Bass

I've always loved music, ever since my dad would play me the beatles and green day and other phenomenal bands when I was a kid. Around fifth grade I attempted to get on the pop music bandwagon, and I almost succeeded, but as it turns out, most of today's pop music sucks. So I find more comfort in grunge, rock, metal, and alternative music.

Most recently I've been very much into the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Cage The Elephant to name two, but focusing more on the Chili Peppers, and in Flea, the bassist, in particular. Over the summer one of the junior counselors had an acoustic bass guitar, and I haven't really shown that much interest in guitars, but it was then I realized that bass is a super cool instrument! My reasoning was this: one, it'll be fun to learn and play, and two, chicks dig guys with guitars, or so I'm told. So when I got home from camp that summer, my dad found me a used acb (acoustic bass guitar) that I could borrow, and I've been learning ever since, mostly learning bass tabs from the Chili Peppers but otherwise slowly teaching myself, familiarizing myself with the bass and having way too much fun. My advice, if you have way to much time on your hands, then pick up an instrument and mess around. Even if you have no intention of learning it, it's still a ton of fun.

Such Great Hights

I am thinking it's a sign
That the freckles in our eyes
Are mirror images
And when we kiss they're perfectly aligned

And I have to speculate
That God Himself did make
Us into corresponding shapes
Like puzzle pieces from the clay

And true it may seem like a stretch
But it's thoughts like this that catch
My troubled head when you're away
And when I am missing you to death

And when you are out there on the road
For several weeks of shows
And when you scan the radio
I hope this song will guide you home

They will see us waving from such great heights
Come down now, they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away
Come down now but we'll stay

I tried my best to leave
This all on your machine
But the persistent beat
It sounded thin upon the sending

And that frankly will not fly
You'll hear the shrillest highs
And lowest lows with the windows down
And this is guiding you home

They will see us waving from such great heights
Come down now they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away
Come down now but we'll stay

They will see us waving from such great heights
Come down now they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away
Come down now but we'll stay

(They will see us waving from such great heights)
(Come down now)
They will see us waving from such great heights
(Come down now)

DO NOT READ THIS POST! PLEASE, WHATEVER YOU DO, JUST DON'T READ IT!

Ok, since you've obviously disobeyed my above request you may as well read this post, because by now you're already almost all the way to the end of the second line. The real title of this post should have been reverse psychology, but I thought this might be a little more intriguing.

Most people have, at one point in their life, used reverse psychology on someone. That someone was probably younger than you, and you wanted them to do something for you or stop doing something. This tactic doesn't normally work on older people, who are more experienced in the use of reverse psychology, and know when to just not listen. Then of course there are the people who say, "listen to me, and the subject of this command must choose whether to ignore them, and therefore listen to reverse psychology, or obey the command. What should you do when caught in this situation? Well listen to me of course, and jump up and down on the spot until you fall asleep from exhaustion.

xkcd

A few years back, I was given a copy of Randall Munroe's, "What If?" I began to leaf through it and found increasingly ludicrous, and, might I add, interesting and thought provoking. From just the cover you can see that it really is ridiculous. It shows a dinosaur dangling over the sarlacc from star wars. After reading through the absurd answers to questions such as, "Is it safe to swim in a spent nuclear fuel pool?" and, "What if we put a portal that is one meter in diameter at the bottom of the mariana trench to drain the oceans?" and many more.

After finishing the book, I wanted more, because there just wasn't enough destruction for me in that one book. To solve this, I turned to the internet, and more specifically, xkcd, which is Randall Munroe's online web comic. xkcd doesn't actually stand for anything or mean something, but the actual comics are amazing. here are a few of my favorite ones. Hope you laugh a little and if you want more, just search for xkcd.com!

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

OCD. We've all heard someone blame one of their abnormalities on this extreme medical condition. Most of the times when someone says this they don't have OCD, maybe a mild form of it, but OCD can be extremely dangerous. Some types of OCD can cause strong impulses or thoughts that the person in question feels obligated to act on. These impulses are usually of a religious, sexual, or violent nature, and the person is unable to resist, possibly hurting themselves or others in the process. They are often confused, and don't really realize why they are doing what they're doing. Thankfully, this kind of OCD is very rare.

On another, lighter note, here's a music video by Rhett & Link, a pair of middle aged youtubers who are actually quite funny. It's about OCD, but not the super bad kind. Even though the video is extremely funny, and the song is really catchy, remember that this is actually real, and it affects people's lives in a very real way. One of the guys' wives  has actually been diagnosed with OCD, again, not the really bad kind, but it just goes to show that they're not making fun of OCD, or the people who have it. They're just writing a funny song and making a funny video about it. So please, if you can, laugh with them, not at them. But please do laugh. :D

All Apologies

I wanted to apologize for not posting anything lately. I have been living through many different extremes lately. By that I mean that some parts of my life are phenomenal, and some parts are pretty dismal. Not to long ago I was doing almost a post a day, and I realize that I've slowed down a lot. From now on I will try to post at least once a week, and probably more if I have the time and motivation.

Anyway, I've had this song stuck in my head for a while now, and yes, it is called All Apologies.

Lyrics
What else should I be
All apologies
What else could I say
Everyone is gay
What else could I write
I don't have the right
What else should I be
All apologies

In the sun
In the sun I feel as one
In the sun
In the sun
I'm married
Buried

I wish I was like you
Easily amused
Find my nest of salt
Everything is my fault
I'll take all the blame
Aqua sea foam shame
Sunburn with freeze burn
Choking on the ashes of her enemy

In the sun
In the sun I feel as one
In the sun
In the sun
Married, maried, maried!
Buried!
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are

All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are

All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are

All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are

Stories Are The Only Thing Worth Dying for

The Unwritten is an eleven book graphic chronicle or the life of Tom Taylor, The son of a famous writer. In fact, the reason that Wilson Taylor is famous is his son. Wilson Taylor wrote a series of books about Tommy Taylor, a fictional boy based on his son, and there was the real pull for readers. A fictional boy and a real boy growing up at the same time, with virtually the same name. In the few excerpts you see of Wilson Taylor’s books you see that there are many parallels to other famous works, such as The Lord Of The Rings, Winnie The Pooh The Hobbit, The Chronicles Of Narnia, and most predominantly, Harry Potter.

Tom Taylor struggles with his life as other people begin to proclaim that he is Tommy Taylor, and that he is the second coming of christ. Tom Taylor’s life becomes more and more difficult as his life begins to mingle with Tommy’s and danger starts materializing at every twist in the path.

At first Tom Taylor only notices the discrepancies along the transition from reality to story. As those lines blur, and Tom Taylor starts to become one with Tommy Taylor, he begins to see which way the current is really pulling. He realizes that It was reality that was different from the stories, and that reality itself could be changed by belief from the masses. Tom Embraces his life as one of the few who have been given special abilities by Leviathan, the giant whale that feeds off stories.
I recommend this series for anyone who has the time to read them, and anyone who doesn't. It is a great story, even if it has some violence and explicit images. Definitely worth your time.

New Years Resolutions

I have never done one of these before. It seemed like a promise to myself that I would keep for a few weeks and then feel bad about breaking. But this year I have decided to try one out. But I promised myself that I would not make one that was impossible to complete, like those people in facebook who say that they are not going on facebook for a whole year. Which is ridiculous of course because nobody who is addicted to facebook is going to give it up for an entire year. Their resolve will crumble after maybe a week. So I decided to make an easy one. I decided that I wanted to be more cheerful. I realized that even though there are a lot of things in my life that aren't going the way that I planned, I need to be thankful for the things that are going well. So for the next three hundred and sixty-five days I will try my best to be more happy, and also a nicer person in general.

Music Is The Best Drug

Ok, hear me out here. I'm not saying that music is actually a drug, just that it has some qualities similar to drugs. For instance, music can get you into a mood, all kinds both positive and negative. I clearly remember playing dodgeball every day as a kid, at the old Williamstown Youth Center, where I used to go every day after school. One day some kid brought a CD player and played some pop music while we played dodgeball. I didn't even like the song! But I still found myself sort of bouncing to the beat, and once I realized it, I stopped, and then promptly started again once I realized that: one, it helped with the game, and two, everyone else was doing the exact same thing. Except for those sorry souls who had gotten out earlier in the game. These were sulking in a corner, feeling sorry for themselves. The point of this little anecdote is to show that music can affect your behavior, and make you act unlike your normal self. In a lot of drugs this is a bad thing, but not always. I have mild ADHD, which doesn't affect me all that much, but makes it really hard for me to sit still and focus, and make the right decisions. I take a medicine that doesn't make me calm, it allows me more time to think about things, almost in slow motion. This doesn't stop me from making poor choices, but it does allow me to choose instead of rushing to unpleasant conclusions that can lead to unwelcome circumstances.

Music can also be a tool, it can help you keep pace when running, or it can help you tune someone out really easily. But it can also be very inspirational, comicaly so. This leads us to our next anecdote. This actually happened very recently. My cousin and I decided to go outside and walk around in the woods next to my house. I had gotten a portable speaker for christmas and I brought it outside and started playing Two Steps From Hell music as a joke, saying that in order to climb the ridge, which was slick with snow, we would need some inspirational epic music. I have done a bit about Two Steps From Hell in this blog, but heres a few things you may or may not know about them. They write trailer music, so movies and video games mostly. But their songs are pretty well known, but they aren't. But anyway me and my cousin started dancing and generally making fools of ourselves and it was glorious, although i'm really glad that no one else was there to see or it would have been extremely embarrassing.

All I'm really saying in this post is that music is good for you, any side effects are most likely not a problem. Keep the volume down though, I'm not counting hearing loss as a side effect in this context. Listening to music should be natural, if you feel like singing along in a terrible, off key voice, please do so. If you want to dance, pretend nobody's watching, but even so, in a crowded lace neither of these are very good ideas, as the people around you might complain. Don't force your music on anybody, but enjoy it all the same. Happy 2016 everybody!

Last Post Of The Year!

This is sort of a tradition for me. Every year before new years I do a bunch of "last time this year" stuff. I play jokes on people by telling them that This is the last time i'm going to school this year, or something of the sort. Anyway, this is my last post this year! It's not really a joke, because it's true and there's nothing weird about that. I just had the impulse to write this post, it doesn't have a purpose other than to serve as something for me to do right now. But why not? So happy 2016 everyone, don't make any stressful resolutions, but keep to the ones you do make. Have a great year and try to make it the best one yet. Happy new Year!

Everything Looks Prettier With Snow

I can clearly remember driving past some field in the middle of winter when I was much younger and gazing at the awesome sparkly snow. Which was, for some reason, never the same when you got all dressed up and went plowing into the stuff it was never as beautiful as it seemed from afar. Partly because I had just destroyed the surrounding sea of white. Every once in awhile when we get some quality snow that actually sticks on the ground you see the same kind of snow.

The other way that I think snow contributes to the beauty of the landscape is when it is just sticky enough to coat all the bare tree branches so they are transformed from ugly, dead trees, and into beautiful, snow coated...well, trees. I am so glad that there is snow now. The town looks much nicer now that most of the dead plants are covered. I only hope that it doesn't melt before I get some quality skiing in.

This Is Getting Ridiculous

Christmas for my family comes in phases. Usually my grandparents and my aunt arrive for christmas eve, and then leave a few days later. They are shortly followed by my other grandparents, who have just left my cousins' house in connecticut. They are here right now, which I am very happy about, but the present they gave is just a tad insane. They got me and my dad another drone. Except that this time it's one of the ones that is really serious. It is called the DJI Phantom 3, and it is really cool! I am still loving my other drone though, and it is a lot more simple to play with because there's not as much tech. Below is a video of the new drone, and it's really cool!

Commas

Commas are so underappreciated. They help shape our sentences, so that we don't make hilarious, yet terrible mistakes. Commas can not only help sentences, the can do irrevocably damage, so be careful, and do not underestimate the power of the comma They can even save lives. I have taken the liberty of putting a few down below, some are my own, and some are from the internet. Enjoy, and laugh a little.

Most of the time, travelers worry about their luggage.
Most of the time travelers worry about their luggage.

Stop clubbing baby seals!
Stop clubbing, baby seals!

Let's eat grandpa!
Let's eat, grandpa!

Unable to eat diarrhea
Unable to eat, diarrhea

The criminal said the judge was an idiot.
The criminal, said the judge, was an idiot.

Slow, animal crossing.
Slow animal crossing.

I love cooking kids!
I love cooking, kids

Go eat my child.
Go eat, my child.

Slow children at play.
Slow, children at play.

As you can see, commas are powerful. Dangerously so, and commas aren't the only ones, periods question marks, and exclamation points are as well. So be careful, and the next time you feel like forgetting your punctuation, think twice.

Remember The Name

I have done a couple of songs in this blog before, but i'm doing a bit of an intro for this one. I don't listen to much rap, but I do like it a little bit. To me this song is about passion, and especially sports, the chorus makes that pretty obvious. I also think it has a pretty nice flow, and the beat is really catchy. The actual song is pretty explicit, so I have included the clean version, the lyrics are my interpretation of the actual song, I didn't look it up, so they could be wrong. If you happen to know that this is the case just leave a comment and I will fix the mistake. Enjoy!

You ready?! Let's go!

Yeah, for those of you that want to know what we're all about

It's like this y'all (C'mon)

This is ten percent luck

Twenty percent skill

Fifteen percent concentrated power of will

Five percent pleasure

Fifty percent pain

And a hundred percent reason to remember the name

He doesn't need his name up in lights

He just wants to be heard whether it's the beat or the mic

He feels so unlike everybody else, alone

In spite of the fact that some people still think that they know him

But no, he knows the code, it's not about the salary

It's about reality and making some noise

Making a story, making sure his clique stays up

That means when he puts it down, Tak's pickin' it up

Who the hell is he anyway, he never really talks much

Never concerned with status but still leavin' them star struck

Humbled through opportunities given despite the fact

That many misjudge him because he makes a livin' from writing raps

Put it together himself, now the picture connects

Never asking for someone's help, or to get some respect

He's only focused on what he wrote; his will is beyond reach

And now it all unfolds, the skill of an artist

This is twenty percent skill, eighty percent beer

Be a hundred percent clear 'cause Ryu is ill

Who would've thought that he'd be the one to set the west in flames

Then heard him wreckin' with The Crystal Method, Name Of The Game

Came back, dropped Megadef, took 'em to church

I like bleach, man, Ryu had the stupidest verse

This dude is the truth, now everybody be givin' him guest spots

His stock's through the roof; I heard he f*****' with S-Dot

They call him Ryu he's sick, and he's spittin' fire and Mike

Got him out the dryer he's hot, found him in Fort Minor with Tak

What a f*****' nihilist porcupine; he's a *****; he's a ****

The type women want to be with and rappers hope he get shot

Eight years in the makin' patiently waitin' to blow

Now the record with Shinoda's takin' over the globe

He's got a partner in crime; his s*** is equally dope

You won't believe the kind of s*** that comes out of this kid's throat

He's not your every day on the block

He knows how to work with what he's got

Makin' his way to the top

He often gets a comment on his name

People keep asking him was it given at birth

Or does it stand for an acronym?

No, he's livin' proof that he rockin' the booth

He'll get you buzzin' quicker than a shot of vodka with juice

Him and his crew are known around as one of the best

Dedicated to what they do and give a hundred percent

Forget Mike, nobody really knows how or why he works so hard

It seems like he's never got time

Because he writes every note and he writes every line

And I've seen him at work when that light goes on in his mind

It's like a design is written in his head every time

Before he even touches a key or speaks in a rhyme

And those other fellas he runs with, the kids that he signed

Ridiculous, without even trying, how do they do it?

Drone

I got a drone for Christmas, and I've been learning to fly it. it's really cool. Please watch the video below, which was taken by the drone camera. I have gotten much better at flying it since then.

Let It Snow

There is a distressing lack of snow on the ground, and for some people, this is great. To the contrary, many of my friends agree with me when I say that when you sign up for nordic skiing, you don't want to be doing dryland training for long. Dryland training is basically running, but there is a lot more weights involved, because of the extra strength skiing requires. Here's my theory. I think that we got all our snow from this year, last year. Last year there was to much snow. Yes, I as a skier said that to much snow exists. Of course, this is only for grooming reasons, where a lot of snow can hinder both alpine and nordic skiers. Last year we had so much snow that it became a large portion of our national news because of the damage it caused. Now this year, we have more records. Christmas has come and passed without even an inch of snow on the ground. Even though there's no snow on the ground, there is still hope. One day at practice it did snow a little bit, not much, and I only noticed it because I was outside, and none of it stuck so it was pointless. But it did serve as a reminder that there is hope, and that there is a chance that I will get to ski sometime this year. So go outside and do a snow dance, or pray to the snow gods, or whatever. Just keep your fingers crossed for snow.

Running

Finally I breach the subject of running. Before I start my rant I will make it clear that as a runner I am fairly towards the front middle of the pack, so I know a bit about running. I have been running for three years now, ever since seventh grade, when I could barely run a mile, to now, were a five mile run is only a mild inconvenience. Also, as a runner I can say that I absolutely despise running. Well, most running. Most people only run for fun, or even if it's for some other sport they usually only run short distances. Now of course I'm not saying that baseball and soccer players and basketball players don't work hard when they run. This isn't about that. But it seems natural that even though running is a part of those things, it's not a difficult as what we do. To put it another way, I doubt basketball players work on their running form.

Running is terrible. It hurts more than you can imagine, that is unless you run of course, and many other reasons, only some of which I will now list. You can get injuries in a variety of ways, some of which take months to recover from, you get so tired after a workout you are rendered practically asleep, and the worst thing of all is that you know that if you just stop, the pain will all dissipate.

So now the obvious question. Why do I do it. Well there are a few reasons, All of which I will list here. It keeps me in shape for nordic skiing, which is much harder than running but a lot more satisfying, a bunch of my friends do it, and yeah, that's it.

Before, I mentioned that I didn't hate all running. This is true, but the only kind of running that I enjoy is when you are going for a long distance run, not too long but just long enough that it's a pretty chill pace. This is the kind of run where you and a friend, or a group of people can just talk and have fun, and surprisingly, it really is fun! Also, since the pace isn't too frantic you are able to focus on more than just the end of the run. In short, a good run looks and feels like this.

Thank You

This is for all of the people who have been consistently reading and showing interest in my blog. I know that it might seem trivial, but that support really helps me. It allows me to shape this blog into what I want it to be, not just some idiot's rambling stashed somewhere in the internet where nobody can find it. I want it to be read, and since I know that people are reading it, or at least looking at it, I am able to use my favored style of writing, which is meant to be read aloud, like a speech. This is my thank you for all of the people who have even acknowledged that I was writing a blog, and didn't laugh too much. Thank you, and best wishes for the holiday season.

Why Not?

It's the oldest, lamest, and worst excuse of all time, but still people use it. It's the go to explanation for anything that can't be explained in the moment. It's much easier to have an argument if you know what you're going to say, but if a startling question is suddenly brought to light it is a lot more difficult. Thats where "Why Not?" comes in.

I did a quick search of the internet for "Why Not?", and I found an interesting site. I would have to say that it is the most justified use of the phrase I have found so far. The site Why Not? is an idea exchange, where all kinds of lunatics like me are potentially able to share any harebrained schemes with others like them. Although I do not know how the site works yet, as I have only just discovered the site myself, I believe that it is things like these that keep me sane, relatively speaking. Finding these sorts of things anywhere makes me feel included, like my thoughts can somehow be expressed and heard by others. That is a good feeling. All jokes aside though, this is a good mantra to live by, and I don't just mean go do something stupid because why not, I mean to really think, why should I not, and then make a decision based on that. Don't rush through life, hurrying from one moment to the next. Now is the time, because why not?

Shake Me Down

Shake me down,
Not a lot of people left around,
Who knows now,
Softly laying on the ground, ooooh
Not a lot people left around, ooooh. ooooh

In my life, I have seen,
People walk into the sea,
Just to find memories,
Plagued by constant misery,
Their eyes cast down,
Fixed upon the ground,
Their eyes cast down

I'll keep my eyes fixed on the sun

Shake me down,
Cut my hair on a silver cloud,
Broken sound,
Softly laying on the ground, ooooh
Not a lot people left around, ooooh, ooooh

In my past, bittersweet,
There's no love between the sheets,
Taste the blood, broken dreams,
Lonely times indeed,
With eyes cast down,
Fixed upon the ground,
Eyes cast down

I'll keep my eyes fixed on the sun

Turn back now its time for me to let go,
Way down had to find a place to lay low,
Lampshade turned around into a light post

Walk around the corner,
Never saw it coming still,
I try to make a move,
It almost stopped me from belief,
I don't wanna know the future,
But I'm like rolling thunder,

Even on a cloudy day,
Even on a cloudy day,
Even on a cloudy day,
Even on a cloudy day,
Even on a cloudy day,
Even on a cloudy day,
Even on a cloudy day,

I'll keep my eyes fixed on the-
I'll keep my eyes fixed on the-
I'll keep my eyes fixed on the sun

Shake me down,
Not a lot of people left around, ooooh, ooooh