o what sounds we have to show you...

Currently listening to Amusement Parks on Fire's self titled CD.  I was on track 2 fully enjoying it, but alas I was too tired to keep with it and shut off my computer and went to bed.  Now I'm back.

1. American Football - s/t
2. Amusement Parks on Fire - s/t
3. Breaking Benjamin - Saturate
4. Burial - Untrue
5. Crash Test Dummies - God Shuffled His Feet
6. Deep Blue Something - Home
7. Genesis - Invisible Touch
8. Hidden In Plain View - Resolution
9. Idlewild- 100 Broken Windows
10. Idlewild- The Remote Part
11. Oingo Boingo - Dark At The End Of The Tunnel
12. Oingo Boingo - Nothing To Fear
13. Oingo Boingo - Skeletons In The Closet: The Best Of
14. Place To Bury Strangers, A - s/t
15. Ra Ra Riot - The Orchard
16. Senses Fail - Let It Enfold You
17. Senses Fail - Life Is Not A Waiting Room
18. Skylit Drive, A - Adelphia
19. Skylit Drive, A - Identity On Fire
20. Skylit Drive, A - Wires...And The Concept Of Breathing

do I need a reason?

I bought Ra Ra Riot's THE ORCHARD (2010) and The Vaccines' WHAT DID YOU EXPECT FROM THE VACCINES?, the former of which I assumed was another garage-rock revival band (never was much into Franz Ferdanand or The White Stripes, The Hives or even Oasis) and thus never paid much attention to, but, out of boredom and it being on my recommended listens from Rdio, I gave it a try.  The Vaccines WDYE was something I listened to but never got around to buying.

I also bought four songs from This Day & Age's ...ALWAYS LEAVE THE GROUND (2004), which i first heard about a year ago(?), and didn't feel too worried about buying it b/c it was so dirt cheap used at Amazon and the only way to get it so that the artist didn't fall totally off the face of Earth was to pay $10 for the digital download - $10 is a big chunk of change for me, BTW.  eMusic - where I got all of these songs for $16.49 with the eMusic Lite monthly plan + a $10 booster pack - has it for almost half off.  I also bought "Heartbreak Beat" by The Psychedelic Furs and track 2 from the album it came from (1987's MIDNIGHT TO MIDNIGHT).  It seems like I bought something else on eMusic, but it isn't coming to mind...

from Sears' online site I pre-ordered Trespassers William's ex-frontwoman's solo project's second offering THE BLUEBIRD OF HAPPINESS.  And I finally gave up and ordered Breaking Benjamin's long-ignored-by-me SATURATE, which you may recall me talking about yesterday.  I was hoping to wait until I had accumulated a $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks, but on 2/3 cyberzoo via the Amazon Marketplace had 4 in stock.  Last night they had 1 in stock.

  That's all the physical media I've bought.  Otherwise, it's been purely digital.

I get all warm and fuzzy inside when I think of owning certain combinations of music.  I don't have a clue why.  There's very little reason to buy the music I want to listen to in the first place, aside from the fact that I don't heavily enjoy most of it, there's the fact that it won't be available for much longer, and the fact that Rdio offers it all for $5/mo.  If the world weren't setting itself for total destruction, I'd consider the longevity of Rdio, but...

  

Breaking Benjamin - Saturate

The Cure - Disintegration

Genesis - Invisible Touch

Hidden In Plain View - Resolution

Idlewild - 100 Broken Windows

Idlewild - The Remote Part

Trespassers William - Having

oooh...aah...

Watcher Of The Skies

The End Is Near.  No, this time it's real.  Countries will cease to loan us money and if you're not REALLY good at your job, chances are you will be scrounging for food from the dumpsters and sleeping on concrete and "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" will just be something you tell yourself so you're not TOTALLY without music...at least it'll be live.

As for me, my sister is currently my landlord and I think if I add an extra $75 to what is currently being paid on her mortgage, I can at least have a semi-decent bed to sleep on.  Just no music (no electricity)...unless you count the mumbo-jumbo I sing to myself in the shower as "music"...there will be nothing to spend my days doing...which I guess is not a huge departure from how I live now...when you think about it, no electricity will only magnify the meaninglessness in my existence...so things won't change, they'll just be more noticeable...

And The Bible states that financial prosperity's end and war's rising will lead the antichrist to step up and erase it all.  But Jesus will ultimately win and everyone will die like they have been, and when they do, most of them will go to Hell, like they always have.  Stupidity doesn't pay.  Luckily, even though I'm borderline illiterate, my mother has told me most of what I need to know.  I don't know if any of that will matter though.  I still do not feel the inclination to bow and worship God.  And,  I don't really know what Love is, but I certainly do not feel any connection to God, at least not that I'm aware of.  I guess that's probably b/c I'm not "open" to it...how do I change that?  Heck if I know.  Maybe I could go through the motions of prayer, and hope I don't feel like too much of a poser to take myself seriously...

I've been listening to as much music as ever.  But I just recently came to the realization that very little of it has any real meaning to me.  Most of it is just noise.  Sometimes I zoom in on parts of it and feel a faint pang of emotion.

I finally heard Breaking Benjamin's 2002 CD SATURATE in full.  I don't know what stopped me from doing that almost 5 years ago, or ten years...I did the same thing with Cartel's CHROMA (2005) (except the time in between the release date and me listening to it was 2/3 less).  I almost listened to The Cure's DISINTEGRATION (1989), but I felt extremely cold, so I turned off the computer, went to bed, could not sleep, so I got up and ate a 2nd lunch and then three apples w/ peanut butter.  I think I ate no more than 4 servings of peanut butter, which is almost as much fat as I am allowed to eat and still maintain my weight.  Yesterday I ate no more than 20 grams of fat, which is less than 1/3 of the 100% daily recommended value.  Friday I ate a whole whopping gram of trans fat wrapped in two delicious brownies, which I paid $1.50 total for.  And I had a whole Domino's pizza earlier in the week.
Right now I'm listening to Genesis's FOXTROT (1972).
I have an American Red Cross blood donation appointment sometime this week.  I cannot remember what day or time it is/was.  I had to reschedule b/c I had a fever and then I thought I still had one a week later, so I just didn't show up, and then I didn't reschedule until they called a few days ago or so, and then i had to reschedule that one, b/c I couldn't get a ride.  Now I forgot what time/date it is/was...aaarg!  I should have donated in early-mid January b/c it was like late October or early November when I last donated...I hope I'm not still feverish whenever I get my tail over there.

MY WISHES...

These are the things that don't seem totally unrealistic to think I might someday own...the unrealistic thing is thinking I might be able to use them three years from now, with all the fiscal cliff & debt default predictions going around...


1)

2)

3)

4) I would put speakers here, but I already have some...

MY DREAMS

1) No going over the fiscal cliff
2) USA pays its debt
3) Everything is fine

4)



5)



6)





7)

Life is hard...

I seriously can't believe people defend music and movies by saying "it's hard".  So freakin' what?  That ought to be where the movie studio comes in and says "you failed, we're not going to show this to movie goers".  People pay $10 for a movie ticket, and then get duped into paying at least $10 more for additional accessories once they get through the door, i.e.: popcorn and soda, and people go on sites like Amazon and IMDB and give these movies a perfect 5 star rating b/c it's just too much to expect someone to realize their weaknesses and thus not mess with a profoundly epic idea like PROMETHEUS.  You cannot tell me that there's NOBODY in this planet who could have made that film a little more interesting.  Forgot the similarities or differences between 1979's ALIEN and PROMETHEUS; forget the fact that the movie's first half hour was either confusing or illogical.  The simple fact that said first half hour had very little of any value to the audience is just a classic example of a screenwriter with no talent.  Obviously they had to set-up the story, explain what was going on etc, but the fact that it was all so freakin' boring is just theft.  It's theft from whoever could have taken that idea and made something bold and unique with it.  Because even if whoever owns the copyright for PROMETHEUS were to give x person/people his/her permission to re-make it, the audience has "been there, done that" and is also feeling a little jaded b/c not only did PROMETHEUS fail to deliver, but sooo many other films have suffered the same fate.  Ultimately it's theft of the audience, their time, their money, and their good will toward men, perhaps even their will to bother getting out of bed.

The language of the left...with feeling...

I think society has more leeches than it used to.  I think everybody has grown to expect way more than they ought to.  But the Republican idea that rich people should pay LESS taxes than people who teach our young, collect the garbage, keep tabs on the cash registers, keep the peace, serve our food...is just plain rediculous. They act like it's "punishing" success to think the opposite and that is totally warped.  I think expecting everyone to either get rich or pay taxes is just savage.  What's really mind boggling is when people like Neil Bortz push the idea that the rich pay MORE in taxes than the poor & middle class.  Huh?  If only the tax code were that cut and dry.  "Oh, I make $250,000 each year, so I pay 25% of that to Uncle Sam?  Great! I'll just mail in the check"  Of course, everybody has deductions they either do or can qualify for.  But WalMart remodels their stores every 6 months or so, even though their customers are always cranky about having to re-locate everything.  Why do they do that?  Because even though it may cost a few hundred dollars x however many stores they remodel in a 12 month period, WalMart's 25% tax rate is dropped down to maybe 1%.  I'm probably exaggerating and I don't know if $250K = 25%, it may be 55% before these virtual handouts are factored into the equation.  But the fact that Neil Bortz doesn't even mention this in his radio show when he's ranting out the rich and how they DO pay their fare share is beyond poor journalism, although The Neil Bortz Show probably isn't technically journalism...I don't even know if most of the people that listen to his show take him seriously.  Anyone who isn't living the dream wouldn't help but want to punch him in the face for talking down to the little people, expecting them to believe the bull he says when they see he's wrong every sixth month they shop at Wal-Mart.

But it ceases to be stupid fun and annoying games when The Lies Of Neil become The Death Of Democracy  The American People voted for Barack Obama - TWICE!  The American People have been surveyed - NEVER have they supported the idea that the rich be rewarded by the gov't for being so awesome.  If you're going to insist that taxes are "legalized theft", then maybe we should just remove the gov't altogether, forget police protection, military service, forget welfare, forget the whole thing b/c without taxes, who the heck has the time, decency and intellect to operate The U.S. gov't without a paycheck?  Maybe 70 years ago, back when people had a better understanding of what it meant to have a community, and a family...and don't give me that b.s. logic that says racism and the violence that often resulted from it takes away from the love that people DID have.  The fact that divorce is so common, even among so-called "religious folk" ought to tell people SOMETHING ISN'T RIGHT HERE!  Yeah, we have less racial violence; we've traded one evil for another.  Now we don't even know our neighbors a lot of the time.  What difference would it make if their black white chinese or mexican?  The closest one could come to knowing their neighbors is a casual "hi" every now and again.  Back in the 'day, people looked out for each other.  Some strange vehicle prowling by would likely draw attention and the sicko would be arrested or be on the run to another neighborhood or town, or maybe another state...

Man, I've gotten sooooo off topic, haven't I?  The MAIN point, of this article at least, is that the rich do not pay their fare share and I don't get why it needs to stay that way.  It may not be a "capitalist" concept, but neither is welfare.  So freakin' what?  Just b/c the Democrats, or at least Obama, have adopted most of the Republican ideology...why not throw in the towel and just make it a 0 party system?  B/c when you get right down to it, no two candidates are exactly alike and the current division between Republicans and Democrats is basically a matter of Ebinezer Scrooge BEFORE vs. AFTER the ghost of Christmas future visited him.

The Oracle Speaks!

For the last month apprx my computer has had serious trouble streaming on demand music from the 'net.  I kept wondering "is it just these freebie sites" [such as Grooveshark and MySpace]?  I wondered "would these problems exist if I paid for Rdio?"
  Today I found my answer.  I took a gamble and it has paid off.  I am now listening to Emerson Lake And Palmer's "Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends, Ladies and Gentleman" (a double live album, formerly a triple live album before the rise of compact digital audio discs).
  So far it's been just that and New Order's "Low-Life", the 2008 remastered version.  I was surfing through Big Crumbs' list of stores in the music/books/etc. dept and noticed CD Connection on there, who, I thought, had MP3s as part of their offering.  What really sealed me buying from them was A) I had not bought from there before and B) the cash back rate was comparatively higher than other BC offerings - 5.6% - !!!  The suky thing is the version of "Low-Life" I ended up downloading was not the 2008 remastered edition, which means it's kinda flat sounding, the opening song doesn't have the drum-boom-kick that the remaster has.  And now I'm left with $1.60 for the rest of the month.  I already got most of my Xmas shopping done.  I am expecting an Amazon gift card in the amount of $19.68 and another in the amount of $5 and I'll use that to buy my mom's xmas gift.  With Rdio and the public library just down the street from where I live, I really don't need anything else...$1.60 is fine by me.  I also ended up with a $3.85 refund from a CD that arrived in not-as-described condition, although I had hacked my account down to $1.60 before I knew to expect the refund.  Mail didn't arrive 'til after 3pm.  It was a substitute mailman, not sure what's going on with the one that normally delivers to my address.  I noticed the same thing would happen at my old apt, but I figured that was b/c he was approaching retirement age and they were giving him an easier time with hours.  Now that I think of it, they probably don't want their mail carriers to be working even 4 days a week, since their shift sometimes ends after 3pm and they clock in before 7am normally.  I think it's actually closer to 5am, so that's 10 hours a day x 6 which is a lot of over time for the USPS to be putting in considering they're in debt anywayz...they'd probably give him 3-4 days off a week if they had enough employees to go around.  Last  I heard, which was about 5 years ago and may no longer apply, but, last I heard, the USPS has/had a serious shortage of mail carriers, at least in this area, southeast MO.
  I would stop tying now, but for the sake of sounding less crazy, I'll instead stop typing - now.

Happy Birthday...to myself...and others...

Wow.

My uncle Eddie gave me $20 for my birthday.  The crazy-cool thing is his birthday was a couple weeks before mine and he didn't seem the least bit fazed that I didn't get him anything.

My mother got me some shoes.  It's week #2 and they seem to be doing well.  I'm hard on shoes, so my mother says, and so week 2 is a start...they feel sturdy though, honestly...it's hard to tell though, my $15 WalMart shoes lasted only 6 months and might have felt this same way...

My gramma took me and my two uncles out to eat at a Casino buffet.  The food was Ok in general, I seem to be the only person there who didn't care for the steak.  I pretty much pigged out on egg rolls, which were amazing.

My sister gave me $29 in Amazon funds, which I spent on E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and a movie I had been wanting to see but am too much of a wuss to rent as a new release and am too impatient to wait for it to go into the old release section, neither of which matters b/c it was on super-sale, $8.99 + $2 S&H ($11), and I can probably/maybe get $7 or $8 from it after I'm done w/ it, since the sale won't last forever, you know.  Plus I don't have to worry about late fees 'cause I OWN this thing, beach!  I also used $9 of it to buy an mp3 album that I wasn't able to listen to entirely for free online b/c my internet seems unfit for streaming music as of late.  It can do OK for like a minute or maybe two.  Different websites I visit have different settings and such, so it may be OK if I subscribe to Rdio again...dunno.  Oh, and I also bought two songs by Deftones.

The money Eddie gave me is in my mom's possession until she actually HAS the $...in other words, she owes me about half of it b/c the household funds somehow ran out too quickly for all the RX needed to be had w/o any glitches...the rest of it I spent at Hastings on a CD that I SWEAR (for the 5th? time) that I won't re-sell (for the 15th time) and a movie rental?....or...ugh...what was that?  OH!  Yeah, I bought a movie that was on clearance, it might be an old release by now, bought & paid for price was $2.13 w/ tax ($1.99 w/o).  Still hoping someone buys it from me via Amazon eventually, since I watched all I care to see of it already.  Plus I bought a portable bottle opener, which was intended I guess to act as a keychain.  I had to take the keychain part of it off though so I could affix the bottle opener part to my existing - and absolutely fantastic! - GHOSTBUSTERS: THE VIDEO GAME keychain that I got at Hastings as a freebie/promo...thank goodness my sister noticed it, b/c I just walked right past it...they had a pile of 'em sitting beside the door...it made it so much easier to live down the fact that I paid almost $17 just to have a cool looking thingie to put my money & state issued photo ID in, that cool looking thingie, for those not in the know, being a GHOSTBUSTERS wallet that I had bought at GameStop during the GHOSTBUSTERS: THE VIDEO GAME fever of 2009.  And THANK YOU PROTONCHARGING (R.I.P.) for letting me know it was there(!)

I bought something on eBid so that I could get some feedback added to my profile.  I originally came to eBid  so I could buy A CLOCKWORK ORANGE for the best price I could find at the time.  I now have been trying w/ no success to make some money from selling on eBid.  I think my lack of feedback might look suspicious to a lot of people.  But I'll probably end up selling what I bought, thankfully it was only $3.75.  Could have been bought for $0.76 cheaper on Amazon, but who cares and if so, whatever...i don't...that $0.76 would have just been wasted on another item.  Or it would add a tiny bit to my so-far-nonexistent savings fund for the TV I mentioned in my justnow prior post.

The Joy Of Welfare Christmas

Me and my sister have been talking since yesterday about how I want a TV and she might or might not buy me one.  Somehow the concept of me saving up came to up, I guess I was writing to her down what had already been on my mind for a few weeks...I mean, $178, which is what Amazon charges for a 24" Vizio, is really not hard to save up.  I only have $75 after bills and needs of other sorts are paid, but the fact is I should already own a TV of some kind other than the 14" "standard" definition TV my Gramma has loaned/given me...$178 is actually only $22 less than several other 24" TVs, although Vizio seems to make good quality merch and from what I've read seems to have good warranty service as well.  So for what I'm hoping to get, it's a steal at $178.  And 24" isn't all that big, but my room is tiny.  It probably seems smaller b/c my TV and DVD player etc. are sitting on this humongous table...my mom offered to buy me a double bed and I was like "It wouldn't fit!" and was like "uh...ok".

Anyway; it's frustrating b/c I'll have to wait 'til at least February to start putting this plan in motion.  I figure I can save AT LEAST $25 a month, and maybe even $50.  That leaves me with $25-$50 for spending on whatever.  But, as I was telling my sister, I pretty much wasted $700 through the course of this year.  And that's only if you count the money I initially get on the 1st of the month.  If you count the money I got from the stuff I sold, that's probably closer to $1000.

I need to stop this.

I need to appreciate what I have, and if I can't appreciate what I have I need to turn what I have into something else, either someone else's money or savings.

Man up, I say to myself.

Hopefully I can live it out and keep on doing so until I have a frekin' TV.