song for a mixtape

i don't usually pay attention to lyrics when i listen to music, just like i don't really look for substance when i watch a movie. usually i'm just looking to entertain myself for a couple of hours and let that be that. maybe that's why i got into punk music in the first place. it's loud, fast, and most of the time you can't understand what they're saying.

but just like anything new, the more you get used to something, the more the world around you seems to slow down and you begin to notice little things that you've never really picked up on before. this is true on so many levels. (something new i've learned)

with my newfound paying-attention-to-song-lyricsness, it's easy to find bits and pieces of songs that could be part of the soundtrack of my life at any given moment. the difficuty is finding a complete song that is the "steve narrative en melody". as for the bits and pieces, i could list a bunch of songs and link to them making it easy for everyone to gain an ounce of insight into my head, but that'd be too easy. besides, things are always more rewarding if you earn them. (something else new i learned)

anyway, i have another 38 hours 18 minutes 00 seconds of punk song lyrics to filter through. and a 830am meeting with the boss tomorrow. go me.
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 8:38 PM (0) comments

 
more calculator fun...
for 2 people:
1 plate of 20 wings = $11.99
1 side Caesar salad = $4.99
1 Buffalo Sampler platter = $12.99
1 pitcher of Harp's finest lager = $19.99
1 pitcher of Firestone = $14.99
4 pints of Guiness ($4.50 each) = $18.00
sales tax = $6.85
tip = $15
total = $104.80

I now hate Hooters. the restaurant.
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 12:42 AM (0) comments

 


on my drive home, i see two more drop dead gorgeous than average women standing on a corner....that's not the joke. one had a walkie talkie and a clipboard. her name was veronica. i know this because it was written in pink highlighter on her clipboard. the other girl was your typical bleach blonde haired, tight solid primary colored shirt, low ridin' on the hips huggin jeans wearing california girl.

luckily for me the light turned red as i pulled up next to them. they looked really really bored, so i rolled down my window and got veronica's attention. turns out she's a production assistant for elimidate.

i hate that show.

they were waiting for the guys to get there so they could film the "meet and greet" sequence. lucky guys.

i filled out my blind date application. haven't heard back from them yet, but i have no doubt that i will eventually. it's one of those things that's just a gut instinct...and when are those ever wrong?
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 5:30 PM (0) comments

 
random things you find when you're bored: this, this, this, and this.


- posted by yeah...about that... @ 10:18 AM (0) comments

 
medium pimpin'...

if you had told me that, in less than a year after graduating from college, i would have two California properties to call "home," i'd....well...i'd ask you what you were smoking. and then i'd take your smokes and throw them away, cuz smoking's bad mmkay?

signed the lease to the new apartment today. the lease period doesn't really start til april 1st, but she gave us the keys today. so one could say we got 5 days free and that's always good, because when is free stuff ever bad? yeah, i guess this could be one of those times.

there's always a catch....

we worked it out so the moving truck would go by my parents house in addition to matt's house. i think my parents are trying to send a hint when they packed up everything i've ever owned and put it on the truck. anyway, the truck comes wednesday the 31st. so much for moving all our stuff in early. at least it gives me time to move my stuff from my current apartment to my new one.

and i really have tons of stuff coming. i'm less the rolling stone and more the north side of a tree if attracting moss were analogous to accumulating random crap. you know the "one man's trash is another man's treasure" thing? i think i'm gonna throw away or donate most of it.

or eBay. no sense in giving away a small fortune.
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 11:35 PM (0) comments

 
and i'll say it again...

just kind of following up for no apparent reason, if music were to be labeled "steve music" the next 40 songs would be a random sampling.

1. The Urge - Jump Right In 2. White Stripes - Aluminum 3. Joni Mitchell - California 4. Hot Hot Heat - Talk to Me, Dance With Me 5. Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man 6. Garth Brooks - That Summer 7. Jimmy Eat World - A Sunday 8. Zebrahead - Now or Never 9. Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Ibhubesi 10. Elliot Smith - Rose Parade 11. Fuel - Hemorrhage (In My Hands) 12. James Taylor - Sweet Baby James 13. New Found Glory - Eyesore 14. Tim McGraw - She's My Kind of Rain 15. Shawn Mullins - Lullaby 16. Home Grown - She Said 17. Outkast - Love in War 18. Silverchair - Acid Rain 19. Home Grown - My Friends Suck 20. Stevie Ray Vaughn & BB King - Blues at Sunrise

21. Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castle 22. Never Heard of It - Alone 23. Reel Big Fish - Sorority Girl 24. Tim McGraw - Just to See You Smile 25. Autopilot Off - Friday Mourning 26. Glasseater - Alone in a World Without You 27. Ludacris - Area Codes 28. Nirvana - Lake of Fire 29. Squeeze - Tempted 30. Randy Travis - On the Other Hand 31. U2 - One 32. Bowling for Soup - Scope 33. John Denver - Rocky Mountain High 34. Allister - Pictures 35. Lagwagon - Laymens Terms 36. Ultimate Fakebook - Inside Me, Inside You 37. Pistol Grip - Broken Radio 38. Lawrence Arms - Navigating the Windward Passage 39. Akia - California 40. Duran Duran - Planet Earth

- posted by yeah...about that... @ 1:37 AM (0) comments

 
i've said it before...

change is a funny thing:
the way it makes things different,
and the way it rolls around in your pocket.

for one reason or another, i looked at my old blog. it more or less spans my last year in college give or take three months 4 months in either direction.

it's slowly falling apart.

first the obvious changes: the big red x that is left in place of a quality 256 color jpeg of one of the better nights out you had in college . the tag-board that displays a "this tag board does not exist" message instead of a short conversation you had with someone you could never identify and who asked "how long have you been such a loser?" (in french no doubt), only to respond with "only recently, i imagine" and then, as if to show that they weren't any better than you, proceeded to use the babblefish online foreign language translator to answer in french.

less obvious changes: the text links that reveal the 404 error or the "this page does not exist" message instead of the offbeat news article about how the japanese space program was thinking of including ramen noodles as part of their astronauts' menu.

and finally, changes that are only discovered upon indepth examination: a person's character can change greatly over the course of two years. events and experiences don't mandate change, however. they can also strengthen certain characteristics. so as to say that if a person was an asshole two years ago, and spends the next two years becoming more and more of an asshole, they are still the same asshole they were before, but just a bigger one now.

something that's come to irritate me more and more about people is the inability to believe in change, or even worse to believe that change is a bad thing, ultimately resulting in a fear of change.

a base example, regardless of how petty it seems, would be musical tastes.

i remember when i was 10, the first genre i really got into was oldies music. early beatles, early beach boys, the dixie cups, dion and the belmonts, anything you'd hear when you turn on your radio's oldies station. that traveled progressively to motown and anything a capella or harmonized. when i started playing trumpet in middle school i totally got into jazz and could at any given time name 10 of the best trumpeters in jazz history. from there i really got into 80's big hair monster ballads. it makes sense then that i started listening to more and more 80's music. and then the doors and led zeppelin and janis joplin and the later beatles' stuff. when i started playing guitar, i loved everything acoustic -- the heavier the band, the more i liked the acoustic version. i think it was here when i also really got into surf guitar artists like dick dale and songs like "pipeline" or easier yet, the entire soundtrack to the endless summer. when i started playing bass, i got into blues and funk. somewhere in there i started listening to billie holiday and etta james. i think this is when swing came back, so i listened to brian setzer and big bad voodoo daddies. somewhere else in there, and the more and more i was exposed to it, i got more into hip hop and rap which i previously admitted to utter distaste for. same goes for country music. and before good charlotte and "the boys of summer", i listened to blink 182's enema of the state everyday one summer. then i heard a goldfinger song that i really liked. so i listened to more of their stuff. it wasn't punk. it wasn't ska. it wasn't pop (yet). but i liked it, so i started looking for other bands like them and got into allister, craig's brother, the ataris, fenix tx, and then i heard bowling for soup and fountains of wayne.

and then i moved away from all my friends and family whom i only occasionaly talk to now.

and it's not the fact that someone refers to these most recent bands among others as "steve music" that bothers me. it's the fact that they assume i haven't changed at all since i left/last talked to them. maybe it's just the fact that they assumed anything about me. that's something that's always bothered me. how can other people think they know things about me, when more often than not i don't even know what i'm doing.

my 10 year high school reunion is coming up in 3 years. since graduation, i've seen a couple Sprayberry-ans/-ites or whatever you want to call them. and the ones that haven't been around the entire past seven years bring with them memories of how i used to be and have even told me to my face that i was nothing like they expected me to be. whether or not that was a compliment isn't the issue. assumptions about what somebody is like or what they do or who they are is analogous to competing in the special olympics -- even if you win, you're still retarded. i said the same thing about arguing over instant messenger once before. i don't remember where i first heard it, just know that i heard it somewhere and didnt make it up, and that it only is used to stress my point. not that i think less of SO participants or anything. i saw christina ricci in pumpkin. i'm pretty sure i understand as much as i can.

anyways, back to my point. i would be the first to argue that you can't put your past behind you and leave it all behind. mistakes, triumphs, accidents -- they all make you who you are today. but you don't have to sit in a pile of shit and think to yourself that you're destined to sit in the pile of shit forever just because it's gotten deeper and deeper over the years. besides, it's probably not as bad as you think it is. look around. i bet there's someone with a big stick standing on the edge that'll help you out if you'd only ask for it instead of drowning in your own self induced misery. or the stick is floating in the pool of shit with you and you have to put forth some effort and do the work yourself.

i never wanted to be an engineer. i was taking ME classes because it looked like i could pretty much do anthing when i graduated. i hated my engineering classes. i didn't put any effort into anything in college but water polo. friends came and went. same with relationships. school was secondary to whatever i felt like doing at the moment. the summer before my senior year i kicked myself in the ass and decided that i wanted better than what i had. not that i deserved it, but that it was about time i earned something for once instead of just having things given to me. i stopped slacking off, i found things in class that interested me, i challenged myself -- this was my way out. i graduated with a barely passing gpa and my job was lifeguarding at a country club. i had been to zero interviews, done zero networking (not that i knew how to start), and basically was unprepared to find a real job. but i had my degree, and i kept looking for something i thought would be good for me. after a combined six interviews with two engineering companies, i was still sitting in a chair under an umbrella with a whistle in my hand and a really good tan. then i changed my approach from looking for something i thought i was supposed to do, and instead looked for something that i liked to do. i was already prepared for that, and i ended up getting the job. sure it was luck, but it was also being prepared for an opportunity.

i've changed so many times in my life. and i've admitted to recreating myself everytime i was put in a new situation, but maybe it's not as bad as i thought. maybe i put on a new front to see what works best in a given situation, so if i were confronted again with the same situation i'd be prepared for it...and any new opportunities.

and maybe i'm full of shit....but maybe i'm not
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 12:39 AM (0) comments

 
calculator fun for the kiddies

punch in 1st 3 digits of your phone # (not area code)
mulitply by 80
add 1
multiply by 250
add the last four digits of your home phone # (or cell if no home)
add the last four digits of your home phone # again
subtract 250
divide by 2

voila. it's your phone number.

i haven't figured out why this works yet, other than you punch in the entire phone number in order with a couple other operations in the way that seem to cancel out somehow.

k, enough of that. back to constant refreshing of march madness scores on my computer while i sit at work far far away from any tv that would allow me the luxury of being able to watch these most amazing games (only 1 blowout so far).
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 1:24 PM (0) comments

 
k, so i take it back. my life isn't as epic as the last post made it out to be. i'm still just trying to figure out what i want to do now that i've gotten to where i am, which is better than where i was.

and now i'm in a slump. and i'm waiting for things to get hectic so they're fun again. because the most fun happens when you're totally engrossed in something and you have no idea what's going on. it's totally sweet.
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 1:21 PM (0) comments

 
and we begin the long climb to the top

i spent 12 years of my life going from preschool to my first year of college, spent 6 years putting off anything to do with creating a future for myself, and then i miraculously got a job in an industry i was always fascinated by, only to wonder if i need to go back to school to get to the top of the socalled corporate ladder (but not this kind).

the first step was a 30 minute discussion with the man whose position i imagine it will take me 20 years to attain about how he got started, the path he took to get where he was, and to pick his brain about the path i might need to get as we couldn't come from two more completely different worlds.

the second step was a 45 minute discussion with the man who was in the best position to tell me the path i would need to take to get to where i want to be, the challenges i will inevitably face, and what i can do to ensure i reach my somewhat overlyambitious goal.

the position i want and that i think will take 20 years to attain is more or less complete control of all product-based decisions within the company -- namely product development, manufacturing, marketing, and sales.

the second discussion, which was with HR (it's amazing how much a good HR person can help you), told me straight up that it's entirely possible for me to be the CHEESE: "get a couple people together, come up with an idea, get some funding, and start a company. voila, you're an officer." sounds easy enough.

as someone who is currently without the idea or funding and thinking i'm going to have to slowly work my way up, the question i've been asking myself is whether or not it is absolutely necessary to go back to school to get an MBA to be successful in said desired position.

the man that's currently signing my paychecks says he never got one and doesn't think that i would need one either, but then again, he started a toy company and was then bought out and brought into JAKKS. HR says i probably should get one, but if i want to work my way up, it's all about getting in tight with those already in the inner circle with some kind of C(E, F, M, O, T)O title. they need to know that there won't be any learning curve whatsoever when you move up, that you already know everything there is to know about what your boss does, and can probably do it better than him.

meanwhile, here i am with one foot on the bottom rung looking all the way up to the top waiting for each opportunity to show my stuff. one thing i've learned so far though, is that experience counts ten times more than any degree, so 20 years isn't such a bad thing. then again, who knows if in 20 years i haven't quit my job and jumped on a boat and sailed around the world.
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 10:10 PM (0) comments

 

location, location, location

today i went out for lunch. just like everyday i go out for lunch. today i went to lunch at La Salsa; the very same La Salsa recently used for filming a Hollywood production. i go there at least once a week. nothing beats good cheap mexican food in close proximity. today i saw this man. and this car. together. at a mexican fast food place. crazy. it reminds me that i need to start carrying a camera around with me wherever i go.


- posted by yeah...about that... @ 9:47 PM (0) comments

 

today, just like every other day

after experiencing a biting California winter full of rain and 60 degree weather, today's weather was most amazedly perfect. It called to me to venture out and mingle with everyone, or at least walk by them and bump into them with my shoulders on the Venice Beach boardwalk.

for anyone planning to ever visit, sunglasses are a mandatory fixture. moreso than a shirt or shoes. you're naked without them. and don't worry about getting crazy wicked raccoon eyes. i've yet to see anyone else with them, so i think there's a law against it. or maybe everyone has them, but since they never take off their sunglasses, i never see 'em. that could be it, too.

this evening i had planned another bout of amazing Loews theater movie hopping, but it wasn't in the cards. whoever plans the movie times does a pretty good job of screwing up my plans by leaving at least an hour in between movies i want to see. it's ok, it just means i hafta bring my A game when it comes to loitering in a theater and trying not to have the suits recognize that i've been in their establishment for the past seven hours. so i was going to see Sandler/Barrymore in 50 First Dates at 730, and then either Eurotrip at 930 or Starsky and Hutch at 950. i got there a little early and decided i'd catch the previews accompanying the 7 o clock S & H and then go watch 50FD, except i didnt. i didnt leave.

it wasn't a bad flick as far as killing time. some parts are funny, some parts not. it's definitely subpar compared to Old School, Road Trip, Stripes, and Revenge of the Nerds among other Todd Phillips directed movies. but people who are older than me who grew up watching the tv series say it's pretty dead on. so i guess that's good.

so a tradition of sorts following any movie sitting, i'm standing at a urinal in the men's room. and these two guys come in and step up to their respective urinals and basically rehash the whole movie.
"oh man, my favorite part was when ______".
"yeah dude, that was sweet. i liked it when ________"
"ha, yeah, and then he said _____"
"yeah i know, and the other guy was, like, __________"
"ha, yeah, and remember that _______ part?"
"yeah, that was pretty damn funny. do you remember that _______ part?"

yes, we all remember that part. and the other part. and all those things you just said. we all remember it because we all just sat in the same damn theater and watched the same damn movie you watched. people like that really rub me the wrong way. not to mention the fact that guys shouldn't talk to each other while they're, um, holding themselves. that's something that should just go without saying.

and i found myself with forty-five minutes until Eurotrip, so i walked into that theater. empty. completely empty. then a pimply faced minimum wage making teenager with a broom and a trash can walks in. i decide i really didnt want to see Eurotrip anyway, and didn't feel like waiting around for the next 50FD anyway.

i killed the next hour in Tower Records looking at new artists whose music i should check out, only to go home and evade the RIAA and download songs illegaly. and people say i'm not a risktaker....honestly....


Music of the moment: the entire Punk Goes Acoustic album (downloaded, naturally)
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 11:23 PM (0) comments

 

a week's worth of thoughts

i was reading the most amazing whatevs.org and he started talking about Sarah Michelle Gellar and how she was thinking about appearing in the finale for the Buffy spinoff, Angel, and I realized I never really liked Ms. Gellar Prinze Jr as an actress. I mean, look at her collection of work: the Buffy series, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2, Cruel Intentions, and Scooby Doo, not to mention the sequel everyone's been waiting for, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. breaking down the roles for you: a role in a WB show, a stuck up beauty queen in a high school teen flick, the stay-home-and-get-stabbed-while-your-sorority-sisters-are-out-getting-crunk role Tori Spelling was even too smart to take, a coked up slut , and the offspring of Ginger and Gilligan if Mystery Inc ever went on a 3 hour tour. When deciding which role to do twice, you know everyone would've rather seen her repeat as a coked up slut in the sequel(which was actually a prequel) to Cruel Intentions, but we could never be so lucky.

they haven't come back to film anymore in front of my office for Adam Sandler's upcoming movie, Spanglish. and the more i think about it, the more i realize i couldn't have been more wrong about the kind of role he has. going completely the other direction, i think it's gonna be about all the hilarity that ensues from a spanish-speaking maid going to work for a middle upper class white family. because if anything is gonna make a movie funny, it's movies that show white people trying to understand another culture.

sometimes i am still amazed that California's governor is Arnold Schwarzenegger. it really helps to ease any doubts that may arise by reading some of his past quotes.
when asked about his decision to run for governor - "It's the most difficult [decision] I've made in my entire life, except the one I made in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax."
when asked about his lack of multiculturalism - "I don't understand how they can call me anti-Latino, when I've made four movies in Mexico."
whether or not he supports gay marriages - "No, I do not. I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman."
when asked how he plans to balance the state budget - "The only way we can deal with those issues is by bringing business back to California, because businesses, when you bring them back to California, it brings revenue back to
California. And when you have more revenue, you then can afford to take care of all those programs that need to be taken care of."
when asked about his previous indiscretions - "I have inhaled, exhaled everything." also, "Yes, grass and hash--no hard drugs. But the point is that I do what I feel like doing. I'm not on a health kick."

awesome....

oh, and in case you wanted to know how long the wait times were at your nearest Canadian/US border checkpoint, go here.

- posted by yeah...about that... @ 10:03 PM (0) comments

 

aaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHhhhhh kinda sums it up i suppose

so i try to be cool. i try to put pictures on this thing that i took with my camera. and does it work? no, of course not. that'd be too easy. and instead of trying to fix it, i figured i'd bitch and moan and things'll take care of themselves...which is usually the case
- posted by yeah...about that... @ 3:59 PM (0) comments