Lunch SUCKS!!

Today's lunch is pastrami. For anyone who has known me for the last 45 years, how many times have I ever eaten pastrami? For those that actually know the answer, you can probably derive at how much I actually like pastrami! To cap it off, I eat ham sandwiches a lot less than I eat pastrami. It tells you just how much I like ham in a sandwich... assorted sub sandwiches don't count.

So, what does Joelle buy for lunch meats? Ham and pastrami!!! Hell, she may as well have bought me chopped liver, because I hate that even more than ham and pastrami! It really makes me think they either she has dropped to the level of the world's lousiest food shopper or she just doesn't care what she buys, as long as she can get a good price on it. Weird enough is that she'll complain over the $10 bag of Granny Smith apples. Yet, she doesn't realize that I will eat Granny Smith apples. I like them. I've eaten a couple of Granny Smith apples a day for the last 10 or so years, and have never complained that Joelle went out and bought more of them.

And yet, she buys pastrami!

Even more ballsy is that she snaps back at me with, "if you don't like it, then go and buy your own lunch meats". Well, you know what, Jo? I will! As soon as I get home from work, I am going to grab $40 out of shopping money, that you probably have already grabbed out of, and I am going to do a proper shopping with some meal planning and some lunch meats that I can live with. That's one thing that I have been able to do well, since living in Windsor and learning to deal with a room mate that behaved like my dog! And if you don't like it, then go and do a proper food shopping.

Yes, I'm angry... I'm totally angry and I'm screaming this out to the world!

The tape is now music...

Last year sometime, my friend Mike Kasprow introduced me to a Dashboard Widget called Oblique Strategies, by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. It's supposed to help overcome some creative blocks by giving some rather ambiguous solutions.
I've had a creative block for a few weeks, and finally decided to call it up just for fun. I drew a card from it and got the following:

The tape is now music

What the hell is that supposed to mean? Does it mean something that I recorded? Scotch tape? Duct Tape? Do I put the tape over my mouth and try to play it like a kazoo? Can it be a tape loop? How is the tape now music? So many questions about tape. Perhaps, I'll see a song come out of it yet. Don't ask me how, but there can be some form of hope!

If anything, it does give me an idea for perhaps the next CD after this one. If I make each song based on its own Oblique Strategy card, I'm sure I'll get something different out of it.

All I can say is "Thanks Mike! You've given me something new to beat my head against the wall about!"

The most stable currency: KINZCASH!

On Monday, Joelle told me that the value of all of our retirement investments has been crushed to half. While it often makes me wonder if the those mutual fund managers at the TD Bank really know what they're doing, considering that one of the basic rules that I know about mutual fund investment is then when equity funds fall, then look to either bond or money market funds to make up the difference, I look at everything that am doing over here on WebKinz and have discovered that the only currency that hasn't changed is the KINZCASH!

Talk about the best bang for your buck. You can still shop at the W-Shop, or Curio Shop, or even take a 24-hour Webkinz Vacation (of course I'm going to plug my first pet project) for the same price as before. There's no Lehman Bros. or Fannie May in Webkinz to screw up the value of the Kinzcash. Ain't that amazing? Talk about a lot of value.

If I were a broker right now, I would put all of my investments on Kinzcash. It has weathered this entire financial storm of greed, lies and corruption like the Rock of Gibraltar. Its worth has not been affected by this global "crisis". In fact, one trip to Kinzville and you'd see that there is no crisis here. If you have never been to Kinzville, there's no better time to come than now.

Still a lot of value... much better than the what you see in the real world today! Try to convince me otherwise! Too bad it's like The Matrix and I'm only one of the handful of engineers behind it. I can see it run, but I can't live in it... oh well!

Life is a Peanut Butter and 'Nana Sandwich

Today, I had a treat for lunch that I haven't enjoyed in a long time. Joelle bought ham for Josh and me to take for lunches. However, I love cooking with ham. I just don't like ham sandwiches. So, I looked for some alternatives in my house and discovered that Joelle also bought a bunch of bananas. So, it hit me and I went to the pantry to find some honey and peanut butter and I made myself a couple of peanut butter and banana sandwiches. I almost forgot just how delicious they could be.

It brought back some memories of when Margot used to make them for us and we would spend time together eating these Elvis delicacies. We would sit and laugh and have an overall good time while dining. The best part of them was that we would just have them when we felt like it. Sometimes, I think we would just have them so that we could spend time together.

It's amazing how such a sandwich could be loaded with protein, vitamins and memories and taste delicious at the same time. I'll probably wind up making myself a western omelet tonight... we have ham!

It's not just the notes... it's the spaces also!

I don't get today's so-called heavy metal. In their attempt to get heavier, they've lost the whole idea of what music is all about. When I listen to music, I don't just hear the notes. I hear the spaces as well. I feel the music breathe. Today's music does nothing more than blast at my face like a jet engine and just doesn't stop. It's all exhale with no inhale. It's like intense scribbling on a piece of paper and calling it art. Spaces are biblical. Look in the scriptures. God didn't appear in the thundering roar or the rushing winds. God appeared in the whisper. God is in the spaces of our music. With music continually blasting out, where is there room for God?

I love it when a great rock song pushes you back and then pulls you in. There's a feeling to it that draws you closer. For example, take the Eric Clapton and Cream CD's that I picked up this past weekend. Most of the songs I love off of Cream are over 40 years old, but they stand the test of time. Songs like "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room" breathe in and out. They don't tire you out. They're songs I love to recreate the sounds with my guitar. Clapton's got something that many of these heavy metal vomit brothers bands don't have... feel.

If anything, I find myself programming my POD with tones from guys like Clapton, Hendrix, and others like them. Why? Because their tones breathe and their music breathes. It doesn't just have music. It has spaces in between the loudness. I want God to appear in the spaces of my music.

I'm Internet Famous... I have my own stalker!

Whoever thought that some putz from Guelph, like me, would have their own Internet Stalker? Well, move over Richard Letterman and Anne Murray... here I come. Even better is that I have one-upped you both because my stalker can be half way around the world. For all I know, they could be in Japan, Fiji, Australia or even Kookamonga (don't know if that's a place, but if Bugs Bunny says it, it has to be real!).

Some goon keeps pestering me for a picture of one of my guitars. What I can't understand is why they want a picture from me? Why do they want my guitar? If this bozo likes guitars so much, he can get the picture from a manufacturer's web site. First, he started pestering me on Facebook, so I ignored him there. Even worse is that this dude then tries to become my friend on Facebook. I mean, who the heck are you to think that I am simply going to confirm that you are my friend when I don't even know who you are? Even more so is the fact that when I went to gather some information on this person, there is very little to display. Another reason not to make friends with Internet strangers.

It gets creepier...

This dood now has starts searching my name on Google and tracks my main email address. Now, he's sending me emails to me wanting pictures of my guitar. So now, I have to filter his emails out and start taking action. This is making me wonder how stable this person really is, going through all of these great lengths for a picture that he could get from the manufacturer.

If that doesn't make things worse, this idiot is now doing some further Googling and has now found my co-author. Now, my co-author is starting to receive emails to try and get a hold of me. Just for a stupid picture of my guitar!!

To my little Internet Stalking "friend": Get a freakin' life!!!!! I'm more than sure that there's a shrink that can cure you of your obsession, be it the picture of the guitar, or getting a hold of me for that picture of the guitar. Either way, this is the most that you are going to hear from me for now. However, I will give you this warning: If I so much as hear from you again in a roundabout way, I will not only mention you by name in a blog entry, but I will also post your email address and encourage everyone I know to tell you what a yutz you are. And that's after I turn the information over to INTERPOL!

And if you want a picture of one of my guitars you can get it here: http://www.ibanez.com

Occupation: Forum Troll Abuser!

Here's the pot calling the kettle black: a forum troll who had nothing better to do except call everyone incompetent and then lob insults at me trying to make himself look better, got called and couldn't deliver. He then has the balls to cry personal abuse. What a piece of work.

The dude couldn't even back up any initial argument that he stated. He got called on it... simple as that. If you're going to make an argument, back it up. Don't go lashing out insults and then cry when you get put in your place. That is the poster boy of a forum troll.

To the forum troll on the Line 6 forum: you were not abused. You were abusive. Learn the difference... you will get called on it. Next time you are asked to back-up your points, refrain from the personal attacks. If you swim in the shark tank, you will get bitten!