Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Wow it sure has been a long time since i have ever wrote an entry.  A lot has gone on in my life since the last entry, i have dealt with two job losses in the month of march.  The day after the last entry i posted i got fired, but it was all for the better anyway it was a pretty terrible company to work for.  My lead hand is the only one left there today and hes having to deal with a lot of BS i read about it often on his facebook.

My next job only lasted a week, they decided to change their minds after that week.  I was pretty pissed.

Two days after getting let go from that job i started a new one and its still my current job today.  I got mixed feeling about the company.  I love the fact that i'm learning a lot and getting to go out all over Edmonton to service road construction machinery, but i hate that i'm going as long as 15-20 days straight working for 11-16 hours a day at a rate of 24 an hour.  I really hope that come the end of the year they will be willing to put me at journeyman wage.  I'm not making enough to get a better place compared to this tiny room i'm living in still.  Rent around this city is friggen ridiculous.  But its not as bad now, when i first moved in there were 5 of us living here now its just me and one of the other guys. Feels a little more cozy i guess :-S

Well i'm off to practice guitar, until next time.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Well i gotta say work went by pretty smoothly today.  Did a lot of sweeping around the shop, had to drive to the other end of the city to pick up parts for the broken down mulcher and had a couple of safety people come in to get ideas of what we do around the shop so they could make up proper hazard assessment sheets for us, that pretty much sums up work.

When i got home from work today, my daughters mom called me up.  She was really upset that it didn't matter how much she disciplined all of her kids, they still rebel and get into trouble.  I really don't know why some kids will listen to their fathers or anyone else but when it comes to listening to mom, its all a joke.

Took a walk to the store to grab some more coffee cream.  Before doing so i stopped  by a KFC to grab a bite to eat.  Was really craving chicken for some reason.  While i was there, one of my old coworkers from a past company i worked for stopped in to grab some food.  Basically talked about where we were sitting at for jobs after we both left or got laid off.  Told him my story about how I was going through a lot of places who didn't teach me very much about my trade.

I'm still losing my mind in this little box that i'm living in.  Still waiting for the weather to warm up so i have good reason to go outside for more than 10 minutes.  To soak in some rays and be in a better mood.  There is so much i could be doing right now.  Reading my Guitar for dummies and learn some music theory, playing guitar in general or even cleaning up my little shoebox of a room.  I guess i'm just one of those kinds of people that if stuck in a small area for a long peroid of time will have a harder and harder time focusing on one thing.  I hate this so much.  Until another day when i whine about the weather.  Wouldn't be surprised if its tomorrow :-S.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

I'm Bi-Winning

Still not an exciting day.  Until this now clears and the weather warms up its gonna be dull for the next few weeks :-S.  Last week i was watching the Charlie Sheen interview about how he is going to sue CBS for cancelling the show.  Anyway, someone had made some kind of song from pieces of the interview and it was hilarious.  I probably watched it at least 10 times today, and I garuntee i'll have it stuck in my head at work all day tomorrow :-S.

Went over to my moms for dinner later on and learned how to make some awesome tortellini.  basically all you do is cook up the tortellini, steam some broccoli and add some Alfredo sauce.  Good thing I'm quoting this to because i know i will possibly forget about it somewhere down the road.  Definatley going to have to make some of it next week.  It was awesome :-).

Caught a Flames game on TV for the first time in a month.  Really happy that they beat Nashville and i'm hoping they can win enough games to stay in the position to qualify for the Stanley cup play-offs.  They didn't win it back in 2004 when they lost to Tampa Bay, now is their time to rise back up and win it this year.  I also won't be disappointed if Vancouver or Chicago win either, but no matter what I'll always cheer for the Flames before any other team.

Mezmerize

For any of you out there who haven't heard the news yet, and i'm sure there are a few of you.  System of a Down has gotten back together again.  they are even doing a few shows around North America.  Sucks i can't afford tickets for the show at the moment, by next week i should have money.  But knowing my luck i bet it will be sold out by then :-S.

I'm amazed that i never knew about System of a Down until 2005 when they released their Mezmerize album.  After getting into them a lot more, i found out that i knew a couple of their songs i just didn't know it was them singing them.  The two main singles that I know off the top of my head on this album are "BYOB" and "Question?".  I have no complaints on this album, just about every song is awesome.  Some of my favorites include "Radio/Video", "Violent Pornography" , and "Old School Hollywood".  If you haven't heard the songs before or just want to get another awesome song stuck in your head again, here are the links below to the songs...

Radio/Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX-kJKIRyhM
Violent Pornography - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w10tu0zcE7Q
Old School Hollywood - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgcJ1A9xrI0&feature=fvst

I haven't heard anything yet if System of a Down is releasing a new album yet, but if I hear any news, I will defiantly make a post and let all of you System fans know.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

I Feel Like A Cab Driver

Slept in this morning, didn't wake up till 1 PM.  Always feels like the day is shot way too soon when i sleep in, thats why i hate doing it.  Whenever a day rolls by that i don't have to be up for anything, then i won't get up at all.  For all i know that will probably be the case tomorrow even if i set an alarm to get up or not.

So a friend texted me when i got up, one of her friends needed a lift 30 minutes outside of town to gether some belongings.  Well i had stuff to do today, its a pretty sweet deal that i'm getting a full tank of gas out of the deal, but at the same time, your using up some of my time that i could be using so im gonna need a little extra for my time.  I didn't get any laundry done or practicing in, its gonna have to wait till tomorrow, but even then i visit my daughter tomorrow so won't get anything done then ugh, i live such a busy life :-S.

Its a friends birthday tonight so i'm gonna be going to the same bar as last nite.  I guess that bar wasn't cracked out as much as we thought it was.  It will never be like the old hangout.  So our search continues for a nightclub that has a dance floor and they play a mix of classic rock and heavy metal, and not just hard techno or house music.  Thats why i loved the place and a lot of places around the city don't have that kind of feel to them.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Come on people, get it together

So i really don't know how much longer i can put up with how slow my workplace is.  Seriously, for most of the day the three of us in the shop were inspecting an excavator.  We needed some filters to do an oil change along with swapping out all of the other filters as well.  We don't have a sufficient parts department, so if we need parts, we have to wait a few days for them.  Sometimes i think the higher ups need to get organized so we can run a faster and more efficient company.  The service truck has been out of service way before i even started.  Its needs a whole new engine.  The service manager thought he had one at a scrap yard, we waited a couple of weeks to see if it was the right one and no dice :-(.  Another company thought they had the right one and still no dice :-(.  If they would have just ordered up a new or rebuilt engine from a dealership of some kind, we would have it way sooner, the truck would be up and running and we would get a lot more business.  Maybe i would be able to tag along for a few "Field Trips" and actually gain some experience in my trade.  Honestly if this keeps up i might go seek employment elsewhere.  It can't be that hard to find someone who will keep you around and allow you to work side by side with a journeyman who will teach you everything you need to know.

Well i think i need to go out for awhile.  Some friends of mine found a new bar to hang out in and i need a drink or two to drown my sorrows in this crazy work day i had.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Is It Spring Yet?

Another cold morning on the way to work today, thankfully it wasn't windy like it was yesterday, went out to brush the snow off my car didn't take long for my hands to go numb.  I would wear gloves if i didn't lose them awhile back feel kind of stupid for doing that, so i'll have to go buy another pair here on the weekend.  Or maybe there won't be too much of a point since spring is almost here.

It was another one of those not too exciting work days.  The loader i worked on for awhile finally got picked up and an excavator got dropped off because an inspection needed to be done on it.  Besides that i spent the rest of the work day cleaning components out of final drive assemblies on the mulcher in the shop.

Traffic still sucked today, took me an hour to get home once again.  I didn't feel like cooking dinner today, so i picked up a sandwich at Subway.  At the end of the work day I still felt pretty energetic and i thought i would be that way when i got home..... nope, felt like someone had sucked the life right out of me :-S.  I've been feeling that way since Monday.  I don't know what it could be thats making me feel so drained.  Possibly the cold weather or being cooped up inside, who knows.  Maybe if i could get outside and go for a walk i could possibly feel better, but i don't wanna step foot outside in - 20 C weather :-S

The rest of the day wasn't too much of a waste, i managed to get a good 1-2 hours of guitar playing in, i even made a template on MS word so i could starting creating tabs for all of the songs i've learned so i don't forget them down the road.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Revolving Door

Sometimes i think that some people who cross the street deserve to get hit.  On my way to work today driving down a road a pedestrian comes right out of no where and decides to cross the street without looking both ways to ensure the way was clear.  Its below -30 C with the windchill today so the roads are still icy.  I slam on the brakes to stop for this guy and almost slide right into him.  Don't need to be doing that in my lifetime, i've had my license for 10 years now and don't need to lose it over something stupid like that

Basically the biggest highlight of my workday today was going with another one of the techs to the other side of the city to another dealership to pick up parts for the mulcher we are fixing up.  We had to do a good couple of hours of reorganizing at the place in order to get at the components we needed.  Then loading up the truck afterward with the -30 something with the bad windchill wasn't that fun :-(.

So doing all that took up most of the workday.  I was talking with one of the techs and learned that out of all the staff at the branch i'm at from the executives to the techs.  One of the receptionists has been there longer than all of us and shes only worked for the company two years.  Made me realize how much of a revolving door the company is that i work for.  I was told theres lots of BS to deal with at my company, just haven't come across it yet.

The weather was terrible on the ride home.  What normally takes me 20 minutes to drive home took me an hour.  Thats how bad the roads were.  Some wern't too bad, but for some people if its snowing its a good idea to drive 30 km/h on a main road and not care about the people behind you.  Frustrates the hell outta me :-S.

Thought it would turn into another lazy day when i got home, i played around on my computer for a good 3 hours until finally getting up to make my weekly chili.  Afterward i managed to pick up the guitar for a good 45 minutes and practice those audioslave songs i learned parts of over the weekend.  I looked up a decent tab and after half hour i was able to get most of "One and the Same" down, except for the solo, there are some parts of it i don't know what Tom Morello does, but i just can't figure it out.

Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

Similar to the last post I made about Rise Against, the Foo Fighters will also be putting out a new album shortly for all you Foo Fighters fans out there who haven't heard the news yet.  The album is called Wasting Light and will be released on April 12th.

While were on the topic about the Foo Fighters, I will also talk about one of my favorite Foo Fighters albums.  Two of their biggest singles off of the album were "The Pretender" and "Long Road to Ruin".  The songs even had awesome music videos to go along with them to.  I was really into "The Pretender" for the longest time, gave me a good adrenaline rush lol. A couple of my other favorites off of the album were "Erase/Replace", "Let It Die" and "But, Honestly".  Let it Die was also another song i listened to for the longest time, until it became a single on the radio and was played everywhere i went.  That just killed the song for me :-(

Here are the links to Let it Die, Erase/Replace and But Honestly:

Erase/Replace - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1DenjYj_tg
Let It Die - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC9fQhEHw2o&playnext=1&list=PL4F6B46F1F86E8AE5
But, Honestly - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liOu6uYE7ig

I even have a link to the first single off of Wasting Light.  Its called "Rope"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At3rZUgQsh8

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Double Post

I was getting pretty late to make an entry of my day yesterday, so i'm gonna post yesterday and today in the same post, starting with yesterday...

February 28th

woke up at 4:30 this morning, tried to get back to sleep since i usually wake up at 5:30.  Didn't end up falling asleep and ended up waking up half hour earlier than usual.

We finally got around to finishing up the loader that has been in the shop since i started working for the company.  There were moments I was afraid that the couple of us didn't do the job right and we would be stuck on it for a few more days.  The quick attach cylinder head exploding and oil spilling all over was one instance why i would think that.  In the end we checked it out and realized that the machinists who we sent it out to didn't do a good job at repairing it and one of the grooves where a snap ring was rounded so it would not sit in properly.  Plus the bores where the locking pins slide in needed to be honed out some more which probably caused the cylinder to blow due to excessive pressure in the cylinder from too much resistance.

After honing out the pin bores and reassembling the cylinder, everything started working the way it should have.  As for the rest of the day, i cleaned a few parts on another machine and touched up the paint on the bucket we fixed up.

After work, i stopped by to visit my daughter and to pick up my laptop.  I really didn't want to go another day without a computer in my small living space.  I went out to grab a few groceries afterward.  I ran out of supplies to make my simple affordable chili.  Seems like the perfect food for me to survive on when i don't have much for funds.  I also picked up some yogurt, strawberries and granola.  I've had the thoughts go through my head that i wanted to start eating granola with yogurt and fruit for breakfast, i decided now would be the time to start.

March 1st

So I started off the morning by eating that granola, yogurt and fruit mixture i talked about earlier, its was pretty awesome, i was hoping it would be filling enough, but after working for an hour i was starting to feel a little peckish, maybe i'll try having some peanut butter toast to go along with it tomorrow morning.  I don't like feeling hungry when i'm working, don't feel like i can perform as well on an empty stomach.

Friggen cold and icy out this morning, checking the thermometer on the dash it was -29 C outside.  Almost got into a couple of accidents on the way to work as well because some people love to follow way too close behind me and when i have to make a sudden stop they don't know what to do when they can't come to a complete stop on an icy road.  Thank god i didn't get rear ended because i really don't wanna stand outside and exchange information with someone else when its that cold :-S.

To start off my work day i had to get the loader all squeaky clean for the customer.  I washed the outside and cleaned the cab out.  Since we still had a lot more time till the customer would come to grab his loader, my service manager wanted me to put another coat on the entire bucket.  After doing all of this painting i've gotten the nickname "Da Vinchi" in the shop now lol.

Later in the day, a couple of us had to go out to one of the machines in the yard and remove a drive line from one of the trucks in the yard.  There were no spare parts of that kind in the building for the customer so we had to steal one from one of the machines.  The job wasn't too bad besides having to work out in -30.  Sure made the day go by pretty fast to.  There are times the day goes by so slow when all your doing is sweeping the floor or picking up garbage.  Can be frustrating sometimes.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Did You Miss Me?

This is gonna be one hell of a make up blog for not having my laptop for 3 days.  I'll start with Friday..


February 25th

So the welder that has been working at my workplace for the past 2 weeks, this whole time i thought he was an employee there, but he was a contractor.  He was hired basically to do all of the tough parts of making the mounting brackets for the bucket, once all that was done they told him one of the other employees could take it from there.  He wasn't too pleased about that, i wouldn't be either.  Before he left he hung around for coffee and showed us this photo album of all of the projects that his business had worked on over the many years.  And i guess it wasn't fraud that made his company go broke it was dishonest customers he did work for and they never paid him.  Talk about a kick in the nuts :-S

Was pretty exhausted after work was going to head over and see my daughter and drop off my laptop after i cleaned up, ended up napping for 2 hours.  Got lucky though, no was home anyway, they had to take off to one side of the city to a computer store to get a computer problem fixed.  Ended up dropping my laptop off at my ex's parents house.  My daughter was over there so i ended up staying 20 minutes to hang out before taking off to a friends to watch the 2nd Trailer Park Boys movie.  Friggen hilarious movie :-)

February 26th

My phone woke me up this morning.  Guess one of my friends wanted me to help her run a few errands since she didn't have any means of transportation.  In return she bought me lunch and paid me 20 bucks for gas :-).  I was planning on just staying in and playing guitar for a few hours for my day off, but for me being broke, i needed all the money i could get.

We went out for dinner at Moxies, just ate a burger there, but decided to try it with avocado on it.  I never had it before besides guacamole it was pretty awesome.  Afterward we went out to grab a few groceries, read in a magazine while we were there that there will soon be new episodes of Beavis and Butthead.  Can't wait for that :-).

We stopped my Marks work warehouse afterward to grab some work boots for her new job this week.  She just needed a cheap pair of steel toes and they had basically every kind you could possibly want.  She didn't end up buying any because there were no PINK steel toes in stock and the tan colored ones looked icky.  Are u serious.... its a friggen shop your working in, dressing up in that kind of work is not a fashion statement, i don't care if your going to be one of the only women working there... geez :-S

After all that shopping was taken care of, i finally got around to practicing some guitar.  Just played some of the usual songs i've been playing over the past couple of weeks and tweaking some of the effect pedals to find some awesome sounds.  While playing around with the effects i figured out how to play part of the song "One In The Same" by Audioslave.  Stuck at one part now to look up the tab on the internet...... Oh right, temporarly don't have my laptop, really goes to show i shouldn't be so reliant on a computer.

Went to a house party later that night, brought my guitar along to entertain a few people.  The guy who lived at the place drank a little too much and ended up passing out early, as for the rest of the party, the one friend who i took out earlier to do some shopping, got a little too drunk and was really starting to annoy the bunch of us.  Got to the point where i didn't want to be at that party anymore.  Ended up taking a few people home and made 80 bucks for driving people around that nite.

February 27th

Not really eventful today, just like any other sunday.  Buddy called me up this morning apologizing for getting really drunk and making an ass of himself.  He wasn't the reason i left though it was that chick there that was getting all emotional.

Finally cleaned the garbage out of my car today, almost got a full garbage bag of trash, around 10-15 pop cans and someones cell phone probably from one of the people from last nite because it wasn't dead.  Guess i'm gonna have to remember whos phone it was and where they are living at :-S

Was hoping to get my laptop back today, turned out my ex wasn't finished with transferring her photos over to her computer so guess i gotta wait another day for it.  Weel i went 2 days without one, one more won't hurt.

Playing around on the guitar later on that evening, tweaked my tremolo pedal in a way that when i played the notes to "Like A Stone" by Audioslave, its sounded almost identical.  Now when i get my laptop back i'm definatley gonna haveta look up a bunch of these audioslave songs and master them.  It sucks i won't be able to do a few of the solos without a whammy pedal though, goona have to wait till i have money to get that one.  It's between that one and a delay pedal for next effects on my list.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

America, F**K YEA!!!

So another exciting 8 hour work day of trying to properly weld new lugs onto a loader bucket.  My mind wandered quite a bit during the work day.  A lot of the time i had that "America F**K YEA" theme song from Team America stuck in my head along with a lot of other funny things that i have seen or read on the internet over the past week.  I decided that when i got home from work i would sit down with my guitar and try to learn that song.  I was able to get it down in 15 minutes, now i just need to memorize the lyrics.

A lot of talk going around with the co workers during coffee break in the morning.  I learned that the welder in the past ran a very successful business and actually had made over 1 million from it.  He mentioned something about taken to court over some kind of fraud and because of that his business came crumbling down.  If it wasn't for that he said he wouldn't even be working he'd be long retired.  talked about this crisis in Libya to and how one of the causes of the price of a barrel of oil increasing was because of that.  I heard one of the techs mention that gas prices were going to hit 114.9 per liter by the end of the week and probably won't be much better come the summer time.  When i drove home from work, sure enough i passed by a gas station and it was at 109.9 per liter.

Appeal To Reason

For all of the Rise Against fans out there, i found out they are putting out a new album on March 15th called "Endgame".  I heard their first single on the radio a couple days ago.  I wasn't sure if it was a new song or just one of their oldies, so I looked them up on the internet and sure enough, new album March 15th.  Looking forward to it coming out, and for anyone who hasn't gotten into Rise Against yet, i'll recommend one of their albums.

Appeal to Reason was probably one of my favorite albums and probably was this album that really got me more interested in Rise Against.  A couple of their big singles off of this album are "Re-Education (Through Labor)" and "Audience of One".  Some of my personal favorites off this album are "Long Forgotten Sons", "Savior" and "From Heads Unworthy".  Posted below are some links if you haven't heard these tracks yet.  Enjoy...

Long Forgotten Sons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYuSHn4iYU4
From Heads Unworthy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-4bana7wBk
Savior: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qhry7ufxno

And if you haven't heard the new Rise Against song, its called "Help Is On The Way" and i have a link to that song to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVE7OPKoVtQ

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

I hate these kinds of days

Basically all throughout the day i have been really tired, there were a few moments at work where i almost felt like falling asleep.  Maybe if i was a little more productive at work and it wasn't so slow maybe that would help out a little bit, but for the past couple work days i haven't really done a lot and its really getting frustrating.

One of the managers came and socialized with us during the first coffee break today.  He brought up the subject about how he knew someone who over a period of time had collected all sorts of antiques and when his wife got really sick he sold his entire collection of antiques for 5 million.  I asked the manager if this guy collected any antique guitars.  He didn't but supposedly the managers hobby was collecting all sorts of antique guitars, so we talked about guitars for a good 10 minutes before coffee was over and afterward he showed me a picture of one of his latest guitars in his collection.  It was an old strat, but what made it so rare was the particular shade of blue in the body color, there were few made with that body color, it would usually be around 10 grand, but since there were modifications made to it, the value was cut down by at least half.

When i got home after work i basically slept for a couple of hours.  Afterward didn't have much motivation to do much of anything.  Was gonna have a chili for dinner, couldn't work up the motivation to make that, ended up eating spaghetti instead.  Didn't do much on the guitar either, just played with a few of the effect pedal i have.  I did manage though to get my Boss Phase Shifter set up to sounds pretty descent, was pretty happy about that.

Maybe its just this cold weather thats keeping me boxed up inside my place.  If it were nicer outside i know i would go out at some point and go for a walk around the block to clear my head, but i feel like i'm trapped in this tiny shoebox and i'm losing my mind.  Maybe by the fall i'll move out and find a bigger place, the renting a room situation is alright in some areas, but i don't think i could do this for another year.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Wow i have to say today was pretty interesting...

Before heading to work i had to fill my car up with gas, don't even have enough money to fill it up a ll the way. Well technically i do, but not a lot.  I have 45 dollars left to last me three weeks.  When i jump back in my car its then i realize i don't have my phone on me, i tell myself that i have everything as i'm walking out the door, guess i didn't today, ugh :-S.

Was all ready to work hard today, ended up assisting the welder in the shop with installing new mounts on a loader bucket.  Basically all i did in the 8 hour work day was stood around, watched him weld parts onto the bucket, help move heavy parts back and forth from the bucket to the work bench to do welding on them or to cut material off, and to grind welds off of the bucket.  Yep that pretty much sums up 8 hours of work.  I seriously can't think of any other way i could explain it to allow me to stretch it out into a longer sentence.

Didn't bother going back home after work was over, would end up backtracking pretty far if i was going to go see my daughter and sister.  My place is on the opposite end of the city.  I went over to visit my daughter shes in the living room watching Toy Story 3.  I had gotten her that movie for Christmas, it wasn't until a week or two ago that she started getting into it.  Lots of the time i'd be over visiting and that movie would probably be played at least 2 or 3 times.  Its amazing how kids don't get bored of watching the same movie over and over again lol.

I stopped in to visit my sister afterward, she ordered in pizza for our younger siblings, if i would have known that i wouldn't have gotten subway earlier on.  Oh well, not too big of a loss i guess, still ate pretty healthy today i guess.  She had a friend over who had to leave to go to a band practice just as i got there.  So i ended up riding along with him and my sister while she dropped him off just to catch up since i haven't seen my sister since Christmas.  Ended up staying an hour afterward.  She had been practicing guitar for awhile and was curious on a couple things like tuning into drop D and how to do this one Coheed and Cambria song.  Haven't heard the song before, but i gave some advice on how to get close to a drop D by ear.

After all that excitment in the day i finally made it home, its 10:00 and i gotta be in bed in an hour, lets see if i got the stamina to play a little guitar before bed.
Well sure has been busy today, have been up since 9 and spent a huge majority of the day practicing guitar.  I'm happy to say i've accomplished lots today and hope to keep this determination going throughout the week regardless of how sluggish i feel after 8-10 hours working.

Got a good start on learning "The Unforgiven" got the acoustic rhythm part down at the beginning along with the main intro and parts of the verse.  Yesterday my brother was showing me stuff that he had learned on the guitar in his lessons.  Showed me about the sweep picking technique.  Was happy to see that he had gotten that good, but at the same time i'm thinking "i gotta start practicing more, hes ahead of me if if he knows just a little bit about sweep picking and thats very important to know when it comes to shredding"  I looked up a video on you tube so now i got a good.  Hope to have the first part mastered in a week or 2.  Not gonna be easy.

Its gonna feel good going back to work again tomorrow, being over my cold and having more energy i'm confident i can put in a good 10 hour day, and afterward go visit my sister.  Haven't seen her since Christmas, i'll have to show her all the pictures i got from the Heart concert i bet she'll be jealous of them lol.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Getting Back In The Game

Well I think its safe to say that the worst of my cold is officially gone.  Since i didn't see my daughter on friday, I figured I better do so today.  Knowing my sister was gonna be in town as well i'm sure she would have loved to see her.

When i arrived at my moms house, i didn't see my sister there, i guess she had taken a later bus and wasn't gonna be in the city until 10 at night.  Guess i will have to make some plans on tuesday to stop by and see her when i'm on that side of the city.

Talking with my mom i explained the situation i was in with being pretty broke and there not being enough days left in the month to generate enough income to pay for my rent.  I'm thankful my mom is so awesome that she helped me out with my rent and provided me with some extra food to tide me over a couple of weeks :-)

While i was visiting, i borrowed my brothers guitar and practiced a few of the songs i've been trying to master over the past month.  I was amazed that i wasn't doing all that bad playing them even after not playing the guitar in a week.  I think the next song i'm gonna learn will be "The Unforgiven" by Metallica.  The next issue of Guitar World came in the mail for me and had that tab in it so i'm gonna practice that one.

Got a full day of nothing tomorrow.  I think that will be a perfect opportunity to get some practicing in, maybe even start reading my book again.  Its just staring at me on the dresser gathering dust.  I'm back working again, so my life is no longer on hold.  I can carry on building myself up without having financial stress throwing off my focus.

Heart

So I gotta saw, for being around as long as they have Heart can still put on an amazing show.  Ann Wilson being 60 still has a set of pipes on her and Nancy being 56 can still rock hard on the guitar.

Not quite sure what the song was that they opened with, but the second song in was "Heartless" followed by "What About Love" and "Straight On".  They put out a new album back in August called Red Velvet Car.  The songs they played off that album were "Red Velvet Car" "Hey You" and "WTF"

One of my favorite parts of the concert was when they performed the song "Alone"  I was blown away at how amazing Ann's singing was and how she could hit those high notes.  After the song was over she got a standing ovation.  Just before the encore they ended with "Crazy on You" and "Barracuda"  It was pretty awesome to watch Nancy do the intro acoustic part to "Crazy on You"  pretty sure she extended the length of that part by an extra minute.

During the encore i didn't know any of the songs that they were playing, then they walked off the stage and i thought that was the end of the show.  But they came on for a second encore and finished the night off with "Dreamboat Annie"

Well I'm really glad that i got an opportunity to see Heart in my lifetime.  If Heart comes to your area i strongly suggest that you should go see them.  You will be blown away by the show they put on.  I'm amazed at how well all my pictures turned out being as far as i was.  Here are a few from the show.








Saturday, February 19, 2011

Getting Better

Well i don't think i'm safe to say yet that i've made a full recovery, but in comparison to the past few days i feel like i have a lot more energy and i know i'm confident that i will be ready to work hardcore come tuesday.

Finally got some organizing around my room done, got rid of all of the bottles and took them down to the bottle depot.  Just about got 20 bucks out of all of them.  Also while i was there i caught a glimpse of my old room mate from 4 years ago.  Have absolutely nothing to say to that useless waste of skin, i feel stupid that i had him living under my roof for 5 months.  He was never around ever, he harly paid his share of the rent and when he did he never paid in full.  It was always a couple hundred here and there.  That bastard owes me 2 grand.  I'm not the kind of person who beats people up, but if i was i would make him feel some pain for what he owes me.

Started practicing guitar again today for the first time in a few days.  I plugged into my amp and tried out some Tom Morello scratching effects.  I watched a video on you tube a few months ago on how he does some of the tricks that he does, and after a lot of practicing, i can do a bunch of them.  Theres a few i can't do with the guitar i have, so i'll have to set some money aside and find one similar to the "Arm The Homeless" that Tom Morello uses.

Well i'm off to go see Heart.  After the show there are a few friends who are celebrating birthdays today, gonna be tough to decide which party i should go to afterward.

For all the Heart lovers

I figured since i'm going out to see Heart in concert tonight, why not put up a small guitar tab for one of their popular songs "Crazy On You"  I haven't learned how to play the whole song, the beginning acoustic part is pretty tricky, might take me awhile to get it down.  But i always love playing that part in the song where they first bring in the electric guitar.  Anyway heres the tab for that part

e--------------------------│
B--------------------------│
G--------------------------│  X 2
D-----2--0-----------------│
A--0--------3--2--0--------│
E--------------------1--3--│

e-----------------------------------------------------------
B-----------------------------------------------------------
G-----------------------------------------------------------
D-----2--0--------------2--0--------------2--0--------------
A--0--------3--2--0-----------3--2--0-----------3--2-----0--
E--------------------3-----------------1--------------3-----

Friday, February 18, 2011

Threw in the towel

Not really a lot to blog about today...

basically got up this morning, still not feeling 100%, i had a coffee and cereal hoping it would get me up to speed, nope didn't do the trick, so i called my work and told them i wasn't coming in today, on the upside i got a 4 day weekend, sucks i'll probably be sick through the majority of it.

Basically slept away the entire day, got up every now and then to talk on Facebook or grab something to eat, then went back to bed.  So yea that pretty much sums up my day.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, theres a Heart concert tomorrow night and i got a ticket to it.  Few people are jealous of me because they are real big heart fans.  My dad loves the band but has never gotten an oppertunity to see them live.  I'll have to try and sneak a camera in and take some good pictures.  I'm not too far away from the stage so the pictures should turn out okay :-)

Street Sweeper Social Club

Its been a few days since i've put up a personal opinion on an album i've listened to so figured i better put up another...

The band consists of Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave/Nightwatchman and Boots Riley of The Coup.  This album was released in 2009.  When i first bought it i bet i listened to the album at least 3 or 4 times the day i bought it lol.  Don't know if theres gonna be another Rage album coming out soon so this will have to do for now.  I think the big single off this album was "100 Little Curses" but don't quote me on it.  Some of my favorites off this album include "Fight, Smash, Win", "Megablast" and "Promenade" listed below are some links to check out a couple of the songs, hope you enjoy them.

100 Little Curses - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjnXko5Xjfs
Fight, Smash, Win - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw_hAsFtcHo
Megablast - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dfv1gES-3g
Promenade - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNbLSVyO6LQ

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Tired of winter

Wow was it cold today.  -32 C with the windchill.  I can't say this is the coldest day i've ever encountered.  That would be back in 2009 when i was working service rigs.  Normally if it hits around -30 they call us up and tell us to stay home because its too cold to go out.  But this one rig i was assigned to had a deadline, so no matter how cold it was we had to suck it up and go out to finish the job.  Both days i was out there it was -52 C with the windchill.  At the safety meeting our rig manager told us to come back to the doghouse every 15 minutes to warm up.  I think i took full advantage of that.  I wasn't doing too bad outside, but the only thing that was really bothering me was my feet.  I would run back, take my boots off and rub my feet till there was feeling in them again :-S.  Don't think i'll ever go back and work on the rigs, but i have no regrets.  It was pretty cool to see what goes on out on the rigs and how all the wells work and stuff.

I'm still not feeling much better today.  After spending a good 2 hours honing that bore out and finally finishing, my next task was to go outside and start some of the equipment to let them warm up.  Guess someone had to do an inspection on them so they needed to be running at operating temperature.  Didn't feel good on my face which was all dry from being stuffed up.  Hate it when i get sick and it gets this bad.  Usually the irritation goes away after 3 days.  It sucks.

As for the rest of the work day, just assisted the welder with installing new mounts on a loader bucket.  Just stood around most of the time while i was waiting for the welder to finish setting things up so i could help him.  Seemed to space out or almost fall asleep standing in the one spot lol.

Was glad to go home at 3:30 and take a 2 hour cat nap.  The rest of the day was no different than yesterday, just played around on the internet and took it easy.  Found out i still had some smokies left in the fridge.  Figured i better use some of them up before they go bad.  I ate some of them along with my awesome macaroni and steamed vegetables.

I hope i feel better tomorrow, want to feel better soon so i got all the energy to put in lots of overtime at my work :-)

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Suck It Up

I was amazed that i got out of bed this morning nad made it to my first day of work.  I was starting to come down with a cold yeaterday and i was really feeling it today.  Thankfully for the first day it was really simple.  To sum up the day all i did was connect a few hydraulic hoses, reinstall some panels back onto a loader and hone out a bore because a pin was binding inside where it is supposed to turn freely.  Spent a good 4 hours doing that with a drill.  Slowly moving it in and out, in and out.  Get boring after the first 20 minutes, and the pin was still binding after all that work so guess what i get to continue to do tomorrow :-S

I was offered to work overtime today, but when the end of the day rolled down i was still feeling like s**t, if i wasn't so sick i'd stay till 5 or 6, but i don't wanna take a risk of working too hard and end up getting worse so i can't make it in tomorrow.  Instead went home and slept for a good 2 hours.  If i had more than 70 bucks to last me till payday i would go out and get some cold FX to help out.  Guess i'm gonna have to suck it up till the fever is gone.

Didn't even feel like cooking today, but i guess some part of my brain inside of me knew what had to be done so it got me up off my ass and i made another batch of that chili that i made last week.  Instead of ground beef in the chili i used ground turkey.  Originally thats what the recipe called for, but there have been numerous times i would go to the store to find out they didn't have any in stock so i would have to improvise with ground beef.  Once i'm all caught up on bills and more spendable income i had a thought.  For breakfast every morning i should start eating yogurt with granola, strawberry and blueberry mixed in.  I do wanna start eating healthier and i think thats a really good start for the morning.

But i should get to bed, gotta be up at 5:30 to be at work for 7.  Hopefully i feel better tomorrow, i would really love to get some overtime in

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Not a good way to start a new job

Seriously the way i'm feeling right now its almost like i don't have the energy to even type up this blog entry today.  I almost feel like i'm going to collapse onto the desk and fall asleep, i don't even have the energy to go and make myself dinner.  I hope that i feel better really quick here, because i start my new job tomorrow and i really don't want to make the first impression of calling in sick on my first day.

I stopped by my old workplace to pick up my tool box to take it to my new place of work.  Talking with some of my old co workers again i find out that a few people have quit since I was.  1 left to pursue a different career, while others couldn't put up with their bulls**t anymore.  and i don't blame them for leaving.  I only decided to work there because i was out of work at the time and i needed to get back working again.  There have been numerous occasions where my service manager was a complete asshole.  I know that you guys are really swamped with work, i'm doing my best, but being a dick isn't going to make me work faster.  With this new place i'm starting off at.  The service manager said to me since i was a little shy with the practical experience he would have one of the techs work with me in areas i was unfamiliar with to get me at the level i should be at.  I really hope they keep their word.  I'm perfectly capable of doing good work, but if i've never done something before, i panic or get nervous on the job which results in me taking longer or making mistakes.

When i did grab my tools, part of me really wanted to go up to my old service manager and just tell him off saying that he was such a dick for letting me go on my birthday and F**K YOU and so on.  But i may have to use them as a reference again in the near future and after hearing about all those people leaving just makes me think "hah, serves you right"

Well i'm gonna go see if theres anything simple i can cook up for dinner then maybe header to bed, gotta be up bright and early to be at work for 7 :-S

Wolfmother

Wolfmother in my own opinion was one of the best new rock bands to come out in the 2000-2010 decade.  This was the album that had big singles like "Woman" and "Joker and the thief."  I Don't listen to this album as much as i used to, probably because i had listened to it so much now all the songs seem over played to me lol.  Some of my personal favorites on the album are "Where Eagles Have Been", "Colossal", and "Mind's Eye".
 
I remember seeing the band back in 2007, was really impressed with their performance.  They played all of the songs that i liked and they even played "Communication Breakdown".  There were a couple of points during the show Andrew Stockdale threw his Gibson SG high into the air.  I'd be so afraid to do that, for all i know i'd probably miss the guitar lol.  I was really choked to hear that the band had gone their seperate ways just a year after making their debut album.  Andrew Stockdale recruited new members to Wolfmother and released a new album, but for some reason it just doesn't feel the same to me.  I believe his original bassist/keyboardist played a huge part in the band.  I really enjoyed the keyboarding in the song "White Unicorn" and "Minds Eye".  From what i've heard on thie latest album they don't have any awesome keyboarding on any of the tracks.

Here are a couple links to a couple of my favorite Wolfmother tunes, hope you enjoy them as much as i do :-)

Where Eagles Have Been - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bwvv_Nr9rM
Colossal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAShx8scZe8
Minds Eye - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpE0US9vzxU

Monday, February 14, 2011

The Wait Is Over

So I woke up this morning to go to another job interview.  I was pretty confident about the two job interviews for the same company last week that i would be in for sure with them, but as my mom told me yesterday "It ain't over till the fat lady sings" so i went to it anyway just to see what they had to offer.  I was up-front with the service manager and explained that even though it said on my resume that i was a journeyman heavy equipment technician with a red seal certificate, i was still a tad shy on lots of the practical experience, and i wasn't looking for a huge salary at the moment.  He said he would have someone work along side with me and there was a good chance that i would get some field experience.  I suggested $27 an hour to start off and he figured that would be fair and he would review my performance after 3 months and increase my wage then.  So with that being said he asked me when i could start.  I told him Wednesday.  It's official, i'm going back to work :-D

After the interview i made a couple stops.  I needed to get a new guitar tuner since my other one crapped out on me 2 weeks ago and i've been going all that time tuning by ear.  I'm not terrible at it, but just a little bit off when it comes to accurately tuning.  Now the way i am, i can't go into a guitar store without playing with some of the toys.  Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine creates lots of crazy sound effects with his guitar in lots of the Rage and Audioslave albums.  One of the effects on his board is a Whammy pedal.  Basically what this effect does is increases or decreases the octave of a note by 1 or 2 levels.  I tried it out for the first time, probably one of the coolest pedals i've ever tried out :-D.  Now all i gotta do is work for a few months and save up $250 bucks and its mine :-).

I did some browsing around future shop afterwards to.  Big mistake, ended up dropping 40 bucks on music lol.  Bought the new Motorhead CD along with a Slayer and The Clash double disc sets.  I couldn't help it, they were so inexpensive and thats all i really spend my money on lol.

For all the P!nk Fans

Yes i know lots are probably thinking after the past few post's i've made talking about Judas Priest, Scars on Broadway and AFI you would have a good idea the kind of music I like.  I do listen to the odd Pink song, i'm not heavy into her music but i do know her music when i hear it.  Anyway I'm only making this blog because i was bored a couple days ago and fooling around on the guitar seein what kinds of tunes i could pick up by ear.  Well i learned the beginning riff to the song "So What"  I thought it was pretty sweet that i figured it out so i typed up the tab and decided to share it with all who are interested in it.

enjoy...

e------------6-----------------------------
B---8--6--8-----8--6-----------------------
G---------------------7--7--5--7--5--------
D------------------------------------8--5--
A------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------

for beginner guitar players, try to alternate picking between notes, it usually doesn't take long to get alternate picking down, and it really helps if you want to learn how to play faster.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

My Daughters Birthday Party



So there were some minor setbacks with my daughters birthday party, can't really remember what was going on in the month of January that her mom delayed it for so long, but anyway we had i today.  I feel really awful that i have'nt been able to afford a present for her yet, u think i would have been able to save up something while i was working and get it in advance, nope wasn't thinking :-(.  I think i'll get her that Pop-Up-Pirate game.  During Christmas we all got together at my Dads-Girlfriends-Daughters place and she had that game there.  Well whenever we placed the swords in and the pirate popped out, my daughter would just start giggling hysterically, even after the rest of us were done playing she would play it by herself.  Just goes to show how the craziest things can amuse young children lol.

After the party i stopped by my moms house, i guess I had ordered up a few CD's on amazon way back at the beginning of january.  Well i had gotten 4 out of the 6 in mid january but the other two were back ordered.  Well I got them today.  Both Motorhead CD's "Ace Of Spades" and "Iron Fist"  I figured at the time i wanted to get a few motorhead CD's to get into them a little more before the concert, well happy i got some new music to listen to :-).

I stuck around for dinner.  mom made some salmon.  Made some kind of dill and garlic spread to go on it with and some lemon.  I really wanna learn some good ways to cook salmon, my dad cooks lots of it i'm sure he'll show me a few tricks.  Also got some birthday money to.  Was so thankful.  It will probably help me survive a couple more weeks.  As long as i include my cheap ass macaroni in every meal that should help it stretch a little bit lol.

Crash Love

AFI or A Fire Inside has been one of my favorite punk bands since 2006.  Ever since they put out that "Miss Murder" song i've been in love with the band ever since.  They put out the album Crash Love 2 years ago.  Me personally i thought the album was pretty awesome but asking opinions from the other AFI fans theres always a debate that "Oh I like AFI's older stuff a lot more then their newer stuff."  Well i can see where some people are going with that.  Any songs that have been put out before their "Sing the Sorrow" album are a completely different style.  They give you more of an adrenaline rush i guess is how i would put it.

As for me I like old and new AFI just i find myself listening to their newer stuff a lot more.  Especially this album.  Some of the singles include "Medicate" and "Beautiful Thieves" after listening to the album more other songs have grown on me.  Some of my personal favorites on the album are "Torch Song" and "Too Shy to Scream."  If you are going to buy the album make sure its the deluxe edition so you get the 4 bonus tracks.  From those four tracks, my 2 favorites are "Fainting Spells" and "Where We Used To Play"

But thats my opinion on the album.  here are some links to a couple of the songs i mentioned.

Medicate - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb4uKRs2Gak
Too Shy To Scream - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWlbG0JTBTk
Where We Used To play - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rTamleRu34

For anyone who hasn't gotten into AFI yet, hope you enjoy these songs :-)

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Could have been more productive, Damn video games

I guess we all have those days every now and then, but seriously i could understand a day like this after a long night of drinking and sleeping in till 1 PM.  Hell i even have a couple good books in my room that i'm partway through that i could continue reading.  One book is called Anarchy Evolution the author of this book is the lead  singer from the band Bad Religion.  Basically talks about how there is no god and he uses examples from lots of scientific research that he has done over the years based on evolution.  As for the other book, just Guitar for Dummies.  Don't know which way i'm going with the guitar, but maybe a little theory on it every now and then doesn't hurt :-)

Ever since i downloaded this sega and Nintendo emulator off the internet and reconnected myself with some of these games i was heavily addicted to as a kid, seems like my focus on playing guitar has been steadily decreasing.  Especially in this kind of situation i'm in now, if I'm unemployed i shouldn't be wasting so much time playing video games but educating myself with books or videos off the internet.  Every one of my friends has told me in the past that i know a good amount about computers and should have taken programming in college rather than heavy duty mechanics.  Well i'm starting to realize it a little more every day.  There are odd days i have gone on you tube and watched instructional videos on how to assemble a computer tower.  Seems pretty easy with basic components, but when they break the components down into which is better i'm completely lost.  Better keep reading i guess.

well the day is almost over, i still got a chance to say i at least did a little something productive.  Maybe i'll dig out that Anarchy Evolution book and read it some more.  Currently at the part where he is talking about natural selection.  He talked about how farmers with cattle use natural selection to Breed their animals so they have good quality livestock for years to come.  I had never thought of it that way, i wonder what else that book has to teach me.

My first time........................................ Playing guitar that is

Alright get your head out of the gutter i'm not talking about the day i lost my virginity i really don't feel like embarrassing myself, not this early in the morning anyway lol.

So it was way back in December of 2004

I finished my last day of classes before the Christmas holidays, i packed my bags and drove 5 hours all the way back to my hometown to visit my dad and all my friends.  After dropping all my stuff off at my dads place, i went walking over to one of my good friends house to see if there were any parties going on

Well there was a party that night.  Over at his house

Guess there were around 10-20 people over, had a few drinks and played a lot of foosball.  Guess my friend had gotten a foosball table as a christmas present, it got used quite a bit over the nite.  Got my ass kicked a bunch of times, was still a rookie at the game just a couple months before i started going to the college bar to play a bunch during lunch hour.  Fun times.

So after a bunch of people left and it was just four of us.  One of my friends picks up a guitar that was in the corner of the room told me he had bought it just a couple of months ago because he wanted to learn how to play.

So he played a simple guitar line from a song.  I thought that was pretty awesome so i asked if i could try it out.  Well i was an embarrassment trying to figure out the line starting out, today i could put my guitar behind my back and play it with ease.  But it really interested me a lot and i was ready to learn some other song intros.  So my buddy pulled up a website and showed me how to read tableture.  Pretty easy stuff.  The next 2 days before i went back to the city i went over to play some more, i was really that into it :-).  A month later i finally bought my first guitar.  Buddy of mine from college was trying to sell his old one.  So for 200 bucks i got an electric with an amplifier.  Not too bad for a first guitar i suppose.

So thats my story of the first time i picked up a guitar and started playing.  As for the first guitar tune i learned, i'll share it with all of you, i'm sure all the Grunge fans will know this riff

e-------------------------------------------------
B-------------------------------------------------
G-------------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------------------
A--------------0-----0--------------2--------2----
E--0--0--1--2-----2-----2--2--1--0-----0--0-------

i'm sure your all pulling your guitars out to play this one.  Have fun playing :-)

Friday, February 11, 2011

I knew it was too good to be true :-(

So i went out to see my daughter today.  On the way over there i had to refuel my car, don't got much for money to pay for gas, had 20 bucks in my pocket and a VISA.  I figured i would try paying with the VISA first crossing my fingers i still had credit left and use the cash as a last resort.  Thankfully I had enough credit.  Had 2 more callbacks today for 2 more interviews next week.  So unless i'm getting bad references theres no reason why i should have a job next week this is ridiculous.

While visiting my daughter, we went by a thrift store so her mom could grab some accessories relating to her business.  I checked out some of the second hand CD's they had there.  Mostly crappy music, the only good CD i found in there was Pornograffiti by Extreme.  Haven't been able to find any CD's by Extreme in any of the stores, and i love a lot of their songs to.  The case was empty so i assumed the store owners kept the CD up front and would give it to you when you purchased it.  Nope, guess someone came in sometime and stole it.  I was choked, would have only cost 2 bucks for the CD if it was there.  Yep too good to be true :-(

So just going to hang out at home tonight can't really afford to go out at the moment.  Maybe try and get more of "18 and Life" down on the guitar or memorize more of the lyrics.  Don't feel like cooking tonight.  Thank you McDonalds for your dollar cheeseburgers, could probably survive for years just off 2 of those for dinner for a long time, a hell of a lot less money spent on groceries and more money to my music funding thats for sure lol

Scars on Broadway

System of a Down has been one of my favorite bands for 6 years now.  When i heard they were going there separate ways i was really choked.  But from it Serj Tankian made a solo album and so did the guitarist.  Daron Malakians solo project was called Scars on Broadway.  I really enjoyed this album over Serj Tankians solo album.  Not really sure what the big singles were off of the album since i have never heard any of them on the radio.  But to list some of my favorites, i enjoyed "They Say", "World Long Gone", "Enemy", "Universe" and "Babylon".  For anyone who is interested in listening to any of those songs i have the links below.

They Say - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2jGcW_SxTg
World Long Gone - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pWOrcqNDZI
Enemy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufVdSSORh3I
Universe - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhdGTB2Zc3U
Babylon -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD-FWsULXLI

I found out a couple months ago that system of a down had gotten back together and were touring again.  I was excited but a little upset at the same time.  Only reason being upset is that i was hoping that Daron would have made one more Scars on Broadway album.  Probably listened to this album the most in the summer of 2009.  Lots of the times when i hear songs off this album i think of all the crazy moments of that summer lol.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Light at the end of the tunnel

So i got a callback from a place yesterday requesting a second interview.  Basically they explained what they had to offer to me.  Originally the game plan for them was to put me on a truck to do greasing and refuelling of road equipment for 22 bucks an hour.  Now they want to put me with one of the journeyman technicians and have him show me all the tricks to becoming a better technician.  As a journeyman tech i should know all that by now but i don't.  The last few employers i have had didn't teach me enough, especially the one who i did my apprenticeship under all i did was wash machinery and build kits so the other techs wouldn't haveta go scurrying for parts when installing attachments onto equipment.  Long story short, this company made life harder for me.  Now every place i apply to they see that status and think "Oh a journeyman hes got the experience and all the knowledge" guess again, been through many jobs because of that.  I'll know in a few days if i have this job or not, i'm crossing my fingers.  If i do, its gonna be long hours in the summertime but during the winter it'll be simple hours, good time to relax :-)

Thats my story today, thankfully i got lots of leftovers from last nights chili so i don't have to cook anything up tonight, gonna be a relaxing evening :-)

Motörhead

So i went to a motorhead concert last nite, pretty awesome show that they put on.  Was able to get a bunch of pics, pretty shitty that there was a light fog from the smoke machines, or from all the die hard fans who were smoking up hardcore at the venue lol.

Clutch opened, i didn't know many of their songs as i'm just getting into the band as well as motorhead, but they still put on an awesome show :-).  I pisses me off the lack of respect that some people have for performers.  There have been 3 or 4 instances that someone threw a water bottle up on stage and almost hit the drummer.  Come on seriously, grow the fuck up.  Maybe when you decide to start a band i'll come check it out and i'll bombard your ass with water bottles all nite and see how you like it you immature little child.

As for Motorhead the guitarist almost got hit by a few water bottles as well but besides that they played some pretty awesome as Lemmy quoted them "Rock and Roll songs" i didn't know too many of them they put out a new album one song they played off of it was called "Get back in line" and another one but can't remembe rthe name of it.  Some other songs they played included "Going to Brazil" "Rock out with your cock out" and "You may have the power, but you don't have the right".  They finished off with "Ace of Spades" and played "Overkill" for the encore.

But anyway here are a few pics from the show, enjoy....







Wednesday, February 9, 2011

It's gonna be a fun night

Well still haven't been able to do very much today, when your not working or don't have to be anywhere during the day you tend to get bored very fast.  I'm only renting out a small room since thats all i can afford at the moment.  I got some interesting literature to read like Guitar for dummies just to understand more of the music theory to know what i'm doing when i'm playing.  I got an hour or so practicing guitar in today so the day wasn't too big of a loss.  Been telling myself that I should take 1-2 weeks to get a song down and set a goal to have at least 10 new songs down by the end of 2011 both guitar and lyrics to the song.  I'm currently learning how to play "18 and Life" by Skid Row, love the song and looks pretty easy.

Going to see Motorhead tonight, just recently started getting into them.  Some favorites i like so far include "Ace of Spades" (Who doesn't like that song) and "No Class"

But better get some dinner started before i head out.  Thinking chili tonight.  I'm sure everyones got a good chili recipe.  Mine is fairly simple just need 1 lb of ground beef 1 can each of diced tomatoes, black beans and kernel corn and a pkg of chili mix.  Make sure you dump the black beans and corn in a strainer and rinse them off before mixing them in, just because some canned products are stored in salted water to help preserve them for storage.  Plus just that much less salt in your food.

After you cook your ground beef and drain it, throw the beef and everything else into a saucepan put it on medium heat stirring occasionally.  Usually i cook it for about 10-15 minutes.  If you want you can also add some Cumin to taste or some jalapeno pepper.

This recipe works pretty good for me.  the ingredients altogether usually cost around 10 bucks so its a fairly cheap simple dinner to make, and you get lots of leftovers to :-)

British Steel

Judas Priest has been one of my favorite bands to listen to since 2008.  British Steel was one of their first albums i bought.  Last year Judas Priest did the British Steel tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album.  If your building up your album collection or getting bored of listening to the same music over and over, check this album out.  2 of the singles off this album are "Living After Midnight" and "Breaking The Law" both great songs and if you are just starting out on playing the guitar they are around the easy level to master.  2 of my personal favorites off of the album are "Rapid Fire" and "Metal Gods".  I watched the British Steel tour on TV awhile back.  At first i thought it would be Glenn Tipton doing all of the mini solos, but him and KK Downing each did a solo one after the other it was awesome :-)

Here are some links to check out "Rapid Fire" and "Metal Gods" if you haven't heard these songs before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhXUutpELRA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWpvWAROGP4&feature=fvst

Also here is the tab for the intro to "Breaking The Law" if your just starting out on guitar or want to learn a new tune :-)

e-------------------------------------------------------
B-------------------------------------------------------
G-------------------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------------------------
A--0--2--3--0--2--3--0--2--3--------0--------0-----3--2-
E-----------------------------1--3-----1--3-----3-------

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

I hate playing the waiting game

Still haven't received any callbacks from employers yet that i have applied to.  Seriously i've been out of work for a month now, my last employer decided it was a good idea to let me go ON MY BIRTHDAY the bastards.  Thoughts going all through my head about how exciting the night will be after work.  Nope end up going home all pissed off about what happened.  I did end up going out after all, drowned my sorrows in a few beer and jagger bombs :-P

Now i know i shouldn't stress so much about it or lose any sleep over it, couple places did say they would get back to me this week sometime, but still the waiting game sucks lol

Pretty much spent the day with my daughter. we watched that Rugrats in Paris movie.  Now i never thought about it before but i'm amazed the parents in that cartoon still have all of their kids and didn't get them taken away by child services.  Seriously they don't pay enough attention to their kids if they are always off getting into mischief and destroying half of Paris in a 200 ft. Reptar robot lol.

But i think its time for me to make some dinner.  Thinking about making smokies with steamed vegetables and my special macaroni.  Figured it would be something simple.

To make my macaroni all you need to do is boil up some water, and add about 1/2 cup of macaroni into it (1 cup if you want leftovers tomorrow :-) )  Once the macaroni reaches its desired tenderness, drain the water, stir in 1 Tbsp of butter and add Club House brand Roasted Garlic and Peppers spice (this brand i feel works best) to taste.  My preference is to sprinkle a bunch in, stir it up, and repeat process 2 more times.  Even adding a sprinkle of black pepper or Parmesan cheese is okay to.

I like doing this style of macaroni on those days where i'm too lazy to make up pasta sauce :-P

Awesome Buy

so every now and then i like to browse around guitar stores just to check out new equipment and play on some of the guitars.  I go in one day and i see a Dean Dimebag Darrell Tribute guitar on sale for 170 bucks down from 650.  Not sure if its a fake or not, but i've been playing it for a few months now, doesn't have any fancy body designs on it like a lot of the other Dimebag guitars.

Now i just need to practice more, so i can play faster and enjoy the full benefit of the guitar lol






Monday, February 7, 2011

Starting Off

i am creating this blog because over the past couple of years i've had a lot of times where i would be down and had lots on my mind that i would want to vent hoping it would make me feel better.

i am currently 26 years old, i'm living on my own, i'm a journeyman heavy equipment technician who has been unemployed for a month now.  My primary hobby is playing and listening to music.  I used to be heavy into all of the final fantasy games but when the day came that i picked up the guitar and started playing, i played final fantasy less as the days passed.

I have been playing guitar for 6 years now.  i own 4 electrics, 1 acoustic and 2 bass guitars.  My favorite pieces of gear in my collection are my ernie ball music man and my Dean Dimebag Darrell Tribute.  I' not at the point yet where i can shred, but i do try and practice some guitar warm ups that i've learned from guitar instructional videos.  I'm into a lot of the classic rock and metal bands, but i do listen to modern rock as well.  Some of my favorite bands include Judas Priest, Dio, Rage Against The Machine, Megadeth and Pantera.  I saw Judas Priest live back in the summer of 2008, they put on an amazing show.  I'm hoping to see them live again, stories on the radio say they are doing one last tour so i'm hoping some places i have applied to will call me back and offer me a job so i can save up some cash to go to the show.

From grade 9 till 12 in my high school years i enjoyed playing final fantasy a lot.  I only played games 7,8,9 and 10 after that they just didn't seem to interest me as much as they used to.  I still do play some video games today.  Before final fantasy i enjoyed a lot of the classic nintendo and sega games.  There are stores out there that sell the consoles but the odds of finding all the games you are looking for is a challenge.  I was happy to learn that there are sites that have emulators and roms so you can play all of the nintendo and sega games again, just trying to play them with a keyboard compared to the joysticks is kind of a bitch starting off lol, but i pretty much mastered it in a week :-D