Back to the beginning

Well, I moved yesterday. Back home :( I don't like living with my parents. I hate being treated like I'm 16 (which I can already tell my mom will be doing, still.) I hate not living on my own. I hate not being able to just do whatever I wanna do, whenever I wanna do it. I don't like this. I hope it is very short-term.

I know this sounds very pessimistic, and that is likely to do with the fact that I had a truly miserable day at work today. But coming to a instant jumping-down-my-throat as soon as I get home, didn't help. I want outa here.

Quite the weekend

Well, my weekend started out rough. Thursday morning, I was getting out of bed to start my morning routine (read: bathroom) and I knocked into my guitar. Guess which one. Yeah, that's right, Devin, my favorite and most expensive guitar. I knocked it off the stand, and it landed flat on the ground. Well, I looked it over quickly, played it, and checked for anything being lose. Nothing seemed wrong, but I felt uneasy about it. I went down to Guitar Attic, and asked Randy. He told me to check along the scarf joint, and then along the end of the neck where it bolts onto the body. Here's what I found:

Needless to say, I'm unhappy. I was told this isn't anything big, but it hurts the re-sale value. 

Saturday, I had to work with the worst employee at Chick-Fil-A. This kid does not do his job; He does everything but. I had to tell him 20 times to get on his register. he is so lazy, but Steve thinks he's the best. I don't get it. Then as I left work, I found out the tube on my bike had blown out, and took out the side of the tire as well. I called my mom for a ride, but she didn't' answer. I started walking. I got to Big Lots, and called my mom again. She didn't answer, so I called my dad, and just as he answered, he was two minutes away from where I was. I was amazed and humbled. Well, I eventually got home, and put in a new tube and tire. THAT tube had a hole in it. I called for a ride to Wal-Mart, and I got a new tube. 

Today was good. Church was great. Class went well. I got to go to Priesthood, which I usually don't get to do because of my calling in Primary. During Elders, Brother Cervany and I were in the very back, and I found out again why I enjoy that man's company so much. He is a professor as Daytona State, very articulate, and very sarcastic. He and I had fun. It reminded me of Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets. (Which, by the way, Grandpa Vic and Uncle Bill remind me of those two.) After church, I tried to fix my tire; I couldn't get the dang tire off. I've changed bike tires 10000 times, and never had this much trouble. I tried for two hours. The problem is that my Fiji, unlike my Trek (and every other bike I've ever owned) has a very narrow and deep rim. I eventually called my dad for a ride to his house for dinner with my parents, my sister Sarah, Her husband mark and their daughter Lydia, my brother Ben and his daughter Capri, and the sister missionaries. Dinner was a blast. After dinner, I got two tire levers from the Livingstons and fixed my bike. 

Now, my weekend is over. Tomorrow at 530am, My new week begins. 

It's be a good one I'm sure. 

I had to post this- Nerd vs Athlete

Maybe it's just because I am very tired, but this is hilarious.

source. 

I'm in love

with this song




I'm not trying to say I am the type of person he describes in the song, although I fit into some of the categories. I just love the South, and I love the way he describes southerners.
Also, there is a new post on my politics blog.

Wintertime in Florida

Now, those temps may not seem all that bad to most of my blog readers, who live in the Midwest/ mountain west. What you don't understand, however, is that this is with Florida humidity, so that 27 degree low in Holly Hill (Just north of Daytona) is more like 10-16 degrees elsewhere. It's not pleasant. And, to top it off, I'll be riding my bike to work tomorrow at 8am, the coldest time of the day. Oh, and my route takes me 5 miles north and 2.5 miles west, meaning i'll be getting further away from the ocean at the same time I move north, which means the temps will be about 5 degrees colder, which when you factor in the fact that I'm on a bike, it will feel somewhat like, 1000 degrees colder. Yippee. If suddenly, my blog is no longer updated, you'll know I died.

3 youtube channels I found this year that I adore.

Ranked in order of epicness.

1) VKgoeswild

This girl is awesome. She's a Russian pianist who does rock/metal covers and improvisations on the piano. She does the arrangements her self, and they are quite good, although I still can't figure out why she doesn't use fifths in her arrangements. (I bring this up because most metal songs use power chords, aka 5chords, which is just root/fifth, as in E/B, or A/E. This is done for practicality, because it is very difficult to change full chord positions at 180 BPM. In her arrangements, however, she uses octaves, not fifths.) I love what she said when someone accused her of speeding up her videos: "I'm a concert pianist; ALL concert pianists play fast."

This is her playing my favorite song, "Tornado of Souls" by Megadeth

And, some easy-going stuff. Metallica's (ew) "Nothing Else Matters"

2) Lindsey Stirling

When I first heard her songs, I was impressed; when I saw her videos, I was amazed. Not only does she play the violin well, she dances as well, AT THE SAME TIME! While I'm sure she isn't dancing around like this in the studio while recording, you can tell from her live videos that actually does do both together. I quickly noticed she is dressed modestly in her videos, which made me curious. I checked out her website, and sure enough, she's LDS, and she served a mission in New York. Her awesome points doubled. Back to her antics- I'm still in awe of her ability to dance and jump around while playing the violin. I've struggled doing that with my guitar, so I know it can't be easy to do it with a violin.  I especially love the fact that she looks like she's having a ball the entire time. 

3) The Piano Guys

If youtube music channels were weapons, The Piano Guys would be the Cobra Attack Helo- the BIG guns. The Piano Guys are a piano store in St. George, and they do -amazing- videos, usually featuring Jon Schmidt and/or Steven Sharp Nelson. Again, double awesome points for being LDS. These guys are among the elite musicians of today, and they have so much fun while doing it.

Lots of wondering thoughts

I'm realizing more and more that I don't fit in with the YSA here. I don't know if it's from my social anxieties, or just my introverted personality, but I don't do well in large groups, especially when they are out to "have fun," while I am a laid-back person. I wish sometimes I could just have two or three local friends with whom I could hang out . I'm not anti-social, but I don't enjoy crowds, and I don't like acting stupid. I think that may be the biggest aspect of it- I'm the oldest one in the group, and almost all of the YSA are just out of high school. I don't mean to insult any of them, but the fact that they are still young shows. I wasn't really into that kind of stuff when I was a teen, and I'm certainly not now. Now, I can be an extremely goofy person, but there is a difference between goofy, and immature.

While I'm talking about YSA, I've figured out what kinds of things I find attractive, and it shows in my past few girlfriends. One of the biggest things that sticks out is a love for music. It makes sense, as at any given time I'm either playing or listening to music. I've also noticed other things they all have in common, such as a love for reading, appreciation for art, traditional, varying degrees of nerdy, and an outward intellectualism. That's actually a big thing for me- I've always been most attracted to women who are smarter than I am. There are less similarities as far as physical aspects go. The only thing they all have in common is they all have green/blue eyes, but I love brown. I just love it when eyes pop, or fit well with hair. Another aspect they differ is hair.  One was blonde, one dark brunette, one light brunette, one strawberry blonde. The tallest was 5-11, the shortest 5-2. There is one thing that was there with both Melinda and Laura, and is the most important- we were best friends.

I've noticed over the past few months, I've regressed back to having a pointed sarcasm. It reminds me a lot of Lewis Black or Ron White. While most of the things that run through my head don't come out, a few of them do, and some of them are mean. Now, a lot of it likely comes from my disdain for the general low-brow humor that has inundated the YSA, but that's no excuse.

This leads me to my New Year's Resolutions:
Cut the sarcasm
Expand my repertoire on the guitar, including learning more classical and blues- the foundations of all music.
Finish the BOM twice by July 1st, then once more for the second half of the year. (quite ambitious)
Start, and continue, the Spartacus Workout.
Finish writing my songs, and get them all recorded so I can put out some CDs for friends.

I hope I do a much better job this year than I did last year on my resolutions.