Acceptable and proper..

Basques and Perfume

2008-11-05T22:55:00.002-05:00

Hi. I didn't want to desert you like that, but for one reason or another I have not felt much like writing for the last couple of months.

I am enjoying school and learning stuff dude, which rocks. I am also getting good grades, which is awesome as A's are not something I got to experience during most of my secondary education. I find that if I stay focused and keep a healthy perspective, good grades seem to follow..

I am still employed as a dishwasher/cook which is awesome. I have been cooking a lot recently, which although gives me a greater sense of job satisfaction and a greater size of paycheck is a lot more stressful and comes with a lot more responsibility. Still, I enjoy what I do and the people I do it with.

For fun, I have continued playing music. I love playing the tenor banjo very much.. More people should have them.. The ukulele too is never far from reach, much like most of the instruments I own. I am starting to record more.. If you would like to hear any of it, just drop me an email and I will see what I can do. Aside from music, my rifle and I have joined a local shooting club, and I am glad I did. There is something very therapeutic and almost philosophical about spending an hour or two sighting in a scope and blasting paper targets with expensive hollow points, before disassembling and cleaning every part of your firearm.

As for my reading, there has not been much of it. Most of my time usually allocated to fun reading is spent in the study of management textbooks, and as these are better than nyquil for curing insomnia, I don't even absorb as much of them as I perhaps should.

Yesterday I voted. Unfortunately, everyone I voted for lost.. Still, my write in choice for president of Anthony T. Casey did not really have too much of a chance, as he has seen a significant drop in the polls since his mother and co- workers withdrew their support in favor of Barry Obama and John McMaverick respectively.

Did you know that the Basque language is completely unrelated to any other language, or family of languages? They must be like aliens dude..

Actung Actung!!! DAS IST VERBOTEN

2008-09-10T21:13:00.002-04:00

Oh hey. I have been thinking about Germany lately. There are two reasons for this: The first is that I recently read an article about rampant anti German sentiments in Britain, and the second is that I am currently watching Allo Allo, which is a British sitcom set in occupied France during WWII. I find this very interesting indeed, as I once lived in Britain, and like all my friends, I grew up with a strong dislike of the Bosch.

Just like every other school boy in England, I learned several anti German songs, but one in particular stood out. It was awesome; a song that was sung whenever Germany, Germans, War or Hitler came up in a conversation. It is a catchy little ditty; the words of which imply that certain leaders of the Third Reich were missing body parts essential to human procreation. Whenever the English met their German counterparts in the beautiful game, another song was sung by every red blooded Englishman and woman, the words of which go as follows: "Two world wars and one world cup, doo dah, doo dah, two world wars and one world cup, oh dah doo dah dae."

When I went to school, the whole politically correct nonsense had not yet invaded history classrooms, which were without fail decorated with several Churchill posters, displaying the man himself standing in front of a squadron of spitfires with words like "This was our finest hour" scrawled across his Chestertonian midsection. The teachers would run audio of Churchill speeches, and the take special care to insure that we would never forget what had happened 50 or so years ago. Still even with all that, forgetting would be impossible. If you walk down a street in my dad's home town, you will still see bombed out houses, bombed out office buildings and bombed out churches that have been left as a reminder of past wrongs. Every Christmas, it has long been a tradition in many British households to get the family together and watch the Great Escape on BBC2.. Also, if any young Britain was uncertain of what had happened, it would simply take a comment to that effect to trigger hours upon hours of stories from grandparents. You see, in a country in which the events of WW2 quite literally struck close to home/ struck homes and those events are still in the living memory of so many, it would really be impossible for someone with more than a 10 second memory to ever forget.

So how do I feel about all this now that I am an American who thinks Europe sux? Well, I have to say that in my house, Germany and Germans are still the butt of at least 2 jokes a day. In fact, whenever I don't like someone, I make them German in my head, and if I must imitate their voice, it will be my best attempt at a German accent. But is this bad? Yes and no in my opinion. For the no, it is quite stupid to stereotype the inhabitants of a whole country as being Nazis, loving rules and regulations and being hyper efficient. Also, it makes it dangerous and scary for Germans in Britain who just want to go to school or spend money. For the yes, it is best to learn from the mistakes of the past, because a Fourth Reich is more than 1 too many. Also, dislike of the Germans is one of the few things that still holds England together as a country. Still, constantly living in the past and letting old rivalries fester is a bad thing. However, if you want to dislike Germany/ the Germans for newer fresher reasons, there are plenty of resources available to meet your needs.

medium is not a compromise, but a loss by anyone's standards.

2008-09-08T00:30:00.002-04:00

Oh hey.

Yesterday I mopped the Casey kitchen floor for fun, but I was disappointed as it was not fun at all. However, at work a few minutes ago, mopping the floor was fun.. This is because mopping the floor is the very last thing I do before locking up the kitchen, and so there is a real sense of accomplishment when the job is done. You see the same activities have different outcomes in different situations. For example, if I were to jump up on a pew in the middle of church and violently strum out pinball wizard by the Who; chances are that it would not go over too well. However, if I were to perform the same activity, minus the pew and plus the mirror in the hall when no one else was in the house, I would not feel quite as awkward... except... I just.. told you about it...

Well I was surfing around on the tubes a minute ago, and I came across a video of an old Italian talking about life in Hoboken NJ in the 50's and 60's. What was interesting was that he mentioned many neighborhood characters that I know about/know/knew. For example, my mother's uncle and owner of Leo's Gandevous, Leo DiTerlizzi. Also, the guy who wore squeaky shoes; the guy who's mother used to shout out the window not to forget his hairbrush and Stumpy; the guy with one leg shorter than the other who used to clean shellfish in the basement of Leo's. All interesting nostalgic stuff.

So I bought my first instrument from a newspaper.. A tenor banjo.. It is awesome. I drove over to Vermont to take a look, and a week later I went back and bought it. It is an Irish tenor banjo, but the previous owner had strung it up jazz style with light strings and a higher tuning. The difference between a tenor banjo and the American sort, is that a tenor only has 4 strings instead of the American 4, plus one drone string. The difference between a jazz banjo and an Irish banjo is that the Jazz version is meant to be strummed rhythmically, whereas the Irish model is for single note picking. It also has very heavy strings, and is tuned an octave below the mandolin.. It has a very low gritty sound, and is almost the equivalent of a distorted guitar of Irish traditional music.. I paid a very low price for a very good model in very good condition..

Well, my classes are going very well. At the start of the year I was worried that working 6 nights a week would get in the way of homework.. It turns out that I need not have worried, as a much better/more lucrative solution to this potential problem has presented itself; I simply do my HOMEwork at WORKwork. I have at least an hour every night where I do nothing but hang out and eat free food with my co workers, so why not put this time to good use? Well, I have been doing this exact thing for 2 weeks now, and it works wonderfully. I simply set up a small office behind my dish machine using some milk crates, and I am actually paid to do my homework.. AWESOME!! It is sort of like that Seinfeld episode where George sleeps under his desk, but better as I am earning college credits on the clock.. I can also say "Get out of my office!!!" If I am disturbed, which is awesome, because it makes me feel like I have an office........

Hello Silly, Here I am again...

2008-09-01T22:17:00.003-04:00

Well, I am currently in some legal trouble which has been going on for a little while.. I shouldn't talk about it, except to say that no blame is attributable to me. Still, it has eaten up some time and given me an irrational dislike of anyone who originates from, or has even visited the Indian Subcontinent.

So I started the second half of my first year in college.. Some things I have noticed I like a lot. For example, many of those who did not take anything seriously/ slept through classes have been weeded out, and as a result class discussions and group activities are filled with people who actually want to be there. Of all the classes I am taking, Management is my favorite. Our professor is a jovial type, who besides professing uses his time to own and run a business and fight fires. Besides the professor, my classmates all seem very intelligent, with clear ideas of why they are where they are and where they are going.

My geography class is different. My professor, who although exhibiting the classic symptoms of moonbatism (i.e. the home made SunuNO!! bumper sticker on his brief case) and being a bad low talker, he does seem to know his world capitals.. It is an interesting class, and although falling far short of the standard upheld by the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, it does indeed have its interesting spells.

My Brazilian Music class is different.. My professor did not ask me to buy a $150 text book, which is cool. What is not cool is that she seems to have selected various You Tube videos to make up the course content.

Well, I have selected a major. To move towards my goal of being a business owner before the age of 30, I found that management is the best way to go. I am now working on a plan to achieve my goals. Currently it is a little sparse, but the pages are filling up with words, which is usually a good sign.

Well, I love my job.. I love scrubbing plates, cleaning cups and mopping floors(I actually dream of mopping floors.. It is kind of wierd).. Especially now that I only work around 30 hours a week. I am repeatedly asked to do more cooky type stuff, and I am told that this will soon lead to receiving a cook's pay and a cook's responsibilities.

Well, I must apologize for leaving you like that for so long.. I must have ruined your August.

Humming, Yellow and Tetris

2008-08-17T23:11:00.002-04:00

Wow.. Haha, you are reading my posts.. Do you feel stupid? I do..

Well, I hope you are OK. I am. My family have deserted me and I am here in an empty house with an empty stomach.

I finished at work early, mostly because there wasn't any. I did 15 minutes of work all evening. It was awesome. Modern dish washing I have come to notice, is basically a greasy smelly game of tetris that nobody wins.. On the other hand, it is like a party; I get to hang out in a kitchen with some cool people, I get free food and drinks, I learn skills that will no doubt be useful in life and like all the best parties I am paid to attend.. I am very pleased that I will no longer have to work my least favorite morning shift. I found a housekeeper to fill in for me on Tuesday mornings when I am in my Brazilian music class. He jumped at the chance, because he makes $3.00 an hour less than I do.

Lately I have been trying to go to church almost every day.. Because I can. It gives me a reason to get up early instead of sleeping until 2, which I will not be able to do for the rest of the year. The only negative side effect I obtain from my regular religious observance, is that I feel 50 years older than I am for doing so... Only without the maturity and hopefully common sense that such an age would afford me.

Well, I just made myself some spaghetti. Nothing fancy, just with a light sauce of some home grown onions, peppers, tomatoes, some not home grown bacon and some home grown basil and parsley.. It was good. I may do it again some time.

Well.. What else? In all honesty, I do not enjoy playing the mandolin any more. It hurts, even through my heavily calloused fingers.. I can't seem to get the sounds I want either, and it doesn't stay in tune, even when I ask nicely. My fingers do not seem to find the notes like they did only weeks ago, and I do not like playing it even with other people.. It just seems to shout at me for no reason. Perhaps we are in need of couples counselling.. Or maybe I should change the strings. Part of it is that I am a chemically challenged musician.. By this I mean that the grease my fingers emit is more corrosive to metal strings than the grease the majority of the population emit, and even with the specially coated (and thus more expensive) strings that I buy, they seem to rust out quickly.. Oh well.

At my 6 night a week party, I noticed something. The problem with male public conveniences is that they seem to attract a great deal of an ammonia based fluid on the floor around them. This is no ones fault but the urinal manufacturers, who design them in such a way as to make half of the fluid they are built to absorb splash itself on to the originator of said fluid's clothing. The problem of a urine splashed front can be remedied in 3 of the 4 following ways..1, Stand back.. This approach has it's problems. Namely that there will no doubt be a suspicious yellow trail leading from the initiator of the process to the device meant for the disposal of it's main bi product. There is also the problem of said person inadvertently exposing himself gratuitously in a public bathroom, and such behavior is often not well received. 2, Stand to the side. This has it's problems too. Unwelcome liquids can and will be splashed onto those in the immediate vicinity, which is typically frowned upon. This also carries the problem of unwanted exposure, as a careless glance from an unsuspecting passer by can cause the owner of a weakened constitution to spew a half digested meal onto the floor, adding to the mess of bodily fluids already present. 3, Squat in the stall.. A gentleman would never do such a thing when wall mounted pottery is present and available. It simply is not an acceptable alternative. The solution; abide by the gentleman's unwritten code of behavior for visiting a public convenience, which will now be written down. Part 1. Never, never never never avail one's self of the convenience next to one currently in use. To do so is completely unacceptable, and any private club would be perfectly within their rights to expel a member caught engaged in such an activity. A gentleman must exhibit self control in all matters, and would rather ruin his trousers than break the cardinal rule. Part 2. Eyes forward. To do otherwise cannot be pardoned. Take time to enjoy the beautifully printed copies of renaissance artworks/news paper clippings/ graffiti questioning the sexual preferences of an acquaintance. Part 3. As in golf, learn over time to find the sweet spot on the convenience in question. Practice should enable perfect shooting for life, or until such time as a gentleman may require a dignified personal convenience disposal unit. Before perfection is achieved, it may become necessary for one to carry a small bottle of eau de cologne for the olfactory satisfaction of those whose immediate vicinity he must enter....

That should do it.

Puss, Rig and Steam..

2008-08-12T00:48:00.002-04:00

Oh hey, didn't see you come in.

well, here I am with my ukulele.. I started playing it again after a brief hiatus, and I am glad that I did. I almost forgot how fun they are. I also heard something interesting on NPR.. It was about someone who had discovered how to read the musical notes that are above all the words in the Hebrew bible.. It was interesting, and I spent 20 minutes sitting in a parking space on main street listening to it.

I am looking forward to 2:00 tomorrow, because after that I will have no work until Thursday.. After work, I am going over to Nicola's Trattoria to apply for a job I saw advertised.. It is essentially the one I have now, with less to do and with better pay..

Today I washed dishes, prepped and portioned calamari, pasta and chicken wings, took stinky revenge on house keeping, covered for the cook, forgot to eat dinner and found something interesting in my nose..

It is probably time for sleep.. It would be a good idea. Perhaps I should bike to my breakfast shift tomorrow.

Horns, Radar and Spacing..

2008-08-11T02:32:00.002-04:00

Hey there.

What I am confused about is something funny. Some of the newest and most heavily democratic voters in NH are former MA residents.. The greatest reason for people to move here is because of the NH advantage. Somewhat strangely, they will take their voting habits from their old home and bring them here. That sucks.. If you vote for someone who thinks you are not paying enough, then the odds somewhat favor them telling you to pay more. As that influential idiot Bill O'Reilly likes to say "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome" It may not be a definition of insanity, but it does define those who move to escape oppressive taxes, and then vote for those same oppressive taxes in their new home..

Well whatever.. True or not, it does explain why upon finding out that I am not from these parts, many people ask me to describe my political persuasions, perhaps almost hoping to have their suspicion confirmed that all out of staters are retarded.

I had some time on my hands today.. Not really, I just didn't put my shoes on so my dad would not be able to ask me to help him saw up the piano on the front porch. My point is that I found myself on the computer watching a lecture given by a gentleman called Evan Sayet, who spent one hour explaining why people who think that the films of Michael Moore are honest, hope for the world to be like the John Lennon song Imagine.. His reasoning was that because nothing man has ever created has been able to stop war and suffering, and because all of our institutions so far have failed to do this, they must be torn down and replaced with a socialist utopia, where everything we hold dear is devalued to the point where there is nothing to kill or die for, no religions, no families and of course no possessions. It was very interesting indeed, but I did not buy it, at least not in full because his position requires that there must be absolute truth that is not questioned.. However, if you cannot judge the truths you hold dear by the same standard you would judge Sicko, then you will be making the same mistake as those who believe that it is an honest look at our health care system. You should try to disprove your own theories, or you will never eat at Applebee's again.. Seriously, don't eat at Applebee's.. I know things.

Interestingly enough, inside that old piano we found some British coins from 1914... Some half crowns, haypennies and schillings and wonderfully imperialistic sounding stuff like that.

Fuse, Spikes and Heads

2008-08-09T22:19:00.002-04:00

Hey. Nothing excellent to report.

Today I woke up at 1:00 pm because I am on restaurant time. I then went to the golf course with my brother and some people from work. We then hit golf balls for an hour or so. It was fun.

I do not think that a good way to spread your religion is to shout at people and say things like "THE END IS NEAR!!!", but I do think that if someone asks what you believe and why you believe it, you should be able to tell them, and tell them wicked good, or say nothing.. Somehow I was able to do the former, in of all places a busy kitchen to someone my age and of the opposite sex without getting laughed at. A year or so I could not have done this, and that is because I did not know what I believed or why I believed it. What I thought I believed, I would have been embarrassed to tell anyone, but it is strange how a year of learning stuff can change how you see your religion in relation to the world, and just how seriously you take the whole idea.

It is weird, but in all my previous forays into the food and beverage industry, I came away with the notion that I could do just as well without it. However, now I am not so sure. There is something about it that I like.. Food is somewhat of a hobby of mine, and I would be quite stuck without it. Even in a crappy job like washing dishes and cleaning floors and other surfaces, there is a philosophical edge.. To see dirty things made clean again is good for the soul. It gives hope to a world full of Russians and Georgians that everything, no matter how covered in cheese and BBQ sauce can be good again... That no matter how gross a floor may be, there is not only the hope that it will be shiny and sanitary again, but the certainty. Also, no matter how much value Putin may place on human life, or how much value a busy cook may place on a rusty baking tray; with a little elbow grease, both things can be as they should..

On a somewhat lighter note, aren't world politics tragically funny? I am speaking of Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, who according to legend got the job through the offer of free pies. In protest of China's treatment of Tibet, he boycotted the opening ceremony of the Olympics.. However, he made it quite clear that he would be attending the closing ceremony.. The only pleasure I get from the Olympics is the funny international drama, or should I say draMao.......... Oh dear.. Oh dear. I am really really sorry for that..There is no excuse, and if we were living somewhere less free, I really would deserve some sort of public electroshock treatment.

Virtue, Ribs and Ozone........

2008-08-08T00:23:00.004-04:00

Well, I just posted a long crappy thing about work... I am sure you do not want to read it, and I really did not want to write it, and this showed. I should be providing you with something more useful than descriptions of the various duties of a dishwasher, or how I smell nice at every hour of the day... Be prepared for something much better...... It will be so awesome I can't even tell you what it is.

Lemons, Mars and Tang...

2008-08-06T22:03:00.002-04:00

Oh hey, I do apologize for not posting yesterday. You see, I fell asleep around 8:00, which was quite surprising.

Tomorrow I have some plans. I shall wake up at 7:00, sit on the edge of my mattress and rub my face for a few minutes.. I will then reset the alarm clock and go back to sleep until 9:00. I will then get up, shower and dress myself in clothes. Several minutes later, I will go outside and perform an oil change before collecting and depositing my paycheck. When this is completed, I will ride the bicycle over to Keene State to try my luck at the job fair. Later depending on the clemency of the weather, I will either mow the lawn or play music before showing up for work.

Well, a change in my hours has allowed me to practice with my elderly musician friends again, which is nice. We had a good practice today, and good practices are always a reason to play more music. I noticed that my mandolin skills have really deteriorated over the last few weeks, and so I will attempt to fix this imbalance in my small but assorted collection of things I do well.

Again, I am really looking forward to college. Last year it seemed that I was the only person who called out my professors on anything, or showed any interest in what was being taught. Hopefully this year, there will be more people who express their opinions.. Even if they are wrong.. That is something environmentalists do very well indeed. In my kitchen, opinions are often expressed about various issues such as taxes, people taking the flag in vain, the Indians we work with, gays, hippies, massholes, moonbats and whatever WKBK has to say. How are so many of my fellow students unable to express anything, apart from grunts, the word "like" and how much they can drink? I guess that with age comes responsibility, and with responsibility comes more things that annoy you, until you become wrinkly and like to shout at the ducks you are feeding about the economy..

Desert, Dessert and Berlin..

2008-08-05T00:26:00.003-04:00

So I nearly got mugged. No joke.. As I left work, I approached my vehicle and noticed that two short people were drinking out of paper bags and sitting on the curb. As I drew near, they jumped to their feet, and I heard the click of a switchblade. I first intended to jump into my car and speed away, but for some reason I gathered up all the testicular fortitude I could muster and ventured a "How are ya?" which was met by an Irish sounding "Fine mate, and yourself?".. Oh great. We have Pikeys at the Best Western.. Well, I bid good night to the Pikeys, and went home..

It is often the case when working in an any environment that you will develop a dislike for some of the people in it. This is not the case in my kitchen, but there is an animosity between kitchen people and the house keepers. In the pecking order, they are below us. Many do not speak English, and the ones that do are not the sort of people you would feel comfortable letting into your home. My main complaint is that they are required to bring a cart of plates, cups and utensils back to the kitchen after their shift.. Plates cups and utensils which I am responsible for. They consistently fail to do this, and either I or one of the cooks is forced to do it for them. I therefor thought it would be a good idea to remind them of their duty, so I penned a short note for the purpose, with the illustration you see above. In fact, I penned several of them and stuck them all over their little room. Problem solved.

Well. here I am. In 6 hours I get to work the breakfast shift.. I am not looking forward to it. Although I am happy with my current employment, I am going to a job fair at Keene State on Thursday to see if I can do better than groundskeeper there. I think with a little charm and cunning, I could wrangle a cook position. Unfortunately as I possess neither quality, I may be stuck. However dish washing jobs are available and I will see if they pay better then what I currently make.

"Do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life".. I once complained about this statement, but I would rather never work a day in my life than something I was told today by an aspiring philosopher I work with, who noted that "You should see work as a break from life, and life as a break from work." This way of thinking can be used to cover up the fact that you hate your job, or your life. I do not aspire to hate either. It is perhaps time that I took more of an example from my own family.. My father, like his father was born into being a factory worker, and for a while he was. However, as I am sitting in his huge house and typing on his expensive computer, it is clear that he no longer is. My mother was born to be a seamstress in Jersey City, but instead followed her dream and went to college to become a highschool teacher and even now continues to study education. With parents like mine, how can I do anything but love what I do, and do what I love? All I need to do is find exactly how to do what I love, learn to do it better, fail, start again and do it even better. Something I would love to do right now is sleep, so I will see you tomorrow.

Samarkand, Cocktails and Ice..

2008-08-04T00:33:00.004-04:00

It seems that I use up a lot of these posts talking about work. This is perhaps because I do not do much else. I recently watched an episode of No Reservations, where Anthony Bourdain told me that the kitchen has always been a refuge for the socially awkward, and this is probably true. There was nothing to do tonight, apart from learn to be a line cook, so that is what I did. I learned that the cook I am usually on with actually prefers dish washing to cooking.. You see a restaurant cook is not a creative creature. Cooking for a living is not the creative process that TV would have you believe. In fact, it is more of a formula that must be followed to avoid being shouted at. A creative line cook is not a line cook that would last long. Well, there was so little to do that for a while I pulled up some milk crates and took a doze in my dish pit. I was awakened by the sound of orders being shouted into the kitchen, and of the cook being woken from a situation similar to my own. Until closing, I had to work hard.. When you are not prepared, hard work is harder to get used to, but I finally did and settled into the almost hypnotic trance that any sort of repetitive labor tends to induce.

I have found that I am able to take pride in my work as a dishwasher. Maybe it is a gift that I have how I am able to do this; that I can repeatedly give my best to a job where corners can easily be cut and no one would know, at least for a while. It really is satisfying to punch the clock at the end of the day knowing that you gave your very best, no matter how crappy the job is.

Isn't it funny how a vigorous morning bike ride sounds great now, yet come tomorrow will seem like a less favorable alternative to motor transportation?

Isn't bread cool? You can do so much with it, such as placing meat and cheese between two slices of it. Every culture in the world has a version of it, and in many it is given a reverent status. When I was very young and in Athens Greece, an old man told me I needed to finish my sandwich, because it represented Jesus. My elderly Italian relatives do the same thing, with my grandmother refusing to throw bread away, and wincing as if in pain when my father throws away the last mouldy hunk of a week old loaf. In my religion, certain bread is what our lives are built on. In Judaism, Islam and many other religions, bread is also viewed as sacred. In Germany, Britain, Ireland and NH, Liquid bread has an almost religious following. I don't like whole wheat bread. It doesn't appeal to me. I would rather not eat any bread at all then something that looks like it came out of a wood chipper. In my house, we are quite elitist when it comes to bread. Everyone will complain and groan at what is available locally. We are fond of bread that originates in New Jersey, and even prefer it stale over New Hampshire bread. I like Tortillas, preferably when wrapped around something fatty and spicy and deep fried. I also like wheat thins and cookies........ Snack time.

Plecticles, Membership and Stretch..

2008-08-02T22:55:00.002-04:00

My brother and I just got back from a kick around with some old MC2 students. I found out that I hate wet feet and mosquitoes, that I will be taking a management class with Nate Hardy and that your chances of kicking a ball accurately are greatly diminished by darkness.

Right now I am on restaurant time, which means that I finish work at 11, I get home by 1 and I am asleep by 3:30. Unfortunately this also means that I wake up around noon. I have found that if I do not maintain this schedule, I must complete my shift in a daze and run the risk of driving into a tree. I like trees, yet my interaction with them these days consists of nothing more than a casual glance or possibly a makeshift urinal. I do not wish to become part of one.

I have not touched my mandolin all week, preferring to dabble in the arts of the 12 string or ukulele. I have noticed that my style of mandolin playing does not lend it self well to solo performance at all. For me to play and enjoy it, there have to be other musicians about. I suppose it is a bit like drinking: Cool when there are others doing it, but pretty sad if you are on your own.

I may post music I record to this page in future. It could be fun. Well, it is time for me to press the post button again.

Sevillia, Windows and Seatbelts........

2008-08-02T00:39:00.003-04:00

Today my family and I rented a boat, and went sailing on Spofford lake. It was not so much sailing, as to sail you need wind. Instead it was rowing.. Me rowing. If it were not for the paddle that we found before boarding, we would still be there.

After a day of paddling my family around Spofford lake, I went to work. It was tiring, but besides damaging my gentleman's area on a glass rack and not getting any free steak, it was not bad. I did manage to use my excellent problem solving skills to create a mop out of some rags, a sponge and another mop. My workplace is doing badly. If it were a real restaurant, instead of a hotel restaurant, it would have closed down a while ago. If the owners used a little common and business sense, they could make so much more.

Goodnight to you all. May your dreams not include mopping.

Politic, Scrubbie and Okapi

2008-08-01T00:40:00.002-04:00

Hey.. Speaking of politics, yesterday I took the Nolan survey, and I found out that I am a conservative libertarian. I also met the congresswoman for Swanzey, Marlborough and some other towns that don't matter. Susan B. Johnson is a jolly funny lady, and not at all like the politicians I see on CSPAN. We joked about Brattleboro, and complained about John McCain.

Today at work was fun. I worked hard and had fun with my co workers. Unlike almost everywhere else, when there is a customer behaving badly, it is an advantage. We get at least an hour of entertainment from mocking the offending person, and plotting revenge.. Today we had a crowd of young Massachusetts residents in a room, who ordered room service. In my short experience, it is usually the worst type of people who order room service. They were not happy with anything, and the third time our poor waitress had to suffer their abuse, my help was requested. I practiced my best threatening stare, took off my shirt and shouldered the tray. Perhaps seeing a fat wild eyed Italian in a tank top set them straight, but apparently not, as they shouted down the hall after us for ketchup. However, we thought it would only be fair to report them for smoking in their room, which carries a $100 fine. I think the chef may have scared away the guy who repeatedly orders a 24 oz. rib eye 5 minutes before closing, by standing in the dining room and sharpening his knives.

That is what I did today.. What did you do?

Line, Tone and Long life...

2008-07-31T02:06:00.002-04:00

Hey.. Here I am in my new belt. Today my family and I went on an excursion to the Cheshire Fair.. I ate ribs, which were good..

Tomorrow my parents and I are going to KSC to pay for my next semester. I am really looking forward to my next year of higher education. It should be cool. I am taking Management 101, Geography: The Cultural Mosaic and Brazilian Music. I still need to choose a major, but I still have time.. I will give myself until December to explore and try to decide as best I can what my early 20's will look like, and how best to work towards owning my own business.

Wow.. It is around 3:00, and I am watching Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares.. Wow, a lot of people do not seem able to clean their kitchens. I really should be payed more.

Steam, Eggs and Mopping..

2008-07-30T00:45:00.002-04:00

Like I have said, I do my crappy job far too well.

When I got home last night, I could not sleep.. I stayed awake and read until 3. I then had 4 hours until I had to be at work again.. When I arrived, I found it waiting for me as it always is. It is one of those few things in life which can always be counted upon. After a few hours of work, intermixed with complaining about French people, one of the cooks came running into the kitchen and urgently told me to grab my sanitizing equipment and stash some mouldy trays outside, as the health inspector had just entered the building. I hurriedly cleaned out one of the fridges and disposed of some curdled milk, before being informed that it was not a health inspector, but a traveling silverware salesman. Surprise visits from the City of Keene are usually met with some nervousness. Apart from this and my usual duties, I stocked our dry storage facility, portioned steak tips and flattened boxes, as well as making sure that housekeeping was doing their job..

Well, I think it is time that I again perused the classifieds. Never hurts to look for something better.

Dude, I don't know what else to tell you.. I think it really is time for sleep. Did you know that the hot sauce at Armadillo's hurts just as much going in as it does coming out?

So I will stop writing about politics for a while... I do not like alienating my base. Besides, I get to talk about how right I am on my own time.

Let us see what the next few days throw into the mix.

Navaja, Snakes and Dust...

2008-07-29T01:07:00.002-04:00

Wow, I really do my job far too well..

Well, it is time to renovate the room again.. It is full of bottles, receipts, rotting fruit and other assorted crap. It is weird, because I spend a lot of my days cleaning up other people's stuff and I seem to let myself go when it comes to my own. Perhaps I should employ myself as an incentive to do better..

Wow, I just tried to read the federal tax code, and I had my mind blown.. Perhaps the people who set them deserve a little extra for being so clever.

Well I have to be at work again in 7 hours.. I am not looking forward to it. Not only will I have to work my ass off in a hot kitchen, but the hotel is full of French people; the most annoying ones I have ever met outside France.. A lot of people like to say that we need to be multi lingual, and point to western Europe as an example of this. If the people I had to deal with today were an example of multi linguality, then perhaps the world should look to me for it's ideal of lingual brilliance. Speaking of Senator/Doctor/Community Organizer/ God/ Barack Obama; in the words of his teacher Karl Marx "History repeats itself; first as tragedy, then as farce." I am sorry if I just insulted your messiah.. It will probably be the last time, but to be honest he reminds me of my mother, and love her though I do, I think she would be the worst president ever..

Wow.. Read the first word of every paragraph, and see if you detect a pattern. Did you know blogger does not accept Obama as a word?

Shotguns, Cheap and Tasty..

2008-07-28T00:01:00.002-04:00

So I must apologize for my over exaggeration of the nanny state in England with regards to firearms.. Sorry Heather.

Speaking of the nanny state, European officials may now invade any private British dwelling to check that refrigerators are up to new EU standards. It is things like these which make me love New Hampshire very much indeed.

I just got back from work.. It turns out that I picked up even more shifts.. Not only this, but I am now being trained as a cook. This is because there is a hiring freeze at my workplace, and versatility is required. This means that the cooks have to wash dishes.. Nobody gets paid more, everyone has a lot more work and nobody is happy with the situation.. Sounds like socialism.. But at least I get to put cooking experience on the old resume.

Is it weird that I dream about mopping floors? Probably. Well, I just watched Anthony Bourdain in Saudi Arabia. It was an interesting show, because I learned that unlike the Arabs I see on TV, A lot of real ones actually smile and joke. Cool ha? Looking at Arab and Muslim cultures is really interesting for me, because they make me think about beliefs and what they are.. Differences are so deep.. My beliefs are so different from those of the the majority population of the middle east.. Sometimes it is not only beliefs that are different, but the very definition of belief. I like pies and cakes of all sorts.

&&&, Golpe and Trees...

2008-07-26T00:55:00.002-04:00

Hey there. I am sitting here naked, except for my clothes, and drinking Arizona Orangeade. I am also realizing that my work ethic is far too good for the job I hold. I just got back from it.. Another day; another 75 cents.. I made a slogan!!

I was watching CSPAN before. It was prime minister's question time, and it was funny.. I often like to complain about the controlling of our lifestyles by our government, but I was quite relieved as we still have a long way to go before it is anywhere near as bad as in England. In England, there is a complete ban on handguns, yet gun violence is a huge problem, probably because those who commit this violence do not choose to follow gun laws.. Although the number of guns per person in England is a lot lower than here, many people still like to kill each other. That is why parliament banned the carrying of any knife with a blade longer than 2 inches, yet it would seem that people who like to stab other people disobey not only the law against murder, but also the law against carrying a knife of any use for their task.. What I saw on CSPAN was ridiculous, and sad.. Since guns and knives are illegal, people seem to be in the habit of cutting each other with broken glass. Because of this, an MP suggested to the PM that glasses and glass bottles be made illegal in bars, and replaced with a non breakable material.. What is next? Chairs? Boots? Soon the citizens of Great Britain will be covered in 12 inches of bubble wrap before being allowed to leave their homes..

Upload, Spray and ACHTUNG!!!!

2008-07-25T01:36:00.003-04:00

Hey there.. I realized how weird it is to watch yourself on video. Besides waving my hands and biting my lips at awkward times, I also sway suggestively while playing an instrument. These problems are easily remedied by standing perfectly still, and using my mouth like a college professor uses their mind.

I just got home from work.. It took me much longer to clean up than usual, because I seemed unable to focus on what I was doing. Still, in my form of employment this is not a problem, but an advantage as the more time I spend on something, the more I get payed.. Seriously; I could bring a sleeping bag to work and camp out behind my dish machine. This form of wage labor does seem a little anti capitalist however, as it does not encourage one to do one's job better.. In fact it does exactly the opposite.

Today I awoke early, and went to the 8 am mass at my place of worship. I like to go at least once on a week day, so that I can be just another pair of butt cheeks in the pews as opposed to one of 16 musicians. After this, I made my way over to collect my paycheck. I was pleased to see that it was a big one.. I was however displeased with the amount that was missing. On my way to deposit my hard earned wages, I was approached by a young environmentalist outside Cheshire Music.. She asked if I had a moment for the environment.. I warned her that I was so conservative that I made Rush Limbaugh look like ..........Her, but I asked politely for her pitch. It was a petition to bring up cleaner car legislation for NH on the November ballot. I declined, as more regulation of our lifestyles is not something I approve of. She was very polite, and explained that her dad shared my views. Whatever your viewpoint on such issues, I still respect anyone who risks public abuse to get their opinion across, especially if they are polite, although politeness has not historically been the way to make things happen.

When I got home, I got a call from work telling me that I was needed that night at work, and that my only day off had been canceled.. I was not best pleased, but I do like money. Dude, I have a weird painful lump on my leg, where I was tackled by Dr. Hardy a few months ago.. It is not going away. What should I do?.. Perhaps I should call into "Good Morning with Dan Mitchell" when he has the doctor on to take calls from Keene residents about the various itches and rashes experienced by their friends..

So now I smell good again.. This is nice, as a few minutes ago it was not the case. The rest of my evening shall consist of watching myself play music, drinking ice tea, some inspirational reading and maybe some introspective strumming of my ukulele..

Coating, DVD and Walking..

2008-07-24T02:00:00.002-04:00

I just got to rehearse with my elderly musician friends, which was nice as it has been a while. I also got a DVD that shows a concert I played at.. I learned that I have awkward mannerisms, such as covering my mouth with the back of my hand..

So I sometimes play music. On Thursdays after work, I and some of my fellow kitchen people and other assorted hotel workers get together in one of the ballrooms and jam.. They are mostly awful, but it is a good time.

I just watched Walk Hard.... It was awesome.

I will have something good coming up... I spent an hour writing what you just read.. I need to get into the habit again..

VACATION, TRIUMPHANT AND RETURN!!!!

2008-07-23T00:31:00.004-04:00

Hello. I have not posted on this site for a few days. You are still cool, and I have no intention of leaving you.

So why not jump right in?.. Gas prices are down a little, and they used to be higher. I am very displeased with our elected officials.. Almost all of them at this particular point; except for one. He is currently unpopular, and for some very good reasons. He is however not as stupid as anyone who would like to blame oil companies or speculators on the futures markets for obscene gas prices. He is our president, and I will give my reasons for why two weeks ago I found it hard to find a nice thing to say about him, and now I have a good one.

Do you know what an oil speculator is? They are the same sort of people who buy lottery tickets; the same sort of people who think it is a good idea to give money to casinos in the hope of getting a return on their investment. In essence, they are gamblers who play the odds. They buy oil stocks based on whether they think their investment will pay off or not.. If they sense a change in the future of oil trading, they will buy and sell accordingly; causing the price per barrel to rise or fall.. If for example, they hear that fewer people will drive to work in the coming months, they will bid the price down.. If they hear that a series of pipelines are shut down, they will bid the price way up.. They look for anything to tell them what will happen in relation to the future of oil.... Anything, just as a poker player will try to learn all that they can from the faces of their fellow gamblers. If for example an oil speculator were to be reading this blog, and saw nothing but "80,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 BARRELS WORTH OF OIL DISCOVERED IN TANZANIA!!!!!!! BP PLANNING TO DRILL!!!" The price per barrel would fall.. It is simple supply and demand, which I learned about when I was 15..

With the president lifting federal the ban on offshore drilling, the price has fallen.. No coincidence. None at all. Just the possibility of there being more oil available in the future has caused the price to fall. That is how the free market works... And when I see congress on CSPAN trying to regulate the free market, it makes me sad. A free market is anything.. Anything at all where goods and services can be bought and sold. If I wanted to sell you some crappy mandolin strings and you wanted to buy them, I could sell them to you. If I had the only tiny supply of these crappy strings, and they were very popular, my price would go way up... It is so simple, and so sad that people who make laws for a living can not learn what I learned in 5 minutes from Wikipedia, and a little common sense....

Well apart from complaining, I am doing quite well.. I am working nearly every day scrubbing plates, and I am quite enjoying it..Sort of.. I also got a second job.. It was the easiest job I ever got. I simply asked the head of grounds at KSC if I could have one, and he said that he would start me off the second week of August.. Cool ha?

.................

2008-07-19T02:12:00.001-04:00

.................. Wait for it...........

Steak, Forbes and it came to pass..

2008-07-14T22:02:00.002-04:00

That I am watching El Mariachi with a beer, an apple and a mandolin.. The only good thing about watching movies in other languages, is that I can play music during them and not miss a thing.

Perhaps I am more open minded then I give myself credit for.. I mean, I listen to NPR, I read books with titles like "God is not great", I watch foreign films, I listen to world music and I even attempt to understand people who say that you should never trust the government, yet change their middle names to Hussein in order to support a political candidate.

Tomorrow after work, I must drive to Hartford to pick up my parents and sister. I do not mind the drive, as it gives me a good amount of thinking time and it will be nice to have clean clothes and hot water again.

Cool.. Today I mowed the lawn while smoking a cigar.. It was the last of the two I bought, and I felt it would be a nice ethnic accoutrement to my religious jewelery, my tank top and my body hair.. I had to throw it away halfway through the front lawn, as I didn't think it would go so well with the gasoline I was pouring into the lawn mower.

After this, I went to have lunch Serena Olsen during her lunch break. It is nice to catch up with old friends. I then stopped by my place of worship for the sake of a familial tragedy, because as Christopher Hitchens points out “those who offer false consolation are false friends.”

Well, I have not really read anything of interest lately, and I do not want to take that slippery slope into fan fiction.. I am greatly looking forward to supplementing my reading of Christopher Hitchens with more of a Chestertonian perspective.

I guess perspective is important in all things. Since my journey into Catholicism, I have really noticed one thing, and that is how different the perspective of a cultural Catholic is, verses one who actually believes. For the former, religion is just one of those obligations that you have to put up with at Christmas and Easter, whereas for the latter, everything else revolves around the obligation, which ceases to be an obligation but becomes the very reason for one's existence. To explain this to a non believer such as yourself is complicated and awkward. They are two different perspectives, which cannot be reconciled and therefor sometimes lead to anger from both sides.. One bible verse, which is so often held up by atheists as proof the the so called "Family Values" movement is not biblically based, as well as that several parts of the same gospels are contradictory, is the one where Jesus says some crazy stuff about him being a cause for division.. It seems to me that these different perspectives illustrate that crazy stuff perfectly.

Dollar, Pitt and Bridge

2008-07-13T21:23:00.002-04:00

OH NO!!!!

I got home from work very early, and so now I am left with nothing to do for the next few hours.. I will probably strum upon the ukulele, before continuing my studies of the Iliad.. I am not enjoying it at all..

Last night after reading several online reviews of it, I ordered Orthodoxy by Jee Kay the Chezt Chesterton. I think the review that won me over was entitled "A Slob's Guide to Religion." Did you know that there are religious slobs as well as atheistic slobs? Slobbery is something everyone can take part in, and is therefor the perfect common ground for any apologist to start from.

These posts are getting lame.. Every day is worse. I need to change something; to do something incredibly stupid.. Something perhaps involving a small canoe, explosives and Surry dam.. That plan sucks.. Perhaps I should start stealing from work, and horde prime rib in my room until it goes bad.. Well, I can't promise anything tomorrow, but Tuesday's post will make your day so much better than it already was.

AWESOME!!!!!!

Elixir, Green and Vision

2008-07-12T23:50:00.002-04:00

Today I slept until noon, because as I could. It is a very nice feeling to wake up at 7, and then go to sleep for another 5 hours.

When I finally woke up, I found that the mandolin strings I ordered last week had arrived. I put them on my instrument immediately, only to find that they were absolutely crap.. 2 of them snapped right away, and they buzzed terribly.. Oh well. I shall order some better ones as soon as this post is finished.

I just got back from work.. I picked up more hours, which is nice and also tiring.. One thing about my job which is nice is how easily it is to make new friends very quickly.. One thing which is not nice is how my feet hurt, and how I always seem to come home with lots of untraceable cuts and bruises.

Shaving is becoming increasingly difficult without hot water, so I must now go put the kettle on. please feel free to enjoy the rest of this post... Have fun.

Did you know that I enjoy watching Blackadder? It is funny.

Bland, Coated and Grass.....

2008-07-12T00:37:00.002-04:00

I am so sorry for the unexpected glitch in our regular programming. The computer I was using became infected with particularly nasty virus.. It has to be a very sad person indeed, who does not create a virus for financial gain, but for amusement.

Although work was incredibly long and gross, I had a good wholesome time, which was nice because the rest of my day was less fantastic.. I found out from my grandmother that there was a death in the family. I will not discuss this however.. Some things are not meant to be shared via the Internet.

This morning, I woke up, took a cold shower and went to church. I then made my way over to Borders to buy a book.. I did my usual meander through the crowded store, and eventually left with the Iliad and another book that tells me how the religious beliefs I hold so dear are nothing more then the legacy of the thousands of years of oppression against our collective soul. I am not enjoying the Iliad.. Homer is not as funny as I remember him to be, and as for the other I guess certain books are made to tell a certain audience what they would like to hear, and are not really built to be read by the ones they criticize.

Tomorrow I am going to sleep into the afternoon.. Why? Because I can... Indeed. I should probably mow the lawn too..

Chaplin, Sombrero and Turnips

2008-07-09T22:24:00.002-04:00

Hey there..

Today I ran out of clothes.. So the choice was simple; buy new ones, or wash the old ones. I chose the latter. For some reason I felt the urge to wash them in the backyard, and that is exactly what I did. I scrubbed out and sanitized a recycling bin, and filled it with detergent, fabric softener and my clothes.. It seemed to go well.

Later, I made some music by downloading some free software. Using a microphone, a mandolin and a guitar, I wrote and composed a little ditty. I strummed out a chord progression on my guitar and played the melody on mandolin, before laying in 4 harmony tracks in different octaves.. I think it sounds really decent, but I unfortunately damaged it irreparably by using some cheap effects that came with the software. It still sounds beautiful, albeit the kind of beauty that is not marred, but improved by imperfection.

Tomorrow, I am going to go over to KSC to meet with the head grounds keeper, in order to apply for a job with them this fall. I am doing this because I may not be able to be a dishwasher once school starts, as one of the reasons that I was hired to my current position was that I am currently able to work erratic shifts. However, once school starts this talent must be pushed aside to make room for my educational development.

Speaking of education, I have had some.. "What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul." Indeed.. What block of marble would be complete without a soul? I like this quote, not because I have an uncontrollable quote fetish, but because it also points (at least to me) to something that the purpose of education should never be.. The goal of the sculptor is not to change his raw material into something different; if it was, then he would not be a sculptor but an alchemist. In education, educators should not attempt to change who their students are, i.e. sculpting them into who they would like them to be, with only the knowledge and world view that it is thought they should have.. If our public educators did this, then they would not be educators, but indoctrinators.

Today I took part in a political phone survey.. I have always wanted to. I started the interview in my normal voice, which went on for about two minutes.. I then switched over to by best Irish, finishing with a not so believable Mexican. The interviewer seemed confused, and after each voice change asked if she was still speaking with me, to which I answered that I should hope so. As for the questions themselves, I messed with my poor interviewer even more. I told them that since 1989, I had voted straight republican, also telling them that I was in fact a lifelong democrat. When we got to the questions that start with "On a scale of 0 to 100" , I answered 99.5 to everything.. I had a very good time.. Simple things please simple minds.

Irish Stew, Ginseng and Compact.

2008-07-08T21:58:00.003-04:00

HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today I was thinking about the phrase "Do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life." It can have many meanings depending on the frame of mind of the reader. Just think; if what you really love to do is stay in your bed, drink gravy and light your farts, and you really put your mind to these goals....You certainly will never work a day in your life.. Oh dear.

I have never considered myself to be self centered (save in the gastronomical sense...Coincidentally one of the seven senses I appeal to) but then again, I tend to think of the opinions of others as being less important or correct then my own.. Opinions are very personal, because they come from our experiences and people more intelligent than us, who we like to say we agree with. For instance, if someone came up and told me that store brand medicated powder was equal to Gold Bond, I would laugh self righteously and tell them that they were much mistaken, and that Craig Ferguson agrees with me..

Today I realized that I am a racist... Let me explain. Not the sort of cross burning sheet wearing racist, but more of a not-on-purpose racist. If I were to be walking down a street at night by myself, and I happened upon a group of African Americans; I would be more apprehensive then if I had met their Caucasian counterparts.. Why is this so? When I was growing up in NJ, our next door neighbors/ my friends were Hispanics.. When I caught my first fish, it was a black kid who lived a few doors down who helped me reel it in. Our area was positively multicultural/diverse/ all the things you would expect 30 miles from New York City.. When I lived in England, one of my best friends was Jewish and another was Peruvian... But on top of all that, my recent paternal family tree, which is as Irish as stew has more than one person of African heritage entwined in it's branches. It can never be good when someone lists their diversity credentials.. But they are part of the reason why this is a confusing subject for me.. I have no hatred for anyone based on race.. Or anything else. Just a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that something is not quite right. Of course, once I get to know someone of another race, this completely dissipates, yet there it is.. I am not going to mention my parents.. They might read this.. But I know my maternal grandfather openly hated everyone. Perhaps it is not just me.. I have been told through public education for years that such opinions are bad, but perhaps what is worse is pretending that they do not exist, until one day someone cuts you off and you go all Kramer on them. But where do these feelings come from? Is there some Freudian explanation?... I hope not.. I cannot really think of anyone who's opinion I truly value who espouses racist rhetoric.. I have never been beat up by a black kid, so that only leaves the genetic option I guess. Honesty is important.. That was pretty honest I thought, and though many of you may stop reading future posts, I would encourage you not to do so..

The end......

Opera, Piezo, Fireworks..

2008-07-07T23:48:00.002-04:00

Hey there. I hope that you are having a happy summer.

....Nothing is coming.... Nothing yet.. I really do not want to write about anything.. It is quite late. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, and for the upset in the regular programming..

Refill, Swimming and Cards...

2008-07-06T22:41:00.003-04:00

Hey there. Today I did some work on my mandolin. I attempted to secure a strap button to the back of the body, but the two screws I put in snapped, as they had some objection to being forced into a lump of metal. After I had sanded them down, I attempted a third screw, and this time it was a success. I also took my new pickup off the instrument, and put it on my ukulele which now sounds awesome.

I just put 4 hours in down the old dish pit. It was awesome.. I didn't have to do anything. I am thinking about bringing an instrument to work on such days so I will have more to do then sit in an empty kitchen staring at the walls. I recently have been considering riding the cycling machine to work; it does seem like a great idea before, but when I am done there is nothing I would like less.

Why is it that so many westerners turn to eastern religion and philosophy? Is it because what they have at home seems so rigid and strict, with severe penalties for disobeying rules? I guess eastern religions, specifically Buddhism must seem far more tolerant and free, and even possess a certain mildly cool factor. However, I was recently watching a John Safran skit, where he questioned people on the street, giving them authoritarian sounding quotes and asking if they came from the Pope or the Dalai lama.. The correct answer was always the latter.. Such things that the Dalai lama has expressed a negative view on include Abortion, Homosexuality and non reproductive sex.. Especially during the day. It would seem that even in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, there is a concept of absolutism. It really makes you think doesn't it?.. However different religions can seem, there are usually common factors which bind them, such as a disapproval of assless chaps/ the song YMCA and grabbing at fetuses with BBQ tongs down the local Planned Parenthood..

Tea, Haiti and Weddings

2008-07-05T23:02:00.002-04:00

Oh hey. Whats up?

I spent the first part of my day watching the movie Zeitgeist, which among other things attempts to convince those who watch it that all religions, specifically Christianity come from a primitive understanding of astrology.. I have been told by many people that I NEED to watch it. I was however completely unconvinced, even though I approached it's viewing with a mind open enough to swallow light... Along the theme of religion, I also watched part of the series "John Safran VS. God." I really enjoyed it, because it was funny. The protagonist of the series who is a small squeaky voiced Australian Jew, explores a good number of religious beliefs, including Voodoo, Hinduism, Buddhism, The Church of Peyote, Catholicism, Mormonism and he even tries to join the KKK... Apart from being funny and slightly offensive, he makes you think about different points of view in a comedic and experienced way.. He thoroughly engages in all the different belief systems he explores by doing things such as living like a Buddhist monk for a week; Being an alter server and going to confession in a Catholic church; taking peyote and living in the desert for a few days and looking for his own personal guru in India, not to mention pitching his idea about extreme cycling missionaries to different Mormon movie producers.

So I just got back from a 9 hour shift.. I was washing dishes for a Haitian wedding.. The Haitians had come a long long way, and there were a lot of them. Very aloof people.. They expect a certain level of service, and had a way of looking down on the hotel workers who were bringing them food and drinks. A number of the workers said this made them uncomfortable, but they seemed quite friendly to me. I was also pleased to see that they were not the live goat testicle eating voodoo type Haitians, which are the only ones I have heard about. This made me think that it is a shame that the only things we hear about little know cultures are the extremes which make them seem incompatible with our own.. Still, I guess the EMO trend would seem pretty outlandish to your average Haitian.

I really must get some sleep in now.. I am very tired indeed.. I am also pleased that the word "EMO" is not recognized by the Blogger spell checker.

No Fuba, Capo and Zip Ties..

2008-07-04T23:56:00.003-04:00

Hey hey kidz!!!

Today was the 4th of July.. A very important day indeed. It is a day to think about our great country, and how it came to be created and those who created it. Unfortunately, there are those who see this day as a very bad one. I am speaking of Code Pink, who oppose every war ever fought, while relishing in the liberties that some of said wars have brought to them. One of their latest operations has been to attempt to convince the Cuban exile community of Miami to fight for the conviction of a CIA anti communist fighter, who hijacked a Cuban plane. When Code Pink showed up in their pink Che shirts, they were forced to reconsider their plans for a public demonstration due to the fact the angry mob chasing them seemed to disagree with their point of view. Apparently many in that community have slightly bitter memories of life in their country of origin.

Did you know that the ex drummer from the band Boston is a dishwasher at the Colorado steakhouse? It is true... According to him. If it is, then my workplace is as good a place as any to successfully master the art of getting screwed over.

Yes indeed. It is now time to sleep.. I am tired, and no doubt you are as well.

Dissonance, Locks and Houses

2008-07-04T00:15:00.003-04:00

Hey there. Today was a good day indeed. I saw a fight, I bought some music stuff and I got paid.

This morning after dropping the brother off at drivers ed, I went to my place of work to collect my paycheck. It was my biggest payment yet, which was nice. I then went into town to choose some mandolin accessories. I bought a small pickup, which I secured to my new mandolin, and a tiny Roland Cube amplifier. I was very pleased with both my purchases. I decided that It is probably a good idea to get anything I need in the way of musical gear as soon as possible, as I will have far less money when the school year starts. My new pickup sits unobtrusively near the bridge of my mandolin, and my new amp, although powered by either an ac adaptor or batteries is incredibly loud and does the best possible things to the sound of my instrument. It also has some effects, which I played with for hours this morning, including reverb, delay, a phaser and a flanger.. Awesome!!.

Today at work, something cool happened.. One of the customers in the bar area decided that it would be a really fine idea to proposition the bar tender repeatedly; making references to her physical appearance and what he would like to do with a number of her body parts. I think I have mentioned the fat jovial Italian owner of my workplace in a previous post.. However, upon being informed of what was taking place in his fine establishment, all trace of joviality slipped away.. He came running through the kitchen, which was not an easy feat for someone of his girth, and entered the bar.. All of us kitchen people promptly dropped what we were doing, and raced to observe the inevitable confrontation. Alerted by the sound of extremely heavy foot falls, the offending customer had also dropped what he was doing, and lept out of his seat. Our now out of breath boss, still running let out a stream of profanities, which went along the lines of "F**k you, you f*****g sleazy m****rf****r!! Get the f**k out of my f*****g bar!! There was no pause or change in his motion as he ran for the terrified customer, who was at this point running for his car, and possibly his life. Our boss stopped at the door, at this point almost completely out of breath.. He then made a whispered and wheezing apology, which could not be heard over the applause from the other patrons.

Something about conservatives is not clear to me. For instance, how can you say things like "Freedom from government is what this country was founded upon", "Government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem", "Leave us alone!!" and "we want as little government as possible without anarchy", while defending such ideas as the PATRIOT act, no child left behind and energy bills that not only dictate the size of your toilet, but also how you light your home? I do not like this sort of confusion.. It is confusing, and wrong to sacrifice your core principles for convenience, or just getting along. Perhaps I am not the Ditto Head I claim to be, as I simply cannot use my vote to support things that I think are wrong.

C YA..

Mandolin, Plectra and Habits.....

2008-07-02T22:51:00.002-04:00

My mandolin came yesterday.. However I did not notice this, as the UPS guy put it in a corner of the garage I don't visit every day. I found the package this morning, and exercised a great deal of self restraint in it's opening; doing so when I had returned from my visit to town. I opened it carefully, and found my new machine inside.

I was very pleased with what I found. It was very different from my other mandolin; very different indeed. It was a Brazilian style, Mexican made Italian named work of art, but I feel that boring you with details will also bore me, so I will only say that I do not regret ordering it at all and I thoroughly enjoy playing it. The only downside to this new toy is that it is not as loud when I really hammer on it as the other one is, but that problem will be solved when I install a pickup next week. Cool ha? The only modification that I have made so far was to drill a strap button onto the side, which was a much needed accoutrement.

Well, 100 posts.. Thank you for reading them. It is really appreciated.. We have covered a lot over the last few months have we not? I complained about college professors, I complained about democracy, I complained about not being able to find work, and I complained about work. I talked at length about ukuleles, music in general and body hair. Really we did not get past any of those, and nor will we in the coming months. I also transcribed a brand of traditional conservative rhetoric that would make AUH20 blush..(I know Science....)

Did you know that Americans are the best people in the world? It was actually proven.. Americans donate a higher percentage of their earnings to charitable causes then the people of any other country(4 times more then the first runner up). Did you also know that the French are the worst people in the world? It has been proven. Your average Frenchman gives a lower percentage then a South African.. . Did you know that between election seasons, politicians don't give to charities? Did you also know that some politicians think they earn too much, and should be taxed more? It's true.. I guess this is where personal responsibility comes into play.. If you think that the people of this country need help, and government programs are the way to go, why not refuse tax deductions? Why not just pay more?.. You can, and it really is not hard, though I guess you would actually have to have the Ownership, Management, Self Direction and Character to do so.

Tiple, Taste and Tornado

2008-07-02T00:05:00.003-04:00

Hey there. Post 99... Wow.

This morning I got up and went to work. I arrived early and started cleaning dishes. I also met the owner of the hotel. Actually I had met him on several previous occasions, but I had just assumed that he was the fat jovial Italian that is required in any self respecting kitchen.

Speaking of work, I had an interesting day. I was pulled away from my usual duties, when someone spilled bleach in an obscure corner of the kitchen and noticed a considerable number of flies making a speedy exit from the scene of the crime. It was then my job to spray Raid behind every fixture in the fine establishment, as well as sanitize the walls, the garbage cans and every door. It was not too exhausting however, and did interrupt the monotony of cleaning silverware. I was pleased to learn of something that is not my responsibility. It is the most disgusting job in any kitchen, which apparently causes many first time workers to vomit profusely. It is emptying the grease traps... I do not really know what a grease trap is, but I am very happy that I do not have to learn. Every year someone new is asked to volunteer for the task, and a sizable bonus is given to the unlucky hero.

Apart from grease traps, the only other creepy thing I can think of that I have noticed is the creepy flirting between 17yr old servers and cooks old enough to be their grandfathers. Well, actually there is one other thing. Today some very creepy insurance salesmen came to offer everyone in the kitchen a disability insurance policy. I rejected it outright, because I have learned from my father to listen very carefully to such people. The plan he offered me was cheap. $3 a week.. Unfortunately it expires after 30 days, and the total amount of coverage that can be given is one payment of $500 upon a full medical inspection. Indeed... I would have 30 days to find a way to disable myself while scrubbing plates..... But as the injury must occur at work, I would have more like 12 days.. So I would lose $12 to the insurance company...Lose my job and after a full physical that I must pay for in order to qualify, as well as the examination after the injury that I must also pay for.. I would have about $20 left over... He did make a really good pitch though, about how the money would help me to get on my feet after the accident, and would be a great help to my dependents.. I am pretty sure that he had the wrong guy.. Wow you can't make this stuff up. Unfortunately for the company, they failed to sell a single policy to anyone I work with. I get much better offers from Bank of America, who not only use threatening language to try to sell me life insurance, but also do not charge me any fees to keep my money with them.

Saints, Mangos and Cigars...........

2008-06-30T22:56:00.003-04:00

Hey, how are you? Well I hope.

This morning I woke up very early and went to church. You see, as I had basically slept on my feet through my visit yesterday, I felt that I owed myself and the almighty another shot. Catholic churches have masses every day of the week, and so I was not alone in my visit. There were about 30 to 40 people present, which surprised me, as I wouldn't have thought that going to church was what people thought about first thing on a Monday morning.

Speaking of religion, I was watching TV recently as I sometimes do. I am not a huge Sean Hannity fan, but he had an interesting segment on his show about a cult that exists in Mexico. It is the cult of Santa Muerte, or Saint Death. Saint Death is depicted as a skeleton wearing a shawl and carrying a scythe (doesn't the word scythe look like a scythe?) Her followers are often practicing Catholics, and pray to her for help in departments that other Saints are not seen as being in favor of such as adultery, revenge, phallic enhancement and help with drug deals and other illegal ventures. Saint Death apparently has a very libertarian view on such things.. Many Saint Death followers have no religion, and see her as a favorable alternative to other belief systems on the market. I don't know.. But when there is nothing certain you can see in life, death is certain.. "Memento mori", or "remember you are going to die" was the Roman way of reminding Emperors that they were human, and that knowledge is really what separates us from the lesser species...ez. Thus, the most common prayer to Saint Death is one for a happy death. However, she does not give help for free, and will happily take offerings of apples, alcohol and cigars in exchange for favors.. I do not see myself joining this cult anytime soon.

Speaking of Cigars, my relationship with them is not a happy one. Today I had my first one in months, and it was quite a negative experience. I cut and lit it, but at my first puff I felt the unpleasant sensation of hot smoke rushing into by breathing tubes. This is not supposed to happen, as cigars are not inhaled but despite the first puff, I apprehensively took a second. It was a successful attempt, but not a pleasant one. My mouth was filled with the taste of stale coffee grounds and charcoal smoke. Despite the first two puffs, I took a third, only to discover that the wretched thing had gone out. Compared to this last and final puff, the first two were like ambrosia.. It was awful. This time, not only did the foul taste of semi burned tobacco come to reside in my mouth, but also a fair amount of hot ash... When I had thrown away the extinguished and completely unsatisfactory article, I washed my hands and gargled with Listerine for about 5 minutes. This happened around 4, and my hands still smell incredibly bad. My clothes will never be the same, and I applied so much cologne that I now smell like my family in New Jersey. Needless to say, I will probably not make a habit out of this habit. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but other times a cigar is just awful.

Have a good week..............

Tropics, Bills and Fruit...

2008-06-29T19:24:00.002-04:00

Well, it was a very odd Sunday for me. You see I have over the years gotten used to some sort of meal with the family on most nights, and sitting by myself at the kitchen table scraping cheese from a pizza box is really not what I have come to expect.

It is 7:30, and it to me feels a good few hours later. The reason for this is because when my new alarm clock went off at 5:00, I was unable to immigrate back into the realms of the subconscious and so I spent a few hours watching infomercials and eating breakfast. Did you know that Billy Mays is annoying? He in fact reminds me of someone I saw on TV during a family vacation to the island of Malta. His name was Angelo Di Roberto, and he would wheeze asthmatically between blisteringly fast Maltese endorsements of hair dryers.

So hey, I find myself running out of things to talk about.. I could run through my day with a fine tooth comb (haha.... Who uses a tooth comb?) but that would not do either of us any good. I think by tomorrow the blogging juices should have experienced a renewal in the fingers, and hopefully they will have something of great import to tell you about..

Nuns, Fresca and Peaches.

2008-06-28T23:23:00.003-04:00

Why hello there. I would love to talk about something other then myself.. Unfortunately, as I am me, and the things that happen to me are also likely to happen to myself, this is often hard to avoid.

Today there was a wedding reception at the Best Western, and I cleaned up after it. It was very hard work, but luckily there were two of us dishwashers, and so it was not the all nighter it could have been. Also today, I dropped my parents and sister in Hartford in order to catch a plane. It was an easy drive, as there were few cars on the road... Unfortunately all the negative stereotypes I have heard about Asian women in cars were confirmed.

Did you know that I worked more hours in a part time job this week then any Frenchman is legally allowed to work full time? Infact 7 more. Wow.. They are a lazy bunch. Well, I have a pain in my gut that was no doubt caused by eating too much wedding food too fast, and can only be cured by either alkaseltzer and sleep or bran flakes and an hour on the toilet.. I am hoping it is the former. so I will let you get back to whatever it is that you should be doing. Talk to you soon...

Workity, Rescue and Guido

2008-06-28T00:03:00.002-04:00

Hey, I don't know if you know what a guido is, but I will tell you anyway. Along time ago, Italian immigrants began pouring into the cities of America's northeast. Their children did some cool stuff, and their grandchildren became guidos. The unique species known as the guido, is known for a hair style called the blowback, a wife beater, lots of gold, an extremely obnoxious car and an attitude to match. Well long story short, I now have a full blowback.. And it looks, for lack of a better word retarded...

So I just got home from work.. I stink.. Seriously.. This is one of the few times in my life so far that I have not smelled wonderful. The reason for this is a new cologne I am testing. It contains the fragrances and particles of mahi mahi, prime rib, scallops, garbage, sludgy mop water, fryilator grease and Buffalo sauce. I myself am not sure that this concoction will be the great commercial success it's manufacturers anticipate.. Still, that is the beauty of the free market. Anyway.. It was my longest shift ever, and me and my blowback are quite exhausted.

Sorry dudes, but as I have given myself the lofty goal of not mentioning a certain stringed instrument, I am afraid that is all for tonight. Buy a ukulele...

Supremity, Endurance and the last mandolin

2008-06-27T00:03:00.003-04:00

Hey.. So today I ordered the Paracho Elite Venice mandolin. It should be here in a week, and I am looking forward to playing it. I also promise that you will not see the word mandolin in a single post from now until that day comes.

I just got home from work.. I was there much later than usual, because a group came in just as the kitchen was closing, and decided that it would be a great idea to order scallops at 10:00. I did not happen to think this was such a great idea, and neither did the cook. We both gave them angry glares, and engaged in a brief sketch, where I tapped my wrist angrily and the cook threw up his arms and pointed at them. We in fact made them quite uncomfortable. Speaking of uncomfortable, as I was performing my duty of delivering dirty linen to housekeeping, I noticed two hotel guests approaching me. One of them had a grin on his face; no doubt caused by my thoroughly soaked groinal area ( In my job, a soaked groin means that you are a good worker.) I was in an uncharacteristically bad mood, caused no doubt by my scallop ordering buddies, and to me his facial muscles pointed to all that is wrong with the world. I met his grin with my best scowl.. I even turned my head as he passed, doing my best to look threatening. Even though his grin was gone, I was determined to make him even more uncomfortable for his unforgivable offence, and I got my chance as I was leaving work. He was standing at the front desk, so I snuck up behind him and slammed the key to housekeeping as firmly as I could on the desk next to him. I saw him jump, and so I slowly turned my head, again doing my best to look like I had just swallowed a shard of glass, to which he responded by averting his gaze. My terrorizing of the guests completed, I made my way out the door, cheerily shouting my goodnights to the employees at the front desk..

Today something made me happy. The supreme court came out with a ruling on the D.C gun ban, and thankfully the justices chose in favor of the individual vs. the collective right to bear arms. Justice Scalia wrote the decision.. Justice Scalia is a cool guy, because he explains things in a manner a kindergartner could understand. I personally never understood how the words of the second amendment could be interpreted as anything but and individual right, especially when read right after the first and before any others containing the words "the people." Something I find funny now that I have a little more perspective then I once did, is how the left and right in this country like accuse each other of picking and choosing from the constitution; the left focusing on the rights of enemy combatants, and the patriot act, and the right focusing mainly on the rights of gun owners and taxpayers, while both claiming to be on the side of the constitution.

I really do not like to talk about gun control, but it is now time.. I guess those who support and oppose gun control measures are divided into two groups; those who say that death is not the worst of all evils, and thus ones freedom is more important then ones life and those who say that life is the most precious of all gifts, and must be preserved at all costs.. I guess arguments against the first point are simple; people do not like being shot. It is not something one wakes up and wishes upon ones self.. Unless there is some sort of very big problem going on, but generally it is not something to aspire to. People also do not like the fact that several children are tragically killed in gun accidents each year.. Generally, arguments against the first point are mainly either emotional, or convenient. Arguments against the second point are more ideological. Live free or die.. The very right to defend your life, or the lives of those you love against any who threaten them, be it a home invader or a tyrannical government. I feel confident in my position on the 2nd amendment, and can happily and correctly quote it(the amendment), along with the first on demand. I could now write something about my views, but quite frankly it would sound like an NRA propaganda piece, so I will let Cesare Beccaria do it for me. The following quotation is taken from his 1764 book On Crimes and Punishment, and was used fondly by Thomas Jefferson "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

Well that is all.. for now.

Orinoco, Pliers and Formulas..

2008-06-25T22:28:00.002-04:00

Hello again. It has been too long, so I may as well dive right in.. Did you know that mandolins were at one time very highly thought of in Japan.. So much so that mandolinists were completely immune to the persecutions of Japan's military government. Apparently, due to the Japanese tendency to not enjoy complex rhythms, the mandolin music preferred in that country was the slow Italian variety. Another peculiar Japanese characteristic is that they are a naturally socialist people. By this I mean that instead of small bands, where each member may demonstrate his or her virtuosity, Japanese mandolinists organized themselves into huge orchestras, where they could all blend in harmoniously together. Musical socialism is a very good idea in many cases, as long as the orchestra is not too enormous, and the conductor not too despotic..

A month or so ago, I sustained a severe blow to my shin. It eventually turned into a puss filled welt, and now it feels really strange.. Perhaps a visit to the doctor is in order. However this is not possible, as they might find something wrong. Besides, I have not been to a doctor since I dropped a guitar on my toe when I was 13.

Have you ever noticed that some of us have strange faces; faces that if looked at from even a slightly different angle make us look like completely different people. I noticed this recently when I checked the view count on my Youtube video. We are a strange sort of people. It is like that Seinfeld episode.. I think the festivus one, where Jerry's girlfriend changes in different lighting. Perhaps I only think this about myself because I am not in the habit of holding two mirrors up, but I have noticed this in many other people.. Perhaps a bored brain just comes up with ways to amuse itself while the owner is out shopping.

So today I was waiting at Autex Mazda while my dads car was being inspected. During the wait, I started reading an awful magazine. In it was an article about some recent violence in Mexico.. It was not about the extreme acts of unfathomable brutality that the cartels are fond of, or even about food riots by angry farmers unable to buy corn because it is being used to make ethanol.. No.. It was about emo kids and how they are being persecuted by just about everyone else in Mexico City. Really? Now; unlike race, "Emo-ness" IS something you have control over.. If you do not like getting hit for wearing tight jeans and makeup, there would seem to be an easy path towards ending this violence. I don't know.. Perhaps my recent foray into the world of conservatism has given me a slightly negative attitude towards those who are... well, Non traditional.. Also, perhaps it is my lack of understanding of this "culture" that causes me to be critical. Of course I am not saying that people should not have the right to wear whatever they want and paint their faces.. I am just saying that when popular opinion is so obviously against you, and you do not seem to have any message other than misery and nihilism to deliver.. It is perhaps time to start considering other options. You have to think though.. Is this really important? Of all the problems facing Latin America, is this the one that should stand out? No. No it is not.. What is important is that Mexico is starving, and that whole families have absolutely no other option for survival then to break the law. Perhaps I got a bit lost back there, but as I remember, the author of the article in question concluded that the violence, and the American style sub cultures involved would shatter our bigoted stereotypes of Mexicans as sombrero wearing cactuses... Or something... I would rather keep my childish stereotypes then forget that even though Mexico might have modern innovations like the emo scene.. It is still in trouble, and needs help.

Diccicoure, 1916 and Whigs

2008-06-25T00:10:00.003-04:00

Hey, it is now that time of day when I sit down to write about stuff, and you sit there and read it. Sadly it will not be very informative or fulfilling for any of us, but we are in it together and might as well stick it out.

Time to talk about Youtube. My user name, which I created last month to post a video is an odd one. Diccicoure is something that one of my mom's uncles was called behind his back. It is spelled semi phonetically, and in that unintelligible dialect of Apulia means "He said." This relation of mine got the name because he had a tendency to say "dishicoor" in every sentence.

Speaking of Youtube, I have used it in my search for mandolins. Unfortunately, I have been unable to to locate anything related to the Giannini GMSM3, which I decided to buy last week. Quite frankly, I know nothing about it, and I do not want to take another chance. However, I did manage to track down some information about another mandolin I had on my list, which is the Lonestar (now Paracho Elite)Venice model. The other day, I happened to type into my search bar an obscure song from the 40's that was covered by Dean Martin. Through this, I discovered an English gentleman, who goes by the Youtube name Bradybraidz. Bradybraidz happens to own a Lonestar Venice, and what was very surprising was that he displayed the exact model of Neapolitan mandolin I currently posses in one of his videos. I asked him for an in depth side by side comparison of the two instruments, which he kindly gave me not an hour later. I do not know if he was paid by Paracho Elite for what he said, but perhaps he should have been, as his description of the Venice matched all the points I had decided upon for what my new machine should possess. It is louder, much more comfortable, easy to play, has beautiful detailing and the intonation is perfect. Also, the company who manufactures the instruments recently upgraded their materials, which is just what I am looking for... So there it is... Final word. The Venice, which is in the Portuguese style, will be my new machine.

I am sorry for boring you with long descriptions of my attempts to acquire worldly goods. However, the music which said worldly goods will create will hopefully bring a joy to the hearts of all who hear it that cannot be bought or explained. Not to boast of my abilities, for I have little enough of those, but there is something which distinguishes the mandolin from all other instruments; a certain vibration that it's plucked strings create in the inner ear that cannot be duplicated or understood. It is almost a mysterious sound.. It has an atmospheric quality, that depending on the way it is played can take you to the back streets of Naples in the 19th century, where some poor musician is trying to get both girls and cigarettes for his playing, or a gas station in Tennessee during the great depression, where a day laborer completely out of luck and with nothing in his hands but a mandolin angrily lets forth a blasting slurry of notes to show both his disdain and love for his surroundings, or even a Moscow coffee house where a fat bourgeois college student sits entertaining his friends with ancient Cossack songs, moments before the communists burst in the door. It has what Santana would call a feminine tone. It can be gentle, like a mother singing to her child, or it can be like my old next door neighbor yelling at her kids for leaving the front door open... Now that I have successfully creeped you out, it is time for me to take off..

C ya palzzz

Card, Rosary and Crema

2008-06-23T22:39:00.002-04:00

Hey there.. Another day, another crappy post.

So what's up? I did not really end up doing much today, which worked out quite well. You see last night I managed to ingest an unholy amount of caffeine in an attempt to stay awake through an 8 hour shift, but as I was only at work until 9:30, I was buzzing until 2. As a consequence of this, I woke up at 12.

You know the trouble with music is that it is like life; if your band keeps playing when you stop, the music goes on. If you whistle a tune and stop halfway through, you can finish it off in your head, and so it is still going. If music is like life, then a drum solo followed by eating live clams is like death, because while drum solos destroy what came before them, eating raw clams will destroy any sensation but nausea and toilet seats for the rest of your day.

Keeping on with this musical theme, I guess an interesting way to think about the passage of time is as a beat to the song of life. It can be a good song or a bad song, and you are doing your best to blunder your way through it as best you can. For me, I have faith in a supreme conductor, who wrote and guides this well organized symphony.. Others may see it more like free jazz, with no conductor, no definite guidelines and no need to play in time. Still others may see it more like a 60's blues rock band, where though there are some rules and a beat, you may take an extended and annoying solo with no consequences. Indeed, there are others who do not acknowledge a beat at all. There is no time signature, no pulse and only silence, and to break this silence, ones own piece of music must be created and played.

I am definitely not the first to come up with this musical analogy.. Several pieces of music exist which bear reference to it.. The two I can think of right now are Lord of the dance, which is a Shaker song from a few hundred years ago, and the other is the Danse Macabre, or dance of death in French which is the theme to an English crime show..

That is all for now.

Bacterial, Juice and Panthenol

2008-06-22T22:01:00.002-04:00

Hey.. How are you?

I just got home from work, and quite frankly work sucked. Everyone was angry at something or other, and I found out that as well as washing dishes, mopping floors, organizing linen, sanitizing the whole kitchen and putting everything in its proper place, I also have to paint the kitchen.. Cool ha? Not really. Multi tasking is not something that I do exceptionally well, and tonight was no exception. I ended up covered in paint, and well behind in my dish washing. It was not fun. The only bonus was that one of the other dishwashers who is training to be a chef mopped the floor, which saved an hour. Something else that happened was that one of the other dishwashers got fired, and I got his hours... I don't know. Although I now can make more money, I feel slightly guilty about taking work away from someone who probably needs it more than me. It was not the best Sunday night ever, yet it was certainly not the worst. Still, every penny towards Tony's Emporium of Fine Goods helps. I also like mandolin money.

So hey, you have a good summer now. If you need any summer reading, I would happily give you all my Jerome K. Jerome. By the way, the K. Is for Klapka, which sounds kind of like an olde tyme way of saying gonorrhea. Indeed. Tomorrow I will enjoy performing my monthly overhaul of my room, which will rock.

Speaking of mandolins, I went to play some today. Although they were considerably more easy to play than my machine, they were not loud enough. To stand out in my religious musical group, I had to develop a style of mandolin playing which is quite unusual. I have to hit the strings much harder then they are meant to be hit, using a rapid tremolo for every note. I can only use the top two courses, as the lower two are quite indistinguishable from the array of guitars, pianos and banjos. This aggressive and in no way compassionate style of playing is hurting my machine badly. In fact, so much so that it is exhibiting symptoms that if left untreated will render it unplayable in the coming weeks. I am sad for it, as we have been very good friends up to this point, and the strain on our relationship will make it hard for us to see each other socially.

Bandolim, Katz and Calzuljique

2008-06-21T23:20:00.003-04:00

Hey there. Good to see you here. What is your dream job? I will tell you mine.. It is something that I have aspired to since I was 10, but that has perhaps gotten a little dusty. Many of my friends shared the same dream. I still do, but I don't know about them. I have always wanted to own a bar/ store/ somewhere that sells stuff. This idea came about from watching crappy old movies such as the Three Amigos, and seeing the proprietors of liquor serving establishments lazily perambulate behind the bar and do almost nothing. What we wanted was somewhere where we could just hang out all day and play music, with only the occasional shootout to disturb us. I was reminded of this distant dream today when I went into a store on main street to buy a cigar box. The friendly proprietor was just sitting outside with his friends and enjoying some of the fine tobacco products he sells. Apart from worrying about finances and the occasional oral cancer, it seems like a pretty good way to spend a day at the office. Well, from now on, that is the goal. I am going to work towards owning an emporium of fine goods. There are worse things to aspire to than silly childhood dreams.

Now I want to talk about my old friends. They are hard to remember. A few days ago I found a letter. It was from a friend I had from when I was born until the day I moved to England. I never replied to the letter, preferring not to do so. It is a hard letter to read now, not just because an 11 yr old wrote it, but because it was so obviously heartfelt. Now I am feeling differently. This friend went and still goes by the name Elizabeth Wiljelm, and soon after we moved, her parents separated and her mom left our awful part of NJ and took her to Vermont. Well, thanks to whitepages.com I now have her mom's phone number and I am debating whether or not to give it a ring. It would be weird to say the least, as I can no longer remember much about life at that age. Is it a good idea to talk to such distant acquaintances whose lives have been so different? God knows.

Speaking of God, it is time for me to go to bed or I will not be up for church at the appropriate hour. I will then have to drive my grandmother to meet her train to Iselin. It will not be an easy trip, because the Puerto Ricans start getting on the train around Springfield. It is weird, but to single out only the Puerto Ricans (and Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Germans, Northern Italians, Poles and Albanians) for collective derision seems like something only she can do. "Puerto Rican", has been added to her considerable vocabulary of Southern Italian words for things that are bad. For example, if my brother and sister are arguing, she will tell them to stop being Puerto Ricans.

Well, that is all for now. C ya soon...

Costa, Cavaco and Stopper

2008-06-21T00:16:00.002-04:00

Hey there guys. It is now quite late, and I am very tired. Hopefully you are too. I ended up having a very easy going sort of day, with lots of music and joy. I like joy.

I ended up not getting the call from work I have been dreading, telling me I have to go in tomorrow morning.. I do not like washing dishes for weddings. You see at weddings, everyone is served food at the same time, and so all the dishes come back at the same time.

Indeed, I ended up going to my brother's graduation. It was fun and interesting. I got to sit next to my grandmother, and hear many of the people who spoke called shengat, or chuchuline.. Still, it was a nice affair and it concluded with ice cream and swings, as all good ones do.

No.. It is a very powerful word. It is so powerful that the Irish are not allowed to use it for fear that they will make use of it in reference to their drinking habits, and rule the world. No can mean yes or no, depending on how a question is asked, so yes can also mean no if it means no. No is a weird sounding word. It sounds sort of like snow and oh. If you add things to it, you can come up with lots of words... Words like Not, Nothing, Note, Notice, Notary and many others. If you say it to yourself over and over, it starts to sound different, and not quite right. There are many ways to say it. You can say "NO!!" "Nno" "Neeeew" "Nah" and "Naw." No has played a very strong developing role in the world. Cave men could have used it in reference to using newly discovered fire for cooking purposes... Perhaps some were vegetarians, and used it to refuse meat. Caesar could have used it to refuse imperial status. Napoleon would have perhaps found it helpful if he had used it more when making plans to invade Russia. Without no, we would have no religions. Christianity for example is based on the right to no. Atheism is based on a no to religion and Unitarianism is based on a no to no. Without no, we would have no yes. We would have only maybes.. In fact, we would be useless Irish road builders.

Disco, Bakery and Donkeys

2008-06-19T20:47:00.004-04:00

Hey there. I had a good day today. I got up at 9 and collected and deposited my first paycheck. I thought I would be funny, by walking up to the desk and saying "GIVE ME MY MONEY!!" in a loud voice. However the appearance of the 300 pound biker who was checking out of the hotel dissuaded me from doing so.

After this was done, I returned home and reacquainted myself with the 12 string guitar. At 11, I went out again for my interview at the Cheshire Horse. It went well, and I found that the work would be well within my capabilities. I also found out that I would be starting at $10 an hour, and that this would increase after 3 months. I also found that the job would eventually become full time, and with this would come complete health care coverage and a salary... Sounds awesome. It is the sort of work I would not even have to go in for, as all I would need would be a computer with Internet access. I was told before I left that other candidates would be interviewed this week, but that so far I was the favorite. I was also told that Amber had said some really nice things about me, and we talked for a while about how awesome Amber is. I would be quite happy with this job if I could get it, but if I do not I would not be too bothered.

Today I decided not to order a mandolin.. Partly because I wish to exercise a bit of restraint, and more because I want to wait until I can comfortably afford the Giannini GBSM3 with a built in pickup. I will also purchase a small battery powered amp so that I can be better heard amongst the other musicians I play with. I am definitely stuck on buying a professional quality Brazilian mandolin. I do not want another Italian one, as the lute style bowl on the back is not very convenient. I do not want an American style mandolin, as they are too quiet and not as aesthetically pleasing and I certainly do not wish to buy a mandolin from a part of the world with no history of mandolin building, as I learned my lesson the last time. In Brazil, there is a history of mandolin players and playing. Mandolins are mostly found in the Choro genre, which as far as I can tell is an offshoot of samba. It is the lead instrument in this acoustic style, and is accompanied by a cavaquinho, which is like a ukulele; a Spanish guitar and a Brazilian 7 string guitar, which acts as a bass instrument. There is also usually some Brazilian percussion.. If you are interested in learning more about this, try searching for songs like tico tico no fuba, naquele tempo and the brasileirinho. If you are a youtube user, check out the group Conjunto Som Brasileiro.. Today I learned some other interesting stuff..... (If you don't want to read more music crap, stop now.) The Portuguese Guitar that the Brazilian mandolin, or bandolim is based on actually comes from England.. I never thought that this could possibly have happened, but apparently it is true. I found a picture of an English "guittar" from the 17th century, and it is the spitting image of the Portuguese version.. You see many years ago, the British and the Portuguese were very close, and they not only exchanged alcoholic beverages but also stringed instruments. Well, I am excited to be taking a course in Brazilian music at college..

I also got together with some cool people and we did cool stuff.. Perhaps I will write about it in another post, but right now I am afraid that it is time for me to sleep..

Matters,Water and Tires..

2008-06-19T00:03:00.003-04:00

I just got back from work. I had not expected any work today, apart from buying wood from Home Depot. As I was and am very tired, I had expected to go to sleep at 10 after a wholesome practice of spiritual music with my elderly musician friends. Instead I got to listen to the the clanking of dishes and the sleazy pickup lines directed by the cook at any female who entered the kitchen. It turned out that the person who I was filling in for had not showed up or called.

Tomorrow I have a busy and early starting day. I have a lot of social activities to enjoy, as well as some financial transactions and an interview. I am looking forward to them all. It should be awesome.

As I mentioned, I am exceedingly tired.. It is perhaps a good idea that I now enjoy some sleep. It should be awesome. Musha.. Good night.. but before I go, I will leave you with some fine words by Jerome K. Jerome on the subject of work: "It always does seem to me that I am doing more work than I should do. It is not that I object to the work, mind you; I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart."

Radio, Ointment and Alarm Clocks

2008-06-17T22:42:00.004-04:00

Today I got up and went to work. Before I left, I watched some news and ate some tasty svogliatelle. When I got to the Colorado Steakhouse, breakfast had started and I found a lovely pile of dishes and pans awaiting my attention. I washed dishes and cleaned until 2. I happen to like my job. There is no one to tell me what to do, and no longer anyone to tell me how to do it.. I can take as many breaks as I want for as long as I want, and I get free food. I can talk to people all day if I wish, or conversely hide behind my washer. I also have responsibilities such as cleaning up and making sure the kitchen does not burn down, and I am paid fairly well for what I do.

Today something interesting happened. A man walked up to the bar and ordered a beer. He sat for a while and then began talking with the bartender. He told her that his profession was a 9/11 truth investigator. After a few indifferent and polite remarks in response to something about demolitions, he asked why she was so ignorant, and told her that she really needed to get informed. He then ordered another drink, to which our bartender responded that he had obviously had quite enough, and asked him to either shut up or leave. At least that is what I could discern, as she was laughing quite hysterically as she relayed her account.

This week I have plans. I do not have to work until Sunday evening, as I took Friday off for my brother's graduation. I have some people to see that have been conspicuous by their absence from my day to day affairs; an interview to go to, a mandolin to purchase and a face wound that is healing well.

Thank you, and good evening...

Scousers, Importance and Plectrums

2008-06-16T22:40:00.004-04:00

Is there such a thing as unnecessary knowledge? Have you ever read, seen or heard something that you wish you had not? One of the problems with knowing things is that you cannot be selective with things you already know about.

Is government a business? I do believe so.. The only business which can go against the laws of the universe. If a government were in charge of a parking lot in a big city and not many people chose to use it instead opting to ride bicycles more, the price for the few people who did use the parking lot would go up, and a law would be passed to insure that everyone was required to use it whether they want to or not, or even if they do not own a car. There was something I heard the other day which was a bad example of something like this. There is a nursing home in Worcester, that was required by the city to keep it's heating on until June 15th. I do not know if you remember the temperature a few days ago, but I do.. The gist story was that the poor seniors were camping outside. It's too bad that in many ways, governments are not like contractors.. If you don't like one, you can go to another without leaving your town, although that is usually called revolution.

I included the first two paragraphs to prove a point.. It is only people with nothing to do who like to talk about politics. It is my opinion that people like hyperboles. (Is Hyperboles a word?) Even they do not believe in them, there is something simple and wholesome about them.. For example, it is easy if you are tired and hungry after a long stressful day at the office, to blame oil companies and Bush for high gas prices, and to think of them as being the most evil people on the face of the planet.. It is also similarly easy, if for example you have been in the desert for a year living on dried grass and snake vomit, to declare a bottle of Gatorade the best thing you have ever tasted, and the person who gave it to you a saint..

Anyway, I did not have work today.. I thought I did, but I did not. This morning my car broke down on west street. It was simply a clogged air filter.. Long story short, I turned up at work an hour and a half late and inquired in the kitchen if I still had my job. It turned out that It was a mistake, and that the boss had messed up the schedule.. Still, I do hope I still have my job tomorrow. Even if I do not, I may be changing jobs soon anyway. The Cheshire Horse called me to invite me to come in for an interview. I am very confident that I can get the job, but I will see what they have to say before dwelling further. Whatever the outcome of the next week or two, I will still have a lot more cash than I had expected, as well as a new mandolin for playin tunez with. Sick ha?

C ya!

Bootle, Lullaby and Waiting

2008-06-15T23:50:00.004-04:00

"What the eye does not see, the stomach does not get upset over"- Jerome K. Jerome.

Well, I am now home from another day of work in the food and beverage industry. It was an eventful one, and at times quite soul crushing but over all not bad. Today was my first night of closing the kitchen all by myself, and so it took me a little longer than usual. Tomorrow is my last day before I have a few off, and I only have to work until 2 which is awesome. I may look into getting a second job, but right now I am not too bothered, because apart from taking some hot grease to the face yesterday which caused it to ooze puss for most of last night and today (sexy!!) and some various aches and pains, I am quite happy. Besides, I have plenty of social plans for this week and a grandmother to clean everything for me.

This morning I got up and went to church. My father showed up today to appease my grandmother, but my brother was absent which later caused unsavory looks to emanate from our matriarch during father's day brunch. Speaking of father's day, I bought mine a book called The Politically Incorrect Guide to The Constitution. This book presses the points that the separation of church and state is not in the Constitution; that new deal progressives re-wrote the Constitution to suite their fascistic needs and that activist judges are a big problem.. Among other things..

So I have made a decision on which mandolin to purchase. I have chosen the Giannini GBSM3, which is awesome... I am going to order it this Thursday as soon as I deposit my first paycheck, and it should arrive a week later.

Right now, I am watching an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot.. The producers of the show decided to scare me by singing children's nursery rhymes in a weird discordant way over every murder scene, which there are many of... It is also quite funny.

See you tomorrow.

Comma, Acai and Food.

2008-06-14T23:44:00.003-04:00

Hey there.. Today my day was cool, and went as follows: I woke up at 10, and felt not even a tinge of guilt for doing so. I then went into town to deposit the monetary contents of my cigar box into my bank account in order to purchase a mandolin online. I then came home and ate one of those great Paul's Choice burgers with bacon and cheese pressed into the beef. It may sound gross, but you really must sample these fine culinary creations.

I left for work at 3:45, and jumped straight into the fray. I also met the other new dishwasher called Eric. Eric and I came up with a dish washing strategy that made things go faster, and we were soon done with the rush of plates and utensils that materialised at our station with the help of two very large wedding parties.

The rest of the day was a blur. There was so much to do... All day.. Eric and I were the last to leave, because once everyone else had gone we still had to sweep and mop the whole kitchen, which takes 30 minutes if you do it quickly.. We had to take all the crap from behind the bar and throw it away because Chantelle is a girl, and according to the official rules and regulations of the fine Colorado Steakhouse: "Girls are not allowed by the dumpsters after dark." We also had the funny task of running every single non-slip floor mat through the dishwasher. This is boring to read, and I have always wanted to use the word plethora in a sentence, so there you go..

No matter how much I may complain about my job, comparatively speaking it is a pretty good one. I also happened to get it on St. Anthony's day.. which was also Friday the 13th......woooow.. Or in the Mid West: Whhoooow.. It is not your fault if you didn't get that..

Dishes, Mandolins and Air Conditioning

2008-06-13T14:26:00.004-04:00

Hey there. Recently you have heard me complaining a lot about being unemployed, and for this I apologize. I now have a job as a dishwasher/prep cook at the Colorado Steakhouse. I start today at 4:30. My interview was short and, mainly consisted of my interviewer and I complaining about hippies who refuse to work properly. It was however my previous employer who got me the job, as he happens to be friends with my new boss. I will be making $8 an hour, as well as a bonus after 30 days if I do not complain/quit. The hours will be all over the place, but as I have no real plans for the summer, this should not be a problem. I am of course greatful to EC Floorsanding, the Calorado Steakhouse and St. Joseph.

I wrote that last paragraph at 2:30.. Lets see what happens next.

OK, it is now almost twelve, and I have been at work since 4:30.. I did not have fun.. The work is at times dreadfully dull with nothing to do, and at other times complete chaos. I have the most disgusting jobs of anyone there.. It is for lack of a better word completely icky. I also am the last person to leave, as I have not only to sanitize every stainless steel surface in the kitchen, but also to sweep and mop all the floors, run dirty napkins up to the housekeeping department and put every single dish and utensil in it's proper place. Besides all this, I am now a prep cook too. Preparing small dishes and salads is the easiest part of my job. Apart from all the gross stuff, the hardest part is finding where everything goes.

I was told that I did incredibly well for my first day, and I am proud of the work I did. By the end of the night I had stopped asking questions, and was just doing my job. Besides all the negative points, the job is fulfilling. It gives a strong feeling of community, as everyone in the kitchen is mutually dependent on the work of everyone else. Everyone is very nice, especially as I managed to not screw up at all. I am not looking forward to tomorrow as I am told it will be very busy indeed.. However, I am very pleased that I now have a job and can contribute to society once again..

See ya tomorrow..

Tang, Pomegranates and Puss..

2008-06-12T22:16:00.004-04:00

How are we all today?

Well it is Thursday, and I do not have a job.. Work is very hard to come by. I have now put in 40 applications in the last 3 weeks, and no one seems to like me. It seems odd.. Today I was at Multi Med in Swanzey applying for an absolutely awful assembly job. It is the sort of boring work with no variation that has the tendency to drain the soul, but I would happily do it for minimum wage.. While I was there, 4 other applicants were applying for exactly the same position. Indeed, it is extraordinarily hard to find even the most unpleasant work. If I do not get any calls by 12 tomorrow, then it is off to Price Chopper for night shift.

Besides complaining, I have honestly done nothing else but go to every business in town asking for a job for the last month. Perhaps it is time to start my own business, but what to do? I could host poker games and take a 50% house cut, or I could put my dads lawnmower in the trunk and mow people's lawns, and demand that they pay me.. Perhaps sleeping on it would be a good plan.

You know what? It is time to talk about instruments. I would really like to own a serviceable mandolin. I got a new one for my birthday, but unfortunately it did not work too well at all. I am currently building a ukulele neck for it out of poplar. The result will eventually resemble something between a cumbus, a George Formby style banjolele and a Brazilian cavaco. At least that is the plan. My parents say that they will pay half the price of a new mandolin in exchange for the chores I am doing around the house but I will not accept this generous offer, though I have been looking around at the choices available. I am determined that my next machine will be a flat back because they are cheaper and easier to play, and I have zoomed in on three possible choices. One is made by a Mexican company called Paracho Elite, and is called the "Venice" model. It is relatively cheap, and from what I understand is also of reasonable quality. The second is made by the company Paris Swing and is called the "Nauges" model; Nauges after a song by Django Reinhardt, who's choice of guitar style this mandolin strongly emulates. It costs $500, and so buying it would cause me not to be able to drive anywhere. It also has quite a thin body, which would not produce the amount of volume I am looking for. The last choice is the Giannini GBSM1 Brazilian mandolin. It is made by the company Giannini, who have been making mandolins in Brazil since 1925. Brazilian mandolins show their European heritage by strongly emulating the Portuguese guitar used in Fado music. These mandolins have quite deep flat backs and long scales, and thus will produce more volume than my current ailing machine. Still, all this speculation is irrelevant until I find a job. I just wanted to talk about something else than finding one.

Pears, State and Panama

2008-06-11T21:31:00.003-04:00

Hey there. I made the mistake of leaving my mandolin in a car yesterday. As a result, the neck has become even more warped, and the top has started to bend under the weight of the strings.. It now feels even more dangerous than usual, and really would like to be replaced.. Unfortunately, though I currently have the funds to make this happen, I would not feel comfortable bleeding my account dry until I am gainfully employed..

Being unemployed has a certain vibration.. A sort of feeling in the back of your mind that constantly tells you that you are useless. This feeling is no doubt a result of evolution, and is there to encourage productivity and thus better circumstances.. I have not had a single callback this week, which is disappointing as I have put in well over 30 applications over the last 3 weeks.. I would very much like to have a job. How is it that on TV, people can go out in the morning looking for work and be employed by lunchtime?

Why is it that the most terrifying things are also the easiest to do? How is it that facts which support a theory automatically make the theory true, even when the facts are not? How is it that it is OK to wear a speedo to a public swimming pool, and not OK to buy coffee in the same garment? How is it that two things with no significance by themselves, are when brought together completely significant? How is it that you are right now able to give a face and a voice to lines, dots and dashes on a high tech piece of paper? why does it smells really good outside Subway but when you go up to the counter, it smells like a subway? Why is it that we say things when there is no reason for them to be said? Why did I write that crap?

C ya rownd..

Pride, Butterflies and the most expensive Carr on our lot.

2008-06-10T21:21:00.002-04:00

Hey there. I have one of those headaches that throbs, and I feel like there may be vomiting in the very near future. These symptoms tell me that exercise is bad.

To spare you from the usual ramble about my job search, I will just say that I had a very busy day indeed, and I am still unemployed.

As I was driving to pick Ian up from school, I had my good old AM radio blasting out the Rush Limbaugh program. It may have been loud, but I did have the windows open, and so the volume was necessary in order to fully comprehend my orders from the commander in chief of Operation Chaos. As I was sitting at the light at the top of court street, a car pulled up alongside me. The windows of this car were also open, and through them I could see a woman in her mid 40's who seemed to take offence at my choice of radio station. As the light turned green, she took off, and as she did, she shouted at me to "TURN OFF HATE RADIO!!!" Just in case I had not heard her properly, and I had, her car confirmed her words with the help of a bumper sticker displaying the above slogan.. I however did not turn off hate radio, and got to hear an ad for a job I had applied for this morning. Just in case you are wondering, I am not a devoted follower of Rush Limbaugh, but I happen to prefer his broadcast over the competition..

I just realised that I have forgotten to call Herr Doktor Vickery in order to rehearse Land of Hope and Glory with him this evening. Oh well. Playing too much music in this level of humidity causes strings to become sticky and rusty rather quickly, making playing uncomfortable and uninspiring. I do not enjoy sweating. However sweat does cause me to smell even better than I usually do. It is peculiar, because the opposite effect is true for most people.

After reading the two works of Jerome K. Jerome that are most highly acclaimed by history, I do not know what to tackle next. What to do? I have no idea of what direction in which to go. I could print out everything I have ever posted on this page and make it into a book for my own consumption.. However, I would have an unfair advantage as to where the story is going, and paper is gross.

So I am thinking about signing up for a spot at Fritz's open mic night.. Just my ukulele and I.. The proverbial duo of man and machine brought together through shear necessity.. The lonely wandering minstrel.. The man with the mandolino.. El Mariachi.. The Pied piper, only instead of stealing children, I get will everyone in the place to follow me across the street to Cheshire music to purchase new ukulele's.

And what could make you more comfortable than talking about Jesus?.. it seems that every religion or really any collective group for that matter, has some form of a coming of age ceremony. When I was 8, I did not want mine. I hated having to go to school on top of the school I was already required to go to, just to read stories about some dead magic guy who for some reason wanted me to drink his blood. It seemed stupid and pointless. At that time, I could not have cared less about being a Catholic. Why was I different than everyone who I went to school with?.. My brother had a similar experience, and when it was my sisters turn, my parents gave up. They decided that it would be her choice, and of course she chose like any 8 yr old with just a touch of self interest in mind. It is quite odd.. My sister now goes to a school where Unitarianism is the religion taught. She just had her schools version of a coming of age ceremony, where her class was taken to the Unitarian Church, and she was dubbed "Sir Hannahlot" with a wooden sword by her teacher. It just seems a little odd. It is not that I have anything against Unitarian Universalism, which by the way is a NH original.. It is probably more that I am annoyed, and a little jealous that she did not have to suffer through boring theological classes like I did. I don't know.. Is there something to be said for letting children choose their religious orientation? I know I came to mine later than many of my fellow Catholics not because my parents told me to, but because I thought that it was the right decision for me. Should it be a decision you make in adulthood, or is it the duty of your parents to impress a certain moral code into you? Does it infringe on parents rights to answer no to that question? I know that one of the conditions for marriage amongst those who follow the teachings of Cathol is that you must raise any children you might have to share your beliefs. Is such a promise incompatible with 21st century thought?

YAY!!! It started raining.

Toilet paper, Sweat and Cato

2008-06-09T22:27:00.002-04:00

Hey. Today I would like to talk to you about toilet paper.

I have been lucky enough to visit Europe a few times. One summer, my family and I visited France for 2 weeks. We lived in a tent on a campsite with a lot of very red Irish people (They do not tan well at all) as well as some English, French, Germans, Spanish, Canadians and Moroccans. It was on the whole a very nice trip, and something that my family found very funny were the various attitudes among the different nationalities with regards to toilet paper. The campsite had 1 unisex block of toilets for about 500 people. When I say toilets, I do not mean the form of toilet you are accustomed to; i.e. with a seat.. No, these toilets were simply holes in the floor with concrete footprints on either side for the sake of accuracy.. These fine facilities, which failed to meet the approval of any of the 5 senses obviously considered themselves above the new stringent EU hygiene regulations, did not feel the need to provide toilet paper. It was therefor necessary to for anyone wishing to uses the facilities to walk through the entire camp carrying hygiene equipment.

The English were the funniest. They without fail would traverse the path to their destination head down, and sheepishly carrying the roll beneath a towel. The Irish were different and seemed almost proud. The Canadians were a lot like the English, only less red and the continentals did not care at all.

In case you are wondering, I did not spend all, or even a few minutes of my time watching people perform bodily functions. It is just funny to see red faced, towel clad Englanders walk as quickly as possible without drawing attention to themselves through a group of drunk and taunting Moroccans, or an Irelander lifting two rolls on a stick like barbells. The reason for this brief essay is for the consideration of anyone who would suggest that there is no such thing as national character.

Today I had a busy day. It started out with a look through an index of the saints and a prayer to St. Joe for help finding work. I was then about to leave the house when I got a call from the window framing company I had applied to weeks ago informing me that I did not have the job. At least it was nice of them to let me know. I left the house and made my way to Keene State to ask the grounds department if they had any jobs. The guy told me no, but asked if I had any sort of a manual labor background and if I was a KSC student. I answered yes on both counts, and mentioned that Nate Hardy had told me to ask him. He said that he had something for me in the fall, which was nice, only now is not the fall at all. Not to be put off from my search, I made my way to main street. I applied to be a sandwich artist at Subway, which is a good job for me because I did not know that anyone else but me considered putting meat and cheese on bread an art. I also got an application for Corner News. I was told to come in tomorrow at around 11 to give my application to the boss and have a little interview.

After all of that fun activity, I returned home. An hour later, I resumed my search. I went back to the NH Dept. of Employment Security in the hopes that they could help me. When I entered the building, I encountered one of the members of my Catholic music group who evidently now works there. He gave me five sheets of paper with numbers of people to call. All but one turned out to be no good.. The one that was good was also odd.. It was odd because as I called the number, I could hear a phone go off behind me. When I turned around, I noticed that the sound was coming from Bentley's Roast Beef.. I had not even noticed it before. I applied, and the heavily accented and gold wearing boss told me he would get back to me. If he does, perhaps I should wear more gold to the interview as all the employees I saw appeared to heavily adorned with graven gold imagery.

Too long? Perhaps.. See ya.

Seatbelts, Burgers and Monroe

2008-06-08T23:51:00.002-04:00

Hey there, it is nice to see you and I really mean it. I would like to welcome my new regular readers, as well as show some appreciation for my older ones.

Tomorrow my Brother is graduating from high school. It seems weird.. I am glad I never worked hard enough to graduate before 18, because I am grateful for the years I got to spend stewing around with people my own age in a captive environment, but to each his own.

It is pretty damn hot.. I would be very grateful for air conditioning right now, but the fan stuck in the window will have to suffice. At least I have Gold Bond medicated powder.. It is truly awesome stuff; a veritable panacea for all the socially awkward itches the summer has to throw at you.

Today I played bluegrass with Chris and his dad. It was awesome. I learned a lot about how I am not very good at the mandolin. The kind of music I play with the old folks is usually very slow, or at least with a melody that I can quickly pick up.. If I can't, there are so many people playing other instruments that I can just fake it. Bluegrass with 3 people is different. There is nowhere to hide, and blindingly fast bluegrass solos are not as easily picked up as I had supposed. Also my mandolin is not reacting well to the recent humidity and has become even harder to play, not to mention that even in perfect condition it would not be at all suitable for the bluegrass style... I gave it a fair shot, as well as learning something very important to bluegrass called the chop. The chop is when you strike the muted strings of the mandolin to get a percussive sound. It is awesome, because even if you do not know any mandolin chords, you can still sound good.

Strangely enough, my ukulele has become a lot easier to play. This is probably because in Hawaii, they get to enjoy more warm weather than we do, and so Hawaiian instruments are built with this in mind..

I feel I must apologize for my overuse of the word moonbat in my previous post. When you are awake for too long and are spending time with people who think that a paperless cigarette would be the best invention since sliced bread, every word Howie Carr may choose to utter becomes pure gold. The easy way to remedy this is by finding new friends and listening to NPR... However I am shy and I happen to strongly dislike NPR... Apart from this story about a Jewish guy who was not allowed to write his name, because it is blasphemy to use any of the 72 names of God lightly.. Is God one of the names of God?

Well here we are.. Near the end of a very painful post.. I cooked ribs for 8 hours today, which were awesome.. It was hard to regulate the heat of the charcoal because of the humidity.. But that is another story for Tony's fine recipe book.

Stay tuned, and be ready for my next update... Hmm, that kind of sounds like genocidal the radio guy from Hotel Rwanda.. Not cool dude..

O, Mores and Tempora

2008-06-07T23:04:00.002-04:00

Hey there. In this post, I will put in parentheses any word which this spell checker thinks it has a better option for. I don't know why.

After purchasing my new cycling machine and finding that the chain was broken after 3 days, I endeavored (devoured) to fix it. It subsequently (subserviently) broke in 2 more places, which was annoying and slightly painful.

So it would seem that you cannot tar all moonbats (moon boats) with the same brush.. Actually tar contains chemicals which can harm the environment, so that is not perhaps the best metaphor to use. The reason that I say this is because upon the return of our fully qualified veterinary technician, somehow his discussion with my mother turned to politics.. I don't know, but it is my opinion that you should probably not discuss politics with someone who is about to pay you and has the opportunity to not do so.. It turns out that his political idols are in chronological order Thomas Jefferson, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Did you know that being a homeopathic (Homo)con artist does not automatically make you think that Dennis Kucinich (Conch) should be president of the universe? Also, I fully expected him to drive a prius (Paris) or Subaru outback, but I was again surprised to discover that he is the owner of a very large American Ford escape..

Have you ever thought about growing a beard so long that you could use it as a towel? Neither have I.

Tomorrow after my religious obligations are completed, I am going to go to the store to buy ribs, which will then sit in a garbage can with charcoal for 8 hours.. I have the the perfect rib formula. While the pork smolders away, I am going to jam mandolin with Chris and his dad's bluegrass band, which should be pretty cool..

I have a feeling that next week will be my last as a lazy 19yr old who sits on the couch all day. Dude, I am so old. I am preparing for my website technician interview, by going through all my experiences with computers, and trying to make watching Youtube (Tobe) videos sound professional. All I could come up with was my Internship at a country station, this blog, my high school computer use, and also stretching the truth by saying that my dad taught me everything he knows about computers. Wow, I just found ketchup in my elbow.. Is that weird?

Spongebonbon, Ukulebricklae and Moonbatten

2008-06-06T23:02:00.005-04:00

Oh hey there. It is now very early on a Saturday morning, and I am sitting here at a computer. I just uploaded videos of myself playing ukulele, but they did not seem to work properly.

I met up with Amber today, and she told me that I will be getting a call next week.. Amber is slowly taking over the Cheshire Horse. I also applied for some night hours at Dunkin Donuts.. Dude, I want 2 jobs.

Other businesses applied to today:
. Hannafords
. Joann Fabrics
. Bergeron Construction
. Nieghbors

What to do? I seem to be feeling far too tired to purposely write anything interesting, and so whatever comes next is likely to be accidental.

Well here I am. There is nothing left to do before I go to sleep, so now I am at the point where I am watching Looney Tunes and re-reading the texts and emails that I got today. I love these old cartoons. Haha, awesome!! Daffy just entered a yard full of dogs on a swing and said swing just returned Daffyless.. Wow.. I am tired. Have you ever tried to sing in front of a semi serious crowd and forgotten what song you were singing halfway through? I have.. In connection with this, have you ever wondered why so many Irish songs have semi gibberish lyrics? This Irish invention is called "lilting", and arose from the very same scenario I just described. Did you know that ukuleles are not Hawaiian? It is true. The Ukulele is basically a Portuguese instrument called the braguinha, which was brought to the Hawaiian Empire in the 1850's by the Portuguese immigrants who cut sugar cane all day.. Clearly being too busy with sugar to play music, the Hawiians took over the portuguese instruments and adapted them to their traditional music.

I have come to the conclusion that I do not very much enjoy talking about myself.. It is odd, but when there is nothing else to explore literarily, one often finds the easiest subject matter close to home. With that in mind, I would like to explore what you have read of my fine work up to this point..

It seems that a lot of what I have written about lately is my difficulty in securing gainful employment. It has been a long long search, and hopefully it is nearly over as the law of averages should start kicking in this weekend.

I also have been writing about politics.. It seems odd to me that while having the freedom to write about almost anything, I would choose something that I hate talking about..

Well.. That is all I can think of without reading past posts.. Something that I really think I have done a good job at is not making you feel too uncomfortable. Apart from body hair and powdering my testicles with Gold Bond, I really do not think I have been too awkward. I know some of you who read this have a strong dislike of religion, and others are inclined towards being right. From what I can remember, I have covered my own religious experiences in a laid back NPR sort of way.. I could write a religious blog if I wanted to, but I do not wish to do so. I would prefer a ukulele blog with religious elements.. Ukuleles.. Buy one today; you know you want to!!!

Original, Polish and Acapulco

2008-06-06T00:13:00.002-04:00

Whatever disappointment I may feel from not having had a single call from any employers this week, I do still feel quite optimistic.

Something weird about religion and politics is that if you know nothing about someone but their religious and political affiliations, you can already decide who they are before you have any contact with them.. Your judgment may in some cases be very accurate, and other times it may not.. What I find weird about these two subjects is their diversity; just as in race, in my opinion more variation exists between members of the same religion than between different ones.. Also in politics there seems to be more difference of opinion within one major political party than between parties..

I do not wish to elaborate further, but I think it is fascinating.

I just watched the Karate Kid 2.. Having never seen the Karate Kid 1, I felt slightly disadvantaged.. It was a weird movie.. Did you know that the 80's happened years ago?

On my way to pick up an application for a medical parts assembly job, I listened to Howie Carr on the WRKO radio network. Today the Cap'n as he is know by may affectionate listeners was talking about the "moonbat" community of Arlington MA, who's state rep. just got busted in Lowell for attempted sexual assault. After I got home and filled out the application, I endeavored to find out what a trust fund is and if I have one.. It turns out that I don't, and that my parents are in no mind of letting me have one. Wouldn't it be cool to never have to work? No, not really...

I would like to talk about my work ethic, and possible lack thereof.. I technically do not need to work right now.. My dad can afford to put me through college. However, I would not like him to do this by himself. I think that one of the most important steps in becoming an adult is taking responsibility for what you spend, and what is spent for you. Something I like more than sitting on my ass doing nothing, is the feeling that I have earned the right to do so after a day of hard work. I like doing unpaid jobs around the Casey compound, because it makes me feel that in some small way I am doing my part. I am very fortunate to have a father who thanks to this great country became, and is becoming quite well off. I however do not feel entitled to any part of his good fortune.. I am a firm believer in making your own way in the world, and that is why I would like to start channeling my future income into my education. These may seem like slightly hypocritical statements coming from someone who spends far too much time spent slumped in front of a 40 inch flat screen TV, but I am sincere. I just wish someone would hire me very soon so that I do not become a moonbat by default through my own laziness and hypocrisy.

Music.. I am going over to the Vickery compound to play bluegrass with Chris and his dad tomorrow evening. I have recently taken a liking to the genre. I also like playing mandolin.. Speaking of mandolin, my catholic group recently lost our young Kenyan to higher education, leaving two of us under 50. We will soon also be losing our young flute player (I have never, and will never say flautist) to the same cause. That must make our average age somewhere between 48 and 50. Also I have been asked to play the English patriotic hymn Land of Hope and Glory on ukulele at my brother's graduation.. How did a song about building the new Jerusalem in London become the last piece of music students hear before they are thrown into the world?

C ya..

Rice, Peaches and Karizmah...

2008-06-05T00:14:00.002-04:00

Hey there. I am sick of politics.. I can't stand watching election coverage, and yet I have been doing it anyway. Why do I do it? Perhaps it is because I like to feel part of something bigger than myself, or perhaps it is because I am scared of what could happen to this country..

Is higher education good? Is the trend that it has taken over the last 50 years actually helped people discover who they are, and who others are, or has it served to eradicate the existence of rational thought, and the inability to discriminate between good ideas and bad ideas? Probably not.. I think a lot of people against higher education underestimate both the intelligence of some and the stupidity of others. Not all who go to college come out as doctors, lawyers, teachers and scientists, and not all come out as flag burning PETA supporters who faint at political rallies.

Do minimum wage laws make sense? If you could only afford to hire 20 people for 7 an hour each, but then someone told you that you had to give those same people 10, what would you do? Obviously you would have to let the least skilled go, and keep those who you could not do without.. How does this help the most vulnerable in our society? It does stabilize their status............. As permanently unemployed.

Do progressive taxes make sense? Say you were that boss formerly of 20 people and now 10, and you were doing fairly well; now suppose some socialist told you that you would have to shoulder your "fair share".... What would you do? You would of course have to pay your employees less, which you could not do because of minimum wage laws, so you would again have to fire those who were not absolutely central to your business.. Good job socialists, now you have 5 more people out on the street who now have to live off programs funded by an ever shortening supply of tax payers....

Governments are funny, because they do not work by supply and demand.. If a government does not have a demand for something that it supplies, it will raise its price to generate more revenue... How can governments running anything be a good idea? If people stop using stamps, then the price will dramatically rise until no one can afford to buy stamps.. Does anyone buy stamps anymore? Why do governments live outside simple Tony economics?

I feel I must apologize for more unimformed political ranting.. It is late and I am very tired and I spent the last half hour trying to think of crappy analogies for my minimum wage story.. I hate things that seem like something interesting to write about, and turn into what looks like a script from the Rush Limbaugh Program.

So I am considering volunteer work, because as no one seems to want to hire me why not work for free? If you know of anywhere that may be looking for portly gentlemen looking to help out with some worthy cause, you should let me know..

Fission, 8 ball and Maple

2008-06-04T10:27:00.002-04:00

So here I sit; pantless and trying to figure out yet again how to do my cuffs up inside out. The absence of pants is not a problem, because I can see them just beyond the reach of my arm. My shirt also poses no serious threat, and will no doubt soon be properly affixed to my person. I am thinking of what below in the kitchen would make a decent breakfast... Possibly some form of cereal, or maybe something more dangerous, such as steak.

Yesterday, a few things happened.. I went down to main street and acted like a fool; A big one...It was fun, but not productive in any foreseeable way. After this, I made my way over to Monadnock to apply for a janitorial position with the district..Which I did, before returning home and looking at newspapers.. I noticed an ad for a website technician at the Cheshire Horse, and even though I know that I will no doubt be the least qualified person to apply, it was still a good excuse to visit my good buddy Amber at work. I filled out an application and give it in, and Amber helped me out by telling her boss that I was awesome. I then dropped off my application at Neighbors.

After that, I took the sister out bike riding.. Halfway between downtown Keene and our house, my chain snapped.. I don't mean twisted/came off/ bent/ got stuck; it simply snapped clean in twain. The long walk back home was not something I had anticipated, yet I bore the inconvenience with great fortitude.

I ended up falling asleep very early, and so I failed to post.. Stay tuned this evening.

$$$, Shropshire, Dowsing

2008-06-02T20:48:00.002-04:00

How are you over there?

Today I applied to CNS Wholesale Grocers, Borders, IParty and the Sentinel. Incidentally, CNS was the name of the bus company that used to take me to school. The Borders application was weird. I had to take a 25 page multiple choice survey about myself... My likes and dislikes, and whether or not I would swear violently at customers.

I spent some time today driving to Home Depot to buy lumber. I then promptly returned it when I found out that it was not pressure treated. Did you know pressure treated wood is heavier than its organic counterpart? I also bought a piece of poplar to make a neck for my cumbus uke.

Today was not the sort of day that I can't get excited about. Apart from applying for jobs and and waiting for people from those jobs to call me, I really did nothing apart from ride down to the country club, and then to the gas station on my shiny new machine....

As both the protagonist and the author of this publication, I feel that it is my duty as both to engage in life in a more inspirational way.. As the author I owe it, because you my readers who have remained faithful up to this point will not be so for much longer if I continue to write about such mundane things as applying for jobs and Germans. As the protagonist, I owe myself more than either sleeping till noon, or spending time with those who seek to influence my behavior in a way that my principles dictate is not positive. To remedy both problems, tomorrow I am going to go out and do something stupid for you and something positive for me, because as Chesterton said "A good novel (blog) tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel (blog) tells us the truth about its author. " My mission is now to write a better story for both of us. Thus, I am going to attempt to be both a good and bad author.

Today I saw a few episodes of Penn and Teller's "Bullshit." It was awesome.. They were all about alternative medicine, new age stuff, tartaric sex, chiropractors, yoga, religion, pet love, environmentalism.. The show explained how each of the proceeding subjects fit the shows title, and while I did not agree with a good deal of what they said, I did see a lot of people who looked and spoke like the friend we met in a recent post.

I must seriously question the subject of alternative medicine. If it worked, why would it not be mainstream? Is it really because the evil corporations want to keep us dependent on their products? I doubt it, because in a capitalist society that really would not make sense.. I understand the placebo effect quite well.. I remember some of my friends and I giving heavily watered down beer to someone who did not, yet should have know better, and telling him that it was vodka.. The behavioral changes which took place in him were remarkable to say the least. The mind is quite a powerful device, if used correctly.. However, and not to overuse subject of the good doctor who came to see us, but I do not understand how the placebo effect/Homeopathic medicine could possible work on an animal.. Animals do not think, and thus are quite incapable of being cured with a pogo stick and a radio antenna... The answer must therefor be that it does not work, and that the positive effect is transferred to the owner of the animal.. Basically, people who practice this form of medicine are praying on the affection someone feels for an animal in their care. Perhaps these Doktors do not do it intentionally, and are firm believers in their methods... Still, bullshit is bullshit.

Well, thank you for reading my most profanity laced post ever. Please stay tuned for more.. Posts that is.

Epiphone, Price and Nails

2008-06-01T20:36:00.003-04:00

Today I woke up at 7 and 8, put on my church pants and went to church. Most of my group were not there, but it all worked out. After church, I got several compliments on my mandolin playing. It was awkward, because attention is not the reason I play, and I am not trying to distract people from what they otherwise would be doing in a church situation.

When I got home, I took off my church pants and went back to bed. An hour or so later, I woke up and finished reading Three Men on the Bummel. One of the last chapters was interesting, and displayed one of the more peculiar remnants of Prussian culture. What I am talking about is the German mensur. A mensur is when a group of young Germans get together and fight with swords. The goal of a mensur is to show your character by not reacting to pain. For a mensur to take place, two Germans stand face to face and attempt to scar the face of the other. There is no winner or loser, but apparently the one with the most cuts is a hero.. Also, did you know that German females are greatly attracted to excessive facial lacerations? This apparently still happens today.

At 1, I drove over the Chris Vickery's house to play music. Chris played stand up bass, and I played mandolin. The result was actually very nice, but there was a lot of empty space between the bass and the mandolin.. There needs to be a guitarist to fill out the sound.

I also rode the bike.

And watched TV.. and built a deck..

And checked how many views I have on Youtube..

And ate dinner, which was delicious.

And drove to Troy.

I also got pretty board, and read a lot..

Cycling, Hats and Grains

2008-05-31T23:06:00.002-04:00

Hey there... I love Saturdays. Saturday is the day of the week where I can stay in bed, or just sit on my ass all day if I so choose. Today I ended up staying in bed until 11. Have you ever noticed that when you see or hear about something interesting going on outside and you want to join in but are still in bed, you are confronted with a horrible quandary? You can either ignore the potential disruption to your morning and drift peacefully into the quality of sleep that only a Saturday can provide, or you can embrace the world and all it's trials, tribulations and leftover Indian food.... Whatever.

So today I bought a bike. I have not had one since we lived in England, and buying a new one had never occurred to me. I now have less money to buy orange soda and gas with, but hopefully a bike and the potential exercise that goes along with it will offset the loss.

I think now would be a good time to talk to you about my first cycling experience. I was 6, or possibly 7 when I got my first bike. My mom took me to the food Co-op in Newton New Jersey to pick one out. As I remember, there were two bikes present that day, one an old racing bike and the other a small BMX. I chose the BMX, and spent the better part of 2 days on the road in front of our house trying to stay on the wretched thing for more than 5 seconds (no training wheels.. I was the first, and thus the experiment child.) The bike was quite old, and the handlebars were rusty. The brake had also seen better days, and was of the kind that had to be operated by pedaling backwards. By the third day, I was comfortable on the thing and riding up and down the road with my friends. On the fourth day, I started getting cocky. Near where we lived was a road. It was very steep, and the only other thing I can remember about it was my dad's friend skiing down it, and turning head over heels into a snow bank. I took the bike to the top of this road... Cohocton I think it was called.. It was a residential area, and so the road was not very busy. I gently eased the bike over the top, and 10 seconds later I found my face in the asphalt covered in blood.. My blood. Crying, my bike and I were returned to my house by a neighbor. (I don't blame the bike for crying, it got hurt pretty bad too.) The point is that I couldn't eat solid food for a while, and that my dad made me ride the bike the next day for hours so I wouldn't be scared of it.

Well, That is just about all I feel like writing.. C ya pal..

Honey, Clorox and Dust

2008-05-30T23:06:00.003-04:00

Hey there, nice to have you.

Today after driving my brother to school, I came home and using a web cam I gave English people a tour of where I live. Web cams are awesome. My friends were surprised, not only because the wall behind me looks like it was air lifted straight out of a Latin American church, but because nearly everything in England is very small. Our old house could have fit into this one 3 times. After this, I saw an ad in the sentinel asking for someone to do some maintenance work at Audrey's Cafe in Dublin. I drove out there, only to find that the position had already been filled, which was disappointing.

When I got home, I watched something about the history of the banjo, which was very interesting. I learned a lot of where the instrument came from and how musicians specializing in it's use were highly prized as slaves because they were forced to perform on slave ships to provide music for the crew, and also for the unwilling passengers so they could dance, and thus not have their legs rot away.. What a painful history for such a happy sounding instrument.

After I had lunch, I got a call from Syd's Carpet and Snooze Room asking me to come in for an interview. After I had collected my brother and dropped him off at a violin lesson, I made my way over to Syd's. When I arrived, I saw someone I had hardly expected to see in person of the kindly old gas station attendant with whom I had held extensive conversations about the merits of fiscal conservatism when paying for gas. He is now working for Syd's, and even though I do not know him well, I heard him putting in a good word for me with his boss. My interview was short, and went quite well. I was impressed with the pay I possibly may soon be receiving, and also with the quite gentle 45 hour week. I was disheartened, and yet made proud by something my interviewer said. He told me that over 40 people had applied for the job I want, and that I was one of the 4 whom he had selected for an interview.. I should know by Tuesday if I have the job or not. Quite frankly I am not that hopeful.

After I left Syd's, I called Chris Vickery and set up a practice.. It should be awesome, and complete with ukuleles and stand up basses. We are now going to go in a more acoustic direction, because amps are heavy and inconvenient, and drummers are unreliable and iMON. I also like mandolins and ukuleles.

When I got home, I started trying to learn the claw hammer/Pete Seeger (this crappy spell-checker thinks I spelled Seeger wrong) style of banjo playing on my ukulele. You will no doubt be seeing some of that go on youtube soon.

Well, at least if I do not get my flooring job, I will have the distinct pleasure of seeing our fully qualified and licenced vet visit next week. Who ever heard of a vet making house calls?

Enjoy your weekend.. I know I will.

Periodic table, Concrete and Wheels

2008-05-29T20:35:00.002-04:00

Hey there, nice to see you.

Today was not bad. I woke up at 7 and drove Ian to school. When I got home, the vet was at our house to see the dog who has had a weird lump coming out of her face recently. The vet was a homeopathic vet. In case you did not know, a homeopath is someone who hates real medicine, and is content to use natural remedies that my distant ancestors would have been comfortable with. You may find the following narrative somewhat hard to believe, but I swear on all that I hold dear that it is perfectly true.

It turned out that the odd lump on the face of the dog was actually a huge tick, which was soon removed with the help of tweezers. When the vet had performed this function, the fun began. My father and I watched in amazement as our guest took a magnetic divining rod from it's case, and ran it all over our animal. He then asked my mom to sign a waver, which she happily did. After this formality was completed, he told us that he had the special skill of being able to diagnose any medical problem with his shiny rod, and to prove his point, he asked my father to stand up straight and submit to his medieval examination technique. He ran the rod all over my father, and his diagnosis was frequent neck pains. When my father announced that his neck was just about the only place on his body that did not give him frequent pains, our guest suggested that it might actually be his upper back. He however made no mention of the lime decease that has left my father with appalling pain in both his knees and feet. He then took out a device that looked like a miniature pogo stick, and danced it up and down our now terrified animal's back, before announcing that he had readjusted her spine to a position that she would no doubt find more favorable. Just to be sure, he then produced an instrument which appeared to be a modified power drill. He proudly announced that it was a German device... I did not doubt this, as it did bear a resemblance to something the gestapo might have used against members of the French Resistance. He proceeded to rub said device against the dog in much the same manner as he had used the pogo stick.

After a while, he prescribed flax seed oil.. Just to be sure, he again used the divining rod by placing it on the dog's neck, along with a bottle of flax seed oil to see if it was indeed the correct medication... At my mother's insistence, I had not said a word but, I had up until this point had a great amount of trouble hiding my skepticism, but now our guest had cottoned on to my true feelings, n0 doubt given away by my skeptical scowls. Noting this, he endeavored to prove to me that his methods were not "hocus pocus." He took a tub of Mod Podge that my sister had left lying around from a school project, and used the same method as he had done with the flax seed oil. Apparently Mod Podge did not meet with out discerning animal's approval, and so I was proved wrong.... Then again if his attempts to misdirect us from his obvious manipulation of the rod were anything to go by, I may have not been so wrong..

His fees were $50 dollars for the whole morning, but my father would have gladly payed more for the entertainment, as it will no doubt bring a smile to our collective faces for years to come.

I spent the rest of the day either driving to Home Depot to buy cement, or mixing the cement I had bought. It was a type of hard work that I have come to enjoy, and I am now quite exhausted.

I have still had no calls from any of the businesses I applied to, but I am still hopeful. I may have a card up my sleeve that I am saving for such a time as this, that you will no doubt get to hear about.

I also made a video of myself playing ukulele. Check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRAt2JC0gFM You have probably heard the song, but I wanted to do something I am very comfortable with.. One take dude..

Some other other cool stuff happened today, but I think I gave you quite enough content for one evening. C ya

Lamp, Fly and Shiny..

2008-05-28T21:01:00.002-04:00

How is everybody. I just discovered that this computer has a built in web cam, so if I wanted I could do a video blog instead, but why break with a 2 and a half month tradition? When I get my own computer, I will make video blogs everyday.

Today I woke up early and took Ian to school. When I got home, I sat around watching TV until my dad asked for some assistance. He had recently returned from Home Depot with a rented auger for digging holes for the purpose of supporting our new deck. The machine was quite fearsome, and had the habit of violently twisting ones arms.

We had to dig 8 holes, each of them 4 feet deep. If you did not already know, digging more than a 4 inch hole anywhere in our great state will inevitably lead to you becoming the owner of a rock or two. Digging, even with the powerful Archimedes screw proved almost impossible and I have never moved so many boulders in one morning. Eventually we had 2 holes that measured 4 feet deep, and 6 that measured between 1 1/2 to 2 1/2. Needless to say, it was exhausting work.

When I got home, I opened up Three Men on the Bummel. I eventually came to a chapter that dealt with the German national character, which was very funny, especially since these pre WWII stereotypes are quite different from those I learned.. Jerome would probably not be so accepted in our time period as he was in his own, because not only would he be dead but he would have the habit of offending our modern ideas of decency. He uses anecdotes about "The nigger in Deacon Abraham's poultry yard" and "The Rich German merchant and his fat placid Frau." Never the less, I am very much enjoying the book, and I would recommend it to anyone... Really, I would. Especially the parts where he describes learning foriegn languages, and how English will be the language of the world. I also spilled coffee on it, which gives it an aged and intelligent look.

I just got done with my Catholic music practice, which went quite well. We also got leftover sherbet. Awesome.

It is now time for me to finish my book, and go to sleep so I can get up very early.. I am going to try for 5:30. C ya then.

Teeth, Apple sauce and Rabbits

2008-05-28T16:43:00.002-04:00

Sorry I am a day late. I wrote what you are about to read last night and you will soon find out why. I am now borrowing the laptop my dad uses to semi-legally watch British TV.

"Oh hey, hope everything is just peachy.

Today I awoke around 5, and then again at 7. Of late I have found it near impossible to hear my alarm go off in the mornings without some sort of amplification device, so now I have to wake up twice just incase. At 8, I left for an interview with the company Window Master in Dublin. My interview was at 9:30, but I decided that it would be a good idea to leave incredibly early just to make sure I would be on time, and so I could stop for coffee.

I arrived in down town Dublin at 8:30, which meant that after my coffee, I sat in a gas stations parking lot for 45 minutes listening to Opie and Anthony and the Dubliners. I did not particularly enjoy this. I know a few people who would happily perform all of the functions of life sitting in a driver’s seat, but for me this would get a little tedious, if not disgusting.

I arrived for my interview 10 minutes early and filled out an application. It was a very lengthy one, and not the sort of application I enjoy although to be fair there are very few which meet with my approval. After I had completed said application, I had a short interview. It went quite well, although I could tell that he had already made the subconscious decision not to hire me.

I soon drove back to Keene, and made my way over to Syd’s Carpet and Snooze Room to see if someone had reviewed my application yet. It appeared that no one had, but they made a note of my continued interest, and promised that mine would be one of the first ones looked at.

The rest of the day went as usual, with plenty of music. Also, the computer I usually use to compose these literary gems all of a sudden ceased to function. Completely.. It was a laptop my dad sometimes uses, but as I and my sister do not have computers, it is usually us that occupy it.

I am now on my moms computer.. It is awesome; the screen is like huge dude.

Well, C yha pal.."

Memorial, Blitz and Dance

2008-05-26T21:15:00.002-04:00

How are you?

Today was memorial day. I woke up at 11, and found that my dad was back from New Jersey. He brought us New Jersey bread, which was delicious. For brunch, I had a butter sandwich. You see if you have really good bread, all you need on it is butter.

I ended up falling asleep outside with my ukulele. It was relaxing, but I woke up with bugs in my nose, which is never nice. After this, I went out bike riding with my sister. I don't have a bike, so I rode my mom's. That's right, I rode around Keene on a girls bike.

When I got home, I started the BBQ. I worked over it diligently for the next 2 hours cooking various delicious things. After dinner, which went on for a long time, my brother and I went to Surry dam to walk the dog and when we got home we watched a TV show with the family about food during the Blitz in England.

Here I am at the computer and trying to think of something interesting to tell you, which I seem unable to do. The only thing I can think of is a group I recently heard of called Drive55. Their goal is to lower the speed limit on interstates to 55. I think this is absolutely ridiculous.. If you want to conserve gas by driving slower, then why not do it and encourage others to do the same. Waving the power of the Federal government at anyone who disagrees with your brand of environmentalism is ridiculous. You are now legally able to drive 55, however annoying it can be when you make someone late for an airport pickup, or a hospital visit.. I guess this is just personal opinion and not constitutionally based, but I really hate that mindset. Right now, the only way I can think of that the Federal government has been used in this way for good is with the Civil Rights Act. There are probably others.... I honestly would not be annoyed by this organization if they did not stand for the very same use of government that will inevitably lead to the further reduction of personal freedom... That is about all.. Goodnight.

Bigrock, Candy and Mountain

2008-05-25T21:19:00.002-04:00

Oh hey, today was very nice and had weather to match.

This morning I was not sure I would be able to get up at 8, so I ended up making a sort of amplifier out of soda cans for my alarm clock/ phone. It worked, which was good.

I went to church to do catholic things and play music with my group. Everything worked out well. After church, my group found out that it was our Kenyan's last day playing with us, because she is going to take summer courses in New York. There was lots of hugging and she gave some of us little African evil eye charms, which was very nice. I got a tiny little figure that I would not like to come across by accident during a thunderstorm.

I went home and decided that I was churched out enough for one day, and so I did not join the Corpus Christi procession around central square. I did eat some leftovers and strummed the ukulele.

I don't mean to complain too much about my current mandolin, but it really is starting to hurt when I play. I have been playing different mandolins around Keene, but I have not seen anything that matches up to what I have heard/seen about the Giannini GBSM1. I would have to order the thing online, which is never the best of ideas but I have found a reputable dealer who will set it up properly before shipping.

Around 1, I got a call from Surry United telling me to play ball. I collected my brother, and we made our way to KSC to find only Nate Hardy and Patrick White present. As there were only four of us, we just kicked the ball around informally for a while. More people are needed if any real fun is to be had.

When I got home, I found that I would have to cook dinner. I just ended up just chopping up some leftover pork chops and frying them with vegetables, ramen noodles, soy sauce and honey.. It was better than it sounds.

Here I am again. I have nothing to do for the next few hours apart from sleep and read, which I probably will. Stick around to find out how that goes..

Oh, by the way, I gave up on Three Men in a Boat, at least until a later time and I have moved to Three Men on the Bummel.. I don't know what a bummel is, but the book is also by Jerome K. Jerome and it is about a bike trip through the last days of the Kaiser's Germany. It is interesting for me to read about this time period, because I have always been taught by my history teachers and family that Germany was a bad place, and that Germans were never to be trusted. What I mean by this is that people often forget that Germany was just another country before it became the personification of evil.

Also, did you know that the guy who wrote so many songs that are now considered Irish Trad. Was a Newhampshirite? Tommy Makem moved to Dover in 1955 and played at Governor Lynch's inauguration. Wow, maybe by moving to New Hampshire in 2005, I can be an awesome songwriter too.

Well, c ya.

Dicey Reilly, Perks and Roving

2008-05-24T21:23:00.002-04:00

Hey...

Today I got up and played music. Around 12, I took Ian to the fields at KSC to meet Ed. I also called up various members of Surry Utd. To let them know that football would be happening. I then made my way to the bank to do bank stuff, and ran into Chris O'Connor's grandparents. I asked them about the O'C, and we had a brief conversation. Chris's Grandmother said that she was exhausted from the visit from one of Chris's friends who you probably know, and that she deserved a very expensive lunch.

After bank stuff was completed, I went over to play some ball. 8 of us turned up, and had a very exhausting and violent game. Gangly Nate Hardy hit me so hard in the shin that it still hurts when my jeans move. I managed to score some goals, and sent someone sprawling flat on their back. Ed was as amazing at the game as he always was, and Ian was much better. I now have three developing and painful bruises and quite the headache.

After this, we stopped at CVS to get drinks and ran into Patty Cressy, who is doing just fine. When I got home, I played more music outside and mowed the rest of our lawn.

Tonight I am going to go to bed at a reasonable hour, and get up at one also.. By one, I mean 8.

So it seems that I may be working very soon. Right now I have enough money in the account and cigar box to buy a suitable mandolin and still be able to indulge in Sunkist Orange Soda and $5 gas for a few more months. I am looking at purchasing a Giannini GBSM1 mandolin. It is a Brazilian mandolin, or bandolim as they choose to call it. They are pretty cheap for good mandolins, at around $220 but are made of quality materials and have 3 year warranties. I have also decided what to to with my cumbus. I am going to turn it into a Banjo ukulele, which just happen to be awesome things. I am going to build a new neck out of maple or mahogany, and attach it to the metal body with the already existing screw mechanism. I am looking forward to the project.

I also hope to have something more interesting to tell you very soon. Please do not stop visiting, and feel free to vote in my little pole if you have any complaints/ compliaments/urinary difficulties...

Antiseptic, Dunkin and Gravity

2008-05-23T22:37:00.002-04:00

Hey there..

Today I had a phone interview at 10 with a Dublin window installation firm. Apparently I am just the guy they are looking for, which is nice for a change, even if I have no intention of devoting 3 years of my life to windows.

I dropped Ian off at Monadnock this morning, and on my way back home I bought an ice coffee. I also listened to NPR and learned the correct pronunciation of Coos County, and that people in Coos County are leaving Coos County because there is not enough work to go around in Coos County.. Coos County.

Hmm.. I can't really remember much else, but it probably was not very important at all. I played lots of ukulele outside, which was fun as it usually is. I also stopped in to see Colline Dreyfuss, who has the laryngitis.

My family went out to eat tonight to celebrate my aunt's stay with us, and we ran into Nate Hardy on a date, which happened to be very funny.

My plan for this weekend is to play lots of music. Chris Vickery and I are long overdue for some jamming time, and hopefully we can find another guitarist who is better than me to join us. I also plan to do fun things like trespassing on private property and looking at mandolins to buy as well as socializing with reputable people. I will probably play a whole lot of ukulele as well as do a ton of yard work.

Sweet... C yha sun'e. Enjoy your weekend.

???, Fresca and Blazer

2008-05-22T20:54:00.003-04:00

Hey there.

What have you been doing? I have been lazing around strumming on my ukulele and generally enjoying having nothing to do at the moment.

Today I got up quite early to call Syd's Carpet and Snooze Room to see when I should go in for my interview. It turns out that they had no idea where my potential interviewer was, so I went in and left my application with someone who looked trustable. Hopefully she was an employee.

When I got back, I saw an ad in the paper for a window installing apprenticeship. I called, and was told that I should go in sometime next week. I don't know.. Apprenticeship? That probably means several years studying the fine art of window installing and just happens to pay almost $15 an hour.. Would it be a good idea to take time off from Keene State to learn a trade like that? I don't know.. When I know more I will give it some serious thought.

I also applied to be a dishwasher at the Brewery.. That might be a better idea..

I may have been a little forward in my praise of the work of Jerome K. Jerome. It is getting a little dull, and not exactly funny.. Maybe this has to do with reading it half asleep, but right now I would happily exchange it for some fan fiction from the young adult section at Borders. Maybe it will get more interesting though....

If I didn't mention it before, I got new ukulele strings in the mail today. I love playing a freshly strung ukulele. It is awesome, and I did it all day... It is more awesome that I am going to get paid to play said ukulele in the near future. You should play more ukulele too. DUDE!! Maybe one day I could start my own ukulele school and play it all day as a job. Awesome!!! Perhaps not. Speaking of instruments, my good old mandolin has seen better days. I hardly play the cumbus at all, because with the frets removed it doesn't sound very nice. I may start renovating it soon, but it would still be nice to have another mandolin that I can play without worrying it will fly apart in my hands... Maybe that would be a good investment when the cash starts rolling in. It may also help with gas prices..?

C ya tomorrow.

Fire, Onions and Clinique Happy for Men

2008-05-21T21:35:00.002-04:00

Alright are we? Hopefully we are.

Today I slept until 10, because of my late night yesterday. When you have no job/ classes or any other major time killer, you often find ways of expressing yourself that are not considered normal by polite society, like climbing through the tunnel at the Keene Kountry Klub golf course.. I have no negative opinion of the country club, but I happen to fetishize stupid acronyms.

So with a cup of coffee, the Keene Sentinel and an air of indefatigable optimism, I set about looking for a job. My eye came to rest on an ad for Syd's Carpet and Snooze room. It was asking for flooring installers with no experience, and as I have a little experience I thought that I am perhaps just the guy they are looking for. Instead of calling, I drove over there immediately and introduced myself personally. The person who knew about the jobs was not there, but I have an interview tomorrow. I am looking forward to it. I should probably dig out my work clothes and try to practice the facial expression that says I have been putting in floors since I was five.

Today, I finished off my dad's irrigation project and cooked 3 racks of ribs for 8 hours. I hate digging, but I love ribs.

Cool ha?

Well, that is about all.. Enjoy your Thursday, or possibly Friday, or whatever day you happen to read this..

Craviola, Helium and Cranberry juice

2008-05-20T23:23:00.002-04:00

Hey guys. Today was not a day of particular note. I simply filled out applications for employment. I so far have not had any calls back from anywhere I applied to last week. Am I doing something wrong? Probably.

I spent some time today on my dad's irrigation project. I got several mosquito bites from various mosquito's and a bit of back pain from various boulders. My hands were however not bothered, as I have retained a healthy amount of work callus. Is that spelled right?

I took the dog to Surry dam, which was nice, before picking up my sister from school. I then went home and rediscovered the band Nickle Creek. When I had an internship at a country station, my boss had given me one of their CD's, but I only ever listened to it once. I recently came across some videos for this band on the tubes, and I have decided that they are amazing..

Speaking of amazing, I have just had a great idea. I should tune my ukulele like a mandolin, and have it stapled to my right arm..................

I have continued to read three men in a boat by Jerome K. Jerome. It is awesome.. I do seem to be in the habit of reading books that are awesome. It has to be up there with the works of G. K. Chesterton and Glenn Beck.. If you knew who either of them were, it would be funny. Speaking of Glenn beck, I have been listening to too much talk radio again. Speaking of talk radio, I got a big surprise today. There is a show in Boston called the Howie Carr Show that is broadcast by AM 1290 WKBK in Keene. The whole point of the show is basically to make fun of Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, which to me is quite a noble premise. However today was different. It was weird to listen to Mr. Carr have to edit himself, and he did a noble job of it too, because no one should ever have to suffer with a brain tumor........

Boxes, Italics and Hurling

2008-05-20T00:12:00.002-04:00

How are you?

Today I did some stuff. I got an application from Amicci's and then went home for Apple Jacks. After a while I went out job hunting again. I also met up with my buddy Serena, who seems a little confused by some very important decisions she has to deal with and right now, and quite frankly she seems to be her own worst enemy. I took her to register for her GED exam, and then to the social security office to find out about medicaid. After that, we went job hunting together.

When I got home, I realised that I can play the mandolin really fast. I did this for some time, before realising that there were plenty of chores around the house that needed doing. Instead of this, I watched Spongebob with my sister. After 2 episodes, I really started to get into it.

I would really like to play more music. This can probably be arranged. Hopefully I can get paid for it too.

Something I have never really understood is musicians who although offered recording contracts, will turn them down for the sake of preserving their artistic integrity. Why? How can this make any sense? If someone ever offered me money to play music, I would play it's a small world after all for 24 hours straight if that is what they wanted.

Enough ranting.. Have a lovely week, and a super Tuesday.

And play more ukulele.

Kikuyu, Bandolim and Zeppole

2008-05-18T20:32:00.002-04:00

How are you? I am fine. Tonight I am not going to go into some crappy right wing rant, but instead talk about what I did today.

I played mandolin this morning in church. When I got home, my parents were back from Connecticut with canolli and svogliatelle. I love Italian pastries. After a most delicious breakfast, I went on the computer to see what was happening on the online. Nothing was, and so after an episode of Spongebob, I went to practice for the benefit concert that my old folks group was putting on.

When I got there, many people were already present. I carried some stuff around, before taking up position behind a microphone. We were soon cranking out delightful sounding Catholic folk music. It was fun to play, and I had a very good time. There were about 70 to 100 people in the audience, many of whom I had never seen before. I even saw a friend or two, who to my surprise did not burst into flames upon entering a church.

During the intermission, the Kenyan version of zeppole was served, and as all zeppole like products are invariably delicious, I greatly enjoyed them. I noticed that the beneficiary of our concert was present. She was in Kenyan garb, and stuck out as much as humanly possible in rural New Hampshire. I was asked by our group leader if I would accompany her as she sang the Swahili song I had figured out on guitar around Christmas. I had not played it since then, but I quickly remembered. We gave a delightful multicultural rendition of this song, with me playing my 12 string.

After the intermission, a bluegrass band came up to play. It turned out that they were awesome, and that the banjo player was amazingly fast. During their performance, I read the essay our beneficiary had written about her culture, and why she had to leave it because of her tribal affiliations. It turns out that in Kenya, children are named after the order in which they are born which is interesting. Reading it made me realise just how much America rules, and even if we have problems, we are still the most free country in the world.

Well it was fun. After dinner, which was delicious, I took my sister to Walgreen's to buy a cheap camera. I ended up buying one too, so I can take pictures of myself blogging. Before we went out, I got a call from my brothers cellphone, which is lost. The person who called said that they had found it and were leaving it by the maintenance sheds at KSC. However when I arrived, I found that there was no phone.. After all this, I went to Borders to buy Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. If you like Bill Bryson, you will love this book, and if you think he is annoying and thinks he is better than you, you would still love this book.

The end. C ya palz...

Leone, Makala and Antoria

2008-05-17T22:25:00.003-04:00

Oh hey. I woke up this morning to find several things in the mail. I found two rejection letters from jobs that I applied for and some beef jerky from a relative in New Jersey... No joke, every month I get jerky in the mail.

I woke up early, to find that my dad was handing me money to buy my siblings and I food, because he, my mom and my aunt are going to a concert in Connecticut and leaving me in charge. I was surprised by this, as I had not previously been told anything about a concert.

Around 2, I drove my brother to his soccer game in Troy. I took my sister along, because I did not want to leave her at home by herself. It was an uneventful car ride, but I did manage to find a CD of the greatest Rock n' Roll hits of the 50's in my mom's glove compartment. In case you did not know, the Big Bopper is awesome at everything apart from airplanes.

On the way back from the awesome trip to Troy, I left my sister in the car and bought mandolin strings... I love everything about new mandolin stings, apart from attaching them to mandolins. It takes me 45 minutes to re- string and tune a mandolin, even with the cute little string winder I bought.

After a lot of other stuff, I went to Amicci's to get us some dinner. It took 30 minutes for my order to be ready, so in the time I was waiting I applied to be a delivery guy.. I think that is something I can do.. When I got home with dinner, my brother did not choose to join my sister and I at the table and instead leaned on the counter like a New Yorker late for an important conference call. This behavior is too progressive for my tastes.. Even with only 3 people, an air of decorum, civility and functionality should govern eating habits.

Well here we are.. My first day as head of the household went smoothly, and as the king of this house for the moment, it is only right that I enjoy a few kings of beers.. C ya palz..

Shape, Frog and Moon

2008-05-17T00:31:00.004-04:00

Well instead of a crappy short post, or a long boring one about myself, I am today going to talk about something that I think is important, and that is argument. Please remember as you read this that I am only trying to paraphase my own recent thoughts/conversations I have had/ things I have listened to and read. I am presenting an argument from a certian point of view, and if you don't agree, you should tell me.

Argument has to be the single most important contributor to our democracy. It is what led to the Revolutionary War and it is what led to making our country and world as we know them today. If we didn't argue, and all thought the same things about everything, then there would be no need for democracy as we would be in some sort of futuristic super state or dead. It makes me angry when politicians say that they want have less argument and more of a singular mentality, because that would mean that there are no longer any right or wrong ideas. This is stupid, because as you know from experience, all ideas are not created equal... different actions lead to different consequences. Some actions lead to favorable consequences, and some lead to those that are unfavorable. Treating them both equally is the absence of discriminatory thought and common sense.

Something else I don't like is giving different things different names to make people feel comfortable with them. You would not call a cigarette a super super fun stick just to attract child smokers would you?........................... What I am talking about is of course socialism. As you may or may not know, socialism is the ultimate fight for equality. However, it usually does not work out that way, be it in the form of the National Socialists in Germany, the Soviets in Russia, the Fascists in Italy or Clement Attlee's Labour party in post WWII England. In fact, it usually means that things suck equally bad for almost everybody, especially the Jews. Although Clement Attlee was in my opinion not as bad as the others I mentioned, I just wanted to get his name into this one sided conversation. What is funny, is that Clement Attlee was a Socialist. He was proud of his socialism. If you take WWII out of the equation I am about to make, his manifesto is exactly the same as that of America's Democratic party today. Why can't they just call it what it is? Socialism is socialism, and socialism is not freedom as it was defined by our founding documents. Be honest..

This is something that has to be argued about, so start doing it now. Has the desire to be more co-operative and politically correct with everyone taken over all that history and the present has to teach us about what works and what doesn't? American Democracy works. Argument works, and it works better if terms are defined in their recognizable historical context.

That is all.. I don't know. I hate politics... I don't really understand enough of it to make such broad statements, and I do not care.. It is my blog, and you chose to read it. My nose hurts. My eyes are itchy, and I am tired. I need a new toothbrush.

Oh, and ukuleles are awesome.

Makala, Bottle and Trench

2008-05-15T23:13:00.002-04:00

Well, I hope you are all right. I am just fine, although I really am not in a posting mood.

My Aunt just arrived from the old country, and I finished reading a book.. I also am postponing some inevitable trouble by keeping the old cell phone turned off. How mature...

I received no callbacks from any of the five jobs that I applied for this week, which has nothing to do with my cellphone being off. This is disappointing, because I would like some employment. I really do seem to be quite useless to anyone........

So, I am looking forward to the help a Kenyan concert my geriatric singalong group is having this Sunday. I have a feeling that it may be quite awkward.

I am going to fall asleep on this keyboard now.. C ya l8r with a longer and informative message about the state of gas stations. I hate the prepay thing.. Especially as I usually pay in cash. And the prices... At least they are not at $9 a litre like in the old country..

Well it is time to go to sleep. Have a good Friday.....................................................

Eagle, Springwater and Caraf

2008-05-14T22:04:00.002-04:00

Hi there.

Today I thought went OK. I spent a lot of time in the company of people who I do not have much respect for, and people I am steadily losing respect for. It is hard when you see people you like doing all the wrong things; making all the wrong decisions and being influenced by all the wrong people.

Well... What would you do? I don't think the ukulele can help in this matter, although it probably would not hurt. It might just supply some sad gentle background music. Speaking of sad background music, I have one of the most annoying songs ever stuck in my head right now. It is House on Pooh Corner by Kenny Loggins, and the worst and best thing is that I had never heard of Kenny Loggins until this afternoon. I found out that his work competes with It's a small world after all and herpes in terms of despicability and catchyness.

It is a small world after all. Speaking of small worlds, I grew up 5 miles from where Winnie the Pooh was set. Weird ha? But enough of that. I am going to play a game called describe where you are. I created this game to help people find out where they are in their lives, and were they are going and I will now play this game on my self for two reasons. The first is that I am bored and sleep is just not happening right now, and second because I want this to be a long post.

I am sitting in my room in my parents house. I am sitting behind a desk. On the desk are about 6 empty vitamin water bottles, a cellphone, a very old laptop with a broken keyboard, a new keyboard, 2 very futile and sticky coasters, a stack of re-writable CD's and a broken key chain with the Casey coat of arms on it.

In the wall behind me is a window. In the window are open blinds and a large fan. Sitting on the window sill is a bottle of Pastis I got some time during the winter, a full beer can, an empty beer can and a tin of Royal Dansk Luxury Wafers. In the corner to my right is a small table. On it is a tiny plant that I bought to make my room look nice, as well as a tambourine, a penny whistle and a tape of Molfettese folk songs. Behind my head is a portrait of our Lady of Guadalupe, and next to her is the crucifix I got when I was 11. In the other corner is a Shillelagh and a Crosman .177 air gun.

Moving a long the wall to my left is a closet. On the door of the closet hangs a piece of cloth with lots of signatures that I was given when I graduated from high school. From the handle hangs a set of panpipes and a wine skin with the emblem of the Spanish province of Cantabria affixed to it. Further up the wall is the guitar I bought for 5 pounds in England, and was fixed up and made almost playable 2 years ago. It is hung on the wall with nothing but some twine and a tac and in its strings is stuffed a copy of the poem "In Flanders Fields" that I was given when my history class went to Belgium. Hung next to the guitar is my very first mandolin. It was a very cheap model that I got many years ago, and I have not ever put new strings on it, and I probably should. Next to the mandolin is the first instrument I ever bought. It is a $10 Mahalo Ukulele that I bought when I was 15. I occasionally take it off the wall and give it a little strum.

In the next corner is a lamp. The lamp is broken in the middle, and is held together with scotch tape. In front of it is the little table I keep stuff on. Right now it has a basket of pennies, pictures of 3 saints, a little now empty caraf, and some CD's. This little table has a drawer, and in this drawer is some string, a hunting knife, a gun, a Bible and a book filled with signatures and parting messages my friends made for me before I left the old country.

On the wall facing me is a rug. It shows three Peruvian woman collecting water. I have no idea why I put it on the wall, but it looks good. In front of it is my bed. My bed is just the two mattresses that used to make up the bunk bed I shared with my brother in the old country. A few inches away is the door, and on the door are some shirts and a tweed hat...

On the wall to my right is an Absinthe poster. It is framed, to as to give the impression that the alcohol abuse it shows is somehow classy. Next to this is a calendar.

Slightly masking the huge poster of a scene of some Greek houses that I got as payment for one of my first musical gigs, is a huge bookshelf that I brought up from the basement to store the pile of books that was getting bigger by the day. The original bookcase that I built, which was made from a broken cutting board now fits on the bottom shelf, along with a cigar box containing the last undisclosed amount of cash that I got from honest labor. The second and third shelves happily deal with the rest of my books, while the 4th and 5th are dedicated to making me and my room smell good. There is also the stiletto I use to mark days off the calendar and a secret silver box.

Well, I don't know about you, but a few years ago I never thought I would have my own room. I have been very fortunate indeed. Lets hope that many others are as fortunate as I have been.

Hardware, Painting and Strings

2008-05-13T21:06:00.003-04:00

How is it going? Stressful? Don't worry, whenever you are stressed just pick up a ukulele and let your troubles float away on a cloud of gentle music.

I just came from a conformation ceremony at the ole Romish church. I have really committed myself to the group I play in, and so I show up whenever they ask me to. At the church were about 30 to 40 kids who had decided they wanted to be Catholic. There was also a Catholic bishop with his stupid hat and stick and a thick cloud of incense. I no longer see a need for incense.. If they want a pleasant smell, why not just get me to walk up and down the isles?

Well, the whole thing lasted about 2 hours, and at the end there were several new Catholics and a lot of old ones who seemed very happy that the ceremony was over. I left quite quickly, in case the bishop recognized me as the kid who pulled a silly face and pointed at him a few years ago. My family have since mounted the picture of this event on the wall of our living room.

So today was cool. I did not sleep in too late, which was nice. After a breakfast of rice peas and onions, I called Marlborough Greenhouses INC. To let them know I was still interested in a job with them, and I went down town to see if any local businesses would like me to play music for them this summer. It turned out that they would, which is great. I also ran into Nichole Brannen of all people, and we talked.

I could talk about ukuleles now, but I am not going to. Instead I am going to talk about how awesome you are for reading this ramble when you have far better things to do.

Good night and remember that in the best of all possible worlds, everyone would play ukuleles all day.

Solid!!, Jigsaw and 21

2008-05-12T22:11:00.002-04:00

How are you?

So, today was Monday. Usually Monday is one of my least favorite days, but today this was not the case. I ended up going to bed very early last night musha, so I awoke in the best possible form for a good start to the week. After doing some unimportant chore outside, I went upstairs to reacquaint myself with my ukulele, a cup of coffee and the classifieds. I read through the usual ads for lawn mowers and ballet lessons, and eventually I found a tiny square of writing no bigger than a stamp. It was an add for a job with Marlborough Greenhouses INC. Having nothing better to do, I visited their main office to ask about the job in question. When I arrived at the office, I was greeted by a small middle aged woman who offered me an application. The application was short.. Actually it was not really an application and more just a piece of paper asking me what my name was. After I had done this, I was greeted by Mr. LaCasse who is the owner. I had a short interview in which he asked me about my previous job experience, where I went to school and if I thought I could handle a 40 hour work week. It turned out that my job would be mowing lawns all day. As I spend a lot of time in the summer doing this for free, why not get payed for it? I thought the interview went quite well, and I will call them the day after tomorrow to see if I have the job or not.

When I got home, I spent a few care free hours with my ukulele. I don't know if I have ever mentioned this before, but I love ukuleles. There is something about the tiny four stringed lute that evokes a simpler life, a life free from worry about the extra 2 cumbersome strings the guitar offers. If you do not own a ukulele, buy one as soon as possible and I will buy it from you for double what you payed if in a year you regret it's presence in your house, car or office. They are possibly the cheapest and best instruments ever. Maybe I should start a ukulele support group, where people like me can get together, play ukuleles and talk about how awesome ukuleles are.

Well, I hope I get a job soon. A summer of hard work will be a good idea.

Orbit, Phone and Headstock

2008-05-11T19:44:00.002-04:00

How y'all doin? If you are here but did not receive an invitation, then you should either check your inbox or congratulate yourself on finding the best content around.

So it is Sunday again. Sunday for me is the sort of day that I could get used to having more than one of. By this I mean that I quite like quiet uneventful days, because I am fully aware that there will soon be a time when these will not exist. This morning, I used my alarm. I got up at 8, Showered and made myself smell so good that you would burn all the flowers in the world just to catch a whiff of me. I then went to church to rehearse for the mass. I found out that some people do not like the music my group makes, because apparently 12 old timers and 2 shy kids are far too boisterous and irreverent for a Catholic Church.

After that, I went home to eat bread and butter. I find that even though we now have so many breakfast foods such as fruit loops and pop tarts, there is nothing quite as wholesome as stale New Jersey bread and butter to start your day. After doing some other stuff, such as watching TV, going swimming in very cold water and unintentionally exposing my birthday suit to an Indian family, I took my cumbus to retro music to see if they could re fret it for me. It turns out that they charge $250 for this service, and that is $150 more than the instrument originally cost. I really do not know what to do about this, as it hardly seems worth it. I may fill in the holes in the neck, plane it flat and put little pieces of masking tape on it so I know where to put my fingers, but I really would like some metal frets. I will definitely end up doing the whole project myself, but there are some complex mathematical equations involved, and I have previously stated that I will not use math ever again.

Besides all that, I was disappointed to learn today that my book about Benedicaria was out of stock at Amazon, and because of this my order had never gone through. However Wikipedia turned up a wealth of information on the subject, but books are better because they are expensive, and you can put them on your shelves to impress people.

If you are still reading, and you are, I would again like to shift this unorganized ramble in the direction of musical instruments. In the space between this paragraph and its predecessor, I picked up a ukulele and played it. I like ukuleles, and if I had the funds I would start a non profit organization to give every single person in the world a ukulele. Wouldn't that be awesome? If I thought stupid laws were a good idea and I had the power to make and enforce anything I wanted, I would insist that instead of a national identity card, everyone must carry a ukulele.

Barber, Indian food and Water

2008-05-10T19:19:00.003-04:00

Did anyone have trouble finding their way over here? I sure hope not; it really isn't that far.

How are you? I am just fine. Today I slept in, before reading classifieds and playing ukulele. Later I went down town to see what was up, and buy mothers day gifts. After seeing what was up, and asking the cashier what mothers like, I returned home. There was a lot of other stuff, before I went on the Internet to watch lots of stringed instrument videos.

Later, my dad returned from New Jersey, bringing Italian pastries and Bread. After dinner, I watched a little TV, before telling you all about it.

Well, on Monday, I am going to Allyson's Orchard to talk to Homer Dunn about my rototilling and fruit picking experience, and hopefully be accepted as a field hand. I have been in fields, and I have hands, so hopefully I will qualify. I do hope that EC have not neglected me, but just in case it would be nice to have some back ups.

Today I learned some Irish words. The first is "musha", which means indeed and "culabula" which means OK. Did you know that the Irish language has no equivalent of the words yes and no, so that explains the Hiberno- English habit of long winded answers that has long been adapted by politicians of every race and nationality. A good example of this is found in a quote by Eamon De Valera, who helped lead the Irish war of independence: "Every instinct of mine would indicate that I was meant to be a dyed-in-the-wool Tory, or even a bishop, rather than the leader of a revolution." Without the Hiberosemantics, ( I should start a phase coining company) the quote would simply read "I don't like fighting."

That's all. Have a good week.

Lemon, Mint and Saffron

2008-05-09T17:18:00.002-04:00

Thank you for stopping by. Your patronage of this fine blog is most appreciated.

It has been a very nice week. The kind of week where I play lots of music, visit with lots of people, exchange kind parting words with my professors, actively pursue employment and generally try to do my best to make my little corner of the world a better place.

Apart from exaggerating my own self importance to the point of caricature and driving a lot, I have been reading. I am ashamed to say that I used my borders card to buy more Indiana Jones fan fiction. I am not a huge fan of the movies, and only picked up one of the books from our basement out of boredom. However, the author of these books is simply incredible at creating or presenting ideas, stories and images, and because of this I was up until past three trying to figure out what a mobius strip is and how it worked. For some reason I am very embarrassed about buying fan fiction. It could be that the books come from the kids section, or that they have brightly colored covers, or just the fact that the cashier looked at me in a peculiar way.

Today I spent some time on Youtube watching budget debates in the European parliament. I was struck by one fellow in particular. His name is Nigel Farrage, and as you may have guessed he is an English politician who represents the UK Independence Party, which has recently replaced the Liberal Democrats as the third largest political party in Great Britain. The views of this party are basically those of the Goldwater era Republican party. Their main goal is to make Britain a sovereign state again, by withdrawing from the EU. Although I like almost everything Nigel says (haha, Nigel is a girl's name), especially as I thought that all British politicians supported spending British money to fix French and Polish roads and bridges. I was however struck by the fact that it is slightly paradoxical for a political party to hold seats in a parliament that they don't believe should exist, and it seems that the "Chest" would agree with me: "When a politician is in opposition he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it."The Chest I refer to is of course the great G.K. Chest.

Well then, that is enough about me and what I think. What do you think? Why are you even reading this crap? Seriously dude, get a life..

Oh and, and buy more books by Jerome K. Jerome. Also mix a glass of vinegar with lemon juice and drink it every morning. I have never done this, so I want to see what it is like. Sometimes when I am bored, I like to change fonts. AWESOME!!!!11!

Ozium, Owl and Ketchup

2008-05-08T17:22:00.004-04:00

How is everybody doing? I am just fine myself. In a few minutes I am going out to play Catholic music.

Today was my first day of summer. I slept until noon, and woke up feeling predictably terrible. Around 1, I drove to the Employment Security office to see if anything new had come up, but it had not. After this, I went to Serena's and we went out to lunch at Athens. Upon leaving, I met up with Imon and his Portuguese girlfriend before making my way back here to dig an irrigation trench in the back yard. I hate digging in New Hampshire. there are the most awful and awkward boulders every few feet that hurt your back very much. I also do not like digging in swampy areas, because it is mosquito season again. I got quite frustrated by the bugs, and eventually got a lighter and a pressurized can of cooking oil to fend them off. This was not a very good idea at all. Don't do it. I will be continuing the irrigation efforts tomorrow, with plenty of DEET and I will be driving to Alyson's Orchard to apply for an immigrant job there. That should be fun.

It seems that I have not written enough for a real post yet, so why not post a quote, and think about what it means?

"I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents."
Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams (October 28, 1813)

I think that this quote is fascinating, and although it was hinted at in my inconvenient book, it was never mentioned. I think this quote is all about personal responsibility. Yes, we are all created equal, but after our creation the choices that we make determine who we are and what we will be. I think that this really defines self ownership in a way that made sense in 1813 just as well as it does today. This quote makes me think a lot, because it makes me realise yet again that absolutely everything we do, think or say is a choice. It is a choice to sleep, it is a choice to breath, it is a choice to eat and it is a choice to speak..In essence we are like computers, which work by on and off switches... Or something like that, and eventually we make Youtube.

Carlstadt, Lava and KFC

2008-05-07T17:34:00.002-04:00

How are you?

I am fine. I am done with college for this academic year. Today I had my last two finals, and I am very happy to be done. My first one, which was from my American history course went alright, and I feel that I did just fine. I also got my paper back, and it got an A/ B, which was nice.

I did some other stuff for the rest of the day, including watching a G.K. Chesterton special and shooting at stuff until my Spanish final which was at 3:30. I was very disappointed when I saw the test. It was exactly what I had hoped it would not be. It was all conjugating verbs, and I do not do this very well at all. I struggled with it for half an hour, before getting to the end and finding a writing assignment. The writing assignment was easy, and all I had to do was write about my weekend. Very happy with the writing assignment, but not the rest of the test, I handed the whole thing in. My professor however did not let me leave. She flicked through the test and found 4 uncompleted questions, before standing behind me and giving me hints. I left half an hour later and drove to the junk store near Romy's to see if they wanted a piano. They did not, but the guy told me how to register the thing at the Swanzey auction.

Well here I am.. I have not had any call backs from the jobs I applied for, or from EC Floor sanding to tell me if they had any jobs coming up. I will swing by the Employment security place tomorrow and see if anything new has come up. I really need to start working again.

China, Numbers and Coffee

2008-05-06T16:29:00.002-04:00

Hi.

I am doing just fine. I found out that the test I thought I missed is actually tomorrow, so that was a relief. Today I did not have anything to do until 12. I ended up sleeping until 10, which was nice as I did not feel to horrible when I woke up. I sidled into my classroom at 11:55 and found 2 of my fellow students already there. As 12 o' clock drew steadily nearer, we began to notice that no one else was showing up. One of my peers checked online to see if our final exam was cancelled, and it turned out that we were just an hour early. I did not know what to do, so I went to Brewbakers on the off chance that I would find one of my friends or acquaintances there, but I did not. I then made my way to the tattoo place to see how much it would cost to have the Casey coat of arms and the Chi Rho stabbed into my body. Hearing the screams of pain coming from a patron of that fine establishment, I decided to wait, at least until I have a substantial arrest record, or have some military experience..

When I got back to my class, I found out that instead of an exam, we would be writing a 200 word description of what we thought of the class. Mine was an interesting and honest little essay.
I also got my paper back. I was expecting to get less than a C for it and so I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a B minus. I then did some other stuff, before returning home to take Ian to school to get his computer.

What else?? Oh yeah. When we lived in the old country, we had some next door neighbors called the Dillanes. They were very nice, and left their back yard unlocked so all us neighbors could freely use their trampoline, and they did not mind that I would try to learn hotel California loudly a few inches away from their windows. We also found out the the man of the house Steven Dillane was an actor. We watched one of his movies with one of his kids Frank, which was called the Parole Officer. It was quite well known in England, but I don't think it was ever released here. My point is not that I knew someone famous. My point is that I recently read about the HBO mini series called John Adams, which my favorite radio host has been giving lofty praise. We do not have HBO, and so I am relegated to watching trailers on Youtube, and reading about it on Wikipedia. As you may or may not know, I have recently been reading a lot about Thomas Jefferson, and so I was really shocked to learn that my favorite founding father was played by none other Steven Dillane. The Steven Dillane. Cool ha?

Anyway, my family has been eating out a lot lately. I do not know what caused this expensive pattern of behavior, but I do know that I am grateful that they take me along. Last night we were at La Carretta. It was the 5th of May (Speak English) and so they had the Veronica Robles Mariachi band going from table to table. They sang my request Malaguena Salerosa (Girl from Malaga and a word that Google translator does not know) which was nice and also awkward, because Veronica was only a few inches from my face, and she could hold a note for at least a minute.

Well, I hope you enjoy your evening. I will be studying for 2 tests tomorrow, and will thus be drinking caffeinated products and singing.

Stiletto, Body Powder and Candles

2008-05-05T15:58:00.002-04:00

Nice to see you here.

So today was cool. I woke up and drove to my final exam for my American History class. I was surprised to find that nobody was there, apart from a contractor fixing the bathroom. He laughed at me and called me unorganized. I was really surprised that my test was not happening. In my syllabus it says that my final exam was last Wednesday, but I do not remember it.. There must be some new information that I am not party to... So after that, I drove to NH employment security and registered with them. I ended up applying for 4 different jobs. The jobs are: Migrant farm laborer, Dishwasher at the kountry klub, The guy at Walmart who watches the cameras and a traffic control officer.

I hope that I get at least 1 of those, especially the traffic control officer.. So anyway, last night I went out for a drive by myself. This made me realise how very few friends I have, and how I do not do enough to stay in contact with them.. I drove around for an hour or so, and stopped at Walgreen's to buy more Gold Bond. It is sometimes good to just go somewhere and think by yourself. While I was leaving Walgreen's, a man in a black Pontiac Firebird pulled up to me and asked if I knew how to get to Keene. His car was emitting the subtle aroma of restricted substances, and he seemed to be quite confused. I gave him directions to Walpole, just to mess with him and sent him on his way, telling him to be careful.

So anyway, today I got some things in the mail. The first was a check from Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam is the sort of family member who likes to take lots of money, and then send you a small portion of it back as a sort of "Screw You" to his nephews and nieces. My stiletto also arrived, which is nice because I like shiny things that I can stand in front of the mirror with and look tough.

Tonight I am going out to play mandolin for a Novena to the Holy Spirit.. Novenas are the things my grandma nearly got heavily fined for when she tried to light the candle we smuggled to her when she was in the hospital. Luckily Dr. Sanjay understood, and allowed her to plug an electric candle into the socket usually reserved for oxygen tanks and life support apparatus.

Well, that is about all from me today.. Take care, and enjoy your evening.

Chilled, Vitamins and Blend

2008-05-04T18:28:00.002-04:00

Hey there, glad to see you came.

Well, today was Sunday. Sundays usually go differently from Saturdays. I woke up, made myself smell nice, went to church to do church stuff, ate some food and drank some drinks. It was very typical..

So I have a week of exams coming up. By a week of exams, I mean 2 exams... Should be pretty easy.

Well, I really do not have anything to say to you today. I really did not do anything. I may go out later to meet Serena's new room mate, and again I might not. I may also go to Borders to buy a DVD or book, and again I might not. I may drop in at circuit city to see what iMON is doing after work, and again I may not. I really have nothing to do, so I could wait by the phone or my Myspace page to see if anything exciting is happening, but it probably wont be. Perhaps I will do something I have never done before, and just get in the car by myself and drive with no goal in sight and see where I end up, but with gas at the price it is, that is probably not a good idea. I will probably end up finishing season 1 of The Riches, but really I have nothing major planned. If I really wanted to bore the crap out of myself, I could always visit some Catholic students, but really that is not something I would enjoy..

Wow, that was a boring paragraph.. Well, it seems that it is just you me and The Riches this evening. Have fun..

Lets hope for something a little more interesting to write about.

Ice, Sponge and Margarette

2008-05-03T20:25:00.002-04:00

So today I totally slept until noon. It was a good day for it, as Saturdays often are. The only thing I do not like about sleeping in is getting up. It somehow feels worse to me than waking up after a near sleepless night. I don't know why this is, but it is probably because of the feeling of having wasted half of a perfectly good day in a half asleep half awake stupor drooling on your chin. When I finally woke up enough, I read, until the inevitable hunger that usually follows a day in bed overtook me. After making myself smell absolutely wonderful, I went down stairs and nuked some leftover calzone.

After that, I wrote a song. Playing guitar at 2 in the morning is not something I usually do these days, so when I called Doktor Vickery very very early this morning to tell him I had the best chord progression ever, he was not best pleased. It is an awesome song, that is essentially the chords from 3 different catholic songs smushed together, with non sensical lyrics about my day over the top.

Today was my parents "Versery" so we went out to eat. While we were there, we talked about the Germans, and how a certain family at my sister's school probably has a bunker somewhere in their house. After dinner, I discovered that I was a designated driver, and so after leaving my parents at a watering hole, I drove my siblings home. I am now awaiting the call to pick up the parents, so what better to do in the mean time than share my day with you?

Also, If you have no plans for Sunday the 18th, you should come and support my Catholic group's resident Kenyan. There will be semi legal gambling, Bluegrass, and Tony playing mandolin with his group... Oh there is the call, see you soon.

Bud, Mango and Rain

2008-05-02T20:00:00.003-04:00

How y'all doing, It is Friday right now, and I just got back from playing mandolin at a Catholic event. My week is finally over, and tonight I am going to go out and do something fun for a change.

So, with the week and spring Semester almost over I think now would be a good time to give my over all opinion of college.. I can do it.. There you go. It can be boring hard at times, and at other times it can be wickedly easy, fun and interesting. If my parents will keep paying for me to go, I don't see any problems. Like anything, I suppose what you get out of it depends on what you put in. Next year, I am going to try to get my GPA up to something good, and really invest in all my classes because when you work hard and do a good job at anything, be it a paper or a wood floor and take pride in your work, it can be quite fulfilling.

Speaking of wood floors, I called EC Floor Sanding today and got the answering machine. It barked angrily at me in it's extremely heavy regional dialect to leave a message, before Mrs. EC picked up the phone. It seems that they will be happy to have me back, as long as they have plenty of jobs, which hopefully they will.

I have nothing to do for half an hour, and I want to save some topics for other posts, so why not talk about books? I just got an amazon gift card for $5o from a relative. I used it to buy "Magical Catholicism" by Vito Quattrocchi, which is about the folk magic of southern Italy, and the pre christian influence on Italian Catholicism as well as the practices of Benedicaria. It promises to be interesting. I bought it because of the stories my mom told me about the scary woman who lived downstairs from her growing up. She was called Lucrezz' and promised to cure everything from tape worms to the evil eye with garlic and holy water. I also used the card to buy a stiletto (knife) and "Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton" as well as a set of uncorrodable mandolin strings.

I hope you have a very nice weekend, and a week that will not make you wish it was the weekend again. Just remember that whenever possible save your breath for cooling your porridge, and make sure you don't buy a caravan with no wheels...

Honesty, Coffee and KSC

2008-05-01T18:51:00.002-04:00

how are you?

I had a good day today. I did not do anything remotely exiting, but that's OK. The reason it was good is because I finally handed in my Irish paper.

This morning, I made a few small changes to my bibliography before going to my meeting at the KSC writing center. Some of the tutors seemed quite peeved at the amount of papers they had to read. Jahrley was one of them, and she was glad that I had only brought my conclusion instead of the whole paper. She gave me some good advice that I wish I could have Incorporated, before I discovered that EC Floor Sanding had put in the writing center's floors. This was easy to tell because any other installer would have filled in the cracks and cut the edges smoothly.

After a cup of coffee from the student center, I went to my class to hand in my paper.. I found out that instead of just dropping it off, I had to write a reflection on how writing the paper had gone and how I felt about it, as well as skeletal outline of what it was about. It was funny, because I thought that I had to be doing much worse than everyone else in terms of paper writing, by the descriptions of how long my classmates said papers were, and how the tutors at the writing center had told them not to change a thing. It turned out that at just above the minimum, I had the second longest paper in the class... Just behind Cass's friend. It is funny for me when people lie about how much work they do, but have nothing to show in the end.. Well, needless to say it was a great weight off my mind, especially since I have no more papers to write this semester. I promptly went home and watched almost all of season 1 of The Riches online, and took a long nap. I also read plenty of An Inconvenient Book as well as a letter from the bank that says I have more money than I thought I did.. Speaking of money, I also went to sell some of my expensive textbooks back to Keene State. I watched in slack jawed disbelief as the clerk handed me $6 for 4 books that collectively cost nearly $50. There is probably a better way to get some sort of compensation out of them, but I have yet to find it.

Piano anyone???

Sugar, Quinine and The Sky..

2008-04-30T20:39:00.004-04:00

I am starting to realise how incredibly lame this blog is.. I mean it really Andrew Zimmerns like a giraffe. By that I mean that I have 300 views over all, and most of those come from you. Haha, thats a blog joke I made up. What I am trying to say is that reading it is unpleasant. This is partly due to the fact that setting myself the goal of writing about something different and interesting every day was bound to have some consequences.. Such as what you are about to read.

Well, I have a paper to write.. The last one ever this year. All I need to do is format a few citations and write a conclusion and I will be done with the potato famine forever. I have another meeting with Charlie the writing coach tomorrow ( 2 meetings are required to pass the class) who will look over my conclusion for me, and I will pretend to take her advice, before going straight to my professor's office to hand the whole paper in. I am not doing this because I wont or can't take criticism, but because the only meeting I could book a week in advance at the KSC writing center was an hour before my paper has to be handed in, and there is no negotiation on deadlines. I think I will be able to do a good enough job that whatever Charlie doesn't like will be down to personal taste and not literary exponentailism... Whatever that means.

My friends, I am getting old. I have 19 years and that means that in dog years I am older, and that dog years are shorter. I thought that something only the middle aged and elderly faced was the sensation of time slipping through your fingers like a cord of fine silk, only you are unable to close your hand enough to grip it. To be fair, that only happens when I wake up around 2 in the afternoon, and the reason it happens to old people is because of crippling arthritis. .. "Tony, stop being wierd!!" "OK" said Tony, as he preceded to inflate a latex glove with his nose.

In the best of all possible worlds, chipmunks would wear cologne.

Candide, Tea and the Chinese

2008-04-29T18:55:00.002-04:00

Piano anyone? No? OK then, you shall have oranges instead.

As you may or may not know, I already talked about reparations for slavery month back, but as I had a very unremarkable day, and as I am getting so old that I tell the same stories over and over, why not beat a dead horse with the guilt stick?

I know all about guilt. I practice the religion that invented it. Also, the maternal side of my family is Italian, and very much so. My point is that I am familiar with the concept. One thing for which I feel absolutely no guilt, is the oppression of the black community either now or in the past. Let me explain.... Yesterday, I watched Jeremiah Wright on C-Span talk about why he talks the way he does. I did not catch the whole thing, but I did hear him talk about the government. In short, he said that he hates the government because they have never apologized for slavery....

I will now ask you rhetorically if the U.S. government should apologize for slavery, and I will also answer rhetorically with a resounding NO-!-!.!.!-!_. On the surface an apology may seem like a useless token gesture that would do absolutely nothing for the descendants of slaves, and not for that reason but for another do I strongly oppose the idea. My reasoning is simple: Our government is representative... i.e. It represents the people. If our government were to apologize, they would essentially, at least in principle shoulder us all with the guilt of slavery which no one currently should have to bare, and once we are all guilty, then we would all owe something..

Wow, some problems in there, but it doesn't matter because you chose to read it and I am afraid my backspace key will suck my finger in..... My real reason for being angry, is because I just don't like it when a select few outspoken members of a community give their community as a whole a bad name by claiming justice where no wrong has been done and financial compensation when it has not been earned. If you found any of that offensive... Either check through all my posts to find where my reasoning on the subject comes from, or pour yourself a nice glass of lemonade and go out to the field to watch the fieldmice frolic in the midday sun............ I don't know, maybe it is time to stop posting, or at least wait for something more interesting.....

Just remember that in the best of all possible worlds, there is no such thing as a necessary evil..