small thought #3

By the time you get enough paper towel from the automatic paper towel dispenser in a public restroom, not only will your hands be dry enough from waving them in front of that stupid little red sensor, but you will also look like a complete idiot in the process. The same thing goes when you try to wash your hands only to hold them in the sink basin with nothing happening. I think I figured out why those things were invented. Check for secret cameras, because someone is watching you wave like an idiot in front of those things.

stop sign

Some things weren't meant to be fun. Being pulled over in front of everyone in a crowded neighborhood is one of those things. Police officers around here really have nothing better to do, because the crime rate is comparably lower than the national average. Justifying speeding in a residential area is traffic suicide, especially when your speedometer doesn't work. So I'm used to hearing the phrase "I was going to give you a warning, but since you were going 15 mph over the limit there is little I can do." then the officer goes to his car for twenty minutes to fill out papers. While he's in the car any number of friends, work associates, and family members that have never dropped by inevitably will. The fun doesn't stop there. In order to preserve a clean driving record you must be subjected to what is known as traffic school...

"it might not be worth it" I thought, when I pulled into the police station. The directions were hard to read and I wasn't sure what I was up against. When I try to explain myself to the woman behind the desk, she looks at me and asks if I had received the other paper from the other courthouse in another building on the the other side of town. Nope guess not.

I always get caught speeding when I'm pissed at something. In this case, the Department of Motor Vehicles. They had messed up the name on the title to my truck and I was gearing up for battle when I saw flashing lights in my rearview. I didn't know where to pull over so I stopped in front of the exit to the DMV. No one could get out of the parking lot. Cars began to pile up as the officer went through the usual motions. I didn't care. It was not the best day ever.

at the court house I had a hard time finding a place to park. When I tried to go through the metal detector at the door, the officer told me I had to take my cell phone back to my car because it was capable of taking pictures of the holiest of holies in that particular building. Went back, took the elevator up and saw a room of miserable people. After waiting and waiting I was ushered into a room where this lady was typing furiously on a computer. After looking me up and down a few times she told me I was able to purchase the piece of paper that granted me the right to go back to the police station and pay even more money to the state. And I always thought that traffic school was the easier alternative.

to be continued...

soundtrack

The following is a list of songs that will be included in the soundtrack to the movie of my life:

1. "Don't stop Believing" by Journey
2. "Pictures of You" by the Cure
3. "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John
4. "Movin' Out, (Anthony's Song)" by Billy Joel
5. "Just What I Needed" by the Cars
6. "Don't look Back in Anger" by Oasis
7. "Just" by Radiohead
8. "Get Back" by The Beatles
9. "Mr. Blue Sky" by ELO
10. "Bloody Well Right" by Supertramp

These are a few of the songs that will be included. I wanted an older rock sound for this film because it's my life and I can make the movie how ever the freak I want to.

Go out and listen to them.

this just in

Sometimes I think that people don't realize how stupid they look on television. Everything you see that reporter on location at the scene of an accident or a sporting event, there is always that dufus in the background flashing gang signs or making a strange face. Some people believe that when you turn a video camera on it makes someone a different ugly person. I don't know why.

I think that the most blatant misuse of televised stupidity comes from talk shows and The Price is Right. I don't know if comparing Jerry Springer to Bob Barker is even possible, but the people they deal with would qualify them as referees of a different drum. If winning a car means you can run around a sound stage screaming and waving your arms, be my guest. If your man is sleeping with other men to get money for drugs, you can hit him with a chair. Its ok. Television lets you do this. There is an overwhelming desire to see this type of behavior on television. The Nielson ratings prove this. I don't condone this behavior, but it's fun to watch.

the next time I'm on TV I'm going to lift up my shirt and make ugly faces. Because I can.

small thought # 2

There are many ways to write a song. You can make the music first and write the lyrics. You can write the lyrics and find a theme and the song evolves around that idea. Improvisation helps. After a few minutes it all come into effect. Computers and 4-tracks help things out a bit.

so I'm going to write some music soon. I want to finish something by the end of the year.

unwanted noise

What happened to music? People go on and on how things that were popular twenty years ago will always come back and be the "new thing" again. 90's alternative has gone the way of the buffalo, and with a few exceptions, most of the groups that were vital in making 90's alternative what it was have disbanded. What is found on the radio these days is the ever evolving mix of what is left of rock music. People complain that music isn't "emo" enough, it isn't "indie" enough, it isn't "alternative" enough. What surprises many is that they begin to like the same music that everyone listened to ten or twenty years ago. Check the radio, the next time you hear something from Franz fedinand or The Bravery, you'll know what this is all about.

Is there a lack of originality or are people just prepared to listen to what they like from twenty years ago? Are things going to come full circle again?

Technology can be blamed. Because music is so accessible to the impressionable 13 year old, it is easier for one to get into music today. The internet itself is an endless jukebox of techno, polka, and salsa music. With a computer and a new ipod that you got for Christmas, you can fill your brain with over 13 hours of music at a time before the batteries start to die down.

Studies have shown that more younger people are experiencing hearing loss than ever before because of the constant music from personal stereos. Are we plugged in all the time? Since the popularity of the mp3 player more and more people are walking through walmart and school campuses with those white earbuds in their ears. No one is paying attention anymore.

chances are

Thousands of people are lining up in front of gas stations to purchase their powerball tickets. The prize has risen to $340 million and many people are itching to get their hands on that mountain of cash. Many pick their own personal lucky numbers, such as family member's birthdays, to increase their chance of winning. The news has publicized this as one of the biggest lotteries around and many are sure that this is the big one. Everyone wants to win the big one. Whenever people look through their junk mail, they believe that they will be standing in their pjs on the front porch watching publishers clearing house hand over a big oversized check. Most people expect to win prizes.

Everyone has been to one of those pizza places when they were little. They were all the same basic concept: crappy pizza, crappy pitchers of rootbeer, crappy animatronic beavers moving and singing to whatever was on the radio and tons of video games to siphon more money out of your parent's wallet. Those places made bank on little kids with the prizes they gave out from games that rewarded the player with tickets. skee-ball and other games give tickets to redeem for awesome prizes ranging from little candies and plastic jewelry to the am/fm clock radio and the coveted 13 inch color television. Of course the TV cost like 15000 tickets and there was no possible way to get that many tickets. Ever. No matter how bad you cheated and ran up the skee-ball ramp to put balls in the middle hole, there was no possible way to earn 15000 tickets for the TV or the radio. I'm sure if kids could add it up it would be cheaper to go out and by the crappy TV than spend 15000 tickets worth of quarters. Leaving the place with nothing but a finger trap and a half eaten pizza was nothing compared to the kid who saved enough tickets to buy the dust covered 13 inch television.

odds of winning are 1 in a billion.

small thought #1

The mind is capable of remembering everything. Time goes by, things move on, but something inside of you can remember what it felt like ten or fifteen years ago when you had a good experience with a friend, or the first time you ate ice cream. One day you could be reading the paper or driving to work and that memory will instantly be there. All of this information is stored somewhere in the dark recesses of the mind, and often they are recalled for no reason at all.

where do these things come from, and who controls these memories? Is there a way?