Mmm Mmm Chocolate!

I was at work cleaning toilets. (That's what I do to pay my bills. I'm a freakin' janitor.) We were on a tight schedule so I asked my friend (who is also my boss) if I should bother cleaning the inside of the toilets, and he said, 'Only if they've got chocolate'. Which is a funny enough thing to say as it is but for some reason I sang this jingle when he said that. It made us laugh so hard I decided I would record it. He said I had till Wednesday to get up, so here it is. The Buzzhead Republic chocolate jingle: Mmm Mmm Chocolate!

Saturday Was A Good Day

On Saturday my friend, Nate had a birthday party. He's one of those people who likes to be generous on his birthday, so he bought steaks and kabobs, and we had a barbecue. Brian bought him a ginormous cigar. He said it hurt just trying to smoke it.

I took pictures of his cat which doesn't even have a name really. We've called it everything from blanco, gato, or cat to some Greek mythological name that I can't remember. It is part bobcat, and is currently about half the size it will be in a year. Also, notice it's bob tail and longer than usual hind legs.

We also played a game of Settlers of Catan. It is a board game that is quick to learn, take about an hour to play, and is lots of fun.

 
When I got home that night I noticed a moth on my mailbox that had a small spider that was messing with it. The moth was a lot bigger than it was, so every time the spider got on it's back, the moth would flap it's wings and knock the spider off. I tried to get a good picture but the lighting wasn't cooperating. This was the best I could do and you can't even see the spider. I like the colors of the picture enough that I'll trying to sharpen the resolution a bit and possibly turn it into a cover for one of my singles.

A Most Revolutionary Disappointment

I have been working on my double album A Most Revolutionary Lemon for nearly two years. I finished the recording and mastering part almost six weeks ago. The artwork was done about a month ago. I have six singles to go along with it too.

In the past I have made my albums as internet only mp3 releases, but this time I poured so much time and energy into this album that I wanted to make at least a hundred physical copies of it. It has taken several months to get all the material ready. I'm about halfway done with the packaging. I haven't been expecting to sell them very fast because I don't have a venue where I can sell them. I would sell Physical copies through the internet, but everyone wants money upfront to do this. I don't have enough disposable income to do something even as simple as that. Usually the starting level (for anything worthwhile to a musician) is a months wages or higher for me. To save up that kind of money with what little extra I have every month would take me at least two years. This is why I have only made internet releases until now. Like I said, I put too much into this album to make it an internet only release.

In addition to making physical copies I was still planning on releasing this the same I always had through the internet. That was through We7.com. They are a company that includes unsigned artists in their catalogue with signed artists. The idea being that it gives us unsigned artists a fair chance. We still had to pass a pier review before getting on the site, which I did. In short, it was my best chance to get noticed, because it didn't cost me anything (which I couldn't afford anyway), to get some of the exposure I needed.

Today I have found out that even though I am on We7.com I now have to submit all my new releases, not through the internet but in physical form, to somewhere in England, and if my release passes some new review then it will get to be released on the site that all my other music is already on. Maybe this will be a good thing in the end. I still have to read more about it, but from what I have read it looks like it is going to cost me, again, more than I can afford.

So what it looks like right now is I have an amazing double album and six singles that may get shelved indefinitely. Obviously, I'm a little ticked off. There is nothing left that I can do except save my money for the next two years, hope no one steals my truly original and unique sound (I'm not kidding)in the meantime, and trust that God will take care of it. Really, at this point, only He can do something. He has done amazing things in the past. I can attest to that. Sometimes it's hard though to realize you are helpless without Him.

The One With The Deer

Now that I have a blog that is more conducive to writing than my previous blog was, I seem to be unable to write anything more than a few sentences worth of opinion. Yet here I am still trying. I guess I can start with a few things I am thinking about at the moment.

While I am writing this I am watching an episode of the X-Files. It's from season two, episode ...whatever. It's called Excelsis Dei, and it has an actress that also played the doctor (the first one) in Stargate SG-1. My observance of her acting capabilities is that she was slightly better in this episode. Usually actors get better over time but she is almost the same despite the roughly 8 year gap between shows. I can't say that it has anything to do with the writers because both shows had equally great as well as equally terrible episodes. Really great actors can take a script, no matter how bad, and make their character shine. She is definitely not one, but in fairness she is decent. She works great as a secondary character, even if on occasion she sounds like she's reading from the script. I'll have to wait for the credits to get her name.

I was also thinking about how I've been so busy that I don't have much time to do what I want, that is if I want to get enough sleep too. So I've been doing the stupid thing and not sleeping as much as I should. Although, after a few days of sleeping only 5 to 6 hours a night, I end up crashing for 10 or 12. When that happens, it sucks, because my day ends up being something like this: I get home from work, I go to bed, I wake up, I go to work with nothing else done in between. That's no way to live so I go back to depriving myself of sleep for the next few days. Hopefully, I won't be quite so busy in the next few months. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of being tired. -sigh- I would love to spend an entire month in England by myself with nothing but a notebook and my guitar (so I can play in parks for fivers). And I would love to revisit Whitby (the one on the North East side). I didn't spend enough time there. I wish I owned a camera last time. I think that is at least part of why I want to go back there.

The X-Files episode just ended but the extras credits didn't have a name I recognized. I wonder if the actress in question got married in that 8 year gap...

There was a deer in my front lawn today. I took a couple of photos but (again) didn't have time to try to get closer shots.

My Friend's Wheelchair Is Photogenic

You know, sometimes the simplest things can make me joyful. Like today. I bought some cheap Totinos pizzas and watched Mystery Science Theater 3000 on Shoutcast TV. There is just something about eating a cheap pizza and watching MST3K that makes me feel like a teenager again. In fact I am going to do it again before I go to bed and maybe I'll eat a bowl of chocolate chip ice cream too. Yay! I'm excited just thinking about it.

Yesterday I stopped by my friend's house after work. I discovered, much to my amusement, that my friend's wheelchair was extremely photogenic. It made me laugh. Another silly thing to be joyful over.

-yawn-

I didn't know what to post this morning but felt like posting something, so I recorded my yawn, and then took a picture of the back of my head to look for signs of male pattern baldness. None that I can see. But I do have an interesting swirl.

The Books I've Read....

I haven't read much in the past two weeks but for some reason I was reading like crazy for the three weeks prior. These are all the books I read:

This one I actually have been reading off and on for about two years (it's that long). I don't recommend reading it at all, but it is good for Greek and French references. I have heard that a modern translation from 1990 is a much more enjoyable read. Unfortunately I read the translation done by some guy in the 1700s and it sucked.

This one is from a similar time period. It makes a lot of the same references as Gargantua and Pantagruel, but is even more boring. I stopped reading after 30 pages. I do not recommend this book at all. I know that some colleges require you to read this. Avoid those schools at all costs. They obviously don't have a clue about good literature.

Everyone says this is a classic. It isn't. It has only become a classic because it is old. It has no substance, and it was not supposed to. It is the pulp fiction of its time. To say that this is a classic is like saying that in 150 years Star Trek: The Motion Picture  (the book adaptation) will be a classic. Time does not make something better. Imagine that this book was an apple. Now it is a 150 year old apple.  I can't believe this is required reading in public schools. Oh wait....

Speaking of pulp fiction, here's a sci-fi "classic" from the early 80s. It's like James Bond in space, but worse. I read about 50 pages before I quit.

Yes, John Travolta wrote a book. He's a pretty good story teller too from what I've seen. This is a short story and is kind of enjoyable.

 
This author tries really hard to be shocking for the first chapter and fails. He only comes across as an author who tries really hard to be shocking. After that though, I really like reading this. It's a page turner.

 Another page turner. Kind of depressing if you happen to be a musician. Sometimes the writing is absolutely beautiful and descriptive. I recommend it simply for that alone.

 Written for adults who were deviant 14 year old boys, who had a good taste in music, dreamed of being in a band, wanted to be detectives, were conspiracy theorists, and complete dorks.

 A book written in footnotes. Interesting approach. Worth reading just for that.

 A biography of Peter Sellers of Pink Panther fame.

 At this point the Hitchhikers trilogy has gone too far, and I don't mean in a good way. Kind of boring and not worth the time to read.

The companion to the BBC series. Highly recommended!

Great book. Absolutely worth reading.

New Blog continued...

Okay. So here are the photos. I had to resize them on my other computer using Paint. I usually resize images that way. It seems that none of the other paint style programs make it easy to do that (at least not that I've been able to figure out) they're too complex.

New Blog

So here it is. My new blog. I had one that ran off my website buzzheadrepublic.com but it was limited and aggravating. So much so that I almost never used it. I hope to use this one a lot more though.

I bought a camera recently too. After you see the following pictures you may ask yourself 'Who gave this man a camera?' Actually if you flip through the pictures really fast it kind of looks like that's what I'm saying. Ha ha! I crack myself up.

.....Well I can't seem to get the pictures resized right now. They are too big to just post them as is and I'm too tired to bother with them anymore tonight. I'll just post them at a later time.