But I am going to do it anyways. Since I put in 120 hours at work this past week, I started bringing my laptop to work. I used to always bring it, but for months just didn’t. I don’t know why either - I usually have quite a bit of down time in a given day to kill. So anyways, laptop is coming with me from now on. This means I have infinite time to do things I don’t do often: blog, give star ratings to all my iTunes tracks, Photoshop. This blog is a byproduct of said time.

I registered for school yesterday. Since I was a community college drop out this semester, I was actually pretty eager to get back into it. Taking a semester off was good for me I think. If you are not motivated to be in school, don’t. It is just a waste of time. The last semester I was in school I was so sick of it. But being without school for a few months has shown me that it is something I do value, and want.

The original schedule I made for school was a bust. Everything I was planning on taking was filled up. So I ended up enrolling in Anatomy, which takes up nearly my entire Tuesdays and Thursdays. Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays are occupied by a job that is too easy of money to pass up for now. I am, however, a little depressed to be filling up two of my three days off a week with school. But I can always look for a new job once I get burned out. It is time for school to come before work. So for the time being, I am without a life. I also am taking an online psychology. But lets face it, that is not worth counting.

Ben Folds Five is entertaining. I am rating it mostly three to four stars right now. Which is saying something. Here is the rating system I have been using:

• One Star: A song that is a good listen when the mood is fit - probably not a song I could just turn on and enjoy at any given moment. Note: One star does not mean a song is necessarily bad - there is a certain expectation level just to make it into my library.
• Two Stars: Decent song, nothing to write home about. I might skip such a song in shuffle on a bad day, but I might not. There’d be no way of knowing.
• Three Stars: This is the average star, as it is the middle of a five star rating system. This signifies a great song which is the majority of ratings I give out.
• Four Stars: Fantastic song that rarely gets skipped in a shuffle mix.
• Five Stars: A incredible song (also a rarity in my library). It truly takes a special song to receive five stars, and such a rating is not handed out lightly. If I were to wear panties, they usually would come off when a five star song comes on the shuffle.

Enough for now, grandma’s need saving. Toodles.

I only get decent at things, I never work hard enough to actually be considered good at anything. Back when I played trombone, I was fairly naturally gifted with it, and compared to those around me, I held my ground despite the fact I never practiced. In my junior year of high school, I decided I really wanted to become proficient with Photoshop. Years later, here I am and I only know the fundamentals of it. I started working hard on guitar playing - but when I realized everyone else wanted to be a guitar player, I bought a mandolin. Mandolin went well for about a month, but now I am too busy to play. I just want to be really good at something.

Today I bought a lot of music.

• Pixies’ album Doolittle, Robert’s suggestion as the one album that will forever change my life. One listen through so far and I am still gay.
• Cold War Kids’ Robbers and Cowards. Haven’t gone all the way through yet, but I dig the sound.
• Chris Thile’s older album, Deceiver. Haven’t listened through it yet, but there is no doubt in my mind that I will love it.

Now I am off to enjoy the rest of my day off.

“We rarely do music specials centered around a single artist because so few have the necessary broad appeal,” said Andrea Wong, executive vice president, alternative programming, specials and late night. “But Kenny is so enormously popular he can sell millions of records, sell out stadiums across the country and bring in a large television audience. We’re thrilled he’s part of the ABC family.”

The special will be anchored by Chesney’s sold-out show at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Stadium. In addition, the man who’s sold 17-million albums including 4 million copies of “Greatest Hits,” “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems” and the CMA Album of the Year “When The Sun Goes Down” will strive to give viewers a sense of what truly makes him “the superstar next door.”

With an emphasis on music, the special will include his hits, “When The Sun Goes Down,” “There Goes My Life,” “Old Blue Chair,” “Young” and many of the songs his fans know by heart, all to be given high-impact treatments — and insight behind the revved up performances people expect.

Cameras will fly to the Caribbean island where Chesney takes retreat from his life on the road. There, the special will reveal the private side of Chesney as he gets away from the spotlight of being the biggest country music star and shows the beauty of his tropical island life and the activities with which he enjoys to kick back and relax. Some of Chesney’s fellow country music stars and close friends (to be announced) will also make appearances in the special.

“They’re letting me be very involved,” says Chesney, “and respecting that this friendship I’ve had with my fans has been one of the most enduring in country music. There are those folks who think our show starts at 9:15, but they’re people who don’t really understand. To me and my crew, it all gets started about 2:30 when the fans roll into the parking lot with their grills and their cold drinks to get the party started. That’s what we’re about: forgetting everything that’s bugging you and having a few hours of fun. And that’s a lot of what this special’s gonna be: how we have fun on the road and off.”

This “boy next store” act has won Chesney into the hearts of millions of screaming girls (and boys) who love him for his “big biceps” and his cut off collared tees. This lack of fashion sense has gone over remarkably well considering no other American has been able to pull it off without receiving comments such as “momma’s boy” or “toad licker.” Ugly actress and wife of Chesney, Renee Zellweger, has even realized that Chesney just isn’t all American cracks him up to be, and asked for an annulment. Celebrity reporters claim that even though Zellweger has no chance at another man, loneliness is better than a “Voodoo doll in a cowboy hat.”

Renee Zellweger has sent America a message in asking for an annulment, encouraging America to annul Chesney and be cleansed of this strange, queer fascination over this “down to earth boy.”

You are no Voodoo lover, are you?

As I was driving home from class this afternoon, I switched over to the local rock station, KROQ, where they were playing “King Without a Crown” by Matisyahu. I am not too sure if this song has made it in other parts of the US, but it seems to be making it pretty good in Souther California. Matisyahu Miller is the lead singer of this reggae sounding group and he is a devout Jew, which is reflected in all of his music. Oddly enough, his record deal is signed under Sony, and not a religious label. So how does a song that clearly represents religious values make it big on the radio? Sure, Switchfoot’s “Dare You to Move” did this as well, but the lyrics could easily be passed off as that of any other secular bands.

Matisyahu is clearly unique and has is own developed style. In fact, at the end of the song, the DJ ‘Jed the Fish’ acknowledged that musically, the song is not impressive at all. However, what makes it popular is the originality and the presentation of the religious content. I think Jed got it right. While most of the mainstream music of the day deals with issues such as sex, drugs or violence, how is it that a song promoting religious values can penetrate that market? I think most people want to hear something new and original before something advertising sexual activity.

Christian music isn’t going to make it anywhere without creating something people want to hear - it isn’t a matter of people rejecting it for it’s message, it is rejecting if for it’s obvious duplication of secular artists. I hope sometime Christian artists will stop trying to produce a sound they think people want to hear, and finally produce a sound no one has heard.

What’s this feeling?
My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
Givin’ myself to you from the essence of my being
Sing to my G-d all these songs of love and healing
Want Moshiach now so it’s time we start revealing

You’re all that I have and you’re all that I need
Each and every day I pray to get to know you please
I want to be close to you, yes I’m so hungry
You’re like water for my soul when it gets thirsty
Without you there’s no me
You’re the air that I breathe
Sometimes the world is dark and I just can’t see
With these, demons surround all around to bring me down to negativity
But I believe, yes I believe, I said I believe
I’ll stand on my own two feet
Won’t be brought down on one knee
Fight with all of my might and get these demons to flee
Hashem’s rays fire blaze burn bright and I believe
Out of darkness comes light, twilight unto the heights
Crown Heights burnin’ up all through till midnight
Said, thank you to my G-d, now I finally got it right
And I’ll fight with all of my heart, and all a’ my soul, and all a’ my might

Me no want no sinsemilla.
That would only bring me down
Burn away my brain no way my brain is to compound
Torah food for my brain let it rain till I drown
Thunder!
Let the blessings come down

Strip away the layers and reveal your soul
Got to give yourself up and then you become whole
You’re a slave to yourself and you don’t even know
You want to live the fast life but your brain moves slow
If you’re trying to stay high then you’re bound to stay low
You want G-d but you can’t deflate your ego
If you’re already there then there’s nowhere to go
If you’re cup’s already full then its bound to overflow
If you’re drowning in the water’s and you can’t stay afloat
Ask Hashem for mercy and he’ll throw you a rope
You’re looking for help from G-d you say he couldn’t be found
Looking up to the sky and searchin’ beneath the ground
Like a King without his Crown
Yes, you keep fallin’ down
You really want to live but can’t get rid of your frown
Tried to reach unto the heights and wound bound down on the ground
Given up your pride and the you heard a sound
Out of night comes day and out of day comes light
Nullified to the One like sunlight in a ray,
Makin’ room for his love and a fire gone blaze

King Without a Crown - Matisyahu

In having a website, I am quickly discovering that I hold an obligation to you, my readers, in sharing all I know. With that said, I suggest that you all listen to Dave Mattews Band and The Postal Service. Just recently I have fallen in love with these two diverse groups and I find my iPod is always on shuffle with these bands. Check them out for sure.

I would like to apologize for the short, thoughtless post today but I got to jet: Extreme Home Makeover: Home Edition: How’d They Do That? is on. Quite possibly the longest title on television.