30 Days of Me: Favorite Book

No teasing. Just straight to the point. "Scar Tissue" by Anthony Kiedis is my favorite book.

Actually, there isn't much competition as the only books I have ever read are those I was forced to read in school, wrestler autobiographies and fight club.

However, this book is great. From the up one minute, down the next lifestyle to seeing the background on some of my favorite songs. This book has everything for me and it never disappoints.

I can't even go in to much detail about it if you haven't read it. You should just read it.

A Slice of My Life

So Spring Break came and went. What did I do?

*I had an interview in Valley, AL. It's a town about 30 miles away that our entire class is doing a presentation on.

*Worked, though not very much. I think I worked a total of 10 hours this week? But that's what happens when everybody in the town is college students and they all go away.

*Hung out with this guy

And a few of his friends. We were chillin on an island, though I'm not sure if we're ever getting off considering I only got to the end of season one. But I've heard that Lost gets better with each season so I am looking forward to it.

That's pretty much what I did. Today, I went back to school and everything hit me. I have some stuff coming up, mostly school stuff but there are some fun things sandwiched in there.

Here is my upcoming schedule:

Thursday, March 25 - Sociology Test, Nutrition Quiz
Sunday, March 28 - Wrestlemania
Tuesday, March 30 - Envy On The Coast new cd (legally) comes out
Tuesday, March 30 - Speech in the afternoon (question of values -- that we got assigned today)
Tuesday, March 30 - (a few hours after the speech) PENDULUM in Atlanta!
Thursday, April 1 - Nutrition Quiz
Friday, April 9 - Paper on Valley is due
Tuesday, April 13 - Self-Evaluation paper in Public Speaking

While all this is going on, I need to be doing interviews for that major paper due on the 9th, working on a photoessay for sociology and trying to secure an internship for the summer.

Now, this is going to sound like I'm complaining but honestly I'm not. Two reasons. 1) I know some students have it way worse than this. 2) As hectic as it is, it means I'm still a student. Sure, I have all these crazy tests and papers coming up, but I still have concerts and events.

I guess I've just been thinking about the future a lot. And as excited as I am, it's starting to scare me just a little bit. Only because just the other day a friend of mine was talking about what he was going to be doing in October. I realized that I have no idea where I will be. Guess it's all part of the adventure, right?

Random Lyric of the Day:

I'm the bloodstain
On your shirt sleeve
Coming down and more are coming to believe
Now we know it all for sure

Make the hair stand
Up on your arm
Teach you how to dance
Inside the funny farm
Not alone, I'll be there
Tell me when you want to go

Wordless Wednesday: (Some) Celebrity Crushes

Zooey Deschanel

Amy Adams

Mila Kunis

Anne Hathaway

Scarlett Johansson

And since the overwhelming majority of my followers are female, here are a few of my man crushes

As defined by urbandictionary.com:

"When a straight man has a "crush" on another man, not sexual but kind of idolizing him.

Many straight men end up having man crushes on Johnny Depp (I don't blame them)."

Johnny Depp (obviously)

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

Anthony Kiedis

I Want to Win/More Reflections

So I'm really late to the party, but I've had a hectic week. You can relate right?

But there is a giveaway going on that ends TOMORROW and you need to do your damndest to get over there and enter. Where you ask? Right here. Get this.... THREE winners and a bunch of random shit, along with some surprises. Head on over to see Smart Ass Sara and tell her Mr O sent you.

Random thoughts before I get into this post:

*We are four episodes away from finishing Heroes but my sister and her husband want to stretch it out. I don't know if I can do one episode a week...

*Speaking of TV, I watched the first episode of the new show Spartacus. If you are my facebook friend you already saw this but my mini review is that it seems some people were like "Let's put Troy, Gladiator, 300 and softcore porn into a pot, stir it up, get some cheesy actors and cheap graphics." You would think I didn't like it, and while I wasn't wowed, I am going to watch the next episode at least.

*Speaking of reviews, I have been slacking on my movie blog. What's crazy is I have at least ten movies to talk about (after this weekend, you can add Alice in Wonderland to the list). But I vow to get it going, so if you haven't started following, you should do that.

*Lastly, after a conversation with jeanette around new year's, I realized I needed to read more. So I looked at my autobiography of Red Hot Chili Pepper's frontman Anthony Keidis, "Scar Tissue," that I had bought but never read. I've read a little bit everyday and I am halfway through. It's amazing.

Let's get to the story.

It was my freshman year in college and I had just wrapped up my third final out of the four I had in the semester. This was on a Saturday (yea, we had a final on Saturday morning) and my next final wasn't until Monday. So I wanted to get out. I asked Hedman if he felt like driving so we came up with a plan to surprise our friends, Myke and Ace Baisa (who we just call "The Baisas" haha). They go to our rival school, the University of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa. It's a little over a two hour drive from Auburn so we sneakily got confirmation that they were there and then we were off.

I lay out the details in the video, but I mumble. Basically my mom put some money in my account as a birthday present so I used that for gas money and we videotaped the walk to the door because they didn't know we were coming. There is some hesitation because we aren't sure what house it is, so bare with that, because their reaction to us randomly showing up was great.





After hanging out for a little while, we decided to go to the mall. And that's when this great picture was taken:


Good times.

Random lyric of the day:

Take me out tonight
take me anywhere, I don't care
I don't care, I don't care
and in the darkened underpass
I thought Oh God, my chance has come at last
but then a strange fear gripped me
and I just couldn't ask

Music Saturday: Red Hot Chili Peppers

Today is the LAST DAY in this week-long set of artists that produced some of my favorite albums -- they just didn't make it into my top 50 for various reasons. Tomorrow starts to the official countdown of my top 50. And that's only on Sundays, so after this post it's back to regular blogging :)

For the longest time, I had the Red Hot Chili Peppers as my favorite band. The only reason they have lost that spot is because as I grew up, I started discovering all different styles of music. However, they still hold a stop in my favorites, top ten for sure.

I was a kid when "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" came out, so I don't really remember much about it. For a while, RHCP was "that band." They were very distinct. But then one summer we were watching MTV and we heard that they had a new video set to come out called "Scar Tissue." I watched it and immediately liked it, as well as "The Other Side." But the song, and video, that captured my love for them was the title track off of "Californication." That video still remains my favorite music video of all time.

A few years later they came out with "By The Way." This was still in my early years of discovering music for the quality, but I really liked it. They had, and still to this day have, a unique sound. They can jam out with the best of them but also know how to slow it down.

When I came to college, two things happened in my Chili Pepper world. "Stadium Arcadium" was released and I got into downloading. I picked up everything by the band, but to be honest, I didn't really feel their early stuff, where they sounded like cracked out rappers. I mean some of it was good, but as a whole, I would say my appreciation began at "Blood Sugar Sex Magik."

For a while, "Stadium Arcadium" was my favorite cd. But then, like I said, I got into different forms of music. However, if this countdown was a top 60, I'm positive RHCP would be in there. I have missed out on opportunities to see them live, but I still hope that I haven't missed out completely.

*Editor's Note: It's a damn shame, but for some reason most of RHCP's videos, the real ones, are embed disabled. So though I would like to break it down by album with videos, I went with this playlist instead. Enjoy.

Allow myself to introduce... myself

So due to the girl's pimping, I have a few new followers. Special thanks to her, but thank you for taking her advice. Now I feel the pressure to be clever and hold your attention. Or maybe I will just keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully you will like it. I will go with plan B.

Also, I am going to check out the other two guys on her post as well as everybody that has just shown up. So I hope you know what you have gotten yourself into. I try to comment a lot. Although there are some people I follow that I have been slacking on, but I will work on that, I promise. This isn't myspace, I'm not just trying to rack up my numbers. I want to actually get to know everybody that clicked "follow" as I have already gotten to know a couple and it has been awesome. With that said, how about you get to know me?

Some of these are repeats from the 10 things post, but hey some people don't wanna go back that far. So let's do this:

*The name Mr. O -- it stands for my initials. Just kinda worked out that way.

*I am on myspace and facebook, not on twitter. I try to keep them separate from this blog, but I have already added a fellow blogger, so if you are down for that, then I am willing.

*I was born in California, but raised in Alabama. How's that for a difference of scenery? The majority of my family still lives in California and the only reason I am still in this state is because I go to college here (Auburn, not that "other" school)

*I have other family in Crestview, Florida. If you read on here, you will see that I go there quite a bit. They are the kind of family that are your best friends as well. They are certainly mine as they have been there for me through numerous occasions. Though our time spent together is mostly hurling insults and vulgarities at one another, we all three (my sister and her husband) have each other's backs.

*I have a lot of real good friends, but through the tests of time only two "best friends" (yes, I am in college and still use that term). They are both on blogger, but only one actually uses it. The user is Jme (how I spell it) and the sorta user is my roommate Frisco. You will hear about both of them. Especially Jme, as she is getting married this winter and I, as a male, will be on her side at the wedding. I love it.

*Music basically runs through my veins. It is a good chance that every post will include music in some capactiy. I listen to all kinds of genres, I jam out on Rock Band, and I have my own college radio show. Hell, the title for this blog comes from a Coldplay song (and album name). Speaking of that you will hear a lot about Taking Back Sunday. So hopefully you are cool with that. And concerts are my crack.

*Other things I am also a fan of include wrestling, football and video games. As far as each one is concerned -- on wrestling, I know it's fake the same way you know movies are fake. I also watch it for the same reason you watch any of your favorite shows. There is action, comedy, drama, twists and good times. Honestly, I have been watching it so long because my Grandpa was watching it the day I was born and I have been hooked ever since. So it's just my thing. As far as football, I rep the orange and blue of both the Auburn Tigers (college) and Denver Broncos (pro). Expect to see a lot of football related posts in the fall. And when it comes to video games, I mostly play Rock Band, but lately I have gotten into the wii. Played with the right people, they are the perfect way to spend a day.

*Things I am not a fan of: wet socks, needles, spiders, smoking and people that walk slow in a crosswalk.

*You may see a lot of posts where I say "I swear I'm not gay" and this is because I have blogged about my man crushes, how I think "Brokeback Mountain" is a really good movie, going to concerts like No Doubt/Paramore and other funny stuff like that but also because I have been described as wearing my heart on my sleeve, which I guess is rare in a male. However, I must say, if it comes off a little homophobic, that is the complete opposite. I just don't want strangers thinking that is the case and then getting confused when I pour my heart about the females in my life. In fact, I support gay rights. Crazy trivia: that is the first time I have ever come out and said that.

*Things I may actually blog about include everything from what I did that day to what is on my mind. I may get personal here and there because I feel it helps. Jme is actually the one that got me started on this as it was a way to help my journalism (my major) style, but I got stuck on this. So even though I plan on starting a separate one, this blog has helped me I think at least find my voice. And as the girl pointed out, I am still testing the boundaries of my honesty. She posts with such raw honesty that it makes me wanna go there one day. And one day, I might. I have also noticed that I talk with parenthesis a lot. I will try to work on that. I also participate in Wordless Wednesday and Flashback Fridays. Oh, and I am bored of this layout. I feel with near 50 posts, I need to spice it up. Look out for that soon.

So that's it, I mean there is probably more, but it will come out as these blogs flow out. With that out of the way, some quick thoughts on my mind:

**Saw Public Enemies tonight. Need to see it again. Got kind of confused a few times. But any movie with Johnny Depp in it is guaranteed to get rated at least three stars before I even step foot in the theater. I gave this one four. But like I said, def need to see it again.

**With all the celebrity deaths going on lately, I think Steve McNair's has been the saddest. He may not be as popular as Micheal Jackson, but he was one hell of a football player. And to be killed, not die due to medical reasons, is what makes it sad. As the details are rolling out, the story is becoming sketchy, but as for right now I am withholding judgment.

**No radio show tomorrow. Have to move some stuff AND left my hard drive in Crestview this weekend. But on the music front, add the new AFI cd to Paramore and The Used that are coming out in September. I can't wait.

**I have been playing out the following cd's: The Sounds - Crossing the Rubicon and Meg and Dia - Here, Here, and Here. Check them both out.

**I played Mario Party on the DS today. Then had a good ol dance party. If the pictures get posted, I shall share. But it was a great afternoon.

That's about it for now. Usually in my posts, I won't talk to my audience so to speak, but like I said, still trying to find my voice. So yea, if you're new and haven't already, or if you clicked "follow" a long time ago but haven't said hi, introduce yourself as well. I'd love to hear from you.

Random lyric of the day:

It's hard to believe
That there's nobody out there
It's hard to believe
That I'm all alone
At least I have her love
The city she loves me
Lonely as I am
Together we cry