July 29th, 2005 11:55 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Katamaritaino" by Yui Asaka
Feeling: "fuck you, microwave!"

So, I put some food in the microwave last night and cooked it. When I tried to take it out, the big retarded button made a a "clunk" noise and the door failed to open. Now when you push the button, there's no resistance. So, obviously some latch inside this damn thing broke or came loose. I pried the door open with a table knife. Then I gave the microwave the finger, ate my food in the living room and played Resident Evil 4. Shit.

July 27th, 2005 09:05 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Morning, Night and Day" by New Order
Feeling: in pain

My pedal board case arrived yesterday. The fucker weighs 100 lbs and that's WITHOUT any pedals in it. *smacks forehead* However, it is certainly smaller than my current board and that case is going to come in handy. I'll be able to stack this thing and without the girth of my current board, I'll be able to fit 2 more people in my car during the tour. That's sort of important. Yeah, I know. Taka, Yukari and Yuka are pretty small, but still..... :P. I spent the night arranging pedals and then making all of the custom length cables. Those George L cables are handy, but making over 18 connections gives you some serious fucking blisters. My right hand has 2 of them and 1 of them is under the tip of my thumb. Ouchie. But, I'm pretty happy so far. I have yet to receive the new power supply, other chorus pedal and tuner pedal. I'm getting rid of that Harmonist and PSM-5. So this picture isn't 100% accurate yet.

Chicago finally got some rain yesterday and it POURED on us. It hit around 3:30 or so. Dragging this 100 lb case while trying to hold an umbrella really sucked ass. The temperature is soooo nice. It's only gonna be a high of 75. WORD.

July 26th, 2005 11:03 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Daydreamer" by Supercar
Feeling: tired and sore.

What a crazy weekend. Drove down to Bloomington with the windows open the entire time, because the AC in my car sucks. I was talking way too loud when I arrived. It was good to see my sister and my mom is recovering very well from her back surgery. We cooked chicken and steak on the grill and it was awesome. I had them all watch DiG with me, to show them what it's like to play a show with the Brian Jonestown Massacre.

I ran all over the place with my sister on Saturday. My car decided to stop working when we left Bloomingfoods. It didn't want to stay running as soon as you turned it over and then it wouldn't even turn over. Grrrrr. We eventually got it started and I left it in my parents driveway.

I borrowed a car and went to my 10 year high school reunion. It was a good time. Saw some old friends and drank a lot, although I didn't get that drunk. My friend Emily was fucking blitzed. She could barely stand. Awesome. I'm glad I didn't dress up, though. I'm not a professional, nor do I dress like one.

With my car now camped out in my parents drive way, I was able to borrow their giant pickup truck to take back to Chicago. I don't mind this at all because a) it has a kickass engine and b) the air conditioning fucking RULES. Chicago had a heat index of 120 degrees and I was encased in a love capsule of delicious Freon. I had enough time to check that my cat was still alive and drink a much needed glass of water before I had to get back in the truck and drive to the practice space. We ran through the set and then loaded the cars.

We arrived at Dark Room a bit earlier than we were supposed to, only to find that the Brian Jonestown Massacre was nowhere to be found. Rumor was spreading that they were all over at Subterranean, but nobody could reach them. The promoters for the show were pissed and sweating bullets. However, Sonya the bar tender, kept us all happy thanks in part to Jamesons sponsoring the event. Glorious. We didn't speak a word about the missing headlining band, until they arrived about 10 minutes before we took the stage. Crisis averted. Thax was representing and read his poem about us on stage. That certainly felt like a right of passage. ^_^ We took the stage and rocked out.

BJM played a good show. One song was around 15 minutes long and it was really pretty awesome. I was at the merch booth the entire time, however. Griff was with me for most of it and kept me in fits of laughter. Bravo, Griff. They turned on the house lights and people slllllllllowly cleared out of the place. At this point, all of my band mates were gone, except Arturo, who graciously helped me with my gear. Bravo, Arturo. I actually fell asleep while eating a bowl of cereal at my apartment at 3:30 in the morning.

I took a sick day and tried to sleep during the day, but several people called me or sent me text messages, so I ended up camping out of the couch most of the day. I took apart my pedal board in preparation for my new one and arranged me pedals on the living room floor. Stella looked on with confused interest. She was very happy to have me home, however.

July 22nd, 2005 09:45 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Plus Profound" by Hooverphonic
Feeling: my tongue is burnt in a billion places.

Went to Chinatown with Lisa last night for dinner. I've already forgotten the name of the place she took me too, but we both had the same Korean dish that was unspeakably hot. Not in a spicy way, but in a "it's going to melt through your feet" kind of way. My mouth feels like cardboard.

Here's my take on the Rock Star Games "hot coffee" situation: they did this all on purpose. After discussing it with a couple of coworker/gamer buddies, I just decided that it's Rock Rock Star trying to be popular again. See, Grand Theft Auto III was amazing. It was all people talked about. That was THE game that got DJ and Dave to shell out money to purchase PS2's. We were all excited when GTA Vice City came out. It was all anybody talked about. It fucking ruled. Then, GTA San Andreas comes out......just weeks before Halo 2 and Metroid Prime 2. GTA San Andreas got put on the back shelf at that point. Yes, it had all of the violence and humor that made the previous games great, but it simply got overshadowed.

I was excited for another GTA game, but for some reason, I just wasn't as into this one. I wasn't into the whole LA "gangsta" theme to begin with, really. I also thought that having to deal with eating and working out was stupid, since all I wanted to do was drive around and shoot shit. You don't need to eat pizza for that, although it would rule if you could. Yeah, I did buy that gigantic strategy guide so I could find all of of the spray paint tags and oysters and crap, but I never even got far enough in the game to unlock a 2nd island before I decided to shelve it. I think Rock Star knew that they were releasing the game in the path of other hot titles, so they deliberately leaked the info about the unlockable sex scene. The argument on their side is very obvious. "You aren't supposed to be able to view that without an unlicensed, third-party app that modifies our code without our consent". Now, from the critics side you get "Dude, the code is RIGHT THERE on the disc. You put that in the game". You can go back and forth on both arguments. Honestly, I give a rats ass that there's a sex scene in the game. The character models are so weird looking that I certainly wouldn't get off on it. So, if it's for humor, then what's the problem? Are people actually going to be competing for who gets the most orgasms? Uh.... NO.

Now, personally, I think the ESRB rating system is flat out retarded, but I realize that it's simply the industry dealing with the pressure of politics and parental groups who don't know the difference between cartoon violence and shooting somebody in the face because people are raising their kids to be complete fucking idiots and they simply don't know right from wrong. But if you actually look at the difference in description of the "Mature" rating and the "Adults Only" rating, you have to sit back and scratch your head.

MATURE Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and/or strong language.

Ok, fair enough. That seems like a very accurate description of......most of the games I play. Now, here's the "Adults Only" rating description that GTA San Andreas is about to be changed to:

ADULTS ONLY Titles rated AO (Adults Only) have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.

So, the difference is the amount of time you're exposed to the violence, gore, blood and sexual content? This seems incredibly vague to me, especially in context to GTA. You can spend HOURS just running around and shooting old ladies in the face. It's what makes the game so fun! You get out of your crappy house, jack a car from somebody, start shooting people and spend the rest of the time outrunning the police, FBI and the army. It's FUN. But throw in some sex and you've gone too far? The problem that Rock Star now faces is the fact that retail chains have a simple blind policy of not carrying ANY games with an AO rating. So, GTA San Andreas is gonna get pulled from a lot of shelves. People will still be able to buy it. People can even use the "hot coffee" mod if they choose to. It's completely your decision.

But here's the point of this whole event, in my conspiracy theory-laden opinion.... I hadn't mentioned GTA in about a year, and now I just spent several paragraphs raving about it. That's fucking brilliant. So many people are going to go out and buy this game because of this. This is free press at it's finest. Bravo, Rock Star. I can wait for the next GTA. I salute you.

*yawn* *stretch* Ok, now that I'm off of my soap box for the moment, my weekend plans are as follows: heading down to my home town for my 10 year high school reunion. I'm actually rather excited for this. It will be crazy since I haven't seen nearly anybody from high school in 8 or more years. My mom just had minor back surgery and my sister is also going to be in town, so it will be a cool little family get together. I have to come back to Chicago a bit early on Sunday because airiel is playing with the Brian Jonestown Massacre at Dark Room. It's a SOLD OUT show, baby. Rock. I can't wait. It's also going to be 100 fucking degrees that day, so I pity the people going to Lollapalooza. Dark Room is gonna be a stinky place that night, I think.

July 19th, 2005 10:17 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Funny Bunny" by the Pillows
Feeling: ...

Didn't do much this weekend, which was actually quite nice. In between periods of Killer 7, I cleaned my apartment, which was a high priority. My sink looked like a science experiment gone wrong. I was waiting for legions of the undead to come shooting out of the food-crusted drain. Whoa. Anyway. I cleaned up a little.

I made a huge pot of curry and Lisa came over with Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. How could a movie with this much promise suck so bad? Two words: Gwyneth Paltrow. I wanted to fling spoonfuls of curry at the TV set because her character was so annoying. Not only has she never done an action movie before, but she's also never acted in a blue screen room before. This was made apparent as the 30 story tall robots are marching through the streets of New York and she's running (jogging) around in high heels with a look of "awww crap, I think a fly just flew into the room". People, it's rare that I'm ever turned off by a sci-fi action movie, let alone one that was styled like a futuristic 1940's, but shiiiiiiiiiit. This was almost the American version of Casshern. Style over substance. Only difference is, I loved Casshern. Ok, yeah, it is boring, but STILL.

On Sunday, I finished Killer 7. I'm still trying to wrap my head round this one. Sure, some things are implied and I can handle that stuff really well. But I do think I'll start sniffing around some game forums to see how other people have interpreted the story-line. Did we really blow up Japan with a billion missiles? If Dan Smith was killed by the dude with white hair, then how did Emir/Garcian kill him in the hotel? :: pounds head on desk::

July 15th, 2005 12:04 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Daughter In The house Of Fools" by Enon
Feeling: sleepy

I haven't updated at all this week. Let's see. A guy in my office died on Saturday. I didn't know him all that well. Super nice guy and pretty funny and popular around the rest of the office. So, everybody was all bummed out. They actually closed the office down on Wednesday so that everyone could go to his funeral. I, however, came into the office and did installations on all of the vacant computers.

I went to Tower on the way home and bought a copy of DiG!. I gotta say, I'm a little freaked out to playing this show. Hehehehehe. But it's gonna be so rock n roll. I think the band is gonna get together so we can all watch it so see what it is we are getting into.

The tour schedule is slowly shaping up. Gotta lock down some dates ASAP. I'm starting to freak out about this a little. I just want to know that it's all ready to go and set.

I bought Killer 7 and it's fucking awesome. It's so quirky and weird. I'm rather happy that this game is in my collection and I didn't just rent it. The game play takes some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, you can sit back and enjoy the acid trip that is Killer 7.

There is a kitten hanging around my building lately and it looks exactly like Stella. Well, Stella was a wee bit older when I took her in, but the color is the same. I wonder if this is Stella's little sister or something. She's really small. Only a few weeks old, I think. She's shy. She runs away from me, but then turns around and watches me. I'm soooo close to rescuing her. I'm really torn on what to do. I've never had another cat around Stella before and I've also never raised a kitten, either. :/ Any advice?

July 11th, 2005 10:23 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Golden" by The Flir
Feeling: we kicked the ass out of Minneapolis

Holy. Fucking. Ass. This trip to Minneapolis was awesome. We were already laughing and having a great time when we were loading the vehicles at 9:30 in the morning. There is..... a lot of personality in this band. None of this crap will make much sense. I'm still trying to process everything that happened in the last 36 hours. Here's a bulleted list for you to ponder:

• "The" Family Restaurant in Mausten, WI. Home of "Pleasoning".
• No. FUCKING. Way.
• Cory got a T-bone steak.
• Somehow we developed some story about an Ewok named Mudslug.
• first sighting of advertisements for the Pine Cone Restaurant. Songs about it began.
• Biggest bright orange moose we've ever seen.
• The Cheese Chalet
• Driving into the sun in 90 degree weather pretty much schools the weak-ass air conditioner in my car.
• I-94 is the birthplace of the water park. I counted 5, high end resorts all centered around water slides.
• We made it in 6 and a half hours.
• The Hexagon is conveyed 100% by its website.
• Griff and I both suck at pool.
• Griff fucking RULES at video game dear hunting with a bright orange shot gun. If I were a deer, I would be shitting myself.
• I am now quoted as saying "Kirk Cameron can blow me. And I'll cum on his bible and then rub it into that stupid curly hair of his."
• We found a band show flyer that had the A-Team van crashing into the Death Star. How fucking sweet is that?
• Cory and Griff found nirvana in the form of a sandwich shop.
• Griff told the single most hilarious story ever in the sweat-inducing living room at Christian's house. Bits of this story were repeated every 30 seconds for the rest of the weekend. Note: do not sit on the wicker chair in his apartment.
• Rose, the lunch lady from hell, was the coolest bar tender we've ever met.
• Basement Apartment were awesome. Very Belle and Sebastian.
• Somebody at The Hexagon had some SERIOUS farting issues. Every five minutes we were covering our noses. WTF.
• Our set rocked.
• They fucking SOLD OUT of ear plugs, thanks to us. We rule.
• My phone battery was practically drained after our set was over. Apparently it took 75 pictures of the inside of the pocket in my jeans. Ebay anyone?
• The guy working the door hated us. "They're playing some loud-ass rainbow shit."
• Met some wonderful fans. I signed a box set for one of them.
• Flavor Crystals were AMAZING.
• Breakfast at Triple Rock was OUTSTANDING.
• Griff is now banned from doing the "wicker chair guy" voice while ANYONE is eating. Too many times during this trip we came close to having people launching food due to laughter.
• Please put your glock away. Thank you.
• Mofuckin Pine Cone Restaurant!
• Pine Cone 1 (me): ribs and a baked potato. Pine Cone 2 (cory): T-bone steak. Pine Cone 3 (john): apple pie and a chocolate shake. Pine Cone 4 (arturo): roast beef sandwich absolutely drowned in gravy. Pine Cone 5 (griff): half a baked chicken that he ate with his hands.
• Griff got engaged to the waitress.

So yeah, that's it. I'm sorry to say that you're all going to be victims to about a dozen inside jokes when you hang around us now. More crazy shit happened in this single trip than has happened all summer. Provided we don't stay out too late each night, this tour is going to rule. We had a great time from the get-go. Christian was a great host and a super nice guy. Everyone in the other bands were great too. And a big thanks to Alpa and Patrick for letting me and Arturo stay at their house. We love you, Minneapolis.

In other news, Yuka told me that she can get plane tickets to visit while we're on tour. That's awesome. She'll meet us in New York and fly out of Chicago. If the schedule works, we'll be in Boston for our 1 year anniversary. ^_^

July 5th, 2005 10:23 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Halo" by The Cure
Feeling: three day weekends rule

Friday was absolutely dead at work. Dave gave me the option of leaving at 2:00, but I was gonna see a movie after work, so I decided to stay. I eventually left at 4 to go to Boston Blackies for a drink. Yes, my day was so dull that it warranted me drinking by myself, but people showed up shortly after I got there. Went with John, Keith, Sean and DJ to River East to see Batman Begins. John and I had already seen it and were happy that the others were as blown away by it as we were. Went to a bar in Lincoln Square and had a few dinks, then we all went back home and met online for Halo 2, which went well for the most part until a few people got too bitchy.

The new maps come out today, but I'm honestly losing my desire to play Halo 2 online. Yeah, it's fun sometimes, but I'm just not into the competitive bullshit that still goes on. It's just a freaking game. Speaking of which, I actually found myself playing Super Mario Sunshine over the course of the 3 day weekend. I forgot what a frustrating game that can be. Part of it is because it's generally challenging. The other part of it is the fact that you're fighting with the camera like CRAZY. You slowly become and expert with the c-stick when performing any high wire acts. I didn't put myself through the agony of collecting all 120 shine sprites. I settled on a more saucy total of 69 this time. I rule.

I made a quick trip to Scooterworks on Saturday for some parts for my rear rack. My friend John works there now. We need to go for a ride sometime. I picked up Lisa and took her up to Mitsuwa. We had to make a stop by the practice space so I could pick up this reverb unit of Griff's. Lisa spotted a Dairy Queen and flat out demanded that I pull over so she could get ice cream. The food court at Mitsuwa is slowly shaping up. There's a couple new restaurants there and I noticed that one of them was Korean. The Korean written language is so cool looking. I'd been craving cold soba noodles all week long and one place had them EXACTLY like I remember them from Tokyo. Soooooo yummy. I bought 4 bottles of sake and some other miscellaneous food items and then we came back to Chicago.

I'd been in the need for new clothes, so she took me to Barney's Co-op in Lincoln Park. This place still has super expensive stuff, but the one thing I picked that fit me was this kickass pair of jeans marked down to $60 from $160. That's pretty awesome. We ended up hitting the Paul Frank store and I got a crap load of stuff. One button down, short sleeved shirt, two t-shirts and two pairs of pants. I shall be visiting that store on a regular basis from now on. Maybe I'll get a discount if I show up on my scooter. :P

Sunday was pretty laid back. I picked up both John and Griff and we went to practice together, making a stop at McDonald's for a quick bite. Normally I avoid McD's unless I'm extremely hung over, but food was needed. Noticing the Dairy Queen on the way in, Griff ordered a McFlurry, which seem to take forever to make. This prompted Griff to utter "could you please McHurry the fuck up with my McFlurry?" The 45 year old manager was actually quite amused and in an effort to seem hip, he handed the McFlurry to Griff upside down, as if to say "take it, yo." Practice then had a McDonald's theme. We kept making up lyrics to that stupid "I'm Lovin' It" commercial, all of which involved airiel stuff. Good lord. I haven't had that much fun at practice in well over a year. We were laughing so hard, we were crying. We have the posters now for our show with the Brian Jonestown Massacre and they look pretty sweet.

Since we shifted practice forward a few hours, Griff decided to have some people over to watch the fireworks from his roof. The weather was glorious and we pretty much had fireworks to view from every direction, as Wicker Park sort of becomes Little Beirut during this holiday. We could even see the, um, left half of the fireworks from Navy Pier. There was a giant apartment building in the way, obscuring our view.

I went over to Griff's to run through another song on Sunday and then went to Danny's to meet with Lisa, Danny and Jane for some freshly grilled burgers. Apparently I was super late, but they saved some burgers for me. I arrived with two huge containers of potato salad and bbq baked beans. Rock. We watched the new Appleseed DVD in the living room. I wanted to see this in the theaters, but couldn't find a place showing it in Japanese. The quality was great. I'm definitely picking this one up. Lisa and I drove over to Linsey's for yet another BBQ. A couple people showed up and it was a nice little gathering. No real BBQ-ing per se, but it was still cool. Nobody touched the potato salad and baked beans that I we had left over from Danny's, so guess what I'm eating this week? Thankfully I get to go to the gym this week.

Watched Close Encounters Of The Third Kind last night. That movie is fantastic.