"in a flash it was over" - story meme

mike started a story meme. he picked ten words, wrote a story using them, and tagged a few of us. so, here's my story. but first, the words:

1. pot 2. pan 3. spoon 4. fork 5. knife 6. glass 7. fire 8. water 9. light 10. sink


it was a dark, stormy night. water poured from the sky, but what we really needed was a real rain to come and wash the streets clean. as i strolled home, soaking it all in, a pan-handler accosted me for change. i let my hand sink into my pocket to see if had any. i brushed against my handy kershaw knife, and thought how i desperately wanted to plunge it into him.

"sorry, man, i don't have any. i barely have a pot to piss in."

"how about a light then?" he continued, pressing for anything he could leech.

i knew i was at a fork in the road. i could give him a light. or, i could see if his alcohol soaked body would catch fire. i decided on the latter. or was it the former. i always mix those two up. anyway, i lit him a cig and continued on.

i passed a window, and saw a reflection in the glass of someone following me.

when i woke up, i felt like someone had spooned a full serving of whoop ass onto my plate. i felt battered and bruised, but nothing was missing.

strange night. maybe someone felt i was some of the debris needing to be washed away. or maybe someone just didn't like the way i walked.




i tag kasey, malissa johnson, kelly brown, and rebecca harp.

8 questions meme

so, generally i'm not into doing memes. but, whatever, i got some time right now. how's that for a ringing endorsement on a blog post. anyway, thanks to lefty for the initial tag.

Here are the rules:
- Each player starts with eight random facts about themselves.
- Those who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight facts and post these rules.
- At the end of the post, choose some people to get tagged and list their names.


So here are my 8 facts about myself:
1. i sleep on the right side of the bed. that is, if you're standing at the foot of the bed, facing it, i'm on the right. this is true when we go to hotels and stuff. it feels very odd if i switch it up.

2. my favorite color is black.

3. i teach a litany of subjects. and yes, english is one of them.

4. when i write informally, i don't use capitalization (you've probably noticed) as an intentional deference to God. when i was in seminary, one of my profs was talking about how our societies language rules were changing, and that God was commonly uncapitalized now (he was pissed off or ranting). but, the word "i" remained capitalized, and it's the only pronoun that receives such treatment. there was more to what he was saying, but this started me thinking about it all, and i thought, "hey, this is a subtle thing i can do to show deference to God in my own life." so, i started doing it in all of my online writing. it also helps that i like how it looks stylistically.

5. based on a recommendation by the jay, i am drinking much more water right now. the jay and becky said that you should take your body weight, divide it in half, and drink that number of ounces a day. i'm not huge, but i'm a big cat. so, since we last went to vegas i've been trying to drink a lot of water each day. it's going alright. it's odd, during different times of the day i will drink more. so, this results in times when i need to "go" more (ah, a quaint colloquialism). i need to work at spreading out my water consumption a little better.

6. i've broke the law several times this week. you see, after a 5 hour work period you're required to take at least a half hour break (meal time). i have yet to be able to comply with that during the first 3 days of the week. in fact, only once this week have i even been able to take the time @ all, even though it was late. oh well. the job is getting a half hour more of my time for free. then again, i am doing this at work.

7. i prefer cake to pie.

8. in junior high, i took two years of photography. apparently, the instructor had enough of me in those two years. when i tried to take the class during high school, he wouldn't let me.

so, there it is. i'm tagging woody, rebecca harp-sligh, adam, tom, becky. the rest of you can do it as well, but i'm just not specifically calling you out. but i will give you one of these.

what's in my fridge

saw this idea on another blog, so i thought i'd do it. am i starting one of these (the link to wiki meme isn't working right now), or am i just continuing one?

not the best photo, i must admit

my life as a soundtrack

so, i'm taking on a meme i saw on lefty's web

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend your cool...
7. When you're finished tag some other people to do it!

Here are the areas that you need to fill out:

Opening credits:
Waking up:
First day of school:
Falling in love:
First song:
Breaking up:
Prom:
Life:
Mental Breakdown:
Driving:
Flashback:
Getting back together:
Wedding:
Birth of Child:
Final Battle:
Death Scene:
Funeral song:
End Credits:

and the results are:

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend your cool...
7. When you're finished tag some other people to do it!

Here are the areas that you need to fill out:

Opening credits: ain't no other man - christina aguilara *
Waking up: davis stoutmeyer - LA symphony
First day of school: half jack - dresden dolls
Falling in love: lurgee - radiohead
First song: dreams - the allman brothers band
Breaking up: johnny 99 - bruce springsteen
Prom: sektor five - mix master mike
Life: work - bob marley & the wailers
Mental Breakdown: hype talk - dizee rascal
Driving: collapse - sparta
Flashback: warm - nofx
Getting back together: respect me - dizzee rascal
Wedding: a day at the races - jurassic five
Birth of Child: who's to blame - ozomotli (now that's funny)
Final Battle: midnight - a tribe called quest
Death Scene: every little thing she does is magic - the police
Funeral song: helicopter - bloc party
End Credits: - rock the house - gorillaz

meh. some work out funny or could be fitting, others seem to be out of step. oh well. who's next?

*i forgot to put in a song here, and so this was a late add, but still randomly done.

stupid music meme

frankly, i'm not a fan of memes. usually, when i see several blogs taking them on, i tend to read but ignore. so, when adam put up his little musical history, i didn't really even give it a thought for my blog. then heather did it. then jay. then lefty. and not only did he do it, but he also called me out by name.

now, i'm no michael j fox in back the future, going stupid everytime someone calls me chicken. but, i like music. so, screw it, here we go:
if i were to describe my musical tastes throughout the years with one word it would be schizophrenic.
when i was a child, i listened to music like a child. i think i listened to oldies. but, i do remember that my step dad had styx on vinyl, and so we would always rock out to mr. roboto and look @ the bizarre photos on the album sleeve.
really, i don't remember too much music, until about fifth or sixth grade. what happened then? well, frankly, my brother had impeccable music taste. and, i, of course, got to listen to what he was listening to. so, he listened to the local college radio station and i listened to the local college radio station. so, i remember walking to school, listening to mix tapes on my walkman. songs like blister in the sun (which i loved to recount with glee when my friends in high school finally caught on to that song), bands like suicidal tendencies, and a fair bit of reggae. there was other stuff as well.

it's also @ this time that i was exposed to a few things. the first was the beastie boys. license to ill began their illustrious career that i've loved.
the next thing that came into my life around this time was metal. now, guns n roses was the introduction, and they aren't the hardest of metal, but they opened the door. within a year (junior high), metallica would kick that door wiiiide open for me.

but, at the same time i was also listening in to eazy e's first album. and the cure. and run dmc. but, metallica stuck with me through it all. i listened to other metal, and kept up with other musical genres as well, but metal was my "go to" guy. soon, i fell in love with a band out of nyc. i challenge anyone to not get amped up by the opening drums on anthrax's song "indians." anthrax, be musical innovators, created rap rock. if anyone tells you different, slap them. you could try and make a case for run dmc's walk this way, but really, that song is more a demonstration on how hip hop was sampling everything at the time, particularly rock. yes, they played it together, but it just wasn't the same. anthrax hooked up with public enemy, another favorite of mine (love politically charged music). they not only did a song together, but they went on tour together (it came to fresno but i couldn't go).

so, through high school i listened to mostly rap and metal, and some other random stuff that doesn't stick out. i wasn't really a fan of some of the big bands @ the time (nirvana, soundgarden). i did like stp though. it's also @ this time that i transitioned a bit from metal towards hardcore music. lots of the same energy, a little less noodlin about on the guitar, imho.

and then college. college is what you make of it. or something like that. anyway, in college, i started to listen to a whole bunch of other stuff. i still loved the beasties and they still weren't disappointing. but, i also started to listen to bands like the allman brothers and the greatful dead (thanks steve). i went to a few allman shows, but jerry garcia passed on before i could hit a dead show.

i also really fell in love with a little band called rage against the machine. now, when their first album came out, i didn't hate it, but just wasn't into it. whatever i was into at the time seemed more important. but by their second album i was sold. (i was very excited when rage & beasties were going to tour. then stupid mike d had to go and break his shoulder just before the tour. postponed. then rage broke up. dag nabbit.)

now, i'm not saying that my musical expansion stopped with rage. but, frankly, i've lost steam for this list. so, here's where i throw out some names of bands/acts that i enjoy:
hip hop: outkast, common, talib kweli, ice cube, jurassic five, dj qbert, dj shadow, krs one, tribe called quest, the coup, dead prez, the roots
rock: sublime, nofx, unwritten law, p.o.d., radiohead, sometime sunday, the smiths
etc: johnny cash, david allen coe, elvis, ozomotli, christina aguilara

when i look at most of those names, i see how a lot of them are big moments in my musical life. but, as i said, i've lost steam. i want to talk abou thow i got into them all, or what was going on or what each piece led to, but meh.

and, my musical library keeps growing. lately, i've been digging on astronautalis, sufjan stevens, derek webb, barzin, and rademacher. it's definately more on the indie tip.