept for two hours. Got up at 8 and by that time...well, it was 8. What else needs to be said? Basically what the point here is...is that I didn't start my day until 8 PM. I do hope someone fed and watered those rabbits because I definitely did not. I can barely walk when I come home from cross country. When I woke up, I showered, so I guess that sets back my free time even further. It's just ridiculous. And then I go to bed between 8 PM and 1:30 AM depending on how much sleep I got the day before and on how much homework I have.
Sigh....I've got an assessment to do for psychology. And yeah, my teacher is definitely "Mammaw Sara." 95% sure. I'll take a picture of her from 25 years ago in tomorrow and be like, "Hey. This is you." I hope she doesn't recognize me by some off chance so she thinks I'm like an insane stalker or some shit. But how many Kyle Wagoners does the average person know? I'm willing to bet the answer is less than plural.
Stewart Copeland of The Police wrote the musical scores to the first three Spryo the Dragon video games. What the hell, right? And Elijah Wood does Spyro's voice on the newer games. There's going to be a Spryo the Dragon movie. I bet it'll be lame and little kid-oriented. Fuck, I should sleep.
love,
Kyle
Anyway, but to not write about girls and music but still write 4-5 pages? That seems like a tough one for me. So I figure I could talk about either the time in my life I lost my religion or the time I quit putting up this past summer. When I had that night of revelation and came here and said "Chill." and that I was not putting up with unnecessary bullshit. And if you ask me, all bullshit is unnecessary except for that that fertilizes fields.
Anyone want to vote? I think the religion one would be fun and I think the teacher would support it since he's real chill and awesome. The other one is kinda yeah. The Broadways sound like Jawbreaker if Brendan Kelly and Chris McCaughan were in Jawbreaker.
EVERYONE I TRY TO TALK TO GOES OFFLINE! I hate this having 3 hours to myself on school days. It's bullshit. I got home at about 5:45, got some food, and fucking crashed. Just went down. You know what I did when school ended? Got my clothes, changed into my shorts and a t-shirt, went to the commons, and was paired up with Nick to go run for 45 fucking minutes. What part of "I have a bad ankle and I should not be running on it" does Coach Phillips not understand? Running on it does NOT make it better! It needs to heal! Once more, I am going to Clear Spring on Saturday and I would love to be able to run then. Ruining my ankle now isn't going to help my case. Right now I'm ranked last of the cross country boys. I fucking hate this bullshit. Let me rest! REST!
Anyway, I digressed, so I crashed at 6 this evening. Then I slept for two hours. Got up at 8 and by that time...well, it was 8. What else needs to be said? Basically what the point here is...is that I didn't start my day until 8 PM. I do hope someone fed and watered those rabbits because I definitely did not. I can barely walk when I come home from cross country. When I woke up, I showered, so I guess that sets back my free time even further. It's just ridiculous. And then I go to bed between 8 PM and 1:30 AM depending on how much sleep I got the day before and on how much homework I have.
Sigh....I've got an assessment to do for psychology. And yeah, my teacher is definitely "Mammaw Sara." 95% sure. I'll take a picture of her from 25 years ago in tomorrow and be like, "Hey. This is you." I hope she doesn't recognize me by some off chance so she thinks I'm like an insane stalker or some shit. But how many Kyle Wagoners does the average person know? I'm willing to bet the answer is less than plural.
Stewart Copeland of The Police wrote the musical scores to the first three Spryo the Dragon video games. What the hell, right? And Elijah Wood does Spyro's voice on the newer games. There's going to be a Spryo the Dragon movie. I bet it'll be lame and little kid-oriented. Fuck, I should sleep.
love,
Kyle
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
First time for everything..
So tonight was the first time I wrote something for school I was happy with. You see, we read this short story called Bullet in the Brain and it's about this guy who works at a bank and is kind of sick of his life and the people around him and his work. Some armed robbers come in the bank and hold everyone up. The guy doesn't feel like putting up with their games and their shit, so he just acts like a smartass to guys with guns. Now the story gets particularly interesting, especially in a classroom setting, as we're reading it out loud and our teacher reads the line that says, "You wanna suck my dick?" narrating the robber to the main character. Also very entertaining as we turn the page and somebody gets the opportunity to say "fuck" twice in school with complete freedom as it's written as part of the story. However, she asks if she has to read that, the teacher says, "No you don't have to," and she declines reading it saying she doesn't like that word and says "eff" and "effin'" instead. Boring. Come on. I'd have said it in the blanks. Anyway, the last part that we mature seniors remember is the part involving the main characters memories, or rather, the memories he does not recall as the bullet is going through his brain. The first memory he does not recall during his life flashing before his eyes is one of his first lover who referred to his "unit" as "Mr. Mole" and said things like, "Where's Mr. Mole? There he is!" Very entertaining. Too bad the class is full of goody goodies.
So anyway, our job as a class was to take the last part of the story, where all of the things he does and does not remember while dying, and write it as if the story were about us, replacing his memories with our own. I actually felt that my memories accurately summed up the important things and feelings of my life. And like the only thing the character in the story remembered, my choice in remembering memory was insignificant to my life as whole, as I recalled the time I found someone's shit under a rock on the side of the road while walking to the top of Seneca Rocks. Gotta go when you gotta go...
So yeah, I thought I'd record for you all here my first time writing something I'm happy with for school. I think I wouldn't mind reading it in front of the class. Maybe I'll even slap it on here if it is well-received! We'll have to wait and see!
I went to bed at 8 PM yesterday and woke up at 7:20 AM. Awesome night of sleep. Almost wish I could do that more often, but I really sacrificed a lot of hours of my day. I ran on my ankle again yesterday, which was a bad idea in retrospect. However, I ran one half a mile in 3:11 once and the second I ran in 3:04 on a bad ankle. I was impressed with myself. However, on the third time, my ankle started to revolt and my need for hydration started catching up with me and I had to start walking or I felt I was going to go down. I hope I cut this shit out by Saturday when I go out to Clear Spring, where Katie is going to try her hardest to come watch. I don't want to look like a puss (pronounced however you'd like it to be) in front of her and everyone else. If she comes and sees me and I see her, it will be our first time seeing each other as boyfriend and girlfriend. And to think we've been together for over a month! July 25th!
I think my pyschology teacher is my sister's grandma, Sara Evans. Like the singer, I keep being told, is how her name is spelled. I'm not sure who the singer Sara Evans is...but alright. I had to do some research today to make sure it's probably her before I asked the teacher, "...Are you Sara? Did you have a dog named Pookie? Do you have an adopted son named Frank? Do you live 2 minutes down the road from me? Do you remember that time I ran to your house when I was 7?" Aighty, I'll leave the blogging world alone and try to sleep now. I love yall. Take care of the kids.
love,
Kyle
So anyway, our job as a class was to take the last part of the story, where all of the things he does and does not remember while dying, and write it as if the story were about us, replacing his memories with our own. I actually felt that my memories accurately summed up the important things and feelings of my life. And like the only thing the character in the story remembered, my choice in remembering memory was insignificant to my life as whole, as I recalled the time I found someone's shit under a rock on the side of the road while walking to the top of Seneca Rocks. Gotta go when you gotta go...
So yeah, I thought I'd record for you all here my first time writing something I'm happy with for school. I think I wouldn't mind reading it in front of the class. Maybe I'll even slap it on here if it is well-received! We'll have to wait and see!
I went to bed at 8 PM yesterday and woke up at 7:20 AM. Awesome night of sleep. Almost wish I could do that more often, but I really sacrificed a lot of hours of my day. I ran on my ankle again yesterday, which was a bad idea in retrospect. However, I ran one half a mile in 3:11 once and the second I ran in 3:04 on a bad ankle. I was impressed with myself. However, on the third time, my ankle started to revolt and my need for hydration started catching up with me and I had to start walking or I felt I was going to go down. I hope I cut this shit out by Saturday when I go out to Clear Spring, where Katie is going to try her hardest to come watch. I don't want to look like a puss (pronounced however you'd like it to be) in front of her and everyone else. If she comes and sees me and I see her, it will be our first time seeing each other as boyfriend and girlfriend. And to think we've been together for over a month! July 25th!
I think my pyschology teacher is my sister's grandma, Sara Evans. Like the singer, I keep being told, is how her name is spelled. I'm not sure who the singer Sara Evans is...but alright. I had to do some research today to make sure it's probably her before I asked the teacher, "...Are you Sara? Did you have a dog named Pookie? Do you have an adopted son named Frank? Do you live 2 minutes down the road from me? Do you remember that time I ran to your house when I was 7?" Aighty, I'll leave the blogging world alone and try to sleep now. I love yall. Take care of the kids.
love,
Kyle
Sunday, August 30, 2009
College English!!!!!
Here's my prompt: describe a time you effectively communicated with someone.
Umm...what? Here's what I'd like to write: One time, I told a guy to pass me the ketchup...and he did. The end.
How do I write a full page on that? How do I start to write a full page on that? Now if you remember last year's English class, I did not ace essays. Ever. Just not my forte. Tim just gave me a great idea. Here's my wing at it:
Communication is an undeniably essential part of every day life. Without communication, there would be mass hysteria--cars crashing into each other due to lack of understanding what other drivers intend to do, kids starving due to parents not understanding their need for food, etc. Not all communication is necessarily vital to maintaining life, but can supply simple relief from everyday boredom and monotony.
To give you an example of casual and effective communication, I will recall my first day of College English class. The teacher looked less than ten years older than me and was wearing a peculiar-looking tie. He looked like "some dude" to me that appeared to have just gotten out of college and was starting his career. However, as the introductions and work died down, the teacher asked me if the band on my shirt was still playing together. "Yeah, they actually just finished recording a new seven-inch," I said. Multiple forms of effective communication can be found in this story. First, the t-shirt I wore allowed the teacher to know that I know who The Lawrence Arms are. Second, I effectively answered his question, though it was not at all difficult to get my message across. The conversation continued on and covered our mutual liking for bands signed to Asian Man Records, but more importantly the conversation gave me, the student, and Mr. Presnell, the teacher, some common interests to build on for the rest of the semester.
As the story shows, effective communication can lead to potential relationships between people. Perhaps the teacher knows of a lot of bands that I like but I would not have ever known of the possibility of that had we not effectively communicated on that first day.
Man, it kills the fuck out of me not to curse and to break up "I'll" and "wouldn't." I put this here so I can go get on my mom's computer, copy it to Word, and print it. See, I'm on my brother's computer because my dad still has mine and my brother's don't got Word! WHAT?! Yeah. Fuckin' sucks. Anyway, there was my more-or-less improvised essay for all you blog-readers. Now go suck a nigga dick, son. Oh, and isn't it weird how much Brendan Kelly affects my life? He's way more qualified to be "God" in my life than any organized religion's god.
love,
Kyle
Umm...what? Here's what I'd like to write: One time, I told a guy to pass me the ketchup...and he did. The end.
How do I write a full page on that? How do I start to write a full page on that? Now if you remember last year's English class, I did not ace essays. Ever. Just not my forte. Tim just gave me a great idea. Here's my wing at it:
Communication is an undeniably essential part of every day life. Without communication, there would be mass hysteria--cars crashing into each other due to lack of understanding what other drivers intend to do, kids starving due to parents not understanding their need for food, etc. Not all communication is necessarily vital to maintaining life, but can supply simple relief from everyday boredom and monotony.
To give you an example of casual and effective communication, I will recall my first day of College English class. The teacher looked less than ten years older than me and was wearing a peculiar-looking tie. He looked like "some dude" to me that appeared to have just gotten out of college and was starting his career. However, as the introductions and work died down, the teacher asked me if the band on my shirt was still playing together. "Yeah, they actually just finished recording a new seven-inch," I said. Multiple forms of effective communication can be found in this story. First, the t-shirt I wore allowed the teacher to know that I know who The Lawrence Arms are. Second, I effectively answered his question, though it was not at all difficult to get my message across. The conversation continued on and covered our mutual liking for bands signed to Asian Man Records, but more importantly the conversation gave me, the student, and Mr. Presnell, the teacher, some common interests to build on for the rest of the semester.
As the story shows, effective communication can lead to potential relationships between people. Perhaps the teacher knows of a lot of bands that I like but I would not have ever known of the possibility of that had we not effectively communicated on that first day.
Man, it kills the fuck out of me not to curse and to break up "I'll" and "wouldn't." I put this here so I can go get on my mom's computer, copy it to Word, and print it. See, I'm on my brother's computer because my dad still has mine and my brother's don't got Word! WHAT?! Yeah. Fuckin' sucks. Anyway, there was my more-or-less improvised essay for all you blog-readers. Now go suck a nigga dick, son. Oh, and isn't it weird how much Brendan Kelly affects my life? He's way more qualified to be "God" in my life than any organized religion's god.
love,
Kyle
Friday, August 28, 2009
Calm down, you'll get your turn!
Okay, so things have been eventful lately to say the least. School started, I got classes, nothing to say there really. School is school. Although, my college English teacher asked if The Lawrence Arms are still together today when he saw my Lawrence Arms shirt. He apparently used to listen to them and other bands from Asian Man Records such as The Broadways (a very close relative to TLA). Interesting. I better get good grades.
My ankle is still killing me. The pain is spreading throughout my heel. That's just wonderful, seeing as how I've finally grown to enjoy running. I really want to be capable of running in Clear Spring next Saturday and for Katie to come 10 miles down the road to watch. That'd be cool, I think. God knows, eh?
Oh, and yes, I did in fact attend a blink-182/Weezer concert last night in Camden, NJ, which is just outside of Philadelphia. Whole bunch of people. Whole lot of money spent getting there and back. Whole lot of money spent on tickets. I'd say the whole trip was probably close to $350. T-shirts were $30 a piece. I, obviously, did not buy one. With all that money I spent, I should have been given a t-shirt. Anyway, here's how the show went: we missed Chester Fench and Taking Back Sunday. Boohoo, we didn't care. We got there just before Weezer went on, though. They came out playing a Black Sabbath song; Pat Wilson on guitar, Josh Freese playing the drums, Rivers Cuomo just singing. Rivers kept saying, "Yessiree, Bob." Then they played some other songs. "Island in the Sun" was particularly cool because it started with Rivers looping drums, tambourine, bass, and acoustic guitar and then singing the first two verses and prechoruses by himself before the entire band came in on the chorus. Very awesome. Here's the set list in the best order I can remember it in.
Oh, and I don't know if it's official yet, but...ehh, fuck it. I shouldn't go sayin' shit like that without consent of people.
love,
Kyle
My ankle is still killing me. The pain is spreading throughout my heel. That's just wonderful, seeing as how I've finally grown to enjoy running. I really want to be capable of running in Clear Spring next Saturday and for Katie to come 10 miles down the road to watch. That'd be cool, I think. God knows, eh?
Oh, and yes, I did in fact attend a blink-182/Weezer concert last night in Camden, NJ, which is just outside of Philadelphia. Whole bunch of people. Whole lot of money spent getting there and back. Whole lot of money spent on tickets. I'd say the whole trip was probably close to $350. T-shirts were $30 a piece. I, obviously, did not buy one. With all that money I spent, I should have been given a t-shirt. Anyway, here's how the show went: we missed Chester Fench and Taking Back Sunday. Boohoo, we didn't care. We got there just before Weezer went on, though. They came out playing a Black Sabbath song; Pat Wilson on guitar, Josh Freese playing the drums, Rivers Cuomo just singing. Rivers kept saying, "Yessiree, Bob." Then they played some other songs. "Island in the Sun" was particularly cool because it started with Rivers looping drums, tambourine, bass, and acoustic guitar and then singing the first two verses and prechoruses by himself before the entire band came in on the chorus. Very awesome. Here's the set list in the best order I can remember it in.
- Warpigs [Black Sabbath]
- Hashpipe
- Troublemaker
- Perfect Situation
- Undone - The Sweater Song
- Pork and Beans
- Surfwax America
- My Name is Jonas
- Island in the Sun
- Beverly Hills
- Buddy Holly
- The Good Life
- (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To
- Say It Aint So
- Should I Stay or Should I Go? [The Clash]
- Dumpweed
- Feeling This
- Rock Show
- I Miss You
- What's My Age Again?
- Down
- First Date
- Obvious
- Man Overboard
- Stockholm Syndrome
- Going Away to College
- All the Small Things
- Not Now
- Always
- Josie
- Adam's Song
- Anthem, Pt. 2
- drum solo for beginning of encore
- Carousel
- Dammit
Oh, and I don't know if it's official yet, but...ehh, fuck it. I shouldn't go sayin' shit like that without consent of people.
love,
Kyle
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
I've seen better days
Okay, I saw Inglourious Basterds yesterday with Brittney, Shane, and Timmy. Fucking. Hilarious. Brilliant. Absolutely magnificent. Best movie I've seen in a good while, I think, and I've seen a lot of movies recently. I don't know, I guess it's hard to compare movies. I recommend it 300%, though. Brad Pitt was everything I was hoping for and then some. Man oh man oh MAN! And it was beautifully historically inaccurate (they shoot the living shit out of Hitler in the end).
Now onto bigger and better things! I came across, what we would call, a "poseur" today. And hey, fuck spell-check for telling me I spell "catalogue" incorrectly. That's how I spell it. Anyway, I go into FYE because my dad was taking Zane to the mall to get new shoes. I wanted to see if, by chance, they decided to start stocking American Steel, Bracket, Cobra Skulls, or anything else worth buying. Well, I was let down, of course. However, while hunting for American Steel, I saw a kid picking up the new Against Me! album, The Original Cowboy. "That's a really good one," I said to him, "I've heard it a few times." "Yeah, I like them. I actually going to go see them this summer, but I went to the Warped Tour instead." "Oh yeah?" I said curiously, "Who were they supposed to be touring with?" "Rise Against, I think. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was Rise Against." I walked away, because I knew he was lying to me. He also thought I'd buy it because I was just a kid wearing a red t-shirt saying something about a 5K race, black cotton sweat shorts (Against Me!-esque pun intended), and my Nike running shoes. WRONG. I know better. First off, I know that Against Me! and Rise Against haven't toured since I've been following either of their music, to my knowledge. Secondly, I know that Rise Against was not touring with Against Me! but rather Billy Talent and Rancid this summer, seeing as I saw them personally. Thirdly, I know that Against Me! wasn't even touring this summer. This kid was also obviously lost because he was debating on whether to get the new Against Me! album, As I Lay Dying, or some other metalcore album. ...Excuse me, what? Not even worth talking to. Next.
Messaged Katie on AIM today. "Are you there?" "No." "Fair enough."
Man, I have just been leaving out one little detail about the present. TOMORROW IS THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! Fuuuuuck, man. However, for me, it is my last first day of school. Does that make it any more tolerable? Probably not. But! we'll take what comes and stick it out to June or late May. I haven't even thought about what to wear! Oh no! What are the people I've known my entire life going to think of me?! Guess I'm just gonna ruin first impressions, eh? Oh, and if all works out, I'm seeing blink-182 and Weezer on Thursday. I will be very, very upset if I don't, seeing as I've wanted to see both bands for quite some time now and tickets were $70 to see them. We just gotta find a way to get to Camden, New Jersey. Grrrrrr.
I'd like to say I have more for you tonight, but I don't! Oh, I did hurt my ankle again today at cross country. I hope it gets better and I don't end up being out for the season. Tomorrow, if you're lucky, I'll tell you all about my last first day of high school. I gotta start going to bed earlier now...
love,
Kyle
Now onto bigger and better things! I came across, what we would call, a "poseur" today. And hey, fuck spell-check for telling me I spell "catalogue" incorrectly. That's how I spell it. Anyway, I go into FYE because my dad was taking Zane to the mall to get new shoes. I wanted to see if, by chance, they decided to start stocking American Steel, Bracket, Cobra Skulls, or anything else worth buying. Well, I was let down, of course. However, while hunting for American Steel, I saw a kid picking up the new Against Me! album, The Original Cowboy. "That's a really good one," I said to him, "I've heard it a few times." "Yeah, I like them. I actually going to go see them this summer, but I went to the Warped Tour instead." "Oh yeah?" I said curiously, "Who were they supposed to be touring with?" "Rise Against, I think. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was Rise Against." I walked away, because I knew he was lying to me. He also thought I'd buy it because I was just a kid wearing a red t-shirt saying something about a 5K race, black cotton sweat shorts (Against Me!-esque pun intended), and my Nike running shoes. WRONG. I know better. First off, I know that Against Me! and Rise Against haven't toured since I've been following either of their music, to my knowledge. Secondly, I know that Rise Against was not touring with Against Me! but rather Billy Talent and Rancid this summer, seeing as I saw them personally. Thirdly, I know that Against Me! wasn't even touring this summer. This kid was also obviously lost because he was debating on whether to get the new Against Me! album, As I Lay Dying, or some other metalcore album. ...Excuse me, what? Not even worth talking to. Next.
Messaged Katie on AIM today. "Are you there?" "No." "Fair enough."
Man, I have just been leaving out one little detail about the present. TOMORROW IS THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! Fuuuuuck, man. However, for me, it is my last first day of school. Does that make it any more tolerable? Probably not. But! we'll take what comes and stick it out to June or late May. I haven't even thought about what to wear! Oh no! What are the people I've known my entire life going to think of me?! Guess I'm just gonna ruin first impressions, eh? Oh, and if all works out, I'm seeing blink-182 and Weezer on Thursday. I will be very, very upset if I don't, seeing as I've wanted to see both bands for quite some time now and tickets were $70 to see them. We just gotta find a way to get to Camden, New Jersey. Grrrrrr.
I'd like to say I have more for you tonight, but I don't! Oh, I did hurt my ankle again today at cross country. I hope it gets better and I don't end up being out for the season. Tomorrow, if you're lucky, I'll tell you all about my last first day of high school. I gotta start going to bed earlier now...
love,
Kyle
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Hold the lettuce!
Rumor has it Katie's supposed to text me today explaining what went on last night. Apparently Ginger was not told to call me or say any of those things and was probably just being a dumb drunk bitch. I'm awaiting my text message, though. We'll see where this goes. Hopefully this relationship doesn't end up like Thorns of Life, who just broke up before they even recorded an album yet they were highly anticipated. That was to be Blake Schwarzenbach's (ex-Jawbreaker/Jets to Brazil) new band and I was stoked, quite frankly. So once again, hopefully Katie will explain to me that all is not doomed? And again, we'll see where this goes. We should count the number of times I've said "we'll see" in the last 20 posts. Anyone want to for me?
I really want a job and a credit card because right now I need drum heads and CDs and no one sells the ones I want except for sites online. American Steel and Cobra Skulls please! And I can never remember what the kind of drumhead I want is called. I just looked it up for reference. It's called an
Don't forget that, either. That's obviously very important. See, I need that for when we record again because my snare head is like dead and spray painted and stupid.
Who's excited about school on Wednesday? Anyone? I'm particularly not thrilled about long days of school directly followed by running for an hour and a half. At least I won't have to ride the bus this year, eh? Always look for positives. And I watched all of the Lord of the Rings movies this week now! Just finished the third one a few hours ago. As I said when I saw it for the first time years ago, the end is dragged out far too long. It probably could have ended 30 minutes before it does. I think they should have an extended version with all of that conclusion bullshit so it's optional. Once the ring is destroyed, who gives a shit, right? And I forgot to look and see if Frodo was still missing a finger in the end...
What should I watch now?
love,
Kyle
I really want a job and a credit card because right now I need drum heads and CDs and no one sells the ones I want except for sites online. American Steel and Cobra Skulls please! And I can never remember what the kind of drumhead I want is called. I just looked it up for reference. It's called an
Evans ST Dry Coated Snare Drumhead.
Don't forget that, either. That's obviously very important. See, I need that for when we record again because my snare head is like dead and spray painted and stupid.
Who's excited about school on Wednesday? Anyone? I'm particularly not thrilled about long days of school directly followed by running for an hour and a half. At least I won't have to ride the bus this year, eh? Always look for positives. And I watched all of the Lord of the Rings movies this week now! Just finished the third one a few hours ago. As I said when I saw it for the first time years ago, the end is dragged out far too long. It probably could have ended 30 minutes before it does. I think they should have an extended version with all of that conclusion bullshit so it's optional. Once the ring is destroyed, who gives a shit, right? And I forgot to look and see if Frodo was still missing a finger in the end...
What should I watch now?
love,
Kyle
Saturday, August 22, 2009
MAN, that was a bitch move!
Oookay, so I'm pretty sure I just got broken up with in a very unique way. I guess it's unique. I don't know, you be the judge. So anyway, as I was saying earlier in a blog, I haven't heard from Katie in a few days and I was sorta worried about her because she usually doesn't disappear to this extent for this long. Well I tried talking to her on AIM as I do every night just to see if she's going to be there and a few minutes later, Ginger calls me from Katie's phone! So I think "Oh! Maybe Katie can't text me, so she's calling! It's about time I hear from her!" and I answer the phone and someone being a bitch, Ginger, is telling me, "This is Ginger and Katie's my girlfriend and you should quit texting her and sending her messages and get the hint that she doesn't want to talk to you." Some shit. Man, I'm not even upset because that was just like...someone removing a bullet from your body you didn't know was there. I'm almost relieved. But fuck, man, what the fuck was that? When did that happen? Like less than a month ago, she's all excited and loves me and is happy to be my girlfriend, two weeks later, she's joining the Navy, we quarrel a bit, but get over it and hope to make it through all of this together, then I don't hear from her for a while and it ends with this phone call from someone that's not even her! That's a unique way to die, Mario. Fuckin' Goombas.
So anyway, I don't really appreciate being treated like a little bitch and being strung around, which I said to her the other night since I hadn't heard from her and just wished she'd return a text now and then...and since this happened, it gave me incentive to say "Tell Ginger I appreciate her calling and being a bitch for you and I wish you'd have done it yourself about a week ago."
Damn! Okay, I feel better now. Kind of a disappointment...I was looking forward to all of that and I'd kinda put a ton of effort into making that work, but I guess it was a dud. Next!
love,
Kyle
So anyway, I don't really appreciate being treated like a little bitch and being strung around, which I said to her the other night since I hadn't heard from her and just wished she'd return a text now and then...and since this happened, it gave me incentive to say "Tell Ginger I appreciate her calling and being a bitch for you and I wish you'd have done it yourself about a week ago."
Damn! Okay, I feel better now. Kind of a disappointment...I was looking forward to all of that and I'd kinda put a ton of effort into making that work, but I guess it was a dud. Next!
love,
Kyle
A'ight, check it.
I don't know if I've told the blogging world this yet or not...but I Forget is scrapping everything they've done on their new album up to this point. Yes, the 8 or 10 months we've spent in the studio will only be remembered as experience and not as part of our musical catalog. However, this does not mean that Everybody Sharts will not be released in the future. Similarly, Mark brought the book Everybody Hurts back from Myrtle Beach the other day, so I now have that to finish reading and to lend to my friends. If I haven't filled you in on it before, it's a book about emo culture published in 2007 or so. It seems more outdated than that, though, since they talk about Friendster being bigger than MySpace or something. Anyway, here's a description I found online, since I'm not that great of a book or any kind of reviewer.
I injured my foot recently. See, I hurt it on Thursday running in Vans for cross country practice and then yesterday, we ran 5 miles and it hurt the entire time and when I quit running, I had a limp. So we were supposed to run all the way around Rocky Gap State Park this morning, which is somewhere between 6 and 8 miles I've heard, but I can barely walk, much less run. That sucks, because I wanted to run. Also, we have a thing on Monday that kind of determines where you fall varsity vs. JV. Oh well, I won't be here to race on Thursday anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter this week. I've got blink-182 and Weezer to see instead! Let's hope that that all works out.
I seriously have not heard from Katie like all week. And I don't think it's one of those "Let's not talk to Kyle" things, because she hasn't even been online on MySpace for a few days. Makes me worry a little since she was sick earlier this week and I haven't heard from her and she lives an hour and a half away and I have no way of checking in on her well-being. Hmm. But what can you do? I choose to go on with my life and figure out what's going on when the information gets to me.
So in doing that, I went to Nick's party last night. Total sausage fest. He said there'd be girls. There weren't. He said there'd be a band. There wasn't (our bad). He said uhh...I guess that's all he really said about it other than there was a pool and there was one of those. Poor Nick. Only a couple of guys show up. Oh well, we had fun nonetheless. We swam in the poo', ate Doritos, talked about Nick's sister and mom, called bitches, watched last year's talents how DVD, talked about radical religious people, and Brittney showed up and we played all of our new songs for the people that were still there. Overall: a good, fun night.
I have a drum set at my house now. It sits about a foot from my bed. It's comforting. It's almost like having a desirable woman in your bedroom at all times. You always want to bang her. Even at the most god-forsaken hours of the night. It's Brittney's drum set, but it's got enough on it to keep me happy and satisfied until I get my own drum set back from the studio. However, we need to finish the album first. I also need a new snare head for it. Lots of shit to do and no time to do it! I promise you that this album will be worth the wait. And worth its weight...in gold.
So this week has ended up being pretty good. I wasn't so sure if I wanted to be alive or not towards the beginning of it. School starts in less than a week, so I probably won't want to be alive come Wednesday. In fact, I'll essentially be dead to the world when I have to wake up at 7 AM or so and drive to school. Lordy, lord.
JIM LEFT PENNYWISE?! Okay, week just went sour again.
love,
Kyle
"What is emo? For starters it's a form of melodic, confessional, or EMOtional punk rock. But emo is more than a genre of music–it's the defining counterculture movement of the '00s. EVERYBODY HURTS is a reference book for emo, tracing its angsty roots all the way from Shakespeare to Holden Caufield to today's most popular bands.
There's nothing new about that perfect chocolate and peanut butter combination––teenagers and angst. What is new is that emo is the first cultural movement born on the internet. With the development of early social networking sites like Make Out Club (whose mission is to unite "like–minded nerds, loners, indie rockers, record collectors, video gamers, hardcore kids, and artists through friendship, music, and sometimes even love") outcast teens had a place to find each other and share their pain, their opinions, and above all, their music–which wasn't available for sale at the local record store.
Authors Leslie Simon and Trevor Kelley lead the reader through the world of emo including its ideology, music, and fashion, as well as its influences on film, television, and literature. With a healthy dose of snark and sarcasm, EVERYBODY HURTS uses diagrams, illustrations, timelines, and step–by–step instructions to help the reader successfully achieve the ultimate emo lifestyle. Or, alternately, teach him to spot an emo kid across the mall in order to mock him mercilessly."
I injured my foot recently. See, I hurt it on Thursday running in Vans for cross country practice and then yesterday, we ran 5 miles and it hurt the entire time and when I quit running, I had a limp. So we were supposed to run all the way around Rocky Gap State Park this morning, which is somewhere between 6 and 8 miles I've heard, but I can barely walk, much less run. That sucks, because I wanted to run. Also, we have a thing on Monday that kind of determines where you fall varsity vs. JV. Oh well, I won't be here to race on Thursday anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter this week. I've got blink-182 and Weezer to see instead! Let's hope that that all works out.
I seriously have not heard from Katie like all week. And I don't think it's one of those "Let's not talk to Kyle" things, because she hasn't even been online on MySpace for a few days. Makes me worry a little since she was sick earlier this week and I haven't heard from her and she lives an hour and a half away and I have no way of checking in on her well-being. Hmm. But what can you do? I choose to go on with my life and figure out what's going on when the information gets to me.
So in doing that, I went to Nick's party last night. Total sausage fest. He said there'd be girls. There weren't. He said there'd be a band. There wasn't (our bad). He said uhh...I guess that's all he really said about it other than there was a pool and there was one of those. Poor Nick. Only a couple of guys show up. Oh well, we had fun nonetheless. We swam in the poo', ate Doritos, talked about Nick's sister and mom, called bitches, watched last year's talents how DVD, talked about radical religious people, and Brittney showed up and we played all of our new songs for the people that were still there. Overall: a good, fun night.
I have a drum set at my house now. It sits about a foot from my bed. It's comforting. It's almost like having a desirable woman in your bedroom at all times. You always want to bang her. Even at the most god-forsaken hours of the night. It's Brittney's drum set, but it's got enough on it to keep me happy and satisfied until I get my own drum set back from the studio. However, we need to finish the album first. I also need a new snare head for it. Lots of shit to do and no time to do it! I promise you that this album will be worth the wait. And worth its weight...in gold.
So this week has ended up being pretty good. I wasn't so sure if I wanted to be alive or not towards the beginning of it. School starts in less than a week, so I probably won't want to be alive come Wednesday. In fact, I'll essentially be dead to the world when I have to wake up at 7 AM or so and drive to school. Lordy, lord.
JIM LEFT PENNYWISE?! Okay, week just went sour again.
love,
Kyle
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Barack Obama wants to put us all in word jail
So last night I was in a pretty piss-poor mood. I about got very angry with my good friend Tim, so I decided it'd be better if I just got some sleep. I went to couch at 10 PM and slept until 2 AM. When I woke up, I finished watching American Graffiti, and two of the people in the movie that loved each other kind of made me jealous because I've not been in the most loving relationship here lately, so that kind of set me off even more and I texted Katie saying things that I guess I really meant but may regret later today. It was basically me saying to quit stringing me along and love me or dump me because I cannot take the stress of never hearing from her. I mean it's one thing to be in a long distance relationship and barely see your partner, but to barely hear from them? That's just rough. Especially when you know damn well they can text you back when you drop them a line. Sooo, we'll see if I get dumped today, if I'll get an apology of sorts today, or if I'll receive no word whatsoever today. Cross your fingers.
I watched this movie called Firewall that has Harrison Ford in it because I've been on this Harrison Ford movie kick. I'd never heard of the movie. I was actually looking for Blade Runner in the movie store, but I saw this movie first, so I took it up and rented it. When I got home, I looked up some reviews on it and a site called Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 19% saying that the plot twists are improbable and Harrison Ford's role did him no justice or something like that. So I kind of set my standards a little lower when watching the movie. To be completely honest with everyone, myself included, I thought it was one of the most intense movies I've seen in a while. Definitely kept me at the edge of my seat, but not in an action-packed way. What happens is that Harrison Ford's character works at this bank and designed the software that keeps everyone's account codes safe and all that jazz. Well this bad guy man has done all of this research on Ford's character and has his people hold his family and him hostage. Ford then has to "break in" to the bank for the bad guy. Pretty intense when the family tries to sneak out or when the little boy almost dies or when Ford tries to trick the people and just everything. There's a lot of psychological shit in there. I thought it was a good movie and the end of it had me real tense and the dog though I was going to have a heart attack.
So punknews.org has told me that Weezer's new album is to be called Raditude. No one on that site likes Weezer. They call all blow me one by one. I kind of hate the punk scene at times. There really is not that respect they say they have. I mean, Weezer never claimed to be punk, so why is everyone so quick to say that they hate geek rock? Who gives a shit if you hate geek rock? What the fuck does that even mean? If Rivers Cuomo didn't wear those glasses, would they be in the same genre? Fuckin' dicks. Also, as Brendan announced two days ago, The Lawrence Arms' new 7" will be called Buttsweat and Tears. It took punknews.org until just today to announce that. Come on, we need a better news team than this! If we didn't find out that the Twin Towers went down until September 13...it just wouldn't have had the same impact...pun intended. I do, as I may have said before, find it to be very funny that punknews.org takes whatever Brendan Kelly posts in his blog as legitimate news. You have to search through his stories of butt-fucking and toilets at venues with shit piled past the seat to find the "news."
Okay, so you want me to add to the ridiculous album names? I Forget's new album is going to be called Everyone Sharts. Like when you fart and shit comes out? You should know what it means. Why are we calling it that? Well because album title idea 1 did not work out because the picture did not work out. So maybe Is Your Mom Still Around? will be released later. Guess we'll have to see whether or not we care.
Cross country has been a pain in my ass almost literally. My ass doesn't hurt compared to my legs and calves, though. I guess it could be worse. I can actually walk, but when I'm actually running, it's just hell. We ran a plain terrible course today. I probably ran at least 5 or 6 miles. They don't pay me enough...and one of the reasons I started getting pissed yesterday was that I came to realize that I can't go to Hagerstown to see Katie this week because cross country rehearsal is at 3:30 PM starting tomorrow and that goes on until the season is over. That really bummed me out and made me irritated. Life in that department seems to get progressively more difficult...and what do you do about it?
Here's a list of the movies I've watched in the past week:
-Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
-Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
-Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
-Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
-Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
-Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
-SLC Punk
-The Fugitive
-Firewall
-American Graffiti
I believe that's it...and Harrison Ford is in 6 of those 10 listed. I've been meaning to start watching the Lord of the Rings series this week, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Perhaps I'll start tonight. Depends on my mood. You need a solid 3 hours of nothing planned to do each of those. Party at Nick's house this Friday!
love,
Kyle
I watched this movie called Firewall that has Harrison Ford in it because I've been on this Harrison Ford movie kick. I'd never heard of the movie. I was actually looking for Blade Runner in the movie store, but I saw this movie first, so I took it up and rented it. When I got home, I looked up some reviews on it and a site called Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 19% saying that the plot twists are improbable and Harrison Ford's role did him no justice or something like that. So I kind of set my standards a little lower when watching the movie. To be completely honest with everyone, myself included, I thought it was one of the most intense movies I've seen in a while. Definitely kept me at the edge of my seat, but not in an action-packed way. What happens is that Harrison Ford's character works at this bank and designed the software that keeps everyone's account codes safe and all that jazz. Well this bad guy man has done all of this research on Ford's character and has his people hold his family and him hostage. Ford then has to "break in" to the bank for the bad guy. Pretty intense when the family tries to sneak out or when the little boy almost dies or when Ford tries to trick the people and just everything. There's a lot of psychological shit in there. I thought it was a good movie and the end of it had me real tense and the dog though I was going to have a heart attack.
So punknews.org has told me that Weezer's new album is to be called Raditude. No one on that site likes Weezer. They call all blow me one by one. I kind of hate the punk scene at times. There really is not that respect they say they have. I mean, Weezer never claimed to be punk, so why is everyone so quick to say that they hate geek rock? Who gives a shit if you hate geek rock? What the fuck does that even mean? If Rivers Cuomo didn't wear those glasses, would they be in the same genre? Fuckin' dicks. Also, as Brendan announced two days ago, The Lawrence Arms' new 7" will be called Buttsweat and Tears. It took punknews.org until just today to announce that. Come on, we need a better news team than this! If we didn't find out that the Twin Towers went down until September 13...it just wouldn't have had the same impact...pun intended. I do, as I may have said before, find it to be very funny that punknews.org takes whatever Brendan Kelly posts in his blog as legitimate news. You have to search through his stories of butt-fucking and toilets at venues with shit piled past the seat to find the "news."
Okay, so you want me to add to the ridiculous album names? I Forget's new album is going to be called Everyone Sharts. Like when you fart and shit comes out? You should know what it means. Why are we calling it that? Well because album title idea 1 did not work out because the picture did not work out. So maybe Is Your Mom Still Around? will be released later. Guess we'll have to see whether or not we care.
Cross country has been a pain in my ass almost literally. My ass doesn't hurt compared to my legs and calves, though. I guess it could be worse. I can actually walk, but when I'm actually running, it's just hell. We ran a plain terrible course today. I probably ran at least 5 or 6 miles. They don't pay me enough...and one of the reasons I started getting pissed yesterday was that I came to realize that I can't go to Hagerstown to see Katie this week because cross country rehearsal is at 3:30 PM starting tomorrow and that goes on until the season is over. That really bummed me out and made me irritated. Life in that department seems to get progressively more difficult...and what do you do about it?
Here's a list of the movies I've watched in the past week:
-Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
-Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
-Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
-Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
-Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
-Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
-SLC Punk
-The Fugitive
-Firewall
-American Graffiti
I believe that's it...and Harrison Ford is in 6 of those 10 listed. I've been meaning to start watching the Lord of the Rings series this week, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Perhaps I'll start tonight. Depends on my mood. You need a solid 3 hours of nothing planned to do each of those. Party at Nick's house this Friday!
love,
Kyle
Monday, August 17, 2009
Last night (I had a dream that we went to Disney Land)
Last night, I spent more time watching The Fugitive, learning Billy Talent songs, and talking to Timmy than I did sleeping. I spent probably five hours trying to watch The Fugitive online because of that shitty site. I slept for but one hour. Then I woke up and went running. I'd say I ran 4 or 5 miles this morning. Then I took everyone's plastic bottles home with me, tried finding Morgan's house to pick up SLC Punk, failed, went home, and took a nice shower. I called Morgan and I'm gonna pick it up later today. I'm thinking about becoming nocturnal or something because sleeping at night really hasn't been working for me in the past week.
I also downloaded a bunch of Anti-Flag last night! I downloaded the rest of The Terror State, which I didn't feel bad about because we owned that album before my sister gave it away. I still have the case to it and everything...minus the booklet thing. I wish we had that because Anti-Flag always have some very interesting and moving words of wisdom. Makes me cry like a little bitch baby sometimes. Speaking of which, I'd like to go see Katie this week and maybe take her to see The Time Traveler's Wife. Tim said the guy dies in the end, but shhh, don't tell her. I'm hoping maybe once she sees that being away for long periods of time makes for sadness that she'll want to maybe not be in the Navy as much. But who knows? I guess it's a little selfish to assume that I alone am enough to keep her completely satisfied in life, though I wish I could do that...
Anyway, I've started recycling at my mom's house because it just needed to happen. Now that I've been drinking multiple bottles of water a day, I figured they'd be much better spent being recycled than thrown into a trash dump to be water bottles in trash cans until bacteria learns how to digest plastic. I had this thought earlier, and maybe it's completely ridiculous, but I think it'd be awesome if we used recycled plastic to make giant land platforms to put in the arctic so that if all of the ice melts for the polar bears, they have at least something to stand on. I don't know, maybe that's ridiculous, but I thought it was a worth while idea...
I wish I was going to see Off With Their Heads tomorrow, but by the time I realized I wouldn't be going to my dad's on that day, it was...like less than a week ago. So I didn't even bother asking and my aunt could use the money we'd spend going out there. Tickets are only $8, though. I really want to see them one day, too. Maybe when they go on tour with D4 or Against Me! again, eh? And Alkaline Trio, The Lawrence Arms, and American Steel need to tour together again. I hate myself for missing that shit. That's like the best idea for a tour I've ever heard.
The more I write blogs, the more I realize that I must not analyze people and situations much...I seem to just report what happened in my day more than anything else. I guess that means I'm not a descriptive writer. And I'm also a bad secretary since people keep calling for my mother, telling me to tell her things, and as soon as I hang up, I completely forget what I was told. That's one career path I'll not go down, I've decide. So that helps. No descriptive writing jobs, no secretary jobs. Got it.
love,
Kyle
I also downloaded a bunch of Anti-Flag last night! I downloaded the rest of The Terror State, which I didn't feel bad about because we owned that album before my sister gave it away. I still have the case to it and everything...minus the booklet thing. I wish we had that because Anti-Flag always have some very interesting and moving words of wisdom. Makes me cry like a little bitch baby sometimes. Speaking of which, I'd like to go see Katie this week and maybe take her to see The Time Traveler's Wife. Tim said the guy dies in the end, but shhh, don't tell her. I'm hoping maybe once she sees that being away for long periods of time makes for sadness that she'll want to maybe not be in the Navy as much. But who knows? I guess it's a little selfish to assume that I alone am enough to keep her completely satisfied in life, though I wish I could do that...
Anyway, I've started recycling at my mom's house because it just needed to happen. Now that I've been drinking multiple bottles of water a day, I figured they'd be much better spent being recycled than thrown into a trash dump to be water bottles in trash cans until bacteria learns how to digest plastic. I had this thought earlier, and maybe it's completely ridiculous, but I think it'd be awesome if we used recycled plastic to make giant land platforms to put in the arctic so that if all of the ice melts for the polar bears, they have at least something to stand on. I don't know, maybe that's ridiculous, but I thought it was a worth while idea...
I wish I was going to see Off With Their Heads tomorrow, but by the time I realized I wouldn't be going to my dad's on that day, it was...like less than a week ago. So I didn't even bother asking and my aunt could use the money we'd spend going out there. Tickets are only $8, though. I really want to see them one day, too. Maybe when they go on tour with D4 or Against Me! again, eh? And Alkaline Trio, The Lawrence Arms, and American Steel need to tour together again. I hate myself for missing that shit. That's like the best idea for a tour I've ever heard.
The more I write blogs, the more I realize that I must not analyze people and situations much...I seem to just report what happened in my day more than anything else. I guess that means I'm not a descriptive writer. And I'm also a bad secretary since people keep calling for my mother, telling me to tell her things, and as soon as I hang up, I completely forget what I was told. That's one career path I'll not go down, I've decide. So that helps. No descriptive writing jobs, no secretary jobs. Got it.
love,
Kyle
Saturday, August 15, 2009
"I need to shave my ass!"
I guess I should explain this title before people start wondering things about me. So I was reading reviews on Alkaline Trio albums because I know how skeptical people have been with their change of sound over the years and wanted to see some scores and some responses. Well this particular comment I came across was in response to a review of Good Mourning.
"i saw matt skiba walking down hollywood blvd... and he bent over to tie his shoe, and the ass of his pants ripped right in half... you could see his butt cheeks and stuff.... he has the hairiest ass in this universe.... keep rocking king kong... their next album should be called... i need to shave my ass!!"
-Anonymous (unfortunately)
I almost wish we hadn't titled our new album already because that has to be the greatest album title of all time. I'm probably the only person on this earth that thinks that...but the fucking delivery of that comment...I don't even know what their point was. It was fucking hilarious, though. Anyway, since it was on a review of an album (even though that comment had nothing to do with reviewing music), I'll speak my piece on reviewing music and all of that.
Okay, well here's the thing, I think: you cannot rate an album based on a band's prior catalog. I mean, you can, obviously, but really? Say a man is a visual artist. He draws beautiful pictures of birds. Always birds. Perfect pictures of birds. One day he draws a picture of a cat. Now, is that picture any better or worse because it's not a picture of a bird? Fucking NO! It's just not! It is what it goddamn is! New Wave isn't an anarcho punk album. What the fuck are you going to do about it? Kill Tom Gabel? As Brendan Kelly put it when explaining how a new song he wrote ended up with some ska in it (he's not a fan of ska very much, like myself), "Have you ever apologized for a turd?" It is what it goddamn is! I Forget's new album has no ska. Gonna come tear my penis off? Davey Havok writes very melodic vocal parts now, Dillinger Four's recordings are clearer, Propagandhi aren't a pop punk band anymore, Alkaline Trio's music evolved. Are you going to just, for lack of a cheesier way to put it, bomb the music industry? You'll save yourself a lot of grief if you don't hold bands to standards and just take it as it is. Serj from System of a Down was talking years ago how when writing their last albums that he wasn't going to try to outdo Toxicity because there's no point in it. As Brendan Kelly put that, "[Listening to your own records for inspiration is] like eating your poo to get nutrients."
Anyway, yeah, that's why you shouldn't base whether an album stands alone at being good or bad based on previous works. I also wish everyone, myself included, would not like or dislike a band for what genre they're in or whatever. Let me try to explain myself...I don't have any examples, really. But like...like or dislike a band's music for what is there, what it sounds like, what you think of it. Don't like or dislike it because that band belongs to a certain group of other bands that you either like or dislike. Like I hate Mayday Parade because they fit in with All Time Low, BoysLikeGirls, Hit the Lights, yadda yadda yadda. But have I ever actually listened to Mayday Parade? No. The reason for that, however, is because I don't give a shit about scenester bands with cute hair and neon shirts and that's the end of that discussion. But seriously, does that make me right? No. Do I care? No. I have enough good music that I like all sides of that I don't have to worry about making compromises like "Ehh, the music's okay, but they look like they want to get laid." I'm making my points very poorly tonight...
I slept for hours last night! Two, in fact! When I woke up, I went on down to the Canal Place in Cumberland and started running for an hour straight. Nick, Brad, Johnny, and I ran through Martin's. That's a somewhat unique thing to be able to claim, I feel. Anyway, long story short, the cross country team broke off and ran about Cumberland for an hour. Coach Moreland said we probably ran at least 6 miles each. That's kind of awesome. I uhh...after like 45 minutes, everything quit hurting and I quit breathing hard. I wasn't sure if I'd died and left my physical body a few streets back. Runner's high, I guess? It was an awesome feeling. Willie said I'm one of those people.
And today I finished watching all of the Star Wars movies...ending somewhere in the middle of Episode V. See, I caught Episode V on TV the other day but it'd already started, I finished it, watched VI, then I, II, III, IV, and V up to the point I'd seen. So it was a rather strange order to go about it, but hey, got the job done. And you know what I learned from it all? Three things. 1. Being a Jedi Night would be fucking badass. 2. Having a baby might just destroy the balance of the whole universe and cause mass death to planets and nations. And 3. If someone's giving you shit, just cut their arm off!
Okay, so I want a written I Forget interview done and a video interview and for someone to professionally take our picture. I think that's gonna happen. But I'm still putting that on the table. I love you all.
love,
Kyle
"i saw matt skiba walking down hollywood blvd... and he bent over to tie his shoe, and the ass of his pants ripped right in half... you could see his butt cheeks and stuff.... he has the hairiest ass in this universe.... keep rocking king kong... their next album should be called... i need to shave my ass!!"
-Anonymous (unfortunately)
I almost wish we hadn't titled our new album already because that has to be the greatest album title of all time. I'm probably the only person on this earth that thinks that...but the fucking delivery of that comment...I don't even know what their point was. It was fucking hilarious, though. Anyway, since it was on a review of an album (even though that comment had nothing to do with reviewing music), I'll speak my piece on reviewing music and all of that.
Okay, well here's the thing, I think: you cannot rate an album based on a band's prior catalog. I mean, you can, obviously, but really? Say a man is a visual artist. He draws beautiful pictures of birds. Always birds. Perfect pictures of birds. One day he draws a picture of a cat. Now, is that picture any better or worse because it's not a picture of a bird? Fucking NO! It's just not! It is what it goddamn is! New Wave isn't an anarcho punk album. What the fuck are you going to do about it? Kill Tom Gabel? As Brendan Kelly put it when explaining how a new song he wrote ended up with some ska in it (he's not a fan of ska very much, like myself), "Have you ever apologized for a turd?" It is what it goddamn is! I Forget's new album has no ska. Gonna come tear my penis off? Davey Havok writes very melodic vocal parts now, Dillinger Four's recordings are clearer, Propagandhi aren't a pop punk band anymore, Alkaline Trio's music evolved. Are you going to just, for lack of a cheesier way to put it, bomb the music industry? You'll save yourself a lot of grief if you don't hold bands to standards and just take it as it is. Serj from System of a Down was talking years ago how when writing their last albums that he wasn't going to try to outdo Toxicity because there's no point in it. As Brendan Kelly put that, "[Listening to your own records for inspiration is] like eating your poo to get nutrients."
Anyway, yeah, that's why you shouldn't base whether an album stands alone at being good or bad based on previous works. I also wish everyone, myself included, would not like or dislike a band for what genre they're in or whatever. Let me try to explain myself...I don't have any examples, really. But like...like or dislike a band's music for what is there, what it sounds like, what you think of it. Don't like or dislike it because that band belongs to a certain group of other bands that you either like or dislike. Like I hate Mayday Parade because they fit in with All Time Low, BoysLikeGirls, Hit the Lights, yadda yadda yadda. But have I ever actually listened to Mayday Parade? No. The reason for that, however, is because I don't give a shit about scenester bands with cute hair and neon shirts and that's the end of that discussion. But seriously, does that make me right? No. Do I care? No. I have enough good music that I like all sides of that I don't have to worry about making compromises like "Ehh, the music's okay, but they look like they want to get laid." I'm making my points very poorly tonight...
I slept for hours last night! Two, in fact! When I woke up, I went on down to the Canal Place in Cumberland and started running for an hour straight. Nick, Brad, Johnny, and I ran through Martin's. That's a somewhat unique thing to be able to claim, I feel. Anyway, long story short, the cross country team broke off and ran about Cumberland for an hour. Coach Moreland said we probably ran at least 6 miles each. That's kind of awesome. I uhh...after like 45 minutes, everything quit hurting and I quit breathing hard. I wasn't sure if I'd died and left my physical body a few streets back. Runner's high, I guess? It was an awesome feeling. Willie said I'm one of those people.
And today I finished watching all of the Star Wars movies...ending somewhere in the middle of Episode V. See, I caught Episode V on TV the other day but it'd already started, I finished it, watched VI, then I, II, III, IV, and V up to the point I'd seen. So it was a rather strange order to go about it, but hey, got the job done. And you know what I learned from it all? Three things. 1. Being a Jedi Night would be fucking badass. 2. Having a baby might just destroy the balance of the whole universe and cause mass death to planets and nations. And 3. If someone's giving you shit, just cut their arm off!
Okay, so I want a written I Forget interview done and a video interview and for someone to professionally take our picture. I think that's gonna happen. But I'm still putting that on the table. I love you all.
love,
Kyle
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Another day, another Star Wars movie
Funny how Natalie Portman was Queen Amidala in the prequel Star Wars movies. It's funny because of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VSJwWP8NqI
It wouldn't let me put an embedded link on here. It's pretty fucking hilarious, though. Andy Samberg is in it. If that's not entertainment, then I don't know what is. Speaking of which, I watched the movie Funny People today. Once again, Adam Sandler is in a movie that makes me want to not get old and to live every day to its fullest and to not fuck shit up with things you love. My biggest fear is fucking shit up, truly. As I say, I'm not the most secure person I know and I worry about things going wrong quite often...Timmy was right when he said Eminem was the best part of the movie, though. Pretty fuckin' great part he had. He just played Marshall Mathers, but who gives a fuck? Marshall Mathers is a fuckin' nut case as it is, so it didn't matter. He's a very funny and offensive person all the time. Did you know that he is the best-selling musical act of the decade? You know, he might not be the face of my favorite genre, but I'm glad he's keeping his genre out of the complete shitter. Gotta love me some Eminem.
Now this brings me to something I have to hate and that is breaking guitar strings. Do you know how much I hate breaking guitar strings? I'd rather tear a chunk of my hair out sometimes. Well what's worse than me breaking a guitar string is little kids breaking a guitar string because they think it's fun to come to my house when I'm asleep and play with the machine heads and put my guitar in a ridiculous tuning. Yeah, real funny. Even funnier when a string breaks when trying to put it back to the way it's supposed to be. I should go over to their house (my little cousins', that is) and stomp on their toys and take them apart and ruin their shit. Fuckin' communists.
I want some food. I want some easy-to-make food, but I ate all of the Poptarts. I don't want to warm up vegetarian vegetable soup or Spaghetti-O's again. I'm not in the mood for that. What I'd really like would be a Klondike bar or a granola bar. You know, something you could grab on your way out of the house to eat within 3 minutes that just keeps you happy. That's the kind of food I like the most, I believe. A banana. That'd be fine, too. And I love cereal, but I've had probably 3 or 4 bowls of that already today. So what is one to do? I'm gonna make Morningstar sausage is what I'm going to do right now. mmm-MMM that's good.
Now that that's out of the way, I've learned that I got 45 grams of protein from sausage alone today. That's not bad at all. And all without eating animals! See, it's not so hard, folks. Just eat your Morningstar and Boca food and you're set. It doesn't leave you with that feeling of total shit when you're done eating it, either.
Does anyone want to take bets on whether or not I get up after turning the alarm off in the morning? It's like a 50/50 thing. I'm going to try to shut down the computer and turn off the lights and attempt to sleep by 1:30 this morning instead of 4 like most nights. Buuut Tim just got back from a movie, so that's probably not gonna happen now. So back to nights of 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Wonderful. I'd say that tomorrow is the last day of cross country running in the morning this week but it's not! We're doing it on Saturday morning, too! Around the whole lake, which I do believe to be 5 miles. Once again, I'd rather be training to be a Jedi Night than just a school sport. So much more badass.
I need a job here soon. I'm thinking Walmart, Lowes, Jerry's, Denny's. Something like that. I'd only do Walmart because my sister works there and it'd be convenient and all. I'm getting side-tracked by talking to people, so I'll leave you with this: stay in school. Don't do drugs. Pot is illegal. Oh, and I wish this was our cross country motto this year: We're high because we run on grass.
love,
Kyle
It wouldn't let me put an embedded link on here. It's pretty fucking hilarious, though. Andy Samberg is in it. If that's not entertainment, then I don't know what is. Speaking of which, I watched the movie Funny People today. Once again, Adam Sandler is in a movie that makes me want to not get old and to live every day to its fullest and to not fuck shit up with things you love. My biggest fear is fucking shit up, truly. As I say, I'm not the most secure person I know and I worry about things going wrong quite often...Timmy was right when he said Eminem was the best part of the movie, though. Pretty fuckin' great part he had. He just played Marshall Mathers, but who gives a fuck? Marshall Mathers is a fuckin' nut case as it is, so it didn't matter. He's a very funny and offensive person all the time. Did you know that he is the best-selling musical act of the decade? You know, he might not be the face of my favorite genre, but I'm glad he's keeping his genre out of the complete shitter. Gotta love me some Eminem.
Now this brings me to something I have to hate and that is breaking guitar strings. Do you know how much I hate breaking guitar strings? I'd rather tear a chunk of my hair out sometimes. Well what's worse than me breaking a guitar string is little kids breaking a guitar string because they think it's fun to come to my house when I'm asleep and play with the machine heads and put my guitar in a ridiculous tuning. Yeah, real funny. Even funnier when a string breaks when trying to put it back to the way it's supposed to be. I should go over to their house (my little cousins', that is) and stomp on their toys and take them apart and ruin their shit. Fuckin' communists.
I want some food. I want some easy-to-make food, but I ate all of the Poptarts. I don't want to warm up vegetarian vegetable soup or Spaghetti-O's again. I'm not in the mood for that. What I'd really like would be a Klondike bar or a granola bar. You know, something you could grab on your way out of the house to eat within 3 minutes that just keeps you happy. That's the kind of food I like the most, I believe. A banana. That'd be fine, too. And I love cereal, but I've had probably 3 or 4 bowls of that already today. So what is one to do? I'm gonna make Morningstar sausage is what I'm going to do right now. mmm-MMM that's good.
Now that that's out of the way, I've learned that I got 45 grams of protein from sausage alone today. That's not bad at all. And all without eating animals! See, it's not so hard, folks. Just eat your Morningstar and Boca food and you're set. It doesn't leave you with that feeling of total shit when you're done eating it, either.
Does anyone want to take bets on whether or not I get up after turning the alarm off in the morning? It's like a 50/50 thing. I'm going to try to shut down the computer and turn off the lights and attempt to sleep by 1:30 this morning instead of 4 like most nights. Buuut Tim just got back from a movie, so that's probably not gonna happen now. So back to nights of 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Wonderful. I'd say that tomorrow is the last day of cross country running in the morning this week but it's not! We're doing it on Saturday morning, too! Around the whole lake, which I do believe to be 5 miles. Once again, I'd rather be training to be a Jedi Night than just a school sport. So much more badass.
I need a job here soon. I'm thinking Walmart, Lowes, Jerry's, Denny's. Something like that. I'd only do Walmart because my sister works there and it'd be convenient and all. I'm getting side-tracked by talking to people, so I'll leave you with this: stay in school. Don't do drugs. Pot is illegal. Oh, and I wish this was our cross country motto this year: We're high because we run on grass.
love,
Kyle
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