JULY 2013
This month's post is VERY late. I had to move more suddenly than I anticipated. The predictable lack of inaccessibility to the internet took hold, and a couple of weeks slipped by, and there you have it - a late Top 5 installment for my hordes of hungry readers...
...
Haha! What readers!?!
Well, summer rolls on. I am enjoying it, but always, as usual, sad about...something, whatever it may be.
First things first: the reason I moved. On a Sunday night in late June, I heard strange noises in my ceiling. In most areas of the previous apartment, the ceiling was a 'drop' ceiling, built of suspended tiles. I heard something weird in the bathroom - and there I saw a ceiling tile partially removed from the framing. I pushed it back up, then heard a small squealing. "It's a dog outside", I tried to convince myself.
So these unusual sounds continued, and I followed them to a nearby area, where another tile was not fully closed (this was/is an old apartment building. My apartment was a bit ramshackle, where nothing fit perfectly, and most everything is worn, and had been replaced). Above this tile, I heard what sounded like someone munching on pretzels.
I knew something was up there - a rat, a squirrel, a mouse...But I refused to accept it. I soon later went to bed with the bedroom door closed and a pair of jeans stuffed beneath it. The bedroom ceiling was a full ceiling, and not part of the suspended ceiling, so therefore whatever was up there couldn't have intruded into the bedroom.
Fast forward to the next day. I got home rather late for my typical schedule because I gave blood for an analysis. So I had fasted for over 12 hours (close to 14 by this point), I had to use the bathroom, I was hot, and I couldn't wait to get into the apartment to decompress.
So I enter...and see ceiling tiles collapsed, the bathroom in disarray...and I hear a soft cooing. Some animal was in there! I got a downstairs resident that I am friendly with to call the management - he said he was told 'they have a guy' for such things. So I'm expecting some guy to show up with a tranquilizer dart, a large net, boots, gloves....no, it's some dude with a shovel and a bucket.
He goes around the apartment, convinced it was a squirrel that had since left. He banged the shovel around, trying to scare whatever it was...nothing. So he left.
Frazzled, and not looking forward to cleaning up the dusty bathroom full of debris, I decided to first check my email. I bend down to hit the button on the CPU, and what do I see looking up at me, huddled next to the computer? A big, furry racoon face.
I shouted, got my shoes on, and again knocked on the friendly tenant's door, asking him for his cellular phone to get the critter removal 'expert' guy back. And when he arrived, he stated "There are two". I stayed in the hallway, as his plan was to scare them out the door, then down the stairwell just outside my door. So i hear him battling whatever it was with this shovel. CLANG CLANG, whomp, boof.....and he uses the shovel to send one of the racoons out into the hallway, the way you'd throw socks into a corner (not that I would, mom!). So he gets this one down the steps, and I thought he killed it, but I think he just injured or subdued it. Then in similarly dramatic fashion, he removes the second one.
I honestly don't know if he killed them or what. I mean, he carried both out in his bucket. I think they were young - they didn't fight or bite him or anything. So when he's ready to leave from the bottom of that stairwell, I peer in and...hear something.
I insisted there was something else in there - he returns to look, and says: "there are two more". FOUR racoons playing house in my apartment!
Well, I couldn't really be comfortable there knowing that there could easily be something up above me, which could at some time push its way through the drop ceiling. So, I spoke to management, and they let me go, whereas my lease was supposed to renew in August.
There was no...fucking...way...I was staying there another year (although I would have been content to do so).
So here I am, in a vastly different neighborhood. And liking it, thus far.
I just completed a several weeks-long acting class. It went OK, but to be honest, I think it was overpriced. I am repeating the Level 1 course again, just to solidify the basics. I am considering advancing to the next level as well, in the autumn. By the time that rolls around, I will be able to tell if I have a good hold on my engineering graduate class...its one I took years ago, that I have to repeat to succeed in my conditional enrollment.
Too much info - I transferred to an online program for civil engineering at a different school. Look back on my suicidal posts from January to May of this year - a lot was due to the unbearable strain of my last class. It was not for lack of trying - I worked very, very hard, but found it so hard to learn anything since the teacher was just horrible. His lectures were absolutely crappy - and minimal to my learning. So, I'm taking a new strategy - a less expensive education, "taught" in a different way, where, I think, a lousy instructor just possibly couldn't muddle up or confuse the matter!
It remains to be seen if there is a vacation in my near future. Not looking good...however, if I learn by this weekend that I will get a part in a small film, it looks like I'm headed to Buffalo for a few days. I'm hoping that will be incorporated with some away time to see Buffalo, the Falls, and Old Fort Erie, among other things.
Next month I might explain something kind of significant in why I have a confident attitude lately.
I'm intent on getting in shape and really get it moving with that guitar; by the end of summer, when graduate school starts, I want to say I made a lot of progress with the free time I have now! So, I'm giving you this month's music!
That pretty old song is #1! It's a catchy song, but it's past it's prime. I doubt it will still be in the Top 5 by September!
The new entry is a cool song I've heard for many months. I just never knew the group. It finally dawned on me how beautifully catchy "Mountain Sound" is...and presto, a hit in my chart.
Ha! Look who was at #1 ten years ago...the familiar Godsmack! I really loved them. I do need to catch up with them, with Black Sabbath (new album!) as well as Queensryche (also a new album!).
Now I sampled recently the entire new Alice in Chains CD....gee...very dejected. It just seemed - the same. Boring, I might add. Not a bad album by any means, but the same sound, the same vocal harmonies, long, drawn out verses....I don't see a reason to buy it. There are a few good songs that could break into my chart, though.
Adios.
JULY 2013
1. "Can't Get Better Than This", by Parachute Youth 2, 1, 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHC302BjEhY
2. "Glass Mountain", by Radiana 4,2,2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL4gIiuCB-A
3. "Live to Rise", by Soundgarden 5, 3, 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3ZNtOcY_1A
4. "Diamonds", by Rihanna 1,1,5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWA2pjMjpBs
5. "Mountain Sound", by Of Monsters and Men -, 5, 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT3HrrrHzII
JULY 2012
1. "End to the Lies", by Jane's Addiction 2, 1, 4
2. "In the Fog, Part I/II/III", by Tim Hecker 4, 2, 2
3. "Somebody That I Used to Know", by Goyte 3, 3, 2
4. "The Sound of Winter", by Bush 1, 1, 6
5. "Le Bleu", by Blondie -, 5, 1
JULY 2003
1. "Straight out of Line", by Godsmack
2. "Like a Stone", by Audioslave
3. "Bring me to Life", by Evanescence
4. "You Know You're Right", by Nirvana
5. "Mine", by Taproot
...
Haha! What readers!?!
Well, summer rolls on. I am enjoying it, but always, as usual, sad about...something, whatever it may be.
First things first: the reason I moved. On a Sunday night in late June, I heard strange noises in my ceiling. In most areas of the previous apartment, the ceiling was a 'drop' ceiling, built of suspended tiles. I heard something weird in the bathroom - and there I saw a ceiling tile partially removed from the framing. I pushed it back up, then heard a small squealing. "It's a dog outside", I tried to convince myself.
So these unusual sounds continued, and I followed them to a nearby area, where another tile was not fully closed (this was/is an old apartment building. My apartment was a bit ramshackle, where nothing fit perfectly, and most everything is worn, and had been replaced). Above this tile, I heard what sounded like someone munching on pretzels.
I knew something was up there - a rat, a squirrel, a mouse...But I refused to accept it. I soon later went to bed with the bedroom door closed and a pair of jeans stuffed beneath it. The bedroom ceiling was a full ceiling, and not part of the suspended ceiling, so therefore whatever was up there couldn't have intruded into the bedroom.
Fast forward to the next day. I got home rather late for my typical schedule because I gave blood for an analysis. So I had fasted for over 12 hours (close to 14 by this point), I had to use the bathroom, I was hot, and I couldn't wait to get into the apartment to decompress.
So I enter...and see ceiling tiles collapsed, the bathroom in disarray...and I hear a soft cooing. Some animal was in there! I got a downstairs resident that I am friendly with to call the management - he said he was told 'they have a guy' for such things. So I'm expecting some guy to show up with a tranquilizer dart, a large net, boots, gloves....no, it's some dude with a shovel and a bucket.
He goes around the apartment, convinced it was a squirrel that had since left. He banged the shovel around, trying to scare whatever it was...nothing. So he left.
Frazzled, and not looking forward to cleaning up the dusty bathroom full of debris, I decided to first check my email. I bend down to hit the button on the CPU, and what do I see looking up at me, huddled next to the computer? A big, furry racoon face.
I shouted, got my shoes on, and again knocked on the friendly tenant's door, asking him for his cellular phone to get the critter removal 'expert' guy back. And when he arrived, he stated "There are two". I stayed in the hallway, as his plan was to scare them out the door, then down the stairwell just outside my door. So i hear him battling whatever it was with this shovel. CLANG CLANG, whomp, boof.....and he uses the shovel to send one of the racoons out into the hallway, the way you'd throw socks into a corner (not that I would, mom!). So he gets this one down the steps, and I thought he killed it, but I think he just injured or subdued it. Then in similarly dramatic fashion, he removes the second one.
I honestly don't know if he killed them or what. I mean, he carried both out in his bucket. I think they were young - they didn't fight or bite him or anything. So when he's ready to leave from the bottom of that stairwell, I peer in and...hear something.
I insisted there was something else in there - he returns to look, and says: "there are two more". FOUR racoons playing house in my apartment!
Well, I couldn't really be comfortable there knowing that there could easily be something up above me, which could at some time push its way through the drop ceiling. So, I spoke to management, and they let me go, whereas my lease was supposed to renew in August.
There was no...fucking...way...I was staying there another year (although I would have been content to do so).
So here I am, in a vastly different neighborhood. And liking it, thus far.
I just completed a several weeks-long acting class. It went OK, but to be honest, I think it was overpriced. I am repeating the Level 1 course again, just to solidify the basics. I am considering advancing to the next level as well, in the autumn. By the time that rolls around, I will be able to tell if I have a good hold on my engineering graduate class...its one I took years ago, that I have to repeat to succeed in my conditional enrollment.
Too much info - I transferred to an online program for civil engineering at a different school. Look back on my suicidal posts from January to May of this year - a lot was due to the unbearable strain of my last class. It was not for lack of trying - I worked very, very hard, but found it so hard to learn anything since the teacher was just horrible. His lectures were absolutely crappy - and minimal to my learning. So, I'm taking a new strategy - a less expensive education, "taught" in a different way, where, I think, a lousy instructor just possibly couldn't muddle up or confuse the matter!
It remains to be seen if there is a vacation in my near future. Not looking good...however, if I learn by this weekend that I will get a part in a small film, it looks like I'm headed to Buffalo for a few days. I'm hoping that will be incorporated with some away time to see Buffalo, the Falls, and Old Fort Erie, among other things.
Next month I might explain something kind of significant in why I have a confident attitude lately.
I'm intent on getting in shape and really get it moving with that guitar; by the end of summer, when graduate school starts, I want to say I made a lot of progress with the free time I have now! So, I'm giving you this month's music!
That pretty old song is #1! It's a catchy song, but it's past it's prime. I doubt it will still be in the Top 5 by September!
The new entry is a cool song I've heard for many months. I just never knew the group. It finally dawned on me how beautifully catchy "Mountain Sound" is...and presto, a hit in my chart.
Ha! Look who was at #1 ten years ago...the familiar Godsmack! I really loved them. I do need to catch up with them, with Black Sabbath (new album!) as well as Queensryche (also a new album!).
Now I sampled recently the entire new Alice in Chains CD....gee...very dejected. It just seemed - the same. Boring, I might add. Not a bad album by any means, but the same sound, the same vocal harmonies, long, drawn out verses....I don't see a reason to buy it. There are a few good songs that could break into my chart, though.
Adios.
JULY 2013
1. "Can't Get Better Than This", by Parachute Youth 2, 1, 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHC302BjEhY
2. "Glass Mountain", by Radiana 4,2,2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL4gIiuCB-A
3. "Live to Rise", by Soundgarden 5, 3, 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3ZNtOcY_1A
4. "Diamonds", by Rihanna 1,1,5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWA2pjMjpBs
5. "Mountain Sound", by Of Monsters and Men -, 5, 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT3HrrrHzII
JULY 2012
1. "End to the Lies", by Jane's Addiction 2, 1, 4
2. "In the Fog, Part I/II/III", by Tim Hecker 4, 2, 2
3. "Somebody That I Used to Know", by Goyte 3, 3, 2
4. "The Sound of Winter", by Bush 1, 1, 6
5. "Le Bleu", by Blondie -, 5, 1
JULY 2003
1. "Straight out of Line", by Godsmack
2. "Like a Stone", by Audioslave
3. "Bring me to Life", by Evanescence
4. "You Know You're Right", by Nirvana
5. "Mine", by Taproot
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