Mood: Tired, very tired.
Look, it's me and my guitar!
Wow, the last time I updated, it was 12:04, and right now, it's 12:40! Insane! Anyway, hello y'all. What has happened in the past what... 9 days or so? Well, actually, some interesting things have happened. Okay, well, Monday, I went to work. I was really upset when I got there, why? Because every seat was taken, and the computers that were open, weren't working. God, I can really hate my job sometimes. But yeah, so I finally found a spot, and worked. Good. After that, I believe I went to Sabrina's house. Sat around, then came home, and probably played guitar.
Tuesday (last week) was the last Del Taco Tuesday day.. before high school let out again. It was an okay day. I got to skateboard a bit, and watch other people eat cake. I gave Erika, and Amanda rides home, because they both had to take the bus, it was really hot, and I felt bad for them. Umm.. after that, I sat around at Sabrina's house, and then went to work. Of course, no chairs open, broken computers, and I had to be placed somewhere. Work sucks. After work, I came straight home, and I... probably played guitar.
Wednesday (last week) I called into work thinking I was working, but for some reason, the lady who works in Human Resources says that I don't work Wednesdays anymore. I didn't expect anything like that to happen.. so, I had the day off. I believe I went to Manny's house, and hung around there. Something happened.. but I can't remember. Actually, the rest of that day is a blur, but I remember telling myself that I had to talk about it in my update. God damnit! I think we came here, and played music. Josh's radar went off, and decided to come over. (Josh lives across the street). Um, I think Manny finally got home at like 2 in the morning.
Thursday, I had to attend 2 graduations. The first one started at 2PM, and it was for my brother. It was funny, most of the people there were dressed somewhat nicely. I had on a black button shirt, that has safety pins in it, a big star patch, I had my wallet chain down to my knees, I had my hat, and sunglasses on, with a nice black tie, while listening to my Mini Disk player. It was great, because on my way in, the cop that was standing there gave me the meanest look ever, hahahah. While sitting there, I saw that I wasn't the only one who wasn't dressed "nice" .. it was a guy who plays in a band here in Burbank. They're called Desecrate. It's almost like a Metallica tribute band. Good guitar players though.
After that, I went home for a bit, then to Sean's house. Hung around with him for a bit. I planned on being at Sabrina's house by 5:30pm, but she called earlier, her mom was going nuts on her, and was trying to keep her from going to graduation. Anyway, that was that.. and she still got to graduate. During the whole 2-hour event, I was sitting next to Tanya.. and holy fuck, we practically spent the whole time laughing about stuff. She's so cool. But after everything was done, we (including Cory) ran onto the field, and got to hug, and congratulate people, as well as say goodbye. A bit of a touching moment for everyone who step foot on the field. After that, we all went to Shant's house, and ate "food". His dad made "hamburgers", french fries, hot dogs, Some kind of pasta salad, which was pretty good. Oh yeah, there was also chicken testicals. What? Well, they were... balls of chicken.. but, come on.. might as well call them chicken balls. Oh yeah, on the way to the BBQ, I started fucking around, and driving like a mad man (SAFELY)! Cory, Tanya, and Sabrina were getting thrown around in the car, while Cory screamed at the top of his lungs. Holy fuck, it was too funny! But, back to the BBQ...
The first part of it, I was hanging around Sevon and her little sister, because they didn't really know anyone there besides Cory and I. After they left, Cory and I hung around Sabrina, and Tanya for the rest of the night. Shant and the rest of the guys had their own conversation going, and after being called many different names for smoking 1 cig, I didn't want to converse much at the time anyway. Besides, Sabrina had pissed me off, and blah! But anyway, the night had come to an end, and Shant being thrown into the pool failed. Josh and I then played Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would take Ch.. Chuck? I forgot his name, but yeah, who would take him home. He lived kinda far. Of course, I lost, so I took him all the way home.
After that, we drove to Cory's house (to drop him off) and the next thing you know, we're all (Sabrina, Tanya, Cory, and I) are all in Cory's car... while Cory does donuts in an empty Target parking lot. It was like, almost 1am, and he was burning rubber, it was great. Then of course, Cory lets me drive his car, and I go amazingly fast over this dip, causing Tanya to super hit her head on the top of the car (yes, I was going really fast) we all got thrown around, it was kind of fun, but I felt bad afterwards. So, we stood around a bunch, and then went into Cory's house, sat, and then I took everyone home. That was that.
Friday, we had band practice, which, went okay. My ears were ringing because I didn't wear ear plugs. Stupid me. But yeah.. SATURDAY.. was the highlight of the past week. Saturday, I took Manny, Sean, and Sabrina to this party that Oliva was throwing. The only real reason that I went was because Tanya wanted us there so badly. So, of course, the first 10 minutes of us getting there was the most awkward. The next thing you know, I'm drinking vodka, and everything is okay. I must have smoked 100 cigs that night. No, not really but it seemed like it. Again, Sabrina pissed me off that night, but I let it go. Things were going okay, then I realize Manny was gone. Where? He was in the bathroom for like 40 minutes, puking. He finally went in the back of my car, and slept. Things were going okay, (oh yeah, Oliva's friend Lindsey had like, drank too much, and was our for the rest of the night) but yeah, Oliva's sister "Sammy" took Sean in the bedroom. Nothing happened, there were just talking, but that Sam is quick like that. Next thing you know, Sean comes out of the room (I think all he did was exchange phone numbers with her) .. but yeah, next thing you know, the other people in the back (older people) started calling Sean "O-Town" because they thought he was dressed like a boy band member or some crap. Then, they all decide to get up, and seek Sean out. Figures, Sean walks the same direction, and is stopped quickly. Sam's brother, who's fat, 22, and was drunk, got all in Sean's face. Rambling on about how she's 16 (Sean just turned 17) and how it's his sister, and blah blah blah. Sean was scared to shit. I wanted to get in the guys face, but I wasn't sure if I could walk straight, let alone get in a drunk mans face.
After that, Sean headed for my car, and sat in the passenger seat. He was freaked out. The fat guy, and his friends came out to the front yard, as if they still had some provoking to do. Yadda Yadda Yadda.... we all eventually went home. I had to drive them home, but I was somewhat buzzed, but not impaired. Even if I was, I wouldn't have drove.
So, Cory followed us home, and everyone crashed in my room for a bit. After we ate Del Taco, Cory got hungry, so I went with him to Del, and while he was eating, there was this insane man at del throwing nuts at people. Funny, it was like, super late, but there was still a bunch of teens and shit sitting around and eating. Everyone was high though, so, it was funny. Yeah, then the cops showed up, and the insane man had been drinking, and, still was. So, off to jail he went. But yeah, took everyone home, and that was that.
Sunday, I canceled work. we (we, as in the band) went to this guys house. He was like, rich, and Chris and him knew eachother for a really long time. His name is Gray, and he drums for a band called Influenced. They're pretty good. He can record music very well. After getting humped by his big dog and not realizing it, we then were told about playing at his record release party. He mentioned that MTV people will be there, as well as A&R (people who listen to demos for big labels) and, yeah lots of people, and lots of girls. But, yeah, his house is huge. I looked out the patio door expecting to see a wall somewhere, but all I saw was a horse, and a stable, lots of grass. Umm.. we all decided that since we're all together, we should have practice, and I told Gray that he should come here us play, just so he knows what to expect at his release party. He had to wait for his car to return (even though I don't think it moved in the first place) but yeah, so.. I watched Chris play this game of pool (which seemed impossible) then yeah... time went by, and it was time to go. On the way home, we all got to hear the Five Points Up demo, and holy fuck, we really did suck. Ouch.
After everything was taken care of and settled, we played for Gray. He was giving us pointers on what would set us apart from others bands, and what not. He said my singing was good, which I was pleased to hear. He's going to record our 5 track demo, and I bet it's going to sound really good. So, that was that. He jammed with us a bit, and then left for.. I think a hockey practice or something.
Monday (yesterday) I went to work from 5:00PM - 9:30PM. It wasn't too bad.. I mean, you're supposed to dial like 100 numbers in an hour, but in 4 hours, I only dialed like 87 or something. I spent my time writing out our set list for this Friday. We have 12 songs, 4 Chris will have to sit out, because he doesn't know them. 3 songs are covers by Rancid, NOFX, and Green Day. Yeah, I also wrote down the tracks that will go on our demo. I have stickers in mind, and shit.. and yeah.. a bunch of ideas. After work, I went to Sabrina's (I don’t know why I expected her to be there) but yeah, she was at Tanya's. I went there, had a slice of pizza, and went home. I watched some TV... I watched "Reverb" which had live performances by Disturbed (He actually thanks Method Man for vocal influence, he kind of raps in his songs.. never noticed before) but yeah, also by Mudvayne, and Cold. I think Scooter from Cold used to have an eating problem. He was too skinny. But yeah, I played guitar from 5am.. and by that time, I tuned my guitar down, and was playing metal. Then I finally went to sleep. I had a short little daydream about my band playing on the Jay Leno show. It's weird, cuz I can actually see it happening. And, when it does, I don't think I'm going to be surprised. It's as if this whole "musician" is written into my life, and that's what I'm suppose to do. It's just kind of scary, because it's like walking down a hallway with no light. Anyway, I woke up this morning at 12, called into work (I’m working from 5:30pm - 9:30pm) and right now, I have to go, because there's a Del Taco meeting today which starts at 2pm (30 minutes) but I probably won't be there until 2:30 - 3:00.
I really should take a shower... oh yeah, on .. I think Monday, I worked on some new logo's for Persuasion Outline. You can check them out in my scrapbook. They're on the last page. That's about all. Thanks for reading, and check back soon!
Mood: Stable
The picture is a bit dark, and blurry, but it's probably better that way. I have no shirt on for fuck sake!
June 14th (Friday) was my birthday for those who didn't know. Most of you, probably didn't know. Why? Because I don't really like comming out of the blue, and inform people that it's my birthday. It just seems like I'm begging for someone to wish me a happy birthday, because I'm desperate for one, since all my birthdays usually suck. I'm sure you people can agree with me, you're birthdays are never really anything speical, are they? I was watching The Osbornes on MTV, and it was a new episode, and it was Jack's birthday. I watched him as he told his mom, "Mom, I know what I want to do for my birthday. I want to go to Midevil Times". When he said that, I was reminded that if I asked for that, I wouldn't get it, because we're so financially challenged. But whatever, it's normal. But, lucky Jack, he said "I said I wanted a suit of armor, and I actually got one. I was just joking" God damnit Jack... I would love to own a suit of armor.
Jack Osborne may have gotten an expensive armor set (sword and shield included) but I got better things. My first gift was from my mom. I got Jackass The Movie on DVD (I still don't own a DVD player, but my brother has a Playstation 2, so I guess it works out). I figured she was going to get me a DVD, I just wasn't sure which one. I'm glad I got it, because I really want to see the bonus material, and hear the commentary and all that neat stuff. Yep. The 2nd gift was from my Yia Yia (That's greek for Grandma). She got me a $15 Target card. Target... can be a cool place, if you know how to spend you're money. I used the money by buying 2 cans of Axe spray (smells good!) and Mach3 razor refills. Torrey shaves...? Yes.
The final gift(s) I got were from Sabrina. I got white shirts (which I asked for, I'm now into wearing plain white shirts). I also got some yummy brownies, and cookies. My final present for the day, is an Atticus poster. It's fucking rad! It's got a bunch of pictures that go around a guitar that's in the middle of the poster. The cool thing, is that the guitar is broken, but put together with different pictures that have parts of the broken guitar... like..... awh god it's hard to explain. If you want to really see, just come over and I'll show it to you.
Friday, I took my brother to school aty 7:30am, then took my mom with me to pick up my check from ISA (which I was surprized, I had one) and then we picked up Sabrina, and then picked up my great grandmothers ashes. Mom mentioned something about theres a chance we won't have to move, but... I'm not putting my money on that idea. Anyway, practice was cancled, so I spend most of the night fixing my 2 web pages. This one, and the band page.. http://www.persuasion.tk
Saturday came around, Sabrina and I went to Wienershnitzel, or "Wienershizzle" which I now call it. I got a chili cheese dog, and a chili burger (yum!) and Sabrina got a chili dog, and chili fies. I was worried, because I didn't want to get chili on my brand new white shirt. I was able to sucessfully eat, without a mess. Yay for me.
Band practice was suppose to start at 6PM, and I was getting a bit worried becuase it was already 7:00PM and Manny wasn't there. I then realized that Manny's bass, and amp was there, but his cord was at my house. So, in route to my house, I pass by Manny. He jumps out of the car (his mom then took over) and we went to my place, picked up his cord, and went back. Practice was pretty good. Chris is keeping up very well with us, and things are going to be okay. I'm also worried about Chris's wrist. He ends up being in pain when he plays guitar for too long. When he bends his wrist (you have to, to play guitar) he has a bump, that like... gets in the way of something, which causes him sharp pains. In other news, I wrote a song called "It's Not Alright" and it sounds fucking cool. But it's different... because I scream, but it sounds good. Kind of like a Finch type thing going on. Yes, I have finally written an Emo-Core song. It was bound to happen.
After practice was pretty fun. Sean's brother Jordan, and his 2 friends, had bought bags of popcorn kernels. While we were all standing outside talking and stuff, we keep getting hit by kernels! Jordan and his friends were putting the kernels in straws, and then shooting them at us, like dirty Africans. It was only a matter of time when we finally started chasing them, and eventually, stole their stash of kernels. Jordan ended up getting pissed, which was funny. Next thing we know, the kids are gone... and we realize that they're inside the house. We all run to the front door, but it was locked. The little bastard kids locked us out, and started fucking with our equipment! I saw threw the window, they were messing with my guitar, untuning it, and they played with Manny's bass, and Sean's drums. We kept going around the outside of the house tryin' to figure out how to get inside. The next thing we know, they're upstairs, spittingd down at us threw a bedroom window. I remembered that Sean's bathroom has a door, that leads out into his backyard. Of course, the door was locked, but his bathroom window was open. Manny tried to open it, but couldn't. I ended up using my car keys, to try to pry the screen off the window, but then Manny realized there was a clip that was keeping the screen on. He finally got it off, and in a hurry, I shoved Sabrina threw the window. We go to Sean's door, and wait... and wait... and the door still wasn't unlocked. I looked threw the window, and Sabrina had ran off, completly forgetting about the damn door. Manny finally went threw the window, and opened the door. By the time we were in, so was everyone else. We all ran upstairs, found the kids, and started throwing them around the room. Manny had the oldest kid on his knees, apologizing. It was fucking great! After all that, Manny stole another one of their bags of kernels, and we started spitting in the bag, and shaking it up. Next thing you know, Manny spills the entire bag of kernles on the floor. Of course, we cleaned it up, and everything was good. By the end of the night, everyone then realized it was my birthday, hehe..funny.
You'd think that would be the end of my Saturday night, but it wasn't. When I got home, I went down to the OTHER Sean's house (down the street) where he was throwing a party. It wasn't that bad being there (it never really is). After having a couple of beers, and talking with random people, the party died out, and Sean was a bit bummed out. Poor guy, I'm sure soon he'll have another one, which will be sucessful. If you're reading this now, HI SEAN!
Anyway, after going home, I attempted to watch my Jackass DVD... but my TV is all fucked up, so .. watching it was almost impossible, because the screen turns black most of the time.. so, I got to hear all of it, and all of the parts where I'm suppose to laugh, but.. with no picture, it's not the same. Blah.
Today (well, Sunday) I didn't do a whole lot. I woke up at 2pm, which made me feel lazy as fuck. My good friend Marvin (practiclly a brother to me) called me today, and asked me how my birthday went. Marvin and I have been friends since early '97. He's the one of the coolest people to be around. After talking with him, I then drove down to Albertsons, and bought milk, toothpaste, and dog biscuts. After comming home, Josh across the street calls, (practically right when I got in the door) and asked me to drive him to the smoke shop. So, again, I drive down to the shopping area, and figures, the shop was closed. So, I drove him to 7-11, where he bought his ciggerettes. When we got home, he asked me if I wanted one, but I declined. I'm tryin' to quit smoking. You didn't know I smoked? Yeah, it's a pretty recent habit, but, I'm cutting it out. Besides, I usually smoke on Friday's (because manny has ciggerettes) but yeah, anyway.
After laying around, being bored off my ass, it was time to take Sabrina home. I came back home, and began to update, and here I am. I probably won't update until next week, that way, you can read some of this update, and come back to it later... since it might be too long for some people. I hope everyone elses weekend was good (or better then mine) It's now 12:55am, and I'm gunna sit online until the people I'm talking to, sign off.
Cya!
Mood: Sleepy/Recovering/Annoyed
Hello, yet again people. YES! Things are different.. if you haven't noticed. Want me to tell you about the updates? *duhhh* okay. So, if you haven't noticed, there's a picture of me, which was taken this morning, during the process of me updating everything. I'm still only running on 3 hours of sleep. I'll be taking a picture of me every update (since I dont update often, no problem) but yeah, and that little "mood" bit is like from "Live Journal" except, it's not. So, there. Anyway... from now on, when you want to see whats new, it will all be here. The rest of it (archive of past journal entries) are in the .. yes, the archive. That's not new, but what IS new, is the "Pictures" and the "Scrap Book". No, thats not very new either, but the "Pictures" section, are pictures of just me. The "Scrap Book" are random pictures of, stuff. You know what I just realized? I spent all day doing this crap, and nothing really is different. FUCK!!
Anyway.....PROM pictures are up now, there's just a few, check them out in the... yup, you guessed it... SCRAP BOOK section.
Well, Tuesday, I spent my day at Del Taco in Van Nuys. For some reason, it wasn't as ... "cool" as the others can be, but that's because few people didn't stick around very long (Erika, Ashley, Tom, etc). What sucked the most is that loud face Alex wasn't there. He's in Chicago. Why? I... don't remember exactly.
Wednesday, and Thursday, were 2 days I spent doing absolutly nothing. My job told me that I'll be working next week, and well, crap, everything just sucked. My emotional status wasn't very good, and everthing just seemed wrong. Simple as that. The only highlight out of the 2 days, was a really good conversation between Vanessa and I. Then it was time to start reconstucting....
I was fixing up my bands website (http://www.persuasion.tk), by adding Chris into the page (since he's playing for us now) but the majority of the night, I spend editing pictures, making them clickable and junk like that. Oh yeah, the banner on the very top of the page, with all the pictures of me... isn't that cool? Took me a lot of time, but I think it's decent. It's cool cause it's like a "Then" and "Now" kind of thing. The black/white pictures were me when I first moved to Burbank, and joined a band, and the colored pictures are of me now, and playing shows with my band. Eh, just a personal thing I suppose. I could have put baby pictures, but that's not sexy at all.
Speaking of band stuff, we didn't get to practice today, because Sean had other appointments (school band banquet, NERD-ALERT!)
But other news, I think so far, things are looking better. Chances are, we may not have to move for a really long time, and that makes me feel better. But... for some reason, I feel like I don't have much else to say, or that I'm being rushed... so, I'll leave it at that.
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Tuesday, June 3rd, 2003
10:15 PM
Well hello there.
The month of MAY was the month of hell. A month that I'm sure most of you enjoyed. Not me.
Shall I ramble about how crappy my past month was? Well, considering that I only updated once, the entire month, things must have been crappy. Where should I start...?
First off, I just started working at ISA, and I didn't have my car insurance money. So, Sabrina's grandma helped me out, by giving me $100 to pay for it. Then, the guy down the street (Wes) tries to help me bleed my brakes (getting the air out of the system) and he ended up busting one of my rear wheel cylinder. I had my friend across the street (Josh) have his grandma take us up to Auto Zone, to get a kit to fix the broken part on my car. They didn't have it, and sent us to somewhere else. After we got home, it was like 9 something at night, and Josh and I spent until 11am trying to get it to work, but, we couldn't fix it. I ended up taking the bus to work for 2 days. I finally asked my Uncle to help me out. He put $250 into my bank account. $231 went to putting in back brakes, and fixing the leak. I didn't realize that I had to get front brakes as well, so I spent $121 getting front brakes. Well, atleast my car has new brakes now. It came to about... $352.. and I bought the stupid car for $400. Now I still have to find a way to pay him back.
After that crap happened, emotionally things started happening. I started to doubt my relationship, and my band. Why? I don't know, probably because I was depressed. I still had to get the car smog checked (which I finally did, and passed it). Now I need to come up with another $39 to renew the tags on the car, because they expire next month.
Then PROM decided to show up, and I needed to get a tux. Of course, in order to match Sabrina, my tux ended up costing $100 to RENT.. when I could have bought something decent for the same price. Well, I didn't have the money, and I put a downpayment of $20 on it, then put the last $80 on it, the day before prom... speaking of, Prom, wasn't worth the $100 I spent for the tux. It basically was a big thing, while everyone was dressed up. I guess that's what prom is about. Anyway, I think the coolest thing about the whole night, was the free bottles of soda. The rest of the night was whatever. Sabrina complained about her feet hurting, but made me dance with her for, what seemed like hours. I don't even know how to dance anyway. I told her to take her shoes off (every other girl had her shoes off) but she didn't want to. So, finally the night ended, and that was just the beginning. Well, I don't know.. basically drove around until 2am, with no idea what the hell was happening. a "party" kept comming into play, but by the time we FINALLY made it there, the house was dark. I heard today that the party started at 2:30am, and we left 30 minutes before. Eh well, we probably didn't miss out on much anyway. So, that was that.
So, yeah now my car's radiator has a slight leak, and that means I have to replace that eventually. That's like, anywhere from $100 - $300. Did I mention my great grandma died? Well, honestly, she's better off. But unfortunatly, now that she has passed on, that means this house we're living in, will be closed, fixed, and then sold within a matter of .. 3, to 6 months. Which.. sucks because we're financially challenged, and we don't have enough money to go anywhere, and we don't have anywhere to go. I mean, if it came down to it, I'd be staying at my drummers house, or my bassests house, for awhile.. my mom and brother would probably be with my grandma or something. I don't know. I'm trying to not think about this issue, but, it's gunna kick me in the face soon.
But yeh, on Sunday, my band had a show, and ... musically we did good, but the problem was, was that there was barely anyone there. I was basically crakin' jokes to moms and things like that. It was.. weird. Anyway, The Briggs are fucking good, and we decided to cancel our next show, because it's on a crappy day, at a shitty time. But, Chris New is joining us (2nd time) and hopefully, he'll stay, and things will work out. But yeh... I'm low on crap to talk about..... uhhmmm.. so yeah, I got new licenses plates for my car, and it has "BTF" in it.. which could stand for BACK TO THE FUTURE... I love that movie. Umm...
oh yeah, Lucas... that's a very special kid. He's got the world on his side, but unfortunaly, things aren't as good. I wish him the best of luck with everything. One car ride with him made me realize just how much him and I can be alike.
I know I'm forgetting something.. but, I'll probably remember it later, and then tell you in my next update. This one is too long (people complain about my updates being too long) anyway, thanks for reading. Take care.
