I'm Kind of a Big Deal

Not really. I just like to quote Anchorman any chance I get. And love the fact that he was an anchor and I am a journalist. It's kinda sorta similar.

But while on the scene at a wreck today, I was writing down the statement while the TV crews, our competition, were videotaping.

I go on their website to see if I missed anything before I posted what we had as kind of a "double check" thing.

And I see this:

Why they had to get me when I was in the background squinting and such is beyond me...

I have tumbled

There will be more discussion about this later, but I have started a tumblr.

One of the things I want to do on there is a do picture post for every day in October. Anybody have any suggestions of any themes for the days?

http://themroshow.tumblr.com/

One picture = many words

Left to right: myself, Shedrick, Brandon, Derek. Circa 2005ish

I don't know why but I'm thinking about Shedrick a lot lately. I carry him with me on my wrist so it's like I see him everyday. But I think I could just really use him in my life.

I recently talked to Brandon after him moving to Virginia and becoming a ghost. He did what he had to do though and it was good to catch up.

Derek was living in the city I just moved to... and then he left right when I got here. But we still keep in touch and he is a great guy.

I think I want to get these posts out of the way before I do a whole blog-redo and try to get some new people to come on board.

But really, I think I just love this picture. And how simple everything once was.

30 Days of Me: Cryptic Answers

Before we get to today's freestyle post, let's get to some other news:

1) This 30 days thing is almost over. And I have to be honest, this last week doesn't look that exciting. But after it's over there is a tiny window of a break, and then I have something lined up for you guys. I know this blog said cryptic answers, but how about one more thing for you guys to think about?

b) USA's win yesterday against Algeria is a moment I won't forget. Because I was stuck in my cubicle. When I really wanted to chest bump somebody, anybody. It was just so intense that in ONE SECOND we went from being eliminated to winning the group. Bring on Ghana.

III) There have been some good releases lately. I was happy with Eminem's "Recovery," I was not disappointed with Pierce the Veil's "Selfish Machines" and was surprised that I liked Drake's "Thank Me Later."

On to the answers (original post in bold).

1) A status of mine has recently changed.

I am currently in a relationship. To say that it's complicated is an understatement. But for those who are curious, I am happy. My facebook friends don't know because well, I don't want them to. It's facebook.

2) I just made a decision that will impact the rest of my life. Ok, that's too dramatic. It will impact the rest of my 2010.

I'm going to move in with my sister and brother-in-law in South Dakota after I graduate. I'm gonna stay for about 6 months, get a job, put up money and figure out my next move. Keep going west to Cali? Stay in Rapid City? Come back to the South and live in Atlanta? Who knows.

*If you did the math, you would see that 1 & 2 complicate each other. What am I going to do about our relationship in August? As of press time... I don't know.

3) I have witnessed proof of epic events in the past year or so. Today, I take part in my own epic event (and there is a 90% chance I will have proof).

BAM:

I finally met up with a fellow blogger, jeanette. Making matters better? She is one of my favorite. I would say favorite, but I don't want to start any fights. She came through Atlanta and I was like "this is going to happen." Mellow Mushroom Pizza, Twilight hating at Borders and of course musical discussion made for a truly epic night.

(50) Sundays of Music: #28

#28: Senses Fail - Still Searching

File under: Bands that are so great live it makes the music even better.

Actually back track. I was handed the first actual cd "Let It Enfold You" by my girlfriend at the time back in 2004. I liked it and from there I picked up their older EP "From The Depths of Dreams." I found myself getting into a heavy sound that I wasn't into before then. If you remember the Underoath post, sometimes you just gotta get the energy out.

Let's go back to talking about live. I saw these guys at Warped Tour 2005, Taste of Chaos 2006 and Warped Tour 2009. They don't have a crazy mind-inducing type show like a Muse or Coldplay, but they just flat out rock it. The drums are fast and loud and the guitars keep everything going.

I think something else I like about the lead singer is that he actually isn't the greatest there is. His imperfect voice kind of makes the band more appealing.

At one point, I wouldn't have even listed "Still Searching" as one of my favorite cds, let alone in my top 30. But one day I realized it was when my friend put it in and I knew every piece of every song.

I love it because the energy keeps going, but it even has a soft breakdown toward the end. However, it's not a ballad type thing, it's just the music slows down and it really works.

But I will be honest. I don't mean to sound cliche, but this cd speaks to me. Once I started actually listening to it, I realized he was talking about some pretty real stuff. I don't want to go too much into it on this post because I'm just not sure how much I want to discuss but the theme of the cd I can definitely relate to, especially what he is referring to in the sense of "searching."

So I don't expect to get a lot of plays, but here are my favorite tracks from this release:

And from one of my other favorites, "Let it Enfold You"

Oh yea, the guys are pretty cool too:

30 Days of Me: Recent Photo

Today's assignment: a recent photo of yourself. How about as recent as 1 minute ago?

Sorry this picture sucks, I'm not used to doing self-portraits with a webcam. But the main thing to discuss is that it's "casual Friday" at work so I am sporting my USA soccer shirt in anticipation of tomorrow's game with England.

As to why I'm covering my mouth? I don't know, it's early...

30 Days of Me: Old Photo

For today's post, I had to find a pic of me that was from over ten years ago. I'm glad the option was for "over" because I had a lot of old pics but they were on a computer that broke. I fear I have lost them forever.

With that said, this pic was taken about 22 years ago. I love it because that's pretty much how I sleep now -- passed the F out.

30 Days of Me: Photo I Took

*It's 2:30 in the morning. I should not be up. But I'm posting this so hopefully people can see it during the day if they want.

Today's post is a photo we took ourselves. I've never been one of those people that is really great at photography, like some of my excellent bloggers, but I did always like this pic. It was taken at some beach near LA in the summer of 2005. It was just a really good day spent with my family and I feel like I captured things pretty decent here.

At times, this has been used as my desktop background and I think this was about the time I started to fall in love with the beach.

30 Days of Me: Angry Photo

*Today's assignment was to post a photo that makes you angry. You may be asking yourself "what could possibly make you angry at this picture?"

The answer?

My brother-in-law is offering to take a picture with me because he knew I was mad. He knew that this would make things temporarily better because a) he rarely takes pics and b) c'mon, we take a good picture.

But I wasn't pissed at him. I was pissed at my girlfriend.

This was 4th of July weekend. We had all gone down to Crestview, Florida to watch a UFC fight. My girlfriend came with me so we could spend some time together after her moving back home for the summer.

*Before I go on, I have to say if I offend anybody in the following paragraphs, I am truly sorry. This is just my opinion on a subject I have dealt with all my life.

One of the things we started to have disagreements on was her smoking. I can compromise on a lot of things. But if I am going to be in a relationship with you, it is going to be known that I am not going to be a supporter of you smoking. Simple answer? It's nasty. Even more simpler answer? I don't want you to die.

She started off saying that she only smoked when she drank because it made her more drunk. This was a time period when I had only drank like two times (since then, my number has increased by about four or five). I'm not stating a belief; just saying that I didn't understand that logic. But I let it go.

Regardless of how anyone feels about it, I can't hide the fact that smoking bothers me. It has made just about everyone in my family sick and to this day still has control over my sister. So I tried to deal with it and get her to at least not do it around me.

So back to the get together. My sister is outside smoking and the door swings open and I see that my girlfriend has one of my sister's cigarettes. I just couldn't shake the funk I got in after seeing that.

We ended up fighting about it the entire drive home. We actually stopped to eat and I explained to her just how much it meant to me. I thought I had gotten through to her. Little did I know I just sealed my own fate. 4th of July 2008 is the pinpoint date that our relationship fell apart.

We broke up the next month (August) and began a time period of a whirlwind of emotions that would last until the following March when she started dating someone else. I guess you can say there is still debris that we are dealing with now, but it has gotten better.

Looking back, did I over react? Probably. But I can't help but think I had to stick to one of my few beliefs in this world.

And that is the long and complicated story of why a seemingly good picture can bring up so many bad memories and make me "angry."

30 Days of Me: Happy Photo

*Today's post is a "photo that makes you happy." This pictures is Shedrick and I at one of our high school pep rallies. I can't even explain how much fun that was, hopefully the picture kind of shows it.

Wordless Wednesday: My Senior Prom

In a recent post by Allison, she put a prom-themed playlist and showed a picture during her prom, or grad, back when she attended. At the end, she challenged us to share our pictures. Challenge accepted. Let's get ready to travel back 5 years in time.

Most of the guys posing outside

My date and me making our entrance

Stole somebody's glasses for a pic. Thought it elevated me to baller status.

Gettin the party started

w/ Shedrick

Hey, you know her

with my sister

The chick in high school that I always wanted to date, but never got the chance

Frisco. The Man.

Chillin at the "after party"

Looking at these pics brings up a lot of stories. Maybe they will make for some good posts one day...

Top 30 Vocalists: 30-16

So before I get started with the results, allow me to share with you something I thought was pretty cool.

We got our yearbook's yesterday and I normally don't get a yearbook but since I figured this is my last year, what the hell. It also helps that the theme this year was "I Am Auburn" and people joined a facebook group and said what they were with examples being "I am a senior who has no idea what they are doing" or "I am someone who bleeds orange and blue" or "I am addicted to facebook."

Mine was published below:


Mine starts about 11 or 12 lines up. A Fight Club reference and a Taking Back Sunday lyric in the same block? Yea, I went there.

But let's get to the point of this post: the results of the top vocalists feedback.

As you noticed from the title, there was more than ten. That's because you guys gave me names I had forgotten and some names I wouldn't have thought to put there, but since they got so many mentions had to make the list. I have to confess that I was looking for more in the type of genre that I play, so artists like Frank Sinatra and Springsteen didn't make it, but that doesn't mean I don't respect them. Just had a different set to get to.

Right here is where I would post a recording of the show I had on Monday night, which was part 1. But something went haywire and the recording didn't work. I am going to do everything I can to make sure next Monday's show works. I mean, that's the one that counts (15-1), right?

As far as the actual list goes, I had to take off some great names that if there would have been a top 40 definitely would have been on there. Jack White, Chris Cornell, Bert McCracken, Karen O, Gerard Way, John Mayer, Bono, Davey Havok and (very, very sadly) Anthony Keidis were a few names that didn't make the cut. I'm sure I'm going to get some arguments, which is good. I don't consider myself a know-all; just someone with an opinion and this is just mine. So here are numbers 30-16.

30. Brandon Boyd (Incubus)
29. Regina Spektor
28. Combo of Spencer Chamberlain and Aaron Gillespie (Underoath)
27. Andrew McMahon (Something Corporate; Jack's Mannequin)
26. Zooey Deschanel (She & Him)
25. Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie; The Postal Service)
24. Jason Mraz
23. Ryan Hunter (Envy On The Coast)
22. Liam Gallagher (Oasis)
21. Feist
20. Andrew Stockdale (Wolfmother)
19. Dan Layus (Augustana)
18. Anthony Green (Saosin; Circa Survive; Solo work)
17. Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse)
16. Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional)

Special thanks to those that tuned in. I feel you caught a good show. Hopefully, next week's (more important) show will be even better.

Wordless Wednesday: Band of Brothers

*I promise you guys, these are my legit brothers. We just have different dads...

**I thought I had some from when we were little. But I guess they've disappeared :(

***We live in different states (them = Cali, me = Bama) so that's why I have so few pics

My spring break, 2006

Greeting me at the airport after my HS graduation, 2005

Thanksgiving, 2007

Sacramento stop of Warped Tour, 2005

Jammin out when I stopped in Modesto during our cross country road trip, 2009

Raging Waters in LA, 2005

Their graduation (they are twins), 2008

WW (Sort of): Ten Things

So while not entirely wordless and not entirely pictures, it still sort of fits that category. But this post was inspired by a recent offering from Kaylalala at Cinnamon on Toast who was inspired by Lisa at A Day in The Life. These are ten things that are currently making me happy (though "currently" is debatable because most of these are stuff I am looking forward to)

10. Alice in Wonderland - March 5

If you aren't excited for this movie, I don't know what to say. Depp + Burton + classic story + 3D = Effing Magical

9. After trying to find some classic Alice in Wonderland footage from the Disney cartoon, I came across this. And I could not stop laughing.



8. And then when I went to show Frisco that, he in turn showed me this. And I almost cried from laughing so hard.



7. March Madness

I don't know much about college basketball, but it's fun to play in the brackets. And my uncle is a big UNC fan, so that's who I go for.

6. Resistance - The Tiesto Remix (I was a little unsure about this at first, but it has grown on me)



5. Netflix

Netflix has allowed me to watch this season of Heroes with my family in South Dakota over Xbox Live, get started and finish Arrested Development, start 30 Rock and various other movies that I have been meaning to see.

4. Spring Break

Yes, that is a picture of Lost going with my spring break plans. My family has moved and most of my friends have their break at a different time so I will be spending my break playing video games and catching up on shows. And thanks to the above mentioned Netflix, one of those shows will be Lost.

3. Meeting new blogging buddies (and reuniting with old ones)


2. Wrestlemania 26

Don't hate, it's our Superbowl. And it's about a month away.

1. Graduation

Granted, this is the one that is the longest away. But it is the one I am looking forward to the most. The countdown has begun.

Wordless Wednesdays: My Best Friend's Wedding

I got a lot of positive feedback from my last picture post, so I think I am going to try my best to get back into Wordless Wednesdays. Because I like pictures. And you like pictures. I mean, who doesn't like pictures?

So I have shared some pics from my bfff's wedding back in December, but why not go back and look at a few more?

The awesome shoes

I guess weddings turn into high school reunions

I don't know what's going on, but I like it

Hangin out afterward (fyi: that's the groom trying to bite the head of the bride)

Out of all the thousands of pics taken, this is one of my favorites (yes, jme, I stole this from your blog. I hope you don't mind because it just happened)

Picture Post

So I was going to update on my life and speak about random things, but then I just decided not to. If you still want to read some words though, check out what I thought of Monster over at my movie blog.

But for now, I would just like to share some recent pictures. Enjoy.

The test shot. The first picture ever taken with my new camera.

Random trip to Jme's. This is her cooking an awesome chicken/spaghetti hybrid (I know what it's called, but that just sounded cooler)

Her new dog Kami

Rockin out (I was on guitar)

What my last class of the day looks like. Notice how cramped the seats are. Worst idea ever.

Wrestling in Atlanta

Felt like I was watching it in HD

My visual aid for my Patriot speech (Stephen Colbert)

My awesomely delicious Superbowl meal (we like to call it Taco Extravaganza)

Kind of ironic to find a heart when throwing away boxes during Valentine's Day

A behind the scenes look at VDay

And this final picture proves that my best friend is cooler than yours