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February 29 - Figures... Spent the day sticking out like a sore thumb. Since it was sunny, I decided that it was officially summer. Of course, it was only summer-like if you're an Alaskan - the temperature struggled to hit 60. Nonetheless, I went out with the top down, donning the first obnoxious Hawaiian shirt of the season out in public. Ended up at a Jamaican restaurant. After plate number 3, I couldn't help but notice that there were some folks looking at me. I failed to realize that I was the only white guy in attendance. Longhaired white guys don't head into that place too often, I suppose... And certainly not while wearing shorts and Hawaiian shirts in the middle of winter. I'm gonna have to work on my "street smarts". Anyhow, you know the rest. Blah blah blah, record store. Updated the Playlist. Out of (hee hee) morbid curiousity... bought a cd by Morbid Angel. Then I realized something - death metal is really just a bunch of noise. Total garbage. And lyrically? Absolutely laughable. These guys are down with Satan like the rap community is down with Scarface. Does anyone take that kind of crap seriously, or am I the only one who sees that "With your spells I die again... All hail the Demon King / Yo I'm a total badass f'real" stuff as utter foolishness? I mean, at least I *knew* that my favorite bands were just putting on a show. I'd pay a lot of money to watch "tough" kids from the suburbs hang out in a real haunted house for a night, or on the rough side of town with nothing but a choice between red or blue bandannas. February 26 - Career Counseling Might be the only industry in existence in which I wouldn't mind watching all of my co-workers being downsized and as a result being left with increased responsibilities for myself. "You mean I have to research this one on my own? The things I do for this company... Now which account is coded for beverages again?" Ironically enough, I found that such a job exists while trying to plan a vacation FROM work. No mention of it at all on any of the career-building websites. Just goes to show what I've been saying for years... Nothing good comes from work, and nothing bad comes from the beach. February 24 - Indecision *Still* May Or May Not Be My Problem. February 22 - Signn me up. A good rule of thumb for job seekers - never work for someone who makes mistakes in their internationally-placed solicitations for help. Unless, of course, you catch them with a misplaced decimal point in their compensation package, too... Maybe they need a proofreader instead of a marketing director... February 21 - Can you hear *ME* now? So that's it... I'm done with those guys. I'm not nearly as upset about the $175 as I am about having my pre-weekend pretty good mood spoiled... And for having to look for another cell phone provider that has as much national coverage... Anyone else out there happy/unhappy with your plans? Let me know... I'm in the market again. February 20 - One Year Later... And remember that the hard rock community really needs to stick together and lend support to each other in whatever ways we can. Our family is strong in conviction, even if no longer in number. And one more thing... MTV still sucks for not even covering the story when it happened, much less doing anything since. February 19 - You want to do what? I am politically active. I do vote. And I've made no secret that although I'm not dogmatically indoctrinated by any political belief, I tend to lean more towards the conservative side. (Translation - if a Republican tells me something, I don't believe it. If a Democrat tells me something, don't believe it and then I throw something at him) So I'm reading all of the crap the Republicans have sent me over the past few weeks. They're talking about going to Washington to fight waste and gridlock. I'm fine with that, but last time I checked, the Republicans controlled the Presidency, and held majorities in most of the legislative branch. Let me get this straight... You, as a Republican, are going to Washington to fight waste and gridlock created by incumbents. YOUR PARTY IS THE INCUMBENT. IT'S YOUR OWN BUDGET. *Sigh*. It almost makes me want to run a bunch of PSA's for my new campaign - "Don't Vote, It Only Encourages Them" February 16 - The Grass is NOT Greener! Let me get this straight... In my dream, I gave up a salaried position with a company I've helped establish locally to stock shelves at a retailer I generally hold in massive contempt. (Unless, of course, I need toilet paper.) I've also got friends and co-workers who used to work at Target, and few of them have much good to say about their experiences. Strange dream, indeed. I can't imagine that it has any basis in reality at all. But just in case it does, I do remember the code to get into the stockroom. I'll never have to pay for toilet paper again... February 15 - WWJB*D?
So now I'm (once again) trying to decide whether or not I want to buy a house or sell almost all of my stuff and spend the proceeds on sailing lessons. I don't want to spend my whole life as a wage slave. Wage slaves don't get to see sunsets in Lucaya. They don't have margaritas for breakfast. And they don't worry about whether or not they're (over)producing enough to avoid the whimsical belt-tightening of a newly-hired higher-up who's just trying to show us that it's possible to do more, faster, with less, now. I can finally see the logic in downsizing... Having less stuff makes it easier to throw it in a sack and run. Thanks for the lesson, corporate America... Which side seems to make more sense?  *JB - Jimmy Buffett February 14 - Yeah, whatever... February 11 - IMPORTANT! In other news... I'll share it with you some other time. It's still far too disgusting right now. Besides, I'm running late for a gym workout. February 9 - Just for fun  This is the "Hey, the look worked for Stryper, but I'm original since I'm using a different color scheme" promo pic. If you're lucky, maybe someday I'll add it to the gift shop. If you're even luckier, I'll autograph it... And if you're extremely blessed, I'll dig up some more stupid clothes later when I spend another day off cleaning my closet and really make a giant ass out of myself! February 8 - Hittin' The Bins... Now for the fun stuff. Today's finds included: Diamond Rexx - The Evil. These guys have always been one of my guilty pleasures. They started out in Chicago as a full-on glam band, but have evolved into a dark and sinister hybrid of L.A. Guns, Metallica, and a heroin-induced car wreck. As for the vocal stylings of Nasti Habits, you'll either love it or hate it. There's just no other way to put it. I can say that the vocals on this album are the most listenable out of all of the previous Diamond Rexx releases. But I kinda miss the flashier side of guitarist S. St Lust that was more obvious on Land Of The Damned and on the D'Moll's releases. Nonetheless, this cd is brutally heavy and much less mainstream than anything they've done. And my first nominee for "The FJ.com Album of The Year"... FireHouse - Prime Time. I almost missed this one. I already had a handful of cds (including the 2 above) and was getting ready to head to the counter to pay for them. But I figured I'd make one more pass through the new releases. I'm so glad I did. I cannot put into words just how good this cd is. While their recent works have shown a more mature side, and have (from a songwriting perspective) been very strong, there was something missing. If you missed out on the the past few cds from them, you're forgiven. Don't bother playing catch-up right now. I don't say this too often, but you NEED to go get this cd. NOW. C.J. Snare's vocals have remained powerful, and Bill Leverty has always been a (in my opinion) criminally underrated guitar player. He goes back to the wild guitar style of the first 2 FireHouse releases. Memorable, catchy riffs and technically proficient, blazing solos abound. C.J. hits the high notes again. And when he isn't, Michael Foster and Bill Leverty make their lead vocal debuts. Bill's got one of those Southern-rock growls, that somehow always make a song sound cool. This is, quite easily, even better than their first album. Imagine the musical style of that cd with the songwriting style of the more recent ones. THIS IS THE REAL DEAL. It'll probably be a runaway success in Asia, where FireHouse still enjoys a sizeable fan base. In America, if this cd doesn't get them a good tour of their own (or at the very least, a slot on the Poison tour this summer), the world will be proven to be a totally unfair place. I've already listened to this cd a few times today, and I haven't even been able to find one thing to pick on. They even had the nerve to keep their hair and not get fat - how am I supposed to rip on 'em? Doesn't matter. If you only buy one hard rock cd this month, make this your purchase. I'll even make it easy for you: Buy the import from Amazon. February 6 - Best of Intentions Went into the closet, intending to bring out a few boxes and file the contents in my new file cabinet. Spent about 2 hours just looking at old pictures I'd forgotten about. Everything from the days of poodle hair to musical jams of the past to my failed attempt(s) at domesticity... One thing's remained constant: I hate the way I look in pictures. February 5 - Expensive Lesson Figures... I was probably one of the last people on Earth to get one, and didn't necessarily want it when I did get it. If it doesn't turn up in the next day or two I'll just pay the early termination fee and cancel the rest of the contract... Spend the $50/month on something better... February 3 - FJ.com, Inc. I buy a giant friggin' file cabinet. This thing is enormous. I actually had to take the top off of my car just to get it home. Oh well... At least I get to throw out some boxes, while retaining the health records from pets who've died years ago... And autographed fliers from minor league hockey teams who've since folded and changed cities... And coupons to theme parks that have since closed... And newspapers from countries I visited some 10 years ago... Now if I could only find the title to my car, my social security card, and those dadblasted W-2 forms from last week... February 1 - Random babbling Finance and fitness. On the financial side, I've re-balanced all of my portfolios and made a few pledges to myself for the next year. On the good side, the pledges I made to myself 5 years ago have finally started to be rewarding and noticeable. On the bad side, it's still a long road ahead. But getting back over to the good side again, with consistency, patience, and a little bit of luck my retirement portfolio will be worth nearly $2 million. And that's on my paltry salary, assuming I never get another job/promotion and that my raises only keep pace with inflation. The only catch is that I have to continue to be smart with what little money I can scrape up... But I think I could help a lot of folks out there who (like me) aren't rolling in money right now but would one day like to do so. Especially people who never really think about things like retirement and their futures. I've also *finally* gotten myself back to working out on a regular basis and taking better care of myself. It'd been a while. Sometime between my binge in the Caribbean and Christmas, I lost focus of all of my fitness goals. I found most of them again. (Until my next Caribbean binge, that is...) I think there might be another subsection of the site dealing with all of this stuff. Or not... |
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