Friday Illogical Ideations

1. I believe in ghosts, but not in the way you might expect. I think that when we actively remember a person who has passed, the chemicals and electricity in our brains making up the thoughts and memories related to that person form the 'ghost'. When we are faced with a decision and contemplate how the deceased would have handled it, or draw upon an inspirational person who is no longer living, that is the ghost 'speaking' to us. I know, kind of strange, but I am a strange person I guess. One of the songs I do, Shut Your Mouth, is my abrasive tribute to a fallen classmate and fellow veteran whose death was mocked and used as fodder for gossip by many of our more immature and insensitive peers; I like to think that live performances of this song are a kind of seance.

2. I've been struggling lately to find a good balance between promoting my music and being a pushy, tiresome, overly zealous used car salesman. On the one hand, if I do nothing to 'push' the tunes on people, no one is going to hear them. On the other, I have had a fair amount of people on the dreary facebook get upset at me for inviting them to all of our shows, and especially for posting about the shows on their profile. Ashlee"Pay attention to my blog that's all about promiscuous sex and my eating disorder so I can feel better about myself"Raggle even called me an internet troll and un-friended me because I 'shared' a couple of our show pages on her facebook wall. It's my belief that as an artist I have a bit more leeway that the average huckster. That is what I consider my music - art. I do like to have a good time when playing, and I hope the audience does, but I go to great lengths to write meaningful lyrics, and I aspire to write interesting, creative, worthwhile music as well. For me it is about something very different than just shaking asses, impressing babes with swagger, and getting free drinks.

3. In the same vein at the previous item, I have often been accused (lately even more so) of taking myself, life, and generally everything too seriously. I am constantly being told to lighten up, take it easy, get a thicker skin, not to worry about things, to stop making a big deal out of it, et cetera, etc. There have been some situations that were supremely frustrating, because these were things that I felt really deserved to be 'taken seriously', yet my carefree companions kept to their lackadaisical disposition and continued to encouraged me to do the same. A prime example: several months back while on a weekend shooting trip, the guys were doing several things that violate the four basic weapons safety rules, and when I stopped them to give them some instruction, they kept interrupting me with funny anecdotes about shooting accidents...all while they continued to wave their guns around with fingers on the trigger (although I had made them unload prior to my safety lecture). Now I am not trying to lay judgement on those dudes, I certainly wasn't trying to ruin their fun, and one of them did eventually speak up on my behalf and helped to reign in the others. But it was my strong impression that when I insisted on shutting down the shooting to give them a safety talk, they were thinking something like "Oh god, here he goes again. I've handled guns a lot before, why can't he just lighten up?" But seriously - that is how people get accidentally shot! Oh well...I am probably just over thinking all of this and taking it all too seriously.

Wild Weekend Roundup

So, my long-time friend Carlos headed home to Vegas yesterday. Our long weekend, while exhausting, featured quite the assortment of fun activities:

1. Skiing and Snowboarding: I skied whilst Carlos boarded, and though my skill level is well beyond his, we were both equally worn out and sore the entire weekend. We didn't get in as much time on the slopes as we had wanted, but we did make it up there and had a good time. Also, we managed to not get hurt!

2. Gaming: We got in several rounds of Halo on Xbox Live, with my dad playing as well. Long live team Atredies! Also, Carlos and I played the card game "Flux" for the first time. This wacky card game has become all the rage with my friends, and comes in several different flavors (we played Martian Flux).

3. SLC Nightlife: It is no wonder that, being single and having come from Las Vegas, Carlos was eager to go out on the prowl each night. I think I spent more time in bars and clubs this past weekend than I have in the entire preceding year. It was a total blast, though neither of us had much success with the ladies. I really enjoyed flirting, meeting new people, and tossing around big tips that made the bartenders smile.

4. Shooting: I took Carlos to the indoor range, where we fired CAR-15 and M-9 equivalents. Carlos had only done the tiniest bit of pistol shooting before, but with a few helpful tips from me (I was a rifle and pistol coach in the Marine Corps, after all), he got pretty damn good pretty damn quick. I even saved our targets, mainly because I was impressed with his accuracy.

5. Paintball: Carlos had also never played paintball, so after a quick Google search, we found a good indoor field with remarkably decent prices. We played a total of 6 matches with strangers, about 8 players to a team, and did fairly well. We were always on the same team, and our team won most of the time. Unfortunately, in the second-to-last match Carlos took a shot right in the goggles, leaving him essentially blind for the final match.

....and I think that covers most of it. It was a great time for me, and Carlos seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit as well. My thanks go out to him for coming to visit, and to my family and friends for the generous hospitality they extended to him. We've got a plan in the works now to meet up in Vegas with Dustin...let's hope that works out!

Shooting Range

So there have been a few critical little incidents recently of people inadvertently making me really fucking furious regarding the wars, my being a veteran, my service-connected disabilities, and the military and Marine Corps in general. The result:











Now, we all know that the gun they let you rent and fire has fucked sights, right? Still, notice my shot group there, from the first box of 5.56mm. Pretty good for standing, although I think it was only 36 yards. A shot group like that just needs to be adjusted onto the target. Of course, I didn't get too technical, I just fired a lot of rounds. Blasting Away!

So, overall, I fired:

*Some kind of off-brand M-16 with silly optics (shown above)

*Baretta M-9 knock-off

*Heckler & Koch UMP .45 with full auto (how is this possible? Shown below)