Posts tagged journal

Partly inspired by the main character of the movie “Marley and Me” and, more so, by the desire to talk about technical aspects of my life to a broader audience, I approached one of the editors of Neowin, yesterday, about starting my own regularly occurring column on Neowin. Up until now, this has probably been the one remaining category that we haven’t had on the front page, so I was excited to pioneer it. Well, the column is called “Bang On” (an homage to my screen name) and this week’s article is entitled “Time to move on from the compact disc.” Here is an excerpt:

…Well, that “later” came today and I had to stop on by the house and go through the remaining knick-knacks to figure out what I should keep and what I should forever leave behind. When I put it that way, it sounds dire, doesn’t it?

Sorting through the small collection of random gadgetry wasn’t that difficult. Old computer mice? Leave. Licensed copies of Windows XP and Vista? Let’s take those with me. One random glove? No thanks. However, towards the end of the chore, I came across my collection of compact discs. I completely forgot that I left them behind…

Please read the full column and let me know what you think.

It’s 2009. No surprise there. However, 2008, for me, was a defining year. It’s the year my life really turned around and I have quite a few people I want to thank by name.

Melanie: You were the single biggest catalyst for change in my life. Since meeting you and since, finally, getting to be with you, I have slowly become a much better person. I now know what love is all about and I know what it’s like to wake up in the morning and smile because of what I have in my life. Sure, it took a while for me to convince you to give me a chance and there were some speed bumps along the way, but you have single handedly given me happiness, love, self respect, courage, confidence, and patience. All traits I severely lacked before you came along. I love you, so much, beautiful. I can’t wait for another year with you.

Mom: I don’t mention my family much on here (anymore). However, my mom has been more supportive of me than ever, this year. She helped me when the situation became really difficult with my budding relationship with Melanie and she’s been a huge supporter, emotionally and financially, since I’ve moved out. I don’t always say thank you enough, but thank you, mom, for everything you continue to do for me.

Joe: We don’t get to hang out as much, anymore, but you’ve been very understanding of it all and have always been supportive. Sure, we got rained on constantly during our road trip lol, but I enjoyed every chance we got to chill a bit last year. We’ll always be brothers from a different mother (and father, but that doesn’t rhyme).

Cindy and John: To say that it took a lot of faith on your part to trust me enough to be with your daughter is an understatement. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to prove myself. You have become a second set of parents to me and have done a lot for me over the past ten months. I try to make sure I say thank you for everything, but, if I missed a few times along the way, thank you.

Niki: I see you more now that I’ve moved out than when I was living at home, but that’s a good thing. It’s always been very easy to talk to you and we’ve always gotten along so well. Thanks for being such an open ear.

James and Chris: You guys have been very cool room mates and very accommodating, to say the least. It’s a pleasure to live with you guys and I really couldn’t ask for more from room mates and friends.

Josie: It’s an odd online friendship that just happens to work. Thank you for helping me with things earlier this year and I hope your new year can be as good as you want it to be.

Dad: As I get older, I think you’re starting to respect me a bit more. Thank you for that and for the financial support you’ve provided, especially with that wonderful dental work.

Diana: We have one of those brother/sister kind of friendships and it works well that way. You deal with my insanity and I deal with your lacking common sense lol. You rule. Thanks.

Anthony, K’Shaun, Moltz, James M, Mike P, Juan, Tommy Simply put, you guys make work bearable when we all really want to kill someone. There’s always a good conversation to be had and always a good laugh to follow. Thanks for keeping me sane, guys.

My mind is just burned out. I want to write, but it’s taken me a few days to even find the energy and desire to write this journal entry.

I’m guessing most of the brain drain and fatigue stems from the chaos of working in retail during the holiday season. I know the beast well enough. Hell, I’ve been a part of it for five years now. Working Black Friday was exhausting in every way possible and I’m, physically, still feeling it. After all, I lifted televisions no smaller than 32″ for the entirety of my 11+ hour shift. The worst feeling was hitting that physical wall at about 10am and realizing I still had another five hours to go. Combine that day with a lack of sleep over the weekend and you have one brain that doesn’t have the strength to dig too deep.

On top of that, my hours this week have been severely cut and I’m not thrilled about it. It’s happening to everyone in the department and they’re all coming to me for answers, but what can I say? Sure, maybe our supervisor should fight harder for the hours, but the fact of the matter is, the over night team is burning through money like there’s no tomorrow and, because of that, our budget keeps getting tightened. It’s a shame no one else wants to see it besides the people having their hours cut.

Other than that, I really don’t have much to say. I want to write. I just need to find the energy.

This past Tuesday, I went with Joe to see a concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom in the city. The show consisted of State of Shock, Papa Roach, Seether, and Staind. As you can imagine, it was a pretty exciting lineup for me, and probably the best combination of bands I’ve ever seen. The tickets were a gift from Joe for my birthday, so major thanks to him.

State of Shock opened up and, well, there’s a reason the opening band plays when few people are there. They were so generic and uninteresting that it was almost sickening. I’ve seen a few bands open at other shows that were really good, most notably, Flyleaf before they became famous. These guys (and the girl bassist) simply lacked any real depth, especially when compared to the acts they were opening up for. I was happy when their set was over.

Papa Roach was next and, let me be very clear, I love the “Infest” Papa Roach and greatly dislike most of their stuff after that. Their set, however, was great. Sure, there were a few newer songs that lulled me a bit, including one of their new songs, “Lifeline”, but then they mixed in a bunch of “Infest” tracks that really made the day. Their other new song, “Hollywood Whore” was also pretty good. The real show was put on by frontman Cory, though. He was jumping and screaming and even ran around the hall during “Dead Cell”. As a matter of fact, he climbed down off the VIP seating area right next to me in the general admission area, so I had a chance to pat him on the back. The whole performance was chock full of energy. It was great.

Seether followed and, for the first time, was disappointing to see live. It was just an odd and sometimes annoying set to go through. In between each song, there was this annoying looping guitar sound (why? I have no idea) that quickly got on people’s nerves. When there was actual music being played, you couldn’t hear Shaun’s vocals and, in the rare cases where the instruments were at a lower volume, the vocals were so horribly distorted that you couldn’t decipher what was being sung. I’ve seen Seether live before and they’ve always been very good, but this was a terrible performance.

Finally, my favorite band, Staind, had their chance to take the stage. To be honest, it was the best set I’ve ever seen them perform. The set started with a Johnny Cash song being played over the PA system after which the curtain opened and Staind started with their stuff. I honestly can’t remember the order of tracks, but there was a very balanced mix of old Staind and new Staind. It was amazing and very energetic. You could just watch the set and see why they’ve been so successful.

All in all, it was a great concert. Thanks Joe.