September 30th, 2004 08:55 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Back To Dangerous" by Zelienople.
Feeling: comfy.

Well, I'm back from Japan. The giant journal entry is still be worked on. The pictures will be inside of it, instead of me posting a whole directory. I still don't feel like Chicago is "home" yet, but it's slowly creeping back to me. I had an amazing time and I can't wait to go back. And I will go back. Oh yes, I will go back.

September 21st, 2004 09:15 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Ophelia" by Ambulance Ltd.
Feeling: EXCITED.

I just had a huge "cold buster" from Jamba Juice. Hope recommended to me as I'm worried as hell that I might be getting a cold right now. Hmmmmm. It's basically an orange smoothy with a bunch of crap in it and has a faint taste of wheatgrass. It could be a lot worse, I'd suspect. I'm gonna be drinking tea all day long.

I went to Maria's new apartment to study last night. She got one hell of a deal on this place. It's amazing once you realize she has this huge attic space that she's made into a lounge/spare room/rehearsal space. It's pretty sweet. On the way there I had to get a pizza crust for us to make pizza. (duh) I went to Jewel, but their Boboli rack was completely ransacked. I then bit the bullet and went to Whole Foods, a place I abhor going to. 90% of the staff there seem to be failed artists with huge chips on their shoulders. Somebody even scoffed at me when I said to Maria over the phone "I don't give a shit if it's vegan, bread is bread". The woman at the register was actually very nice, though. On the way back to my scooter, I passed the Star Wars fans waiting outside of BestBuy for their DVD's.

Ok, Maria and I have this bizarre love affair with the movie "Real Genius". Oddly enough, we've never watched the movie together. If we would, it would be worse than seeing Monty Python's Holy Grail in a college town, as we would recite every single line of dialog. We love everything about the movie, especially the soundtrack. Any time a film has "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears for it's closing song has a place in my heart forever. While we were studying, one of the songs came on and I freaked out. She then proceeded to play all the other songs I want off the soundtrack. I had no idea you could actually find these songs, as most of them are so obscure. If you look up the soundtrack and then find the bands on UBL or something, they usually say something along the lines of "that band that was on the Real Genius soundtrack" and that's about all you can know about them. She's going to be sending me the files shortly. I'm so excited, I could die.

At this point tomorrow, I will be arriving at O'Hare dying to get on that plane to Tokyo. ^_^

Oh, I'll be able to check email while I'm there but I will NOT have access to my cell phone. See you all in a week! Sayonara!!

September 20th, 2004 09:25 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Y Control" by The Yeah Yeah Yeah's.
Feeling: EXCITED.

Ok, so I'm officially in the "I'm thinking about Japan to the point where I can't sleep well" mode. Plus, I had the windows open on Friday night and my throat hurts because of it. Not good. But that means I'll just suck down 100 vitamin C drops today. Mmmmmmm pink grapefruit.

I didn't do much of anything this weekend. Ok, wait, let me start over. Friday I drove my scooter over to Duke of Perth and had some fish and chips. I met up with some friends at the Landmark to see the new Ghost In The Shell. Now, I need to see it again to completely soak up the plot, but my initial impression is that it's absolutely amazing. I won't really say anything more about it for now. I came home and played more Resident Evil.

I cleaned my apartment on Saturday and did laundry. Also played more Resident Evil. Exciting, I know. I forgot what it's like to have a super clean bathtub. Ummmmmmm, yeah. ;P. I watched the first of the 2 Ju-on prequels. These are the TV movies that came before the movie. They're a little low budget, but in that X-Files kind of way. There are still a few spots that, while kind of cheesy, still give you the shivers. That in itself makes this worth the purchase. I don't know why watching a zombie woman climbing down the stairs face first is so scary, but damnit it works every time.

I took my scooter on some errands and also had breakfast at Kitschin over in Roscoe Village. Good stuff. I came home and played Resident Evil Zero. I ended up playing this freaking thing all day in hopes that I would finish it, but I didn't. I'm close to the end. I'm remembering why I didn't like this game after finishing it. It's just not as fun as the others. The graphics are still awesome, as are the cut scenes. But beyond learning more of the story, it's not a good game on it's own. Anyway. Blah.

Day after tomorrow!!!! I leave on Wednesday!

September 17th, 2004 08:25 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Get Out Of The City" by Ivy.
Feeling: I have a headache, but it's lovely out and I'm excited.

Class went well last night. Sensei now has the clear impression that I'm busting my ass to learn Japanese and she loves my frustrated reactions if I get something wrong. She gave me this rather hard pat on the back last night, which I'm assuming was supposed to be her version of a coach smacking you on the ass. It was hilarious. There are some new people in the class, so it's not just me, Maria, Matt, Darlene and Patrick. I like that. I'm glad we have new people mixed with the ones I know. One girl is possibly Chinese and she already knows kanji, so I'm jealous as hell when she writes things on the board. My pronunciations are getting better each day. I love it.

Wednesday night, I did nothing at all. I got home, fed my cat, took a loooong shower, ate a bowl of cereal and played Resident Evil for nearly 5 hours. I was in such a bad mood over the screw up with the box set booklets, so I decided to immerse myself in one of my favorite games. Resident Evil for the GameCube is simply outstanding.

Because I have my class at 7:30 on Thursdays now, Dave is letting me work 10-7 instead of 9-5 on that day. Sleeping in felt weird and I kept waking up, thinking I was supposed to be getting up for work. But it was nice being able to see Yuka before I went to work. It's a nice concept. I took the scooter because the weather was wonderful. I wore my sunglasses this time, so I didn't go blind driving east down North Ave. There's something awe inspiring seeing Lake Michigan on a sunny day at 9:30 in the morning. It's such a great illusion that I live on the coast of an ocean. Perhaps one day I will.

After class last night, I went straight to the Empty Bottle to see M83. John was there with a few friends. I also talked to Mikey for a while. He's really a nice guy and it's cool when someone like him starts to get all geeky with you in regards to guitars and effects. I met a nice guy named Mark who is visiting from Wales. We talked about my trip to London last year and he's also a big Britpop fan, so that was also cool. M83 was good, but their performance really didn't do much for me. Plus, the only time I've heard their music is a few snippets that Cory has played for me at practice.

Holy crap! I just looked at my calendar and realized that I'm going to see Ghost In The Shell: Innocence tonight! That means I've gotta get back to my house quickly and hop on my scooter. Very cool. I'm excited for this. All I'm doing this weekend is cleaning up my place so that when I come from Japan, I'm not disgusted by it. Although..... if I did come home and was disgusted by it, I would just turn around and get on another plan. ;) :: laughs maniacally ::

September 15th, 2004 12:33 hours CST
Currently listening to: the blood in my ears.
Feeling: like murdering someone

The booklets for the box sets arrived. They're completely screwed up. I'm so angry right now, I could kill.

September 15th, 2004 11:25 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Bernadette" by Brief Candles.
Feeling: happily caffeinated.

I was at the studio for 6 more hours yesterday. Got home. Fed the cat. Jumped on the Vespa, and then I was back in what is becoming my 2nd home. I'm finally happy with these mixes. Taking the extra day to rework Cinnamon made all the difference in the world. It was just me and John there with David this time. It was fun and I was in a much better mood. We reworked some little things in the other three songs and finally went "ahhhhhhh, much better". It's amazing what + or - 1 dB will do to a mix. We took the CD out to David's car and listened to these mixes at full volume and they rocked, quite frankly. David also played us the remix that The Assassins are doing of this one girl from Destiny's Child and it's amazing. I can't wait to hear what they do to In Your Room. I've been dying to get my hands on that remix, but the Destiny's Child chick took priority. Bitch. :P

So, with those mixes out of the way, my brain is finally back in Japan-mode again. JAPAN JAPAN JAPAN! I have my first Level 2 class tomorrow evening. I get to sleep in tomorrow too since I work 10-7. Sweeeeeeet.

I'm now starving.

September 14th, 2004 10:15 hours CST currently listening to: "Jaan" by Talvin Singh.

Yesterday wasn't so bad. We had some series corporate entities in the office all day yesterday, but it really wasn't that bad. Got a free lunch. Potbellies! Maria and had a free dinner at PickMeUp last night thanks to that gift certificate from last month. I took a couple pictures of us "studying, ninja style" but naturally I forgot to upload them to my server.

I watched Natural City last night. This is more or less the Korean rendition of Blade Runner. That's not a fair comparison, but it's still a good one. This time, the main guy already has his "replicant" and he's trying to find a way to keep her from expiring. The acting is...... pretty crappy. Especially from the main character, but it's visually incredible. The atmosphere will seem very familiar to you and the old school miniature set designs are really damn cool.

Ok, I just stopped laughing. I thought Dave sneezed on a pad of paper, completely coating it in snot, but upon me laughing he turned around slowly and told me that he simply spilled some water.

September 13th, 2004 09:30 hours CST currently listening to: "Cat House" by Takako Minekawa.

I was in the studio all weekend. I'm not sure if I'm really happy with these mixes. We worked on "500 Deep", "Cinnamon" and "Kiss Me Sadly" all day on Saturday. We did "World Cup" on Sunday and that song took over 6 hours to mix. I think I may have to scrap the guitar solo and redo it at some later date. I don't know. Maybe we'll keep it in there and just release that version on a comp. I wouldn't mind doing that. The solo was done just using my Boss Hyper Fuzz, a Vox wah and my Boss Digital Reverb. It sounds a lot like one of David's keyboard solo's for The Assassins, oddly enough. But while it's a cool sound, I just don't think that it fits the song. It's weird spending so much time on these songs and then feeling that they aren't exactly where they need to be yet. And I know that if we get them mastered then some of the things will improve, but I feel like we need to start over on some of them. That's what we're doing with Cinnamon. We're meeting on Tuesday to redo that one. Drag.

I saw Resident Evil: Apocalypse after work with Mischa on Friday. Stopped in to California Pizza Kitchen before the movie. Their jerk chicken pizza is the best. The movie is....... well, it's deep fried shit, actually. But, it's also really damn cool in a "there is no such thing as bad pizza" kind of way. I'm such a huge fan of the Resident Evil game series and this movie is DEFINITELY geared more towards game fans than the first one was. Even though the audience laughed, I got some secret little goose bumps when I finally heard Nemesis say "S.T.A.R.S." in that thumping low voice of his. The acting is pretty terrible and I'm sorry, but Zach Ward trying to pull off a Russian accent is just laughable. You don't ever get tired of Sienna Guillory in her Jill Valentine outfit. She's not a good actress, but I'm sure there are fan boys everywhere going to see this movie, sitting by themselves in the back rows, armed with a box of Kleenex. Mike Epps as "token funny black guy" did have his moments, the crowning jewel being when he yells "GTA mother fucker!" as he runs down some zombie in the street using his car. No, I'm not kidding.

I picked up the novel of Battle Royale again. I was reading it while we were in the studio mixing. It's not a very quick read. There's a lot of internal monologue that, while important and well done, almost always interrupts the action. There are periods of sleepy descriptions that are then completely taken over by extreme violence with detail that you can only get from text. It's pretty creepy reading a girls thoughts about how surprised she is about the small size of a boys eye sockets as she's gouging her middle finger and thumb into them. Fun stuff!

September 10th, 2004 08:55 hours CST currently listening to: "Maxi On!" by Takako Minekawa.

I took the scooter to work today. Awesome ride. Weather is perfect, although I'm nearly blind now thanks to driving towards the sun a whole lot. I found an extremely quick route to downtown now and I got here super early. I can take Elston all the way down to North and then cross over to inner Lake Shore Drive and then straight down Michigan Avenue. It's amazing how bad most cab drivers are at driving. I took some time to walk around and take some pictures of the water video towers of Millennium Park and also some pictures of the park across the street, next to the art museum.

I didn't go to the Assassins show on Wednesday. My neck and shoulder were still hurting a lot. They're still hurting now, in fact. I'm in need of a massage. I had a nice walk yesterday evening. I exchanged a pair of pants and a shirt that my mom had purchased for me from Banana Republic. I was going to get a couple dress shirts, but I found this fantastic brown blazer with pinstripes and three buttons. Meow! I bumped into an old high school friend at the Chicago red line stop and we're gonna meet up fro drinks next week. I strolled down Michigan Avenue and took pictures in Millennium Park.

I went over to Lisa's last night. There is a deck on the roof of her building that is amazing. We started watching Princess Mononoke, but I started falling asleep about half way through, so I borrowed it. I hadn't seen it before, which I know will surprise a lot of you. I had a great ride back to my place. I was flying. Elston is my new favorite street. Not a lot of lights and nobody ever seems to drive on it. Sure, it's not scenic, but whatever.

Less than two weeks, Yuka. I will be there.

September 8th, 2004 09:30 hours CST currently listening to: "Hero's Elegy" by Blue States.

Well, I'm finally back to work. I spent almost the entire day yesterday on the couch in a serious amount of pain. I somehow pulled a muscle in my right shoulder while at the studio on Sunday. The pain goes all the way up the right side of my neck. Luckily I had some Vicodin left over from my appendectomy, so I spent the day watching Futurama and being completely stoned. I did take some time to reflect on things and write some things down in a notebook. I had to take more today, so I'll be a zombie at work, which should be fun. I've already adjusted my chair so it doesn't hurt when I type. :/ Anyway, on to the weekend recap.

I picked up my mom and sister at O'Hare. Traffic was pretty bad and it took us a whole hour to get back to the city. We went to Flattop Grill where Linsey was working and we stuffed ourselves. It was good to hang out with them. I feel like my brother always does when I come to visit. It's fun to play tour guide. ^_^

I got up at 8:30 on Saturday morning with the full intention of going to the gym, but I got all the way out there and they were closed for renovations. I was so bummed. I went down to Wicker Park for the Slaughterhouse 10 scooter rally around 11:30. I don't think there were as many people there this years as there were last year. But still, the scooters were everywhere. Mom and Jenny showed up around 12:30 and got to witness the massive cloud of smoke caused by 85+ 2-stroke engines taking off. The first half of the route was a little funky, and we took a roundabout way of getting to Lower Wacker Drive. That's so cool. It sounds like we're a huge swarm of angry bees down there. I mostly hung out with PJ and his girlfriend while at the first stop. I finally got Mischa on the phone and he completely missed the start of the ride, but was already at Monroe beach waiting for us.

The 2nd half of the ride was really great. We went straight up Michigan Avenue along the "magnificent mile". For those of you who don't know what that is, it's the main tourist shopping area of downtown Chicago. The tourists loved it. The camera flashes were going off like crazy. I was right next to a bus and I looked up and everyone on that side of the bus was looking down with these big smiles on their faces. We took inner Lakeshore Drive all the way past the Lincoln Park Zoo (another great place to ride) and up to Monroe Beach. The cookout was nice, despite how hot and humid the weather was. I found the Mexican ice cream guy and bought two "firecrackers", which are red, white and blue popsicles. Here are the pictures. There are more pictures over at Scoot.net.

Holy crap, my neck hurts.

Mischa and I drove back to our building and I took a quick nap. I went down to Wicker Park to see when Frostiva would be playing. I met a few of them around 7:00 and told them to call me once they new when they were playing so I could call people and get them to come down to see the show. They seemed delighted that I would do that for them. I can't help but want to support a band on their first tour. Especially one that's unfortunately playing at Big Horse Lounge with no publicity to speak of. I went to Filter and paid $1.10 for a freaking can of diet coke, and hung around and studied my Katakana. I met up with John and we got some cheap Mexican food and watched Mr. Show at his place and then went over to watch Frostiva play. Lisa also made it down. We invited the band to come to Goldstar with us, but one of them was in a seriously bad mood and didn't want to go out at all. Too bad, since they were in Chicago and all. John and I got in a pretend argument and I spilled some beer on him and he spilled A LOT of beer on me and my shoulder bag, which was on the floor. Idiot. Lisa seemed to get a kick out of it. Hope and Kerry came in and Hope wondered why I was all wet.

The weather on Sunday was super humid. I was a sweaty mess by the time I got my first amp down to the car. The drums sounded great. We got the drum tracks done for "500 Deep", "World Cup", "Kiss Me Sadly" and "Cinnamon", and then David ran into computer problems that fucked the rest of our day up. The time synching got off and suddenly the main computer thought that the sample rate was 41 and not 48. Big problem. So, we left early and I went home in a bad mood. I got to talk to Yuka for a bit and then I crashed on the couch for the rest of the night.

Monday's session went really well. I saw Ayca on a run with a friend while I went out for food. Zeeshan got bit by a dog and called the cops. He actually developed a fever and told me yesterday that he got a tetanus shot at the the ER. Craziness. While setting up the room for Cory's bass parts, I picked up one of my amps and pulled a muscled in my right shoulder that shoots pain all the way up the right side of my neck (as I explained earlier). I don't know if it was just from the low ceilings in there or what, but I had a terrible time getting comfortable for the rest of my time there. Doing vocals hurt like hell because I had to lean up so my neck wouldn't hurt, but that was kind of bad for my singing. Although honestly, Cory and I nailed our parts and I think I had fewer pitch problems this time around than in any of the other sessions I've done there. So, somehow it all worked out.

I was supposed to hang out with Erika last night and watch some zombie films, but I was so out of it from the pain medication that she insisted I stay home. I managed to do some laundry (only fell down the stairs once. kidding.) and I also cleaned the hell out of Stella's litter box. Poor thing must have felt so neglected. She kept me company the whole time I was on the couch, though. And she started licking me like crazy. Reminds me of Chobi. I wonder if she new I was hurt or if she just wanted salt off my skin. ;)

So anyway, I'm back at work and I'm supposed to go to this Assassins show at navy Pier tonight. We'll see how I'm feeling. I always want to dance when I see The Assassins, but that sure as hell isn't going to happen tonight.

September 3rd, 2004 08:53 hours CST currently listening to: "Violet Hour" by The Clientele.

Class went well last night. I'm glad I started translating my homework answers into hiragana, because that's what sensei had us do on the board. Pretty sweet. We started learning katakana. I think that will be the last thing I make flashcards for. I simply have too many and now that I have that translation software for my PDA, I don't think I need them. Well, maybe. They are good for vocabulary. We'll see. She gave me a book called "Peach Boy" for having perfect attendance. Hahaha.

Regina set up a birthday party for John. It was to be in the style of a funeral to recognize the death of John's childhood as he is now 30. So, naturally, Regina and I are the only ones who dressed for the occasion. The others were in t-shirts and jeans, including John. Simpletons, all of them. ;) The food was great. I ate a ridiculous amount of meat. Atkins would be proud. Jasen and I shared tugs off a bottle of whiskey and we all talked about books. I think I grossed Hope out too much when I described the prolog to The Hot Zone. Note to self: don't talk about the effects of Ebola after a meal.

I managed to bump into Yasemin twice yesterday. Once at lunch and then after work as I was on my way to class. Funny how she works downtown and we never see each other and then suddenly we se each other twice in the space of a few hours. She's giving me my oddbaby today. She and Lisa and I are going to have lunch at Cafe Bacci, which Lisa managed to get me addicted to. I want to go to the gym right NOW.

Mom and Jenny arrive tonight. I get to rush up to the airport and then all the way back downtown to let them check in at their hotel, and then take them to dinner. I think we're going to do Flattop Grill. I want to go to bed early tonight. This weekend is going to be very busy.

I wonder what the weather in Japan is like right now.

September 1st, 2004 14:55 hours CST currently listening to: "Sweet Lullaby" by Deep Forest

3 weeks from today I will be on a plane to Japan.

Seals and I went to see Ju-On: The Grudge last night at the oh so lovely Gene Siskel Theater. This movie was fantastic. I had goose bumps repeatedly and I noticed that both John and I were squirming in our seats at certain points. They pretty much rely on the same type of scare over and over but damnit, it gets you every time. There were a couple of spots that I thought were a little cheesy, but it still worked. The cheesy parts made me think of films like The Amityville Horror, Poltergeist and also Stacy, of all things. The sounds effects are LOUD, which is great because you cannot ignore them. This reminded me of The Exorcist. The film is in a disjointed, chapter format and it works well once you understand how to watch it. I got back to my apartment and cautiously asked Stella to "be cool. stay cute. and don't make any weird noises tonight." John and I are searching for an imported DVD version right now. No wonder I like the Fatal Frame games so much.