Parts is parts

Arg! I was all set to have my old "Red Strat" back into the rotation. I found out that I don't have one of the bolts for the Locking nut. Well I have it, but I have two different lengths. I'm not sure if that is what was already on it, or if I lost one of them. I also realized that I don't have a single chrome pickguard screw.

I decided to just order a whole new locking nut since the one I was going to use was the one that was from before, and it has some wear & tear on it. I ordered some screws for the pickguard too.

I *think* I'll be set once those arrive, and by the end of next weekend I'll have the before/after pics of the infamous "Red Strat"!

Who'll buy my memories?

Who'll buy my memories of things that used to be
There were the smiles before the tears
And with the smiles some better years
Who'll buy my memories of things that used to be...

- Willie Nelson

I'm selling my old G.I. Joe stuff on eBay. I used to have all that stuff. I remember going to Service Merchandise and getting a vehicle almost every time. I bought the figures everywhere else.

I thought I had a whole lot more, and I thought it was all in great condition, but most things are missing parts or are broken. I was able to find a bunch of stuff that was good enough to list. Perhaps I shouldn't have set so many of them on fire in the back yard? At least now I know that fire is not a toy. And knowing is half the battle!

Hopefully there's a collector out there looking for some of it. A part of me didn't want to get rid of it, but what good was it doing sitting in a box in my parent's attic?

Items I'm selling on eBay

Shaun Of The Dead

If you want to see a funny, surprisingly original movie, check out Shaun Of The Dead. I had heard it was good, and saw it was on PPV so I ordered it. It’s your basic zombie (sorry for using the “Zed word”) movie, but done in a very funny way.

Shaun, who is initially oblivious to the fact that there are the walking dead everywhere, must save his friends, mother, and ex-girlfriend Liz, who has just dumped him. There are some hilarious scenes in this movie, like Shaun and his friend Ed arguing about which records should be used as a weapons or not.

I don’t know if I’d call this movie a “spoof” of zombie films. It is just like the tagline says: “A romantic comedy, with zombies.”

Grrrr.. I'm on a Tiger Team

Today’s B.S. Corporate Buzzword comes courtesy of NASA administrator, Mike Griffin, who said he has a Tiger Team working on solving the problem of foam insulation falling off during a launch.

Tiger Team was a military term for a team that would penetrate a supposedly secure installation, leaving behind harmless proof that they were there (such as signs or notes). The term is also used for testing the security of IT systems, but more frequently, and annoyingly, used to describe any team of experts working on a particular problem.

Maybe my main issue with the term is that in the past I worked with a small, evil consultant from Deloitte & Touche that responded to every question by saying that they had “a tiger team working on the problem”. In addition to that, it just sounds stupid.

Oooh... tigers. Big, lean, efficient, killing machines. Unfortunately, I know better, and it is much more likely that you would see:

Sloth Team: Do something, but do it very slowly
Lemming Team: Do what everyone else is doing
Howler Monkey Team: Sit there and scream about stuff
Platypus Team: Can’t quite figure out what they’re doing
Lamprey Team: Live off the success of others
Coelacanth Team: Produce something every 80,000,000 years

Tour De Arkansas

Whoo golly, Zeke! You ride dat der two wheeledy horseless pedalin’ machine perty fast. “Lance” is a perty name. It dun rhyme with France. How bout dat? Dats a fancy brain bucket ya got awn, too. That got ten speeds on it? I can’t count to ten no more an account uh my accident what der down at the grindin’ machine dat makes bread for my younguns.

Casual Friday Nonsense

The client I am working at has a “Casual Friday” dress code policy. The rest of the week is business casual. What kind of Dilbertian school of management flunky thought this one up?

One story is that this was started by IBM, as a study on productivity. According to their results, people were more productive when dressed casually. Makes sense to me. I’ve heard people say there are studies that prove casual dress leads to lower productivity, but I have yet to see an actual, credible source of a study proving this. Isn’t it the job of a manager to know how productive their employees are?

The beef I have with “Casual Friday” is why is it only ok on Friday? If you make the productivity argument, are you making your employees more efficient one day of the week, or four? If dressing casually makes you less productive, why is fine to not be as productive on Friday as you are the rest of the week? Why not just not allow casual attire and only work half days on Fridays? It would be the same thing.

This leads to the question of if it is more comfortable. If so, why are you only allowing me to be comfortable only one day a week? If I'd prefer to not dress more casually I don't have to.

What about your “corporate image”? I can understand if you deal with customers at a professional level you may require business attire. I don’t really care how my banker, realtor, doctor or whatever is dressed, as long as they do a good job.

Here’s what I really don’t get about where I work: When the “Board of Commissioners” has their meetings, which can fall on a Friday, the casual Friday policy is suspended. Is it a secret that we can wear jeans on Friday?

Casual Fridays are nothing more than a bone that is thrown to employees to make their workweek a little less miserable. By allowing people to dress down one day a week you are saying “we care more about the way our employees look, and our corporate image, more than the happiness, productivity, and job satisfaction of our employees.”

Say It Ain't So, Joe

ESPN said that when they take over Monday Night Football in 2006 the announcers will be Al Michaels and Joe Thiesman. I can’t stand Joe Thiesman. He is overly critical of players and coaches. Like he has forgotten what it was like to actually be on the field, and under pressure.

I’m hoping it won’t be as bad as on the ESPN Sunday Night games, maybe Al Michaels can keep him in line. My guess it’ll be about the second quarter of the first game that he starts contradicting everything Michaels says just to be “interesting”.

I like John Madden. Yes, he overstated the obvious, but he was funny too. Most people I talk to didn’t like him, but given a choice between Madden and Thiesman it’s an easy decision for me!

Sick Puppy, by Carl Hiaasen

I finished reading Sick Puppy, by Carl Hiaasen. Like the other Hiaasen books I’ve read it was a very funny and well written book. I’m working my way back through his catalog.

Only a smartass like Hiaasen can weave together a story with a kilt-wearing ex-governor that lives in the woods, an environmentalist with anger management issues, a hit man that listens to 911 calls over classical music, and the most accurate portrayal of a black Labrador Retriever ever put on paper.

Once again he takes a jab at the politics and over-development of Florida, but the story is original, and what is even scarier, totally believable! I have two other of his books I picked up at my last trip to the used book store that I’m looking forward to reading next.

People That Suck

My "People That Suck" list isn't a list of specific people, but are classes or types of people that for one reason or another do not belong in my world.

Latest Addition: People that take the last of the water from the office cooler, but don’t put on a new bottle. This is forgivable only if the offender is somehow physically unable to lift the new bottle.

5 Fiction Cliches That Need to Die

These are five clichés that occur over and over again in fiction. These need to die, and the writers that continue to use them need to have their hands tied behind their backs until they come up with something more original.

Exploding Vehicle:
You are about to get into your car when someone needs to borrow it right away. You let them take it. Just as they pull away, the car explodes.

Rigging a car to explode is an overly complicated way of doing someone in. You need access to explosives. You need a way of triggering the device when the car starts or moves. You also need the time to plant the device on the vehicle.

Explosives have been used to send a message. If the Russian mafia, or a Columbian drug cartel are after you, it is possible that they would go this route. With all the variables involved though, if they wanted you dead, shooting you would be a much more practical option.

Morning Amnesia:
You wake up with amnesia, most often you’ve just been arrested, are next to a dead body, or you eventually realize you are a spy.

While it is true that traumatic events can cause a temporary amnesia, it is extremely rare. There aren’t any magical drugs that will wipe out specific parts of your memory and leave the rest intact. A blow to the head usually causes short-term memory loss that doesn’t return. With “Global Amnesia” you remember practically nothing. Your memory may come back a little at a time, or all at once.

Work Of Art:
The bad guys are modeling their crimes after a book/other bad guy/game.

Not that every criminal mastermind is totally original, but just how many times are we expected to buy someone is modeling their crimes after famous murders or taking their crimes from literature? Once you realize what it is they are modeling their crimes after, it is just a matter of predicting the next chapter and you’ll find your bad guy.

Someone’s Listening:
You trick someone into confessing into a secret tape recorder, open phone line, or to someone else hiding in the room.

This one is so ridiculous that it is often mocked, yet bad guys are still falling for it. Evil geniuses may also be egomaniacs, but evil geniuses also know not to confess everything to someone. Villains often feel compelled to confess or brag about their plans to someone, usually just before they plan on killing them. Of course the hero has called someone, is taping them, or had someone else hiding behind a curtain.

Whiz-Kid:
You know a 12 year-old, usually someone’s nephew, who is a master computer hacker who can retrieve any piece of data you could possibly ever want to know about anyone.

If it was as easy as it is in books for a hacker to break into a system to get information, we would go back to storing all our personal information on paper and locking it in a file cabinet. It is also somewhat difficult to gain control of streetlights or building security systems/cameras. Someone who could do this at will would not be bribed for a measly $50 for a video game. They would probably be a billionaire already from either legal or illegal means.

You know you're old when...

I know I’m getting older because I go to specific doctors now, for specific conditions/body parts. When you’re a kid, mom drags you to the same guy every time. He gives you a shot, antibiotics, or funky tasting medicine and problem solved. Now if there’s something wrong with me I find a doctor who specializes in whatever it is.

Today I went to a heart specialist. I’m probably just being paranoid, but I’ve had some unexplained chest pains so I just wanted to get checked out and make sure there’s nothing wrong with the old ticker. I am paying for health insurance, so I might as well use it! I’ll go back in August for a stress test, but the doctor said that everything sounded ok, and that it is probably just something muscular. Being fat, lazy, and out of shape doesn’t help much either I suppose.

I did feel young in the waiting room though surrounded by old people. I swear they were all giving me dirty looks thinking “what in tarnation does that young’n think he’s doin’ here anyway?”

Two old guys, one on the way in, and one on the way out, both remarked about how hot it was. I thought “hey, you’re old, you must’ve seen hotter” but they were just being nice. I guess I should relate since I feel like I’m 80 sometimes.

I made it back to work just in time to go out to lunch where I had an Italian beef with cheese, fries, and a banana malt for dessert. Healthy, eh?

The Schlongmobile

I saw this the other day at at the parking garage where I work and had to get a picture of it:

Long Mondays

Another long and boring Monday. The highlight of my day was a 2 1/2 hour project meeting. I was actually wide awake through the whole thing too.

My friend Keith and I went to Borders at lunch so he could get the new Harry Potter book. I haven’t read any of these yet, but I’ve liked the movies. I was looking for a good book on Home/PC recording. They only had one that I saw, but it was more about building a home studio.

I did pick up a couple of recording magazines though. I’m a total newbie with that stuff. I’ve used CakeWalk Guitar Tracks before but I’m no audiophile by any means. Something new to learn at least.

Speaking of that, I used to work with Sam Hulick, a guy that did a lot of original music. He’s actually won some awards and contributed to the soundtrack for the PlayStation Game Maximo vs. Army of Zin.

I happened across his page on myspace.com and added him as a friend. I didn’t have a pic on my profile at the time so he didn’t know it was me. I sent him an email reminding him who I was and I started to wonder if he remembered me but just didn’t like me. He remembered me and added me as a firend. I guess that makes him one of two or three people from that job that didn’t end up hating me. Long story.

I am ordering parts for a new PC and when it is setup I’ll be able to do some recording. That is if I ever come up with anything good to record!

One Shot, Lee Child

I just finished One Shot, by Lee Child.It is the latest in the Jack Reacher series. Reacher is an ex-MP, loner type who can’t seem to stay out of trouble, and I like the way Child portrays him. I wish I was a big-ass ex-MP who kicked-ass, took names, got the girls, and so on.

The only knock I have about this book is that the bad guy’s plan is way too elaborate, and sometimes things come a little too easy for Reacher. I know he spent years and years as an investigator, but sometimes he seems almost clairvoyant.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery/thriller type book and I’m looking forward to reading the next in the Reacher series.

My New Addition

My '80 Black Les Paul Standard arrived today. It looks to be in pretty good shape. I cleaned it up and restrung it and so far it sounds pretty good. Pics coming soon!!!

What's a Muppet?

“Espendrel mort der film der FLIP FLIP FLIP…”

I am quoting the Swedish Chef here from the Muppet movie, when the film melts, [listen here] because last night my monitor went poof. It powers up, makes a clicking sound, but nothing on the screen. I plugged a different monitor onto my machine and it worked fine.

I just said that after buying that ’80 Les Paul, and now that amp that I wasn’t going to make any large purchases fro a while. I’ll have to clarify that by saying no large “guitar-related” purchases. It is a good excuse to finally buy a flat screen anyway. The prices aren’t too bad. I’m looking at a Samsung SyncMaster 19” for about $300.

Here’s a funny Muppet story: A few years ago I worked for an ecommerce company. There was a young guy, probably 19 or 20 years old, working there as an intern. He was related to the guy that started the company (who was a few months younger than me!)

I had a laptop and on startup it played the Swedish Chef song.
[Listen here] One day he heard it and said “What is that?”

“It is the Swedish chef, you know, from the Muppets.” I answered.

“What’s a Muppet?”

Man, did I feel old. Eventually I was able to make a link between the Muppet babies cartoon, which he then remembered, and the actual Muppets that came before them. Whenever I might need to remind myself that I’m an adult now, and that all my best years are behind me, I only have to think of the words “What’s a Muppet?”.

Shouldn't I Be Somewhere?

I just couldn't get to sleep last night. I was hot and I felt like crap. I think it might have been the burger I has as a second lunch, the second huge plate of spaghetti when I got home, or possibly the nachos and taco I had before bed.

I ended up lying down on the couch around 2:30. I had two alarms set on my cell phone and I kind of remember them going off, but I must have turned them off.

I woke up again around 11 and realized I hadn’t called in sick to work yet. I left a message and when I got up later there were messages on both my cell phone and my regular phone from the consulting company I work for, not the client, looking for me. It’s nice to know that if I end up missing someone will notice, and I won’t be stuck rotting somewhere for a week first.

I just took it easy today and my stomach is finally settling down again. I know what you are thinking, and NO, I didn’t stay home to play with my new amp. In fact I didn’t even turn it on today until about 7pm!

Amped Up

I went to Guitar Center today after work to try out a few guitar amps. I've been looking at the Marshall AVT150, but I wanted to hear one before I ordered it online.

I saw they had a used AVT275 there for less than the cost of a new AVT150! It is a 2002 model, in very good condition (except for one knob missing and no footswitch). I ended up buying it and so far I'm liking it.

One of the cats, Tomwaits (yes, I named my cat after Tom Waits) came in, beheld the glory that is a Marshall amp, and bowed down before it.

The Mouse's Point of View

Ever wonder what it's like to be a mouse?

Poker Night

My friend Cesar called last night to invite me to an online poker tourney with a group of guys we used to play with. It was fun, but the blinds increased so fast that at the end it was just an All-In fest.

I’ve only played one tourney the last few months and it showed. First game I was out in 5th (of 7 players). The second game I came in 3rd. I was in the big blind and Cesar put me all in from the small blind. I had 8-3 offsuit, but I figured this had a chance since I knew he would put me all in with any 2 cards. I said I thought my 83 might be good, and it was. He had 75 suited. Sure enough, a 5 came on the flop and I was done. He had to have figured I would be forced to call with anything, since I wouldn’t have been left with less than the small blind, but I guess he wanted to take a chance with 2 live cards.

The 3rd game I hung in there until it was down to three. I had about the same as the player to my left, and the last guy had about half of what each of us had. I waited for a decent hand and luckily the short stack was down to a very short stack and I was able to knock him out (but not before he had doubled up twice in a row!).

It was heads up against me and Ken, who is a very strong player. He had a 2-1 lead, and I had a very slight lead when he went all in. I called with a decent hand, and I figured he had me beat, but either way I was going to get to go to bed. He won that hand, and I was crippled, but doubled up twice in a row from the binds, then again a few hands later.

We were just about even again and I went all-in a few times. I think this worked nicely because he folded a few hands from the small blind, which goes against his aggressive style. Because the blinds were so high by this point, I put him all in from the small blind when I got QQ! He called with a decent hand, but a Q came on the flop to seal it for me.

This might become a regular Sunday thing, but unless we can find a site that lets us change the structure, or has a slower blind structure, I’m not sure I’ll keep playing. I never do well in tournaments with blinds that go up so fast. Winning that last tourney I doubled my money at least.

I drink a lot of Diet Dr. Pepper, and the bottles I buy at work have a contest to win a Mini Cooper. I check the codes on the cap every day after lunch, and so far no luck. Because it is a Monday, and I didn’t want to do any actual work, I was reading the contest rules. It was about as interesting as you’d expect, until I came across this line:

Canadian residents must also correctly answer the mathematical skill-test question.

Congratulations! You won a mini-cooper! To claim your prize, please submit your winning game piece, contact information, and simply answer the following:

if ax^{2} + bx + c = 0 then x = ( -b [sqrt](b^{2} - 4ac) ) / 2a

Duke Of Onion

I went to get the AC recharged on my car. It hasn't worked since last summer, I've just been too lazy to get it taken care of up until now. I went to Duke of Oil, and the guy said they were closed, but I could go to the place across the street. It was another Duke of Oil directly across the street. Are they slowly taking over the world?

I'm sitting in the waiting area and I keep smelling onions. Strong onions. I was afraid it was me, until I saw a big rubber basket full of onions. I'm not sure why the Duke of Oil was giving away onions.

After waiting half an hour the guy came back in and told me that the system has a leak, and so I am still without AC. Now I need to go get a dye test to see where it is leaking, go without AC, or just buy another car. I wonder if any car dealers could set me up with a new car and a crate of Vidalias?

So I get a message from an eBay user that lost out on my new Les Paul:

Are you one of these sons of bitches that wait til the wee seconds to bid????

Yes, dumbass. It is called "winning an auction." Welcome to eBay!

Of the Heart, Of the Soul, and Of the Used CD

I love the concept of Hit Me Baby One More Time. I just wish they would pick songs I've heard of when they pick the current song to cover.

Was that Chip Z'Nuff playing with Juice Newton? It sure looked like him. As a bitter musician that never had any real type of success, I would LOVE to play on TV, but if I was in a band that was signed, released a couple albums, had videos on MTV and toured with for Cheap Trick, I think playing bass for Juice Newton on a show celebrating one hit wonders might be a bit of step down.

I was pretty surprised to see P.M. Dawn on there. I loved them, even though most of my metalhead friends made fun of me for it. I don't like 99% of rap, but they were so different, with their psychedelic-poetic style. Prince Be must have had a stroke or some illness because he needed help walking and performed while seated, and he didn't look good.

I actually broke down and bought their first album on CD. I had forgotten most of the songs but it was still as good as I remembered!

Black Beauty

Ok, so it isn't technically a Black Beauty, but it is a 1980 Ebony Gibson Les Paul Standard, and it is mine now!

I hate eBay, and especially people who sell nice Les Pauls on there. How am I supposed to save up to buy a house when there are so many Les Pauls out there not owned by me? I'll post more pics once I actually receive it.

Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen

Just finished reading Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen. The plot and characters are typical Hiaasen. Who else would use a frozen lizard as a weapon? It’s very clever, funny, and doesn’t rely on the same tired clichés most authors rely on. He’s one of the few authors whose style I like enough to make a point to read.


When I first looked at hit most recent novel, Skinny Dip, I wasn’t interested in it at all. It wasn’t until I saw a piece about him on 20/20 (or some other news-magazine show) and saw how funny he was, and how much quirky stuff he includes in his novels. Most of the stuff, especially the most ridiculous, is based on actual events.

The movie Striptease with Demi Moore was based on one of his books. This isn’t one of the books of his I’ve read yet, but it has to be better than the movie!

Not enough server storage is available to process this command

I have been trying to map a network drive so I can have access to my mp3 files, over 22g, all legally downloaded of course! I kept getting the following error:

Not enough server storage is available to process this command.

Not enough server storage? Huh? There's plenty of storage space! This is one of those errors that says one thing but means something else entirely. I was able to find KB Article Q177078 for the issue: Antivirus software may cause Event ID 2011. I had switched from Norton to AVG recently (free updates vs. paying for them? I'll take free updates for $0, Alex.) so I figured that was the issue.

This article tells you to add/modify a key in the registry (do so at your own risk!) which I tried. No luck. I set it to a higher value... nope. At this point I'm getting ready to start pulling my hair out and cursing Microsoft.

I did another round of googling and finally found the answer. What the KB article doesn't make clear is that you need to set this registry key on the machine that you are trying to connect to! I had set it on the machine trying to make the connection. Once I made the change on the other machine it worked fine.

Misleading error messages and unclear instructions, no wonder people hate computers!

Holy Hair Farmers Batman!

My sister was in town with my two nephews, Rogie, 6 and Tyler, 4. We went to a carnival on the lakefront in Whiting, IN. I can’t remember the last time I was in Whiting, on purpose or otherwise.

On the drive there I kept pointing out points of interest on Calumet Ave through Hammond, like the Hammond police station where she and my parents came to get me after an unfortunate “vehicular incident” involving myself and Car 141 belonging to Hammond’s finest.

The good thing about the carnival being on the lakefront was that there was a nice breeze. Since I didn’t plan on going on any of the rides, I was glad. It was not crowded at all at that time of day either. Tyler is big enough to go on just about any of the rides now, and he went on everything too.

The rides themselves were no problem for him, but he did have a little problem with the stairs for the “Roundup” (the one that you stand in a ring, which spins around, then lifts up at an angle.) He kind of missed the second step and fell off the side of the stairs, where there was no railing. This was about 5 feet, and when you are only around 3 feet tall, is quite a fall. He got the wind knocked out of him and scraped his elbow, but did no damage to his, as he calls it, “big bubbus head”.

I was off with my sister buying carnival treats and I saw my mom half-running to us. Funny how little things make you know something isn’t quite right, and I knew right away when I saw her something had happened. I saw my dad and a gaggle of carnies standing around him. He seemed ok, but they had paramedics come in and check him out just to be safe. The head carnie also gave us a bunch of free tickets and said he’d pay for the ambulance charge. Later on Tyler went back on the same ride, but this time my sister went with and made sure he got up & down the stairs ok!

After the falling fiasco, I was sitting in the shade when I saw a “long-haired freaky people” (which I used to be) guy walking past. I grew up on the “East Side” of Chicago, which is where Chicago meets Indiana & the lake. Whiting, IN was right next door, so I wasn’t surprised to see someone I knew, but I couldn’t believe it was my old friend Larry Roberts!

Larry and I had more than one adventure together, using involving some form of car trouble. The last time I saw Larry had to have been at least six or seven years ago. I haven’t talked to anyone from that whole group of people since New Years Eve, 1999. Funny how all the names and people don’t really go away because we were able to catch up for a minute and it was just like old times.

He has been playing with Novembers Doom since 1999. They’re doing pretty well, with a few albums out, a planned European tour, and should have their video played on the new Headbanger’s Ball. Now that will be weird, to see a guy who was my best friend on the Ball! It’s cool for him though, and nice to see that he and the drummer, Joe Nunez, who was also a friend of mine are having some success. Their music is a little too heavy and dark for my tastes, but they are all definitely very talented musicians!



I also found out that the infamous Willy Gee, another old friend, is a guitar tech for Megadeth's Glen Drover on the Gigantour! I remember him always being a big fan of Megadeth too so he's got to be happy. Busy as hell most likely, but happy! If he can avoid having to listen to all the crap that spews from Dave Mustaine's mouth it is the perfect job.

Larry is also the "Keeper of The Moder", the only known video in existence of me playing bass with my friend Ray’s band. "Moder" was a combination of his and the singer’s last name.

We played all covers at a city ward picnic in Calumet City, IL. It wasn’t even for all of Cal City, just one part. The show went ok, except for being interrupted for a woman to hand out the awards for "Best Garden" and "Greenest Lawn" during the middle of a set. Our opening act, "Sugar & Spice", was just like Salt-n-Pepa, only instead of hip, black rappers these were middle-aged white polka chicks.

The worst part is, if I remember clearly, I may have been wearing a Winger t-shirt. This was long before Stuart on Beavis & Butthead, but even so, Winger? I wish I could travel time and kick my own ass.

HungrieFest XV

HungrieFest XV was fun, but a little tamer than last year, which was tamer than the year before, and so on. HungrieFest is an annual picnic held at Busse Woods for friends and fans of the band “The Hungries” but is really just a large group of friends with almost everyone knowing one guy, Tom, in some way or another.

I planned on drinking but ended up only having three beers. Last year I was sick, but that was more from the heat and the fact that beer makes me sick. Not drunk-sick, but “my stomach just doesn’t handle beer well” sick. I’m sticking to Captain & Cokes from now on.

It was a perfect day for it too. Sunny, but nice and cool, with a bit of a breeze. I opted out of softball too since 2 years ago I broke and/or sprained my ring finger of my left hand playing softball. You have to understand, as a guitar player, my biggest fear (next to having my foot stuck in a bucket, which has nothing to do with being a guitar player) is hurting the fingers of my left hand. To this day it still feels a little funny sometimes, like it never quite healed 100% correctly.

When I first started hanging out with that whole group of people, there were two kids. Cash, which is Tom’s son, and a girl named Eva. This year everyone had kids, and some were on their second! It must be a trend! I think this also explains why it has become more of a get-together than the wild, drunken brouhahas of the past.

Welcome to my world!

So why a new blog? Why blog at all anyway? It is my Luftballon. Something to show that I am here. I also am doing it because my favorite thing to talk about is me, and I can do that here without being interrupted.

That doesn't explain why anyone would care to actually read it though. I consider myself a decent writer, I even have a few novels percolating in my head, but I don’t think there’s a writer on this planet that could make my day-to-day life interesting. So I plan on just boring you with the details.

This isn’t my first attempt at being a blogger (which to me sounds like one of those weird Australian rhyming slang things), but I’ve neglected them in the past. I will try to do better this time, and not let you down. Although if you are already here, well then you really can’t be expecting that much anyway, right?

I’ll talk about guitars, programming, music, football (US football, not soccer, rugby or Aussie rules, only the kind with tackling and shoulder pads), TV, celebrities I despise, politics, funny words, and everything else that I can of. So please feel free to get a glimpse into my world, but don’t day I didn’t warn you! Oh yeah, if you see links to something, please click them. I’d also like to make millions (or dozens) of dollars through my affiliate sites!