Resonate

"To vibrate or sound, especially in response to another vibration"

I've been digging this song lately. Maybe you can too.

"I Can Feel A Hot One"

I could feel a hot one taking me down
For a moment, I could feel the force
Fainted to the point of tears
And you were holding on to make a point
What's the point?

I'm but a clean man, stable and alone man
Make it so I won't have to try
The faces always stay the same
So I face the fact that I'm just fine
I said that I'm just fine

I remember, head down,
After you had found out
Manna is a hell of a drug
And I need a little more, I think
Because enough is never quite enough
What's enough?

I took it like a grown man crying on the pavement
Hoping you would show your face
But I haven't heard a thing you've said
In at least a couple hundred days
What'd you say?

I was in the front seat, shaking it out
And I was asking if you felt alright
I never want to hear the truth
I want to hear your voice, it sounded fine
My voice, it sounded fine

I could feel my heartbeat taking me down
And for the moment, I would sleep alright
I'm dealing with a selfish fear
To keep me up another restless night
Another restless night

The blood was dry, it was sober
The feeling of audible cracks
And I could tell it was over
From the curtains that hung from your neck

And I realized that then you were perfect
And my teeth ripping out of my head
And it looked like a painting I once knew
Back when my thoughts weren't entirely intact

To pray for what I thought were angels
Ended up being ambulances
And the Lord showed me dreams of my daughter
She was crying inside your stomach

And I felt love again

Bird Love

My apartment gets a lot of big black birds hanging out on the 7th floor deck. I love how big the birds are here. It's crazy to see these things running around and wonder who is feeding them protein bars when the rest of Seattle isn't looking.

So one day I was hanging out checking out the city and the sunset and there happened to be a couple black birds hanging out close by. I took a step and they flew away a bit. As curiosity started taking over, I started seeing just how little I could move before they would get scared away. I flinched an arm and they jumped. I turned my head and they fled to the panic room. It didn't take much.

Man, birds are flighty.

In one moment, I stared up at the birds as they discussed their narrow escape at a new and safe location. I began to wish they could listen in on what was going on through my head: if only you knew that I am not here to hurt you. If only you would stay, I might actually be nice to you. I might actually take care of you. If I could communicate in some way you could understand, I could show you some bird love.

Well maybe. I think birds are kind of creepy and I would never want one as a pet.

I think people can be flighty too.

Fear of being hurt used to make me shy away from people. Any attempt by anyone to get close would send me flying to the panic room I set up for myself in my head. Since then, I have learned to be ok with being a bit more vulnerable, a bit more open, a bit more honest. Mostly I have learned to be a bit more trusting and to realize I could never be loved if I fly away from anything that came close.

If I could speak bird, I would like to be more reassuring. I would like to communicate safety and kindness to people who might want it. But I'm bad enough with human words as it is. I think I would be ok if I learned how to show more bird love.

I have seen my fair share of crap in my day. Perhaps I have actually grown or perhaps I have actually become more desensitized to fear. I think my bigger issue now is failing to be flighty is really just failing to pursue. I don't get out of the way. I just take the hit because that's what I know. But to be honest, I'd rather take the hits and cling to the thought that one day something will actually be bird love.

So there's two sides to that fence and I feel like I've been on both sides of them. On one side, I never let anybody get close. On another, I just stopped caring and hoped for the best.

I'd love to learn how to perch on that one happy place in the middle--if one exists.

I think it's going to involve me learning the language though. I used to be good at turning insides to English. Maybe I'll learn to do that again someday. That would be nice anyway.

Observe the evidences of humanity. And then clean it

For the last few months, I've been working with the People's Belltown Republic. It's a small group of people who care about our neighborhood and want to invest in it. We meet on Sunday's near 3rd and Blanchard and pick up trash. Occasionally we do things to effect some environment goodness in an urban environment. However, I'm not the environmental studies extraordinaire in the group so I just do what I'm told.

There are days when I pick up things hidden in bushes and in corners that really make you realize that life is not peaches and cream for everybody. Whether forced into a lifestyle or by choice, people often leave evidence of themselves in the trash we pick up and it sometimes breaks my heart.

If anything, it moves me to compassion and compassion moves me to action. I have quickly come to love Seattle and this little crockpot of people we call Belltown. I'm really excited to see our little group grow. Moreover, it's a lot of fun to see Belltown striving to make a community of itself and to support all the groups that want to be a part of that.

This really isn't an epic post with deeply insightful meaning. I think I'm too tired right now to be epic. However, I really like what I'm doing and I think it's worth sharing. If you ever want to come check it out sometime, come join me on Sundays at 3.

You'll find a group of really cool people. You'll get to have a few beers with us after. You'll be a part of a neighborhood you may come to love as much as I do.

POST COMPLETED!

Like a kid again

I'm a bit delayed in writing about this, but last weekend I wandered into a place in South Lake Union that quickly became one of my favorite places in Seattle.

Jillian's Billiard Club is a pool hall, an arcade, a place to hang out, and overall the place elicited a sense of unbridled excitement I hadn't felt in a long time.

I went with a few friends and everybody started nerding out right away. They have many of the old school "shoot zombies, mutants, and aliens" games and all the knock-offs of the same. There are more of the myriad racing games than you can shake a stick at--including one where you can drive a semi-truck around.

There are pool tables all over the place, as well as a few ping-pong tables upstairs.

We wandered around for a while and forgot how busy we were trying to grow up. By the end of the night, the collection of guys that went spent about an hour battling out over foosball.

Overall, it's a solid place to check out and I'm sure I'll be going back.

For this reason, I like Seattle

I just saw this on TV and it turns out the commercial is also on the web site. I love that this is real. I love that this is Seattle. I love weird things.

At the Movies

You know how at the movie theater they have that big sound to show off the Dolby sound system or whatever it is they happen to use? I really think more movies should start this way instead.


Eye Poping Lemur - For more amazing video clips, click here

Making it easy to find the 'lol'

I'm usually a fan of simple humor. I like it when things are dumb and I don't have to spend too much energy to enjoy it. In fact, with most of the complexities and challenges I face, sometimes not thinking is a huge relief.

So it is with my latest StumbleUpon find: 5 second videos
This is corny, simple, and dumb. Aka, right up my alley:

Poke him with a stick. Yeah, he's still alive

Oh goodness, it has been a while.

A recent e-mail reminded me that I had a blog, and a quick read over the last post kind of scared me because it seemed a bit depressing.

Things have been changing for me here in Seattle!

For starters, I no longer work at Microsoft. So that's really big news. I think I've already talked to the people close to me about it, so I suppose it's fair to write now.

I want to be really careful and tactful here as I write this, because I can see how this kind of thing could be a sensitive situation. So first and foremost, I think I learned a lot about the time I spent there and I am pretty excited I even had a shot.

So the long and short of it is that things weren't really working out in my team. I will refrain from going into the "why" and so on on a public blog like this. But it does make me realize the importance on working on something that elicits passion for the work. In the position I was in, I didn't feel like I was working on problems I was prepared for in college, nor was I able to get myself excited for what we were doing. Moreover, I didn't feel like I was often able to get traction in the environment I was in. So maybe it just wasn't the place I was meant to be.

In the short time since then, I have been feeling my life flowing back into me. I look around at Seattle and the relationships I've had and I realize I haven't taken much time to enjoy either. I live in a beautiful city, and I really want to stay here and pursue it more.

So where am I going now? Well, the first few days, I spent some time thinking about what I actually like to do. In college, it was easy enough to pick something up and just be good at it. I think there were a lot of things I was good at, but few things I actually took the time to enjoy. I guess in college, I didn't really need to enjoy the work. I just needed to 'dominate'.

So here are the things I have figured out:

• I like working with and helping people


• I like working on things that help people


• I like helping people solve their problems


• I like using communication and project management to walk through a solution
  
  aka I actually enjoy meetings, which is kind of weird


• I like small teams where there is a lot of collaboration


• I still like writing software

So I'm still kind of figuring out what I would 'love' to be doing for work for some time. I still love doing things with music and serving others, but I suppose roles in software engineering are the only things that make sense to me professionally.

For now, I'll focus on getting back on my feet and finding a job that keeps me going here in Seattle.

If anything, this has been more of an exciting time than a depressing time. I am stoked for what the next few months hold.

I'll come up with other things to write sometime soon. It has been an awakening of a realization I have always known, but work is not the only thing that identifies me or that defines my life. I have also gotten to do some cool things with music and other stuff in Seattle in the last few months. I'll write about that soon.

Flub

Work is kicking my butt lately, and I guess it's fair to say life might be too. But I suppose I ought to update my faithful followers, so here goes a dash through the week.

Sunday
Played music for kids ministry and had a good meeting about that. It looks like I get to be somewhat helpful to the people at church, so that's exciting. I also think I'm going to be responsible for a ton of planning, so that will be fun.
I also went out for a drink with my friend Ryan from my building and a new guy named Sergio. He also works at Microsoft. He is also 22. We might as well be clones. Me and all the other hundreds of 20-somethings working at Microsoft and living in Seattle. I feel so special

Monday
I had my weekly small-group thing with the guys. It was my turn to lead the group, and it made me realize what being a PM has done to my life. Seriously, I want to call out action items on every meeting and every second I feel like I'm wasting time bugs me. Like.I'm.Doing.Now.
Well I might as well finish. Anyway, the point of that story is that I like to "PM" the crap out of everything lately until I remind myself to be a normal person again.

Tuesday
Went to the Belltown Community Council meeting to make a park on Bell street from 1st to 5th. I really love the idea. I really didn't love how negative and pessimistic everybody was. But I do love my neighborhood. It's so quirky and I love it. Anyway, safety is a big deal here and Bell street isn't the poster child for the kind of place you want to hang around at night. So hopefully the neighborhood sees that doing nothing other than complaining hasn't improved a damn thing, and perhaps we could use this movement to do some good on Bell Street. We'll see.

Wednesday
Band practice got canceled, so I worked on a spec and a prototype for work all night. Thrilling.

Thursday
Frantic rush at work to get things done. Bad day. Realizing half the crap I designed isn't going through. I was pretty low on sleep at that point.
Later that night, I got invited to a random jam session and drove to Lord-knows-where in SoDo (south Seattle) to find some practice space that looked like an abandoned warehouse. I haven't actually gotten to play guitar with a group in a while--I always end up playing bass. I haven't been in punk mode in a while either, and I feel like I've drifted so far into my jazzy/indie/technical mode that I might not know how to do punk anymore. Well, I figured something out and it was fun.

Friday
Hell. I just need to make it through work and then we'll see what is worth writing about. I want to try to make it to the Belltown art walk tonight, and it would be nice if my plans to hang around and watch movies with some friends at my place go through.

The rest of the weekend
I am taking a group from my building to volunteer at FareStart on Saturday. Turns out recruiting at the McGuire is harder to do than I would have hoped. But that is what I get to do tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it. I think some people I know are having a wedding reception-type of deal (even though the wedding was a few weeks ago and not anywhere close to here) in the afternoon.
Sunday, I'm just planning on doing kid's music stuff again and trying to reclaim my life.

Wish me luck!

Hello people on the 545. I am, in fact, not dead

I haven't written to you folks in a while. I'm still there every day, but somewhere between being incredibly frantic to get things done at work and desperately grasping at the notion of feeling settled in my not-work life in Seattle, I forget to acknowledge you.

The collective "you" that is one of the few constants in my Seattle social scene (...SNAKES--because the chance to continue the alliteration was just too tempting)

So one time last week, I actually got to speak to one of you.

Girl that works at Nintendo and was reading a book in Japanese: it was a pleasure to meet you and I want to thank you for being one of the first women on the bus to acknowledge my existence.

To recap for the rest of last week, nothing else happened.

One thing I have started to notice: the best way to keep an open seat next to you is to make eye contact with everybody that comes down the aisle. It's like all of a sudden I have the power to make a person realize I exist and I'm not just a warm mass of tissue next to an available seat. 545 commuters, and Seattle in general at times, seem to really just be uncomfortable dealing with you when you exist in their social experience.

Or maybe I'm just that unappealing. Who knows. Either way, I have figured you out and now I get to sit by myself most times :)

It certainly helps in my now almost-certain pass out sessions on the way to and from work. Sleeping on the bus used to really weird me out, but now I kind of love it.

But I'll certainly always wake up the next time Nintendo woman comes or some equally friendly soul walks down the aisle. I seriously doubt every individual that happens to be male on the bus is as creepy as you seem to think they are.

Anyway. I'll try to come up with something more interesting to report soon.

Some thoughts on playing bass

Last night, I helped out with a friend of mine who is trying to put a band together. By "helped out," I mean I got asked to sit in since apparently nobody plays bass, but it seems like these guys are planning on making this long term, so I may be "helping out" for a while.

I have always thought of myself as a guitarist first. My first instrument was a bass, but I always ended up playing guitar more and it's generally a lot more interesting to play when you're by yourself.

I started playing bass back when I listened to Blink 182 and the like pretty religiously. As a result, my bass technique was boring, I grew tired of it, and I gravitated toward guitar. As I grew up, I started listening to more interesting music and realized there was a lot more to bass than I thought, so I went back. Since then, I've learned tons more technique and playing bass is actually a ton of fun. It is maybe one of the less glorifying roles in a band, but most music producers or "HOW 2 B IN A BAND, FOR DUMMIES" books will tell you it's a pretty key role. So here are some things I picked up.

Learn to think like a drummer

When I play bass, I often feel like I am playing what the drummer plays, except I'm also playing notes and making less weird faces. My bass playing got immensely better when I started jamming with talented drummers. Conversely, I always found it incredibly difficult to do anything mildly interesting if the drummer was boring.
Listen to the drummer's kicks. Are you hitting the core notes there? Are you emphasizing the beat, driving the rhythm, and defining the progression with your bass?
Listen to the snares and cymbal work. Are you accenting in a tasteful way?
Listen for the drummer's fills. Do you have a run to complement?
Make sure you pay attention to the drummer. There are times when I shut out the rest of the band and just interact with the drummer and that's really all I need sometimes. It helps when your drummer is cool person because I think there is an important connection between those two roles in a band.
Last night I had the pleasure of jamming with a really talented drummer. He ended up telling me he hadn't jammed with a bassist who accented his high-hat work while also syncing up with the bass drum stuff. I really hadn't thought about that, but it just felt natural and it was actually a lot of fun.

Learn to think like the other musicians in your band

So as a bassist, we're worried about rhythm, but we also can play notes. This part is actually kind of fun if you jam with people who can articulate what they're trying to do. Knowing what movement feels right and what chords or colors are being played helps as a bass player. There is actually a lot of potential to add interesting tension, runs, complements and other musical terms that I was never taught. Bass players don't have to be stupid. Know what minors, modes, scales, and keys are. In my experience, learning to play just about every instrument in the band not only makes you awesome, but it makes you a more complementary musician regardless of the role you fill.

Learn when to be interesting. Learn when to be simple

Ok, there are times where it's appropriate to be boring. I think I make this mistake a lot where I want to play something cool and it just comes out sounding busy and annoying. So maybe you don't need to arpeggiate through the progression or add slap/pop to every song. I've heard recordings of myself where I was playing what I thought sounded really cool but then it just sounded annoying when I listened to the mixed playback. Remember there is an overall sound that you should support, not dominate.

Learn different techniques

So obviously slap/pop is the cool thing bass players "need to learn," but there are other little tricks that are also cool to know. I recently learned what I can only describe as a weird finger slip over strings that lets me play triplets and do string skipping.
For some examples, the bass player from Portugal. The Man does something cool like what I described in the verses for "Lay me back down". The classic crazy bass line that taught me a lot comes from Rush in the song "YYZ".
The bass player from Pinback is also pretty awesome and has a very innovative and unique way of playing bass. Here's a cool song called "Penelope" by them that is a good example. He almost strums it (you'd have to watch something on YouTube to see what I mean).
This final song is called "Roundabout" by a band called Yes. This is an example of going crazy without sounding annoying. The song is absolutely epic and absolutely long, but you should at least listen to what they have (or had?) going on.
Listen to different bass players for the bands you listen to and find out what cool tricks they do. Then learn them. Seriously, watch a lot of YouTube. Even if they don't teach you the techniques, half of the battle is finding out these techniques exist and then working at it until it becomes your own.

Learn to listen to different kinds of music

This should be a given for any musician. Listen to everything. Find out what you like and don't like and internalize everything into your own personal sound. The fun part about being versatile is you can walk into almost any band and contribute something cool. The absolute best is when the band can put multiple styles into one song and still do it tastefully. I think Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground does that very well. In fact, I'm even going to ask you to watch this video to see how a band that big can still put a consistent sound together.
WATCH THIS:


Mmmk, so I drove to work so I don't have a fancy bus post, but hopefully this was somewhat interesting. Granted, I doubt most of you play bass, but maybe you should learn! I have an extra one if you're ever interested :)

THAT'S IT FOR THIS POST.

Dear "People on the 545 route" the morning of 10/21/2009

I fell asleep most of the way.
Sorry guys!

Also, yesterday evening I started playing with the Korg Kaossilator on the bus and lots of people asked me about it. One guy told me he was a DJ and a Producer and wished me luck after he asked me tons of questions about it. Ok.

Last thought. To you children on the bus who have been told sitting there with your mouths hanging open is ok: I'm sorry. It's not.

Or maybe that's the way kids let others know they're cool these days. Maybe I'm wrong.

But I don't think I am. Close your mouth unless you're sick and you can't breathe through your nose.

Dear "People on the 545 route" the morning of 10/20/2009

Can you believe it's almost the end of October? Holy crap.

We had a crowded bus today. I hope those of you who had to stand as we barreled through the fog on the stretch of road spanning Lake Washington have a wonderful day to make up for the inauspicious start.

And I have to thank you for being a little more chipper about the situation than a gentleman on the bus yesterday evening. The bus driver on the way home last night was kind enough to stop for me after he had already pulled out of the Overlake Transit Center bus bay for the 545--even though I sneakily ran around the back way and caught him as he was leaving in my direction. Apparently, the normal long bus had broken down and we were on a normal downtown bus. A little more cozy than normal, but still convenient transportation nonetheless.

Well one fellow saw the bus as we pulled up to give him a ride and he immediately made a point of displaying his disapproval with nasty looks before he even got on. He immediately complained to the driver about "the tiny bus" and shot nasty looks at everybody as he shook his head in disgust. Of course, he ended up standing right in front of me as I also stood in the back of the bus.

Was this free transportation really that bad? Was this situation that far beneath him that he needed to let us know just how disgraced he was? It was really starting to bug me. And then he started being rude to people around him and wouldn't cooperate as we tried to work together like a human Tetris game to shuffle people in and out of the bus. He was seriously a jerk and the way he was treating everybody else was starting to get me mad.

All of a sudden I felt like I was offended as he was offensive to everybody else. As if I should be sticking up for people or the defender of the oppressed. Why, I have no idea, but I mustered up the most stone-cold glare I could manage and prayed we would make eye contact.

And then I realized how foolish I was being. Matching hatred for hatred wasn't going to fix this guy. I started thinking about how I have been on this kick of being kind, loving, and gracious to everybody. Especially the ones that make it hard and difficult. And I felt like a hypocrite for throwing it out the window and weak in my own positions for being affected by this freakazoid on the bus.

I had to check myself a lot the rest of the way home. So maybe I'm not totally awesome at being kind to the least deserving, but what makes any of us deserve kindness anyway?

So yeah, it was a good reminder of the following:

1. Having to stand on the bus is not the worst thing in the world


2. Being kind to some people can be hard


3. I could stand to gain some perspective and not become so enraged or emotionally affected when I see others wronged. Granted, I still think it's wrong and I still want to get involved, but not with an emotional charge because it changes the way I think


4. I really should charge my Zune so I would have something to do when I can't sit and read

So that seemed like a major digression, but the point is that we faced a similar situation this morning and nobody freaked out. Nobody that fit on the bus anyway. So thanks for that guys :)

I also read some really cool stuff about love this morning--what, love? dude you're lame. I know.

Yeah, I still think I'm a ways off from ever figuring that stuff out and how people are even supposed to deal with each other or believe that anybody could love them for no reason. For some people, that just could never make sense and they are convinced they can't be loved and won't allow anybody to love them. Some stare love right in the face each day and can't be convinced that it's real. Others desperately want to believe it's real but maybe can't see it. I don't know. It's all confusing and it's all something I want to believe and understand. So maybe I'll figure it out and then write a disgustingly emotional and terrifyingly boring blog post about it.

Until then, happy bussing. See you tomorrow Seattle-to-Redmond commuters.

More music toys

So in my weekend defined by lack of significant accomplishments, I managed to pick up a new racket-making device for my apartment already filled with too many instruments.

I got myself a Korg Kaossilator and it is already one of my favorite things ever. It's this little machine I can fit in my back pocket and all it has for an interface is a touchpad, a knob, and some buttons. (I don't feel like stealing images today, so you may just have to click the link and see for yourself)

I spent most of my free time in my apartment sitting around with my DL-4 on loop mode--because nobody likes being confined to 8 beats--and jamming out. Only on this thing can you have that much fun with two thumbs. Well, I take that back. You can have a lot of fun with two thumbs on a Nintendo 64, but that's besides the point.

I'm not entirely sure how I could use this with a band. I'm starting to get a better sense of where my fingers should go to deterministically play certain tones, and it is capable of setting keys and the scales within that key. But otherwise I just jack around and hope whatever comes out somewhat complements whatever is being played live or looped.

Hopefully I can be cliche and boring and shoot videos of what this can do--like that hasn't been done already. It might spice up this blog better than daily letters to strangers on a bus could.

Dear "People on the 545 route" the morning of 10/19/2009

Good morning!

There were only about 10 of you on the bus today. That was kind of weird. Maybe I missed the "skip out on work" memo. It's like senior skip day and only the cool kids knew about it.

Sorry I neglected to say anything toward the end of the week. Wednesday, I actually got to ride with one of my friends, so naturally I was excited--I ended up falling asleep on the bus anyway--and forgot to post. Thursday I drove myself. Friday--err, I have no excuse.

But, today, the fault is not my own. Nobody got on the bus.

I can share with you that I tried out taking a thermos of hot tea from home for the first time. My suspicion that it tasted like soap discouraged me from finishing.

I hope to see more of you tomorrow!

Dear "People on the 545 route" the morning of 10/13/2009

We managed to get a short bus today. Strange, eh?

I wonder if I was the only one to wonder if I somehow managed to get on the wrong bus.

I sat in the back, so I didn't get a chance to observe everybody today. I'm sure you all were just lovely though, so thank you for being quiet as I dreamed of passing out over Lake Washington. Somehow, I woke up in sheer panic this morning when my alarm went off. I was absolutely sure everything at work was broken in the split second it took for me to go from being peacefully asleep to being disturbingly awake. Maybe that's why I'm exhausted already.

Thank you for supporting me in my mini-disaster when I realized my little Zune device decided to be out of batteries again.

There really isn't anything interesting to say today, so perhaps we'll close with another quiet celebration that we didn't all die in a horrible fiery bus accident this morning. I hear those happen all the time.

Have a wonderful day bus people,

David

Dear "People on the 545 route" the morning of 10/12/2009

We shared about 45 minutes together getting to work, or wherever it was we were going. If you weren't going to work, well I think I might be jealous. We spend a good deal of time ignoring each other, and that bugs me. Anyway, this is my letter to you.

To the bus driver:
I hope you actually hear me and know that I mean it when I say thanks and I wish you a good day. I want you to feel like you exist, even though we all tend to take you for granted. Seriously, you make the morning so much better since I don't have to drive.

To the guy with the shoes:
I thought it was strange that you sat down right next to that lady when there was a completely empty seat across from me. Maybe you feel uncomfortable in the turny part where the front part of the bus attaches to the extended section, and that is totally understandable. If not, then I just think it's weird the way you sat down with such a flourish and unbuckled the seat-belt that doubles as your man-bag strap. But I will forever recognize you by your shoes. Those black and white, I-belong-in-the-50's things. I bet you're good at the foxtrot or something obscure like that. I'm proud of you for wearing them and I hope they make you feel awesome. I meant that sincerely.

To the guys who stand up way to early:
You really need to get off the bus that fast, eh? I bet it feels really cool to stand at attention and then brush past everybody so you can get to the front. Getting off first is important and all, but last I checked we both made it to the cross-walk at the same time. Whatever floats your boats, homies.

To the people who don't work at Microsoft:
Not that I fault you, but does it feel weird to be on a bus full of people who work at the same place? I sometimes feel like a sheep in the herd being shuttled off to work, and you just sit among us free to go anywhere else. I wonder if that makes you feel free. Or anything. Or if you notice at all.

To the girl I'm pretty sure works at Microsoft:
I'm also pretty sure I might have blown off an e-mail from you because I decided it was too randomizing. Oops.
It's a good thing I've become somewhat invisible on the bus.

To the lady that worked on her laptop the whole time and didn't even close it to get off the bus:
Whoa. Can I buy you a book or lend you my newspaper or something?

To everybody on the bus:
Keep up the good work. Everybody did a great job of pretending everybody else didn't exist.

Until tomorrow,

David

Smorgasbord

Smorgasbord. A word that means "a collection containing a variety of sorts of things"

A word that also aptly describes my mind this evening, so why not blog about it?

Random thought #1
I was watching TV and a lady on a commercial was trying to sell Gold Bond skin lotion. She said something like "I can't feel young when my skin looks old" and I immediately thought, "it's probably because you're old."
I think I may be more practical and literal than I need to be most times.

Random thought #2
Most people, if not all, are gifted with some passion in life. Some passions are quite admirable and inspirational. Others are fascinating and cool. Lately I've been realizing one of my passions is grammar and good language use. I think most people probably find that annoying.

Random thought #3
I've been thinking a lot lately of how I could be more useful and significant with music. I spend enough time thinking about music, arranging songs in my head, and learning new instruments and techniques. I have been considering perhaps I should put it to good use. I'm really excited to figure this out, and I wouldn't be disappointed if this is something I felt drawn to more in the future.

Random thought #4
I wonder how much we let people in our past affect how we treat the innocent and unrelated of the present and future. In my own life, I often still assume nothing I have to say that takes more than 30 seconds would be interesting to anybody. This includes both in social situations and in writing. And I can think of the person in my past that makes me think this way. That person is long gone, so why is it still there? Why do other people do the same thing? I can think of others who let people I will never know affect how they interact with me. Is that right? Do I choose to hold on to those things, rather than forgiving the issue and moving on? This one is a little deeper than the others, and perhaps I'll delve into it more some other time.

Random thought #5
I recently read a book by a woman who I later realized was somewhat feminist. I had never read any "feminist" work before, though I don't know that I would classify it as such nor should anybody. Either way, it was interesting to read as an unassuming male with no background on the author, her intent, or her work. I began unconsciously notice there were no named men other than the powerless, gay, religious, or dying. I honestly don't know if the author even intended for a person like me to read the book. I'm confused by this. I don't think I've ever been exposed to that before, nor have I had the insight into a woman's mind with those impressions of men.

I can't imagine reading one book is going to help me realize just how a woman's mind might work, nor can I assume this one woman is representative of all women. But perhaps I appreciate a bit more why women act in ways I don't get right away. That's another deep one I probably won't delve into in this post.

Random thought #6
It kind of freaks me out when I can actually see somebody actively trying to be someone or something other than what naturally are. Or when I realize I'm doing it myself. Seriously, people facing pressure to be something unnatural to them and then caving--willingly or not--happens. It happens a lot. There are times where identifying something you need to be or improve is appropriate. Change is good. But it still freaks me out if the intentions or motivations aren't right (because that's well defined...).

Ok, now enough of weird random thoughts.

Picture time:
Had to fix this. Twitpic was not impressed with my hot-linking skills
I hit myself in the face taking off my guitar. It sucked. It's usually what I enjoy doing when I have nothing else to do in an evening or if I'm spending time alone. Apparently my guitar wasn't into it and she let me know the hard way :)
Please observe alien looking bump under my right eyebrow.


One of the things I love about my apartment and why I chose this place is that I knew I'd get good views like this in time. Thank God for the sun setting in the West. This makes me think I need a better camera.



Ok, well hopefully you liked the pictures!

And that killed enough time that I feel like going to bed now. This was good :)

Cooking for a cause

CATCHY TITLE, RIGHT?

In my never ending quest to come up with titles that don't make me feel absolutely ridiculous, I find myself woefully inept once again.

But now that that is over, we shall move on. Again, I haven't posted in a while and I probably must forgo the more mundane details that have passed since I last wrote. This post will be around a volunteering opportunity I've found here in Seattle that I actually enjoy.

I went to FareStart a long time ago with my team from work. I can most simply describe FareStart as a food kitchen that prepares meals for homeless shelters in Seattle. It is also a school of sorts where students can enroll and learn about cooking while serving others in their city. Even cooler than that though is the fact that the students are "homeless and disadvantaged" individuals and they are getting a new lease on life through the art of cooking.

I like food. I like helping people. I was sold.

Since the first time I went, I organized a small group of my own friends and we all marched over to FareStart and volunteered this past weekend. I cut up more carrots Saturday than I have in my whole life. I made new friends in a city where it seems harder than it needs to be to make more than "single serving friends" (to borrow a phrase from Chuck Palahniuk). People just seem to bond well when they have knifes in their hands. Who knew?

There was my group which was a mix of friends from church and work. Another group was just a bunch of neighbors in a downtown apartment complex. Another group was just one girl that decided to come by herself. I exchanged numbers with the various groups represented and we may try to organize to go together again.

I also talked to my building management and I guess I'm on point to help organize my own building to go volunteer. It may not be the Peoples City Mission where I served and made such good friends, but I love working at FareStart and I am looking forward to going back and taking new people with me. Learning new cooking tricks doesn't hurt either.

Ok, I'll come up with more things to write about and make a concerted effort to do this more often.

Cheers!

Play that funky music brown boy

So I had my buddy Miranda Rensch up from Portland for Bumbershoot a couple weekends ago. Miranda and I started off at the same uber-nerd program in Nebraska, but she left after a semester to pursue more artistic endeavors. In that semester though, we made friends as musicians in the group.

Reuniting for Bumbershoot was great because we spent the whole weekend jamming out and making music through conventional and not-so-conventional means. Since that weekend, I've been having lots of fun collecting random instruments and jacking around with music. So here's what I have so far.

Instruments

Jackson JS1 Dinky
It looks like a total metal guitar, and it really is, but I've tweaked it enough that I can get some nice blues and jazz sounds out of it. The neck is fast and I love playing it.

Fender Jazz Active Bass
I looooove this bass. I got it to replace my old Danelectro. I went the extra mile to get active pickups because they give me a lot more range to dial in the right sound for various kinds of music.

Yamaha KX49 USB/MIDI Controller
I guess this counts as an instrument. In my senior year of college, I got really interested in sound production with the computer. However, I wanted to prove to all the Mac guys that you didn't have to pay tons of money (or steal) to make music. So I learned to do all that stuff the Open Source way on Linux and it was actually a lot of fun. So I have a decent keyboard to do all that nerdy synth stuff.

Amplifiers and Mixers

Behringer GX210
This amp has served me well for a long time. I've never had a good chance to push it hard, but it works great for noodling around and the onboard effects aren't bad either.

MarkBass Mini CMD 121P
I just picked this up and I love it. So I had a bass amp at home, but I left it thinking I wouldn't be playing much bass in Seattle. I was wrong, so I bought a new one. Thankfully, this thing is small enough to fit in my apartment and it's not more than 30 pounds. What is amazing is that it packs 400 watts in a small package and it sounds great. I love this amp so far. I have the volume set between 1-2 in my apartment and that's already probably too loud.

Behringer Eurorack MX1604A
I picked this mixer up in Kansas City off a guy who tried to use it as a home theater mixer. I got it cheap and it is a solid little mixer. I use this to manage the random mics I have around the apartment, and I've also used it for some recording..

Effects

Line 6 DL4
This is really the only one worth mentioning. It's an awesome delay modeler, but I use the loop machine more than anything else. This is great for running a mic into it, looping some beat box action, and then singing, humming, clapping, or making any kind of racket into the loop. This is truly too much fun and I thank Nathan Kniseley and Minus the Bear for showing me how cool these can be.

WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME ALL THIS? I DON'T CARE!

So all that being said, I met a few guys who are as into molding random noises into music as I am. I hope this eclectic mix of music styles and influences coalesces into something awesome. If it does, I'll be sure to say something about it here.

Take care!