Ambition

I have been thinking lately of things I have always wanted to do, whether it be a career or a trip or just something random, and now, for your enjoyment, I am going to share all of them.

• Become an actor. I actually think I would be a pretty good one but will never get the chance or any big breaks.
• Be in a band. Working more seriously on this and while it will never happen I can at least practice my guitar and try to write my own songs.
• Become an architect. This was the first thing I wanted to be when I grew up. I was always drawing houses and things like that but was turned off from it when I learned how much real work goes into it.
• Go skydiving. Just looks fun, as long as the parachute opens.
• Write a book. Don't care what kind, probably a "based on a true story" book with the true story being my life.
• Write for ESPN. Having Rick Reilly's job would be an absolute dream.
• Design my own house. I have been working on it for the past two days and am almost done and when I am I will post all of the drawings on here.
• Design and build my own log cabin up north somewhere on a little lake in the middle of nowhere. Little loft up top, 600 sq ft max, real cozy, good family times.
• Rent a lake house for a week with my family. I have known a couple of people who have done this and I really want to do it with my whole family since whole means 9 people.
• Own a Porsche 911. Not much more to add to that, they are just beautiful cars.
• Become at least mildly famous. Enough to where somebody who I have never met before would recognize my name.
• Go on the Price is Right...only with Bob Barker though.
• Go on Jeopardy. Thing I could win, not Ken Jennings sort of stuff but maybe one show.
• Honor my grandfather in some way. A book, documentary, monument...something, he deserves it.
• Watch a baseball game in every Major League Stadium in the US...Canada too.
• Arrange a way for my dad to meet Metallica and my mom to meet Def Leppard. Meeting your favorite band would seem to be a dream.
• Set a Guiness World Record...don't care which one.
• Make enough money so I can buy every sweet item on every infomercial.
• Make my family proud.

Funky-Nasty

Found this while looking at My Chemical Romance's website. A big list of the worst album covers ever and there were a bunch of bad ones but I think this one takes the cake. By far the "worst" album cover ever in my eyes. If only album covers these days were as sweet as they were years ago. Things like this are timeless and I don't know how anybody can think this is a contender on a list of worst album covers ever. Not only is the title hilarious but the mannequins add a sense of creepiness to the whole thing. Tell you what, if I ever make an album and have to pick an album cover I hope it makes a list somewhere of worst album covers...I would be honored.

Cedar Point

Memorial Day weekend...or at least the Sunday of it was well spent at Cedar Point. Getting up at 5:30 am and driving for three and a half hours is well worth it once you get there and the excitement and ecstasy of the park engulfs you. Waiting in a huge group of people for the rope to be dropped and running to the first ride is just plain fun. Going on that first ride, getting to the top of the hill, not being able to see what's in front of you and then dropping while your stomach stays at the top of the hill is just bliss. Even after the first ride the feeling of floating in your chair as you go over a hill is pure heaven. Once you get the first couple popular rides out of the way at the beginning you can just walk around and go on whatever you feel like. Surprisingly yesterday was not a very busy day so besides the Raptor, Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, The Mantis, and The Maverick everything was a 15-20 minute wait tops. The weather was even perfect yesterday, hovering right around 70 degrees with on and off sunshine with no rain in site. The only bad thing about the park was the food prices...yikes! Luckily, there is a pizza buffet about 5 minutes outside the park that is only $7...which is about how much you would pay for a burger and fries...or for $13 you could have a foot long sub from Subway. Anyways, the park was just a blast the whole 12 hours we spent there and by 11:00 that night I was pooped out...until I got sick and almost puked a couple times from eating too much crap on the way there and everything. Overall, great trip to America's Roller Coast, Ride On.

Beat Down

Last night was one of the worst beat downs I have ever taken coaching little league baseball. Besides the 10-11 All Star team last year where we lost 31-3 combined in two games, last night was the worst loss ever. The other team had two huge kids, about the same size as me, and of course one of them was pitching. With the exception of two of the kids, everybody went up there scared as hell swinging at any pitch that looked remotely good. The pitches were coming in so fast the kids cold hardly tell if it was a strike or not so they just swung anyway. Let's just put it this way...there are 18 outs in a normal 6 inning little league game, 15 outs last night were strikeouts...at least most of them were swinging. The kids really had no idea what to do against him and it showed. As far as their hitting went; in the first inning they had 4 hits that, I kid you not, hit within 4 inches of the foul line, all fair of course, so they amassed 2 triples and 2 doubles really quickly. After that the rest of the game was basically a slaughter and we ended up losing 13-0. At least it knocked the kids of their high horse; we had won 4 straight games and I think they thought they were the shit...not quite guys. Hopefully we won't have to endure anymore 13-0 losses this season but if we do, oh well, it's little league, not the major leagues. Oh, and one more thing I had to tell some of my players last night, there's no crying in baseball.

Jobs

The job market sucks. I have been trying to get a job since I got home on April 29th and haven't found anything. Sure, I had an interview at Sears but they were looking for somebody with more sales experience. Other than that I haven't heard back from anybody. I have tried calling back the places to energize their hiring routine but they just give me some line of crap about how they are looking at all the applications and will call back when they have finished. Look, if you aren't hiring just say so. I don't need to call a bunch of employers and here the same load. Just tell me the truth instead of making something up about how the hiring person isn't there or how you just hired a bunch of people two days ago so there aren't really any positions anymore. This week, probably today or tomorrow, I have to call back Bob Evans, Celebration Cinema, and Papa Johns. If I don't get a job at any of those then I really don't know what to do. As soon as I get my ass in gear and clean up I think I am going to drive around all day and apply at whatever place I can because I am getting desperate.

Not everything has been bad though. For the past week and a half I have been doing construction for the same guys that built the addition onto my house but it's nothing permanent. A week of picking up shingles and a day installing a door got me about $300...not bad, I know, but I would still like to have a reliable job for the rest of the summer. Also, I would rather not pick up shingles the whole summer because it really sucks. I know, beggars can't be choosers but I really do think I am not made out for a ton of manual labor. I work with my brain, not my hands, or at least not my hands in a big pile of old shingles.

Sadly I have even applied at Burger King and McDonalds to no avail. If the three applications I have going right now and wherever I apply today fall through I still have the fall-back of going to my aunts everyday and doing whatever odd job she needs me to do. Hey, at least it's tax free cash money.

Music

I went to the Hey Monday, Cobra Starship, Metro Station, All Time Low, and Fall Out Boy concert on Friday in Ypsilanti, Michigan and I had a blast. More importantly though was the introduction of All Time Low to me. I had heard of them before but never heard any of their music and since the concert they have basically been the only band I have listened to. As soon as I woke up the next morning I got all 4 of their CDs...two LPs and two EPs. I just really enjoy listening to their music and am really glad that I attended the concert.

Also, I have recently started to play more guitar than usual. Now that my room is all cleaned up and ready to go for the summer I had the chance to really sit down by the computer and look up guitar tabs. I don't really know any whole songs yet but I can play along to most of a small handful of songs. The other day when I was learning songs I mostly stuck to 80's hair metal and thereabouts. I learned "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by the Scorpions along with "The Zoo" by the Scorpions and "We're Not Gunna Take It" by Twisted Sister. I also learned how to play most of "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" by AC/DC which is especially statisfying to me because that band, and Angus Young more specifically, is the reason I taught myself how to play guitar; I wanted to be able to play their songs. I know some riffs and intros to a lot of songs and most of them I have stored away somewhere in memory and now that I am playing more and more I am realizing that I really can play the guitar pretty well if I just practice the song enough. For the most part a lot of rock songs are essentially the same as far as chord progression and chorus and verses. My friend Drew also started to play guitar about the same time I did and we both tell each other about the latest songs we have learned. Unrealistically we would love to start a band but neither of us can sing and we don't have a bass guitar or a drum set. I know that drums can be kind of confusing and complicated sometimes but they can also be simple. If I had a drum set where I could practice I think I could become fairly decent at them. We also have the problem of writing songs. I have been experimenting with some writing of my own with the guitar but nothing major has come out of it. Just a couple of chorus parts and maybe an intro or two. I also try my luck at writing the lyrics to songs but I only have one song that would even be considered acceptable at this point. I'm sure if I put more effort into all of this it may come along a little faster but to say that we are going to start a band any time soon or at all is a pretty far stretch. At least if we do we already have a name...Rakers of Ravage, or RoR for short. Maybe we should just stick to Wyld Stallyns.

King James

Lebron James is now the NBA's MVP. He wears number 23...Michael Jordan anybody? No. Lebron James is not as good as Michael Jordan was or still is now. James may be more athletic than Jordan ever was but there is no way in hell that you can tell me that Lebron is better than Michael. Yes, Lebron soars through the air like Jordan did. Yes, Lebron is obviously the best player on his team and, apparently, in the league. Yes, without Lebron the Cavs would be nothing just like the Bulls would have been without Jordan. But...Jordan is still a better basketball player than Lebron. James is only 24 so he definitely has time to improve his game but I doubt anybody will ever be as good at basketball, just plain skill wise, as Michael Jordan was. Lebron can race down the court and dunk it from the free throw line or drive past 4 defenders and slam it home or even block 360 dunks but he can't hit that shot. Whats that shot you may ask? None in particular, but I know that with 15 seconds left in a game I would take Jordan over Lebron anyday. And you may also say that Jordan had a better supporting cast than Lebron does but has Lebron won a title yet? All he has done is won an MVP...which is a single player award. If the Cavs go on to win the NBA Title this year then you can come back and bring the supporting cast argument up. As of now the Bulls with Jordan are better than the Cavs with Lebron. If Lebron can bring home 6 NBA Championships to the Cavs with the teammates he has now, then I will admit that he is a better player than Jordan. Until then I am going to continue to idolize Michael Jordan and keep memories of Space Jam in my head...don't see Lebron taking on the Mon-stars do ya?

Bothersome

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything but I have a big list here of stuff that has been bothering me lately.

First, swine flu. Everybody needs to settle down. It's the flu people. You get sick, poop some, puke a little maybe, feel crappy for a couple days and then you are fine. The only reason there are a bunch of Mexicans dying is because they don't have good water or health care.

Second, the NFL Draft. I about scratched my eyes out while trying to watch ESPN the whole week leading up to it. It was like I couldn't even watch my sports highlights, it was just NFL Draft. That weekend was hell too...all they could talk about was the Draft and frankly, I don't care. I don't even remember any of the picks besides Stafford at number one for the Lions. They need to settle down about the whole draft thing and get rid of Mel Kuiper Jr., he is such a dork.

Third, jobs. I have been trying to find a job now for like a week and I haven't found anything. It's like nobody is hiring. I apply at the places that say they are hiring and I don't hear anything back. I call them back, they say they will let me know. I even had an interview with Sears and nothing. As of today I resorted to applying at Burger King and if that doesn't work I guess I will have to apply at Taco Bell and Wendy's too.

Fourth, FinallyFast.com commercial. I realize that they are selling computer tech support to people that probably don't know much or anything about computer but come on! They show an Apple notebook blue-screening which just plain does NOT happen. Macs don't blue screen, they don't have the option of blue screening, it's not programmed into them, it just can't happen. Windows computers blue-screen. If they are going to try to sell their sketchy computer "performance test" I think they need to do a little more research for Steve Job or Bill Gate's sake.

Fifth, AT&T. I have had an AT&T phone for almost 2 years now (July will make it 2 and I can't wait!). Pretty much since I got the phone I have had trouble with dropped calls but now it's just rediculous. I will drop a call...have to turn my phone off and then back on just to get service again...call the person back...and then drop the call again in like 10 minutes. It really is just rediculous and I can't wait to switch to another company.

And finally Sixth, Chevy Malibu's from the late 90's. I have a 1998 Chevy Malibu and it is a complete POS. There is rust all over it, espeically under the gas cap. The transmission is starting to fail me. I have had to have the brakes replaced like 5 times. The secutirty system constantly thinks I am trying to steal the car and the only way to fix it is to sit there with the key in the car for 10 minutes until it turns off, which can be very annoying and troublesome if I really need to get somewhere. Also it sounds like it's going to fall apart when I drive it on the highway. I took my sister to her youth group yesterday and she asked a perfect question to go along with this and I quote, "Why does your car make so much noise?". Basically it has been a piece since I got it and still is but it's all I have to work with so I have to deal with it.

Hope that's enough complaining for the two people or so who read this thing. Beggers can't be choosers but I think they can be complainers.