My cell phone broke the other day. I don't mean it stopped working, I mean it broke. Physically. I have a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone. The design is a one piece, with a flip down cover. The cover is only over the keys (natch), but also doubles as the control for the Walkman. It is very thin, and if you're not careful, it will fall the hell apart when you open it. Seriously, it just, like disintegrated in my hands.
Not only did it come off, but it broke into pieces. One of the hinges is extremely important as it, well, acts as a hinge, but also sends the signal to the phone that the cover is open or closed. Kinda like the button in your fridge that registers the open door so the light will come on. Anyway, this hinge is now gone. So the phone is always open and I can't use the Walkman function, not that it ever really worked anyway. Worse, since there's no cover, there's no way to lock the keys and I'm pocket dialing. So the phone is pretty much useless, and the warranty is questionable. Wear and tear and whatnot.
Fortunately I still have my old phone. It's seriously out of date, but it works and it'll do for a while. Being on the in-laws family plan, I might be able to switch come spring, so we'll see. Thanks to Elizabeth for advice on switching the phones, and thanks in advance to my mother in law, Janet, for getting the warranty info tomorrow.
So what else?
The T.V. in our living room broke as well. The power does not come on to the television. In the past I'd have looked into fixing it, but I think we spent like 80 bucks tops on it, and it'd probably just about even out. So we're moving the television from our bedroom down. It's bigger than the previous one and really pops out in the room. We'd always said no television in that room, but things change. Now there's no television in our bedroom, but we probably don't really need it anyway, and it sets a good precedent so we don't have to give one to Tessa someday. Of course, by then she'll watch T.V. on her phone or it'll beam straight into your head or something like that, but whatever.
As far as the sleep goes, I suppose it's been getting better. I am still waking up at weird hours, but I seem to be staying in bed, so that's good. Thanks to everyone who asked.
And that's pretty much been this week.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Sleep
I remember sleep. Seemed to enjoy it at the time.
I have not officially slept through the night for weeks. I know other insomniacs aren't impressed, but stick with me here.
Used to be my insomnia was the standard type like my brother has, where you just can't fall asleep (and to his credit, his is much worse than mine). It comes and goes too, so there's hope. Lately, however, it's changed. I do still stay up late not being tired, but I've also started waking up a lot during the night. Sometimes for an hour or so at a time, sometimes for about 10-15 minutes, multiple times a night. I've never done that before.
I've also become a light sleeper, which is weird because I used to be able to sleep through almost anything. Probably that's just because I'm a dad now and you learn to keep one ear out for your child. Tessa is waking up a few times a night herself because she's teething, but that's a quick fix, you just go in and rub her back for a few minutes and she calms down and goes back to sleep.
Okay, so nothing too far out of the ordinary yet, but dig this. Friday night we awoke around 2:30 to a dog barking outside. Kinda sounded like Jake. I sat up and thought I saw him in the closet, but that was just a pile of clothes. He was outside. But here's the thing, he wasn't when I went to bed. Valerie doesn't let him out overnight, that's become my job. So apparently I got the dog up, went downstairs, let him out, locked the door and went back to bed without being aware of it.
And just last night I woke up in the bathroom. I mean I had to go so it was well timed, but I didn't remember going in. Had a book and everything. So logically there's only two explanations. Either I've been drunk (which isn't likely as there's currently no alcohol in the house), or I'm sleepwalking. Again.
I had a brief period of sleepwalking as a child. I remember waking up in the living room a few times. And then there's the story my mom used to tell. She awoke to find me in the master bathroom adjoining my parent's bedroom. I was busy emptying a full tube of toothpaste into the sink. Mom quite rightly asked me what the hell I was doing. I chuckled at her (as though she were the weird one) and explained that I was looking for a place to put the mayonnaise. And then I went back to bed.
So yeah, I'm not having the best nights here lately. I'm going to try to get to sleep early tonight. Who knows, I might have some sort of Grand Adventure tonight, maybe I should rest up for it.
I have not officially slept through the night for weeks. I know other insomniacs aren't impressed, but stick with me here.
Used to be my insomnia was the standard type like my brother has, where you just can't fall asleep (and to his credit, his is much worse than mine). It comes and goes too, so there's hope. Lately, however, it's changed. I do still stay up late not being tired, but I've also started waking up a lot during the night. Sometimes for an hour or so at a time, sometimes for about 10-15 minutes, multiple times a night. I've never done that before.
I've also become a light sleeper, which is weird because I used to be able to sleep through almost anything. Probably that's just because I'm a dad now and you learn to keep one ear out for your child. Tessa is waking up a few times a night herself because she's teething, but that's a quick fix, you just go in and rub her back for a few minutes and she calms down and goes back to sleep.
Okay, so nothing too far out of the ordinary yet, but dig this. Friday night we awoke around 2:30 to a dog barking outside. Kinda sounded like Jake. I sat up and thought I saw him in the closet, but that was just a pile of clothes. He was outside. But here's the thing, he wasn't when I went to bed. Valerie doesn't let him out overnight, that's become my job. So apparently I got the dog up, went downstairs, let him out, locked the door and went back to bed without being aware of it.
And just last night I woke up in the bathroom. I mean I had to go so it was well timed, but I didn't remember going in. Had a book and everything. So logically there's only two explanations. Either I've been drunk (which isn't likely as there's currently no alcohol in the house), or I'm sleepwalking. Again.
I had a brief period of sleepwalking as a child. I remember waking up in the living room a few times. And then there's the story my mom used to tell. She awoke to find me in the master bathroom adjoining my parent's bedroom. I was busy emptying a full tube of toothpaste into the sink. Mom quite rightly asked me what the hell I was doing. I chuckled at her (as though she were the weird one) and explained that I was looking for a place to put the mayonnaise. And then I went back to bed.
So yeah, I'm not having the best nights here lately. I'm going to try to get to sleep early tonight. Who knows, I might have some sort of Grand Adventure tonight, maybe I should rest up for it.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Music One Liners
I haven't really been able to come up with a good blog topic this week, so here's a bunch of one-liners about music and musicians. You don't necessarily need to be a musician to get these, there should still be a few chuckles for you. Here goes.
What do you call someone who hangs out with musicians?
A drummer.
What do you call a guitarist without a girlfriend?
Homeless.
What's the difference between a harmonica player walking down the street and a duck in a taxi cab?
The duck's probably on the way to a gig.
What has 9 arms and sucks?
Def Leppard.*
How do you get two piccolo players to play in perfect unison?
Shoot one.
What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle?
Who cares, neither one is a guitar.
How can you tell the stage is level?
The bass player is drooling out of both sides of his mouth.
How many bass players does it take to change a light bulb?
Two, one to do it and one to show him how Entwhistle would have done it.
How many guitar players does it take to change a light bulb?
None, they just steal someone else's light.
What do you say to a drummer in a 3 piece suit?
"Will the defendant please rise..."
What's another name for a gay toilet?
Elton John.
Ever hear the one about the guitar player who was in tune?
Me neither.
What do you throw your bass player if he's drowning?
His amp.
Why are so many musician jokes one liners?
So the musicians can understand them.
How many guitar players does it take to cover a Stevie Ray Vaughn song?
Apparently all of them.
What does a stripper do with her asshole before she goes to work?
Drops him off at band practice.
Did you hear about the keyboard player who hooked up with the hottest chick at the gig?
Of course not, it never happened.
And finally, my favorite...
What did the Grateful Dead fan say when he ran out of weed?
"Man, this music sucks."
I'll do something more relateable next time. Or at least more accessible jokes.
Cheers!
*Actually, as a child of the 80's I like Def Lep, but that's a good one.
What do you call someone who hangs out with musicians?
A drummer.
What do you call a guitarist without a girlfriend?
Homeless.
What's the difference between a harmonica player walking down the street and a duck in a taxi cab?
The duck's probably on the way to a gig.
What has 9 arms and sucks?
Def Leppard.*
How do you get two piccolo players to play in perfect unison?
Shoot one.
What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle?
Who cares, neither one is a guitar.
How can you tell the stage is level?
The bass player is drooling out of both sides of his mouth.
How many bass players does it take to change a light bulb?
Two, one to do it and one to show him how Entwhistle would have done it.
How many guitar players does it take to change a light bulb?
None, they just steal someone else's light.
What do you say to a drummer in a 3 piece suit?
"Will the defendant please rise..."
What's another name for a gay toilet?
Elton John.
Ever hear the one about the guitar player who was in tune?
Me neither.
What do you throw your bass player if he's drowning?
His amp.
Why are so many musician jokes one liners?
So the musicians can understand them.
How many guitar players does it take to cover a Stevie Ray Vaughn song?
Apparently all of them.
What does a stripper do with her asshole before she goes to work?
Drops him off at band practice.
Did you hear about the keyboard player who hooked up with the hottest chick at the gig?
Of course not, it never happened.
And finally, my favorite...
What did the Grateful Dead fan say when he ran out of weed?
"Man, this music sucks."
I'll do something more relateable next time. Or at least more accessible jokes.
Cheers!
*Actually, as a child of the 80's I like Def Lep, but that's a good one.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Dave's Super Excited List
Here's a list of some stuff I'm super excited about these days:
1. Farm Aid
For those who have been living under a rock, Farm Aid is in St. Louis this year at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. My brother and I are taking our father for his birthday. We got our tickets first day, and it's a good thing too because last I heard there are only individual seats left in the seating section, everything else is on the lawn. We are sitting in the upper right corner of seats, and though certainly not close, it's better than being on the lawn all day.
I'm super excited about this show for a few reasons. First of all, how often do you get to see Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp on the same bill? Wilco has also been added to the line-up, with more artists T.B.A. There are usually about 20 artists on the bill, which is cool because even if half of them suck (Dave Matthews anyone?) you're still getting a lot of music for your money. Now, this does mean that most of the sets will be short, say 20-45 minutes but that's okay, it should still be fun.
Also, I believe in the cause. I'm not necessarily against factory farms, but I do feel that we should help out the family farmer. As Charlie Daniels once sang, "He's the American Farmer/And he's damn hard to beat/You better wake up America/'Cause if the man don't work the people don't eat." Farmers deserve to sell their crops for a fair market price, and deserve a little help when the crops fail due to a bad year. The main sponsor of the show is Horizon Organic Foods, who not only use family farms and pay a fair price, they also have higher safety and environmental standards than factory farms do. And you thought the organic thing was just for health nuts. So not only do I get a good show, I help out some good people too. It's a win-win.
2. Man v. Food Season Two
My favorite show and my t.v. hero Adam Richman are back beginning Wednesday night August 5th. Yay! Food, it ain't your day.
3. Motorheat
Two of my favorite rock bands, Motorhead and Reverend Horton Heat, are touring together this year. Miraculously enough, St. Louis is actually getting this show. You see, this is the type of ultra cool show that normally skips us in favor of Chicago or Kansas City. St. Louis is often deemed not hip enough (by promoters) to get awesome stuff like this. Two legendary(if fairly underground) rock bands, one night. My face is already in pain just to train for how much it's going to get rocked Sept. 23rd.
4. Watchmen
Just saw the Watchmen DVD and I really liked it. I was a bit concerned as I haven't read the graphic novel and had heard from several sources that I would probably get lost. Well, no worries there, I had no problem following it. Valerie could follow it as well, and she was sewing at the time.
So anyway, I thought overall the movie was really well done. It looks absolutely fantastic, and moves quickly. It also rewards you for paying attention, which I love. I don't like it when movies require I turn off my brain to enjoy them (well, unless it's a silly B movie with big dumb rubber monsters or something like that), and Watchmen is just the opposite. Now, that doesn't mean it's perfect. I did see most of the reveals coming a mile away, and some of the casting choices didn't really do it for me. I also could've done without Dr. Manhattan's wang. However, the themes of violence (of which there is much, and it's graphic to boot), justice, political and personal power, psychosis and the nature of time and humankind make for a rich experience.
Even at 3 plus hours, they had to leave stuff out that was in the original comic (it's a big one folks), and they changed the ending for the film too. So now I'm looking to read the original piece and see what all I've missed. Anybody feeling generous can send me a copy. Okay, I didn't really expect that to work, but it's worth a shot.
5. Blue Tattoo
My band is currently recording a bunch of songs for our next project. The form isn't totally decided yet, but it'll probably be a self released CD with 11-14 songs, and I'm sure we'll do something digital on our website as well but we haven't really talked about that yet. So far we've got about 5 or 6 songs in the can minus backing vocals, and have scratch/drum tracks for more. Hopefully we'll get the recording part done in another three or four weeks and then we can start approaching clubs again. We haven't had much luck in the clubs as of yet, but if we can get a little more disciplined and really attack it, I think we'll be successful. A few weeks ago I was feeling kinda down about it all, but here lately I've started to get a lot more excited about the whole thing again. There will be more news soon...watch this space.
6. The Happy Dance
Apparently Valerie and Tessa have their own happy dance they did earlier tonight (8/4/09). It was a happy dance. In the potty. I missed it. I'm not sure what's involved, but I'm already fascinated. The story I got was that Tessa peed in the potty (accidentally, but she did it), and she was so proud of herself, as was Valerie, that a dance broke out. Now don't get too excited, she's too young for potty training to stick, but that doesn't mean we can't dance about it. Perhaps we do the dance of joy as taught to us by Balke from Mepos. Or maybe we do the Time Warp. The Funky Chicken? The Thriller dance? There's so many to choose from!!!
Anyway...
There's your list of what's keeping me excited and entertained lately. Actually there's other stuff too. but I thought these were the most interesting. At least I hope it's interesting. Otherwise, I've wasted your time dear reader, which you probably find quite boring. But either way I'm still entertained. So there.
1. Farm Aid
For those who have been living under a rock, Farm Aid is in St. Louis this year at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. My brother and I are taking our father for his birthday. We got our tickets first day, and it's a good thing too because last I heard there are only individual seats left in the seating section, everything else is on the lawn. We are sitting in the upper right corner of seats, and though certainly not close, it's better than being on the lawn all day.
I'm super excited about this show for a few reasons. First of all, how often do you get to see Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp on the same bill? Wilco has also been added to the line-up, with more artists T.B.A. There are usually about 20 artists on the bill, which is cool because even if half of them suck (Dave Matthews anyone?) you're still getting a lot of music for your money. Now, this does mean that most of the sets will be short, say 20-45 minutes but that's okay, it should still be fun.
Also, I believe in the cause. I'm not necessarily against factory farms, but I do feel that we should help out the family farmer. As Charlie Daniels once sang, "He's the American Farmer/And he's damn hard to beat/You better wake up America/'Cause if the man don't work the people don't eat." Farmers deserve to sell their crops for a fair market price, and deserve a little help when the crops fail due to a bad year. The main sponsor of the show is Horizon Organic Foods, who not only use family farms and pay a fair price, they also have higher safety and environmental standards than factory farms do. And you thought the organic thing was just for health nuts. So not only do I get a good show, I help out some good people too. It's a win-win.
2. Man v. Food Season Two
My favorite show and my t.v. hero Adam Richman are back beginning Wednesday night August 5th. Yay! Food, it ain't your day.
3. Motorheat
Two of my favorite rock bands, Motorhead and Reverend Horton Heat, are touring together this year. Miraculously enough, St. Louis is actually getting this show. You see, this is the type of ultra cool show that normally skips us in favor of Chicago or Kansas City. St. Louis is often deemed not hip enough (by promoters) to get awesome stuff like this. Two legendary(if fairly underground) rock bands, one night. My face is already in pain just to train for how much it's going to get rocked Sept. 23rd.
4. Watchmen
Just saw the Watchmen DVD and I really liked it. I was a bit concerned as I haven't read the graphic novel and had heard from several sources that I would probably get lost. Well, no worries there, I had no problem following it. Valerie could follow it as well, and she was sewing at the time.
So anyway, I thought overall the movie was really well done. It looks absolutely fantastic, and moves quickly. It also rewards you for paying attention, which I love. I don't like it when movies require I turn off my brain to enjoy them (well, unless it's a silly B movie with big dumb rubber monsters or something like that), and Watchmen is just the opposite. Now, that doesn't mean it's perfect. I did see most of the reveals coming a mile away, and some of the casting choices didn't really do it for me. I also could've done without Dr. Manhattan's wang. However, the themes of violence (of which there is much, and it's graphic to boot), justice, political and personal power, psychosis and the nature of time and humankind make for a rich experience.
Even at 3 plus hours, they had to leave stuff out that was in the original comic (it's a big one folks), and they changed the ending for the film too. So now I'm looking to read the original piece and see what all I've missed. Anybody feeling generous can send me a copy. Okay, I didn't really expect that to work, but it's worth a shot.
5. Blue Tattoo
My band is currently recording a bunch of songs for our next project. The form isn't totally decided yet, but it'll probably be a self released CD with 11-14 songs, and I'm sure we'll do something digital on our website as well but we haven't really talked about that yet. So far we've got about 5 or 6 songs in the can minus backing vocals, and have scratch/drum tracks for more. Hopefully we'll get the recording part done in another three or four weeks and then we can start approaching clubs again. We haven't had much luck in the clubs as of yet, but if we can get a little more disciplined and really attack it, I think we'll be successful. A few weeks ago I was feeling kinda down about it all, but here lately I've started to get a lot more excited about the whole thing again. There will be more news soon...watch this space.
6. The Happy Dance
Apparently Valerie and Tessa have their own happy dance they did earlier tonight (8/4/09). It was a happy dance. In the potty. I missed it. I'm not sure what's involved, but I'm already fascinated. The story I got was that Tessa peed in the potty (accidentally, but she did it), and she was so proud of herself, as was Valerie, that a dance broke out. Now don't get too excited, she's too young for potty training to stick, but that doesn't mean we can't dance about it. Perhaps we do the dance of joy as taught to us by Balke from Mepos. Or maybe we do the Time Warp. The Funky Chicken? The Thriller dance? There's so many to choose from!!!
Anyway...
There's your list of what's keeping me excited and entertained lately. Actually there's other stuff too. but I thought these were the most interesting. At least I hope it's interesting. Otherwise, I've wasted your time dear reader, which you probably find quite boring. But either way I'm still entertained. So there.
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