Ever since the day after New Year's, I had a suspiscion that something was looming over me. Something that was going to be fuck up in my view point of how the year would be. I thought it would something related to my job that would cause me to lose a lot of hours and pay. Or maybe a death in the family. Or some bad physical injury/sickness to me. Luckily for me, I still get the most hours in my job at my area, everyone is healthy, and other than a sinus issue which normal for this time, I feel fine. Hell, I haven't had a full blown case of bronchitis. I thought it was all in my head until I reported for jury duty. And yet, that was my looming feeling was all about. Jury duty. So maybe considering that was probably the first bad thing to happen to me was being picked for a jury. Kind of given me a relief when that was what the feeling was probably all about.
Related note: I have decided I hate jury duty. Ok, that one should be a given. The whole looming thing probably gave that away, but still, I digress.
I got picked for an injury case that was about a guy who fell through a roof and had a severe skull fracture. If the case didn't get settled on Monday in court, the case would still be going on. Even more fun, I was downtown for about 16-17 hours Friday for the case and then went to the United Center to go see Eddie Izzard. That day was a long horrible day (sans Eddie, he was awesome), but I pretty much slept for 12 hours on Saturday to make up for it. And on Monday, we get in, wait for 2 hours, and then are brought into court to find out about the settlement. You know, as much as I hate my job, I was glad to be back there. It was nice not get downtown in that cold weather we had to sit around and do nothing but listen to depositions all day. Plus, they still paid for those days at my job (last time, they find a way to get out of that), so now a I got two days I was supposed to have off as free paid days. Take that for fucking up with all my paid time off requests in 2009!
I got invited to go to Mardi Gras in St Louis for my cousin's party, which I would have loved to go to, but due to a previous engagement, I will not be headed there. My friend bought me a ticket to see Fucked Up on the 13th of February as treat for my birthday (since he knew that most of my other friends usually ditch me for Valentine's day reasons, whether to celebrate it or curse it). Either one I would have gone too would have been a lot of fun, but it will be nice to still be in the area so I don't have to worry about traveling.
Also, I will be seeing Puscifer at the Vic on March 26. That should be a great show to go see.
And in video game aspect, I can not wait for Mass Effect 2. In the mean time, I still play Dragon Age, but I really should back to the first Mass Effect just to get me more excited for that game. I also been digging Demon's Souls (even if the name of the game is really bizarre grammar itself) on PS3. I haven't been using that for anything but a Blu-ray player since Infamous, so it was nice to get some use out of that as a game system.
Related note: I have decided I hate jury duty. Ok, that one should be a given. The whole looming thing probably gave that away, but still, I digress.
I got picked for an injury case that was about a guy who fell through a roof and had a severe skull fracture. If the case didn't get settled on Monday in court, the case would still be going on. Even more fun, I was downtown for about 16-17 hours Friday for the case and then went to the United Center to go see Eddie Izzard. That day was a long horrible day (sans Eddie, he was awesome), but I pretty much slept for 12 hours on Saturday to make up for it. And on Monday, we get in, wait for 2 hours, and then are brought into court to find out about the settlement. You know, as much as I hate my job, I was glad to be back there. It was nice not get downtown in that cold weather we had to sit around and do nothing but listen to depositions all day. Plus, they still paid for those days at my job (last time, they find a way to get out of that), so now a I got two days I was supposed to have off as free paid days. Take that for fucking up with all my paid time off requests in 2009!
I got invited to go to Mardi Gras in St Louis for my cousin's party, which I would have loved to go to, but due to a previous engagement, I will not be headed there. My friend bought me a ticket to see Fucked Up on the 13th of February as treat for my birthday (since he knew that most of my other friends usually ditch me for Valentine's day reasons, whether to celebrate it or curse it). Either one I would have gone too would have been a lot of fun, but it will be nice to still be in the area so I don't have to worry about traveling.
Also, I will be seeing Puscifer at the Vic on March 26. That should be a great show to go see.
And in video game aspect, I can not wait for Mass Effect 2. In the mean time, I still play Dragon Age, but I really should back to the first Mass Effect just to get me more excited for that game. I also been digging Demon's Souls (even if the name of the game is really bizarre grammar itself) on PS3. I haven't been using that for anything but a Blu-ray player since Infamous, so it was nice to get some use out of that as a game system.
Yay for my first post in long time.
Too bad it is nothing important to say. The most of the time was uneventful and dull...sans seeing the Pixies at Aragon Ballroom as well as free food at an SGC event. But here is hoping that maybe the next one will be better. I know I said that for the last few years, but who knows.
On some better news I am going to see Eddie Izzard this Friday at the United Center. I got lucky by scoring a ticket on the main floor 10 rows away from the stage. That should be an excellent way to start off the year. Just sucks the day before I got jury duty downtown. That and the whole realization that my job will be cutting my hours at work causing me to dread the next few months of barely living paycheck to paycheck.
Yee-fucking-haw. I need to stop worrying so much. It really can cause a massive buzzkill to anything you get excited for.
Also, I will be turning 27 next month. I should try to figure out something fun to do for it since every birthday I have had since I turned 21 was pretty much either a casino, strip club, or some bar I don't really care for. And even more fun, the 21st was after some wisdom teeth were pulled. I think Fucked Up is playing around that time at the Empty Bottle. That might be a good way to spend it, though I will not go back there without ear plugs. I saw Shonen Knife there in October and my ears were ringing for 4 days. Got scared that I permanently damaged them. And I am pretty sure Fucked Up would be a little bit more stressful to the ears than Shonen Knife.
But not to make this seemed like a sorrowful one, here is something fun in light of Friday, Eddie Izzard on technology:
Too bad it is nothing important to say. The most of the time was uneventful and dull...sans seeing the Pixies at Aragon Ballroom as well as free food at an SGC event. But here is hoping that maybe the next one will be better. I know I said that for the last few years, but who knows.
On some better news I am going to see Eddie Izzard this Friday at the United Center. I got lucky by scoring a ticket on the main floor 10 rows away from the stage. That should be an excellent way to start off the year. Just sucks the day before I got jury duty downtown. That and the whole realization that my job will be cutting my hours at work causing me to dread the next few months of barely living paycheck to paycheck.
Yee-fucking-haw. I need to stop worrying so much. It really can cause a massive buzzkill to anything you get excited for.
Also, I will be turning 27 next month. I should try to figure out something fun to do for it since every birthday I have had since I turned 21 was pretty much either a casino, strip club, or some bar I don't really care for. And even more fun, the 21st was after some wisdom teeth were pulled. I think Fucked Up is playing around that time at the Empty Bottle. That might be a good way to spend it, though I will not go back there without ear plugs. I saw Shonen Knife there in October and my ears were ringing for 4 days. Got scared that I permanently damaged them. And I am pretty sure Fucked Up would be a little bit more stressful to the ears than Shonen Knife.
But not to make this seemed like a sorrowful one, here is something fun in light of Friday, Eddie Izzard on technology:
Basic breakdown of my weekend of Lollapalooza and Chicago Comic Con:
Friday - Lolla day 1
-Yuto Miyazawa: 9 year old Japanese boy playing mostly Ozzy Osbourne covers. T'was a fun site to see
-Manchester Orchestra: Decent act
-The Gaslight Anthem: Good high energy punk act.
-STS9 - Put them as my least favorite act on that stage, but still good.
-Thievery Corporation: Did not know what to expect and got a great spectacle of various styles of music. Great choice. Also a crazy ecstasy was around grinding and making out with various guys and girls in the audience. We were glad she was gone. She also gave me a hickey. Not proud the situation, but damn proud of the story.
-Depeche Mode: I really enjoyed their performance. One of the best highlights of the night. Up close for them too. No crazy drugged up girl was going to get me to lose my spot
Saturday - Comic Con and Lolla late
-Comic Con: My friends showed up at my house at 7 AM and were waiting for two girls who wanted to go with us to appear. However they overslept and never showed up, but promise to take us us out for dinner and a movie to make up for it. One of my friends, Mikey, dressed up as Deadpool. Because of this, our exploration was pretty slow as he kept posing for pictures. I am sure he also scratched up some walls at the place with his swords. While I only spent less than $100, he spent over $500. Most of it was taking pictures with wrestlers. One of them called Tara even took a picture with him for her Myspace. Also ran into Apexxx, Unaffected, and Darqkloud there as well saw the girls at the SG booth. Other than that, Comic Con didn't seem to be too eventful on my end. Probably cause i was tired from standing in the rain all day yesterday for Depeche Mode made me feel kind of drained and the lack of sleep and getting up early didn't help out with that.
-Rise Against: I knew I was going to see them in Chicago eventually. Nice act to see. Didn't really know what to expect. Felt bad though that I missed the Arctic Monkeys too. Still, enjoyed what I saw.
-Tool: Nice act, but even though I was only at the park for an hour, I really started to feel the heat. Plus being on my feet all day at the con with not much time to sit or eat probably didn't help out either. I did think Maynard said a good point with "The only sucks about playing at this time is I don't get to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Kind of bad scheduling." Also made a witty observation of the smell in the air and the people who decided to get fully naked and start dancing. As much as I would have liked to seen the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I figured it would have been cheaper to see their show in the future than it would to see a Tool show.
Sunday - Lolla Final Day
I almost wanted to sleep in the day, but decided to go earlier so I can see Bat for Lashes Good thing too
-Friendly Fires: Nice fun dance punk act. Was going to go check Ra Ra Riot, but had too much fun here.
- Bat For Lashes: Really enjoyed what I saw here. Good act to see, Also a nice breeze was coming in at this point which helped with the heat and the sun.
-Kaiser Chiefs: Good act, but didn't stay too long as I wanted to go check out the Silversun Pickups signing thingamajig.
--Neko Case: Great act. I got close for it (mostly for the next act), but she was one of the performers I really wanted to see that weekend. She didn't disappoint.
-Lou "Motherfuckin'" Reed: The main reason I was sticking to that north stage all day. Great performance from a legend. Unfortunately, there was some sound check problems which delayed him from starting, so it made me late for the next act I wanted to see. However, I am glad to have been able to see his performance.
-Silversun Pickups: I really like this band, so I was kinda down that missed half of their set due to the delay in Lou Reed's performance, but what I saw was very enjoyable. I will have to check them when they come back to see a full set. Lou was too big for me to miss.
-Jane's Addiction: Conisdering Lou's delay caused Band of Horses to start up later, there was an interesting clashing of the music from two bands in the beginning (due to Jane's having to stick to the 10 PM time limit). Nice surprise with Joe Perry coming out to play with them for Jane Says. Good performance, but paled in comparison with what I saw Friday with Depeche Mode. Though Perry's friend who proposed to his girlfriend on stage gave a nice answer ("Are you fucking kidding?!!!"), so there was a sweet note at the end along with his support for the Chicago 2016 bid for the Olympics.
I also noticed that a lot of the suburbanite kids on the Metra train home came off as douchebags. I also think I was the only one on that train that saw Lou instead of Snoop Dog. But at least I made some new friends amongst the Depeche Mode fans.
Well, that is the jist. Probably filled with spelling errors and bad grammar, but fuck it. I feel like with that I should fit in that I am a greetest and going to bed for no raisin cause typing that made me think of Futurama.
Friday - Lolla day 1
-Yuto Miyazawa: 9 year old Japanese boy playing mostly Ozzy Osbourne covers. T'was a fun site to see
-Manchester Orchestra: Decent act
-The Gaslight Anthem: Good high energy punk act.
-STS9 - Put them as my least favorite act on that stage, but still good.
-Thievery Corporation: Did not know what to expect and got a great spectacle of various styles of music. Great choice. Also a crazy ecstasy was around grinding and making out with various guys and girls in the audience. We were glad she was gone. She also gave me a hickey. Not proud the situation, but damn proud of the story.
-Depeche Mode: I really enjoyed their performance. One of the best highlights of the night. Up close for them too. No crazy drugged up girl was going to get me to lose my spot
Saturday - Comic Con and Lolla late
-Comic Con: My friends showed up at my house at 7 AM and were waiting for two girls who wanted to go with us to appear. However they overslept and never showed up, but promise to take us us out for dinner and a movie to make up for it. One of my friends, Mikey, dressed up as Deadpool. Because of this, our exploration was pretty slow as he kept posing for pictures. I am sure he also scratched up some walls at the place with his swords. While I only spent less than $100, he spent over $500. Most of it was taking pictures with wrestlers. One of them called Tara even took a picture with him for her Myspace. Also ran into Apexxx, Unaffected, and Darqkloud there as well saw the girls at the SG booth. Other than that, Comic Con didn't seem to be too eventful on my end. Probably cause i was tired from standing in the rain all day yesterday for Depeche Mode made me feel kind of drained and the lack of sleep and getting up early didn't help out with that.
-Rise Against: I knew I was going to see them in Chicago eventually. Nice act to see. Didn't really know what to expect. Felt bad though that I missed the Arctic Monkeys too. Still, enjoyed what I saw.
-Tool: Nice act, but even though I was only at the park for an hour, I really started to feel the heat. Plus being on my feet all day at the con with not much time to sit or eat probably didn't help out either. I did think Maynard said a good point with "The only sucks about playing at this time is I don't get to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Kind of bad scheduling." Also made a witty observation of the smell in the air and the people who decided to get fully naked and start dancing. As much as I would have liked to seen the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I figured it would have been cheaper to see their show in the future than it would to see a Tool show.
Sunday - Lolla Final Day
I almost wanted to sleep in the day, but decided to go earlier so I can see Bat for Lashes Good thing too
-Friendly Fires: Nice fun dance punk act. Was going to go check Ra Ra Riot, but had too much fun here.
- Bat For Lashes: Really enjoyed what I saw here. Good act to see, Also a nice breeze was coming in at this point which helped with the heat and the sun.
-Kaiser Chiefs: Good act, but didn't stay too long as I wanted to go check out the Silversun Pickups signing thingamajig.
--Neko Case: Great act. I got close for it (mostly for the next act), but she was one of the performers I really wanted to see that weekend. She didn't disappoint.
-Lou "Motherfuckin'" Reed: The main reason I was sticking to that north stage all day. Great performance from a legend. Unfortunately, there was some sound check problems which delayed him from starting, so it made me late for the next act I wanted to see. However, I am glad to have been able to see his performance.
-Silversun Pickups: I really like this band, so I was kinda down that missed half of their set due to the delay in Lou Reed's performance, but what I saw was very enjoyable. I will have to check them when they come back to see a full set. Lou was too big for me to miss.
-Jane's Addiction: Conisdering Lou's delay caused Band of Horses to start up later, there was an interesting clashing of the music from two bands in the beginning (due to Jane's having to stick to the 10 PM time limit). Nice surprise with Joe Perry coming out to play with them for Jane Says. Good performance, but paled in comparison with what I saw Friday with Depeche Mode. Though Perry's friend who proposed to his girlfriend on stage gave a nice answer ("Are you fucking kidding?!!!"), so there was a sweet note at the end along with his support for the Chicago 2016 bid for the Olympics.
I also noticed that a lot of the suburbanite kids on the Metra train home came off as douchebags. I also think I was the only one on that train that saw Lou instead of Snoop Dog. But at least I made some new friends amongst the Depeche Mode fans.
Well, that is the jist. Probably filled with spelling errors and bad grammar, but fuck it. I feel like with that I should fit in that I am a greetest and going to bed for no raisin cause typing that made me think of Futurama.
Going to Pitchfork today. Getting excited to see Matt and Kim as well as Fucked Up. Only going to today's show though, so I missed out yesterday with the Jesus Lizard and will miss tomorrow with Flaming Lips (which that sold out really fast). This should be a fun night, however, how weird is it that in July, I will be bringing a hoodie to an outdoor concert? Usually it is in the high 80's with some humidity, but it might not even break 70 today. Really bizarre weather going on here these days, I tell ya.
The next two weeks should prove to be interesting for me. I go from having 1 or 2 morning shits, to all morning shifts, to now having shifts that start at 4 AM. I haven't work that in a few years, so we shall see how my awful sleeping habits will adjust to that.
The next two weeks should prove to be interesting for me. I go from having 1 or 2 morning shits, to all morning shifts, to now having shifts that start at 4 AM. I haven't work that in a few years, so we shall see how my awful sleeping habits will adjust to that.
I saw Ladytron and The Faint on April 4. Good times. Ladytron was great and The Faint was a fun new experience (I was there for Ladytron, so I decided to stay for them and it was worth it). Also saw Freezepop the following Wednesday and had a fun time there as well.
Last Saturday, I went out with my friends to a club that was holding a drinking special ($35 for 10 topshelf liquor drinks for 3 hours). Did not take advantage of it and kinda glad that I didn't. I did like the place. I never really been to nightclub before, but the place gave me the vibe that it was a strip club....sans the strippers. Hell, they even had a weird video of silhouette girls dancing together and taking off their clothes there and I am sure I seen that at a strip club before. Plus, everyone seem to have fancier designer clothes and here I was standing in jeans, a cheap shirt, and gym shoes (I had to do a bit of walking, I am not walking in nice shoes just for a night club if I had to take the train downtown).
Ending up splitting up with them as some of them went to college party and I met up with some people SGChicago at the Hungry Brain. Meet some new people and had a good time for the short time I was there. They had to take care of a drunk girl. And I don't mean "need a ride home" kind of way. More so of "oh shit" kind of way. I think I won in that situation.
Last Saturday, I went out with my friends to a club that was holding a drinking special ($35 for 10 topshelf liquor drinks for 3 hours). Did not take advantage of it and kinda glad that I didn't. I did like the place. I never really been to nightclub before, but the place gave me the vibe that it was a strip club....sans the strippers. Hell, they even had a weird video of silhouette girls dancing together and taking off their clothes there and I am sure I seen that at a strip club before. Plus, everyone seem to have fancier designer clothes and here I was standing in jeans, a cheap shirt, and gym shoes (I had to do a bit of walking, I am not walking in nice shoes just for a night club if I had to take the train downtown).
Ending up splitting up with them as some of them went to college party and I met up with some people SGChicago at the Hungry Brain. Meet some new people and had a good time for the short time I was there. They had to take care of a drunk girl. And I don't mean "need a ride home" kind of way. More so of "oh shit" kind of way. I think I won in that situation.
I am just really posting this here after only getting 7 hits after three weeks. Ah to be so young and naive to thing I could try to get a job in this field.
Granted that I still haven't. I try to think to give up and find another field, but at the same time, I think what I would be like working at a office or construction or military and think to myself "eh, I think I rather try some more."
A friend in Toronto said she has a friend doing contract work up there, but I am not fully sure on her abilities of helping since it took her a week to find the link I sent here in a PM on a website (note, standard phpBB style forum), so that might take a while. Anyhow, I will continue to press for work. And Blizzard and Bioware as my whole "never will happen, but would be really fucking awesome if it did" pipedreams.
I swear I am not dead. Also, I do check this site a lot. I just have nothing interesting to report lately.
So anyways, my birthday is less than a month. Lets see if I can figure out something to do for it.
So anyways, my birthday is less than a month. Lets see if I can figure out something to do for it.
So I went to Subterranean to go see Dr. Manhattan and Does It Offend You Yeah today.
Right next to my old internship too (which was located in a loft apartment). I wonder if they are still there.
Anyhow, Dr, Manhattan (and I do appreciate the Watchmen reference with the name) was ok, but I was really there for Does It Offend You Yeah, who was, despite some sound issues for a couple of songs with mainly Morgan's guitar, put on a damn good show. Plus, considering the small venue, I got to meet them too. Really awesome guys and they signed the back of my flyer for their DJ after party.
In other news, my friend is trying to pursue for me to get me a job at the company he works at. It will involve me doing 3D CAD work which I have no experience with, but with how he described the methods of creating the models, it doesn't seem different from what I have been doing before....or should I say tried to do before. I hope I do get it as I am sick living off paycheck to paycheck. I want to be able to actually save up money for once....to earn a salary instead of a wage...to actually get a shot to move downtown Chicago instead of the boring suburbs. Wish me luck on that...though I know he will try to pursue it due to the fact he gets a nice bonus for recommendations and wants to buy a PS3 and a sweet statue of Batman fighting the Joker he saw at the comic book store.
Right next to my old internship too (which was located in a loft apartment). I wonder if they are still there.
Anyhow, Dr, Manhattan (and I do appreciate the Watchmen reference with the name) was ok, but I was really there for Does It Offend You Yeah, who was, despite some sound issues for a couple of songs with mainly Morgan's guitar, put on a damn good show. Plus, considering the small venue, I got to meet them too. Really awesome guys and they signed the back of my flyer for their DJ after party.
In other news, my friend is trying to pursue for me to get me a job at the company he works at. It will involve me doing 3D CAD work which I have no experience with, but with how he described the methods of creating the models, it doesn't seem different from what I have been doing before....or should I say tried to do before. I hope I do get it as I am sick living off paycheck to paycheck. I want to be able to actually save up money for once....to earn a salary instead of a wage...to actually get a shot to move downtown Chicago instead of the boring suburbs. Wish me luck on that...though I know he will try to pursue it due to the fact he gets a nice bonus for recommendations and wants to buy a PS3 and a sweet statue of Batman fighting the Joker he saw at the comic book store.
I uploaded some of the pics from my phone. Not much though. Mainly cause a lot of them are not that great or almost repeat shots. I will probably put more up later tonight. But as for who I saw at Lollapalooza, here is the list:
Friday:
Gogol Bordello
Recantours (didn't stay for too long for them because I was really far back for them)
CSS (randomly checked them out while heading back for Radiohead and thought they were entertaining)
Radiohead
Saturday:
Witchcraft
Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Dierks Bentley (didn't stay too long for it though)
MGMT (was pretty close, but to the side so I couldn't hear them until I decided to go sit near the baseball field)
Serena Ryder
The Toadies
Rage Against the Machine
Sunday:
That day I went with friends and our goal was to see NIN, so we stayed by the Bud Light stage, but because we got some good spots, we decided to just stick around. On another note, I really didn't like Iron and Wine. Probably so many people kept blowing pot smoke in my face. I did hear Flogging Molly's set (which was pretty damn good), but I only really saw John Butler Trio, half of Iron and Wine, Love and Rockets. Of course, that whole night was meant for just NIN and they didn't disappoint. Not going to lie though, I kinda did wish I saw Blue's Traveller and Saul Williams, but like I said, I got a good standing spot.
On other notes, I got MGMT and (a second copy of) The Toadies CD signed. I also like how nobody remember who The Toadies are at my place of work. Or my circle of friends (except for the girl I went to see NIN with who was pissed when I told her that as she loves them).
Friday:
Gogol Bordello
Recantours (didn't stay for too long for them because I was really far back for them)
CSS (randomly checked them out while heading back for Radiohead and thought they were entertaining)
Radiohead
Saturday:
Witchcraft
Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Dierks Bentley (didn't stay too long for it though)
MGMT (was pretty close, but to the side so I couldn't hear them until I decided to go sit near the baseball field)
Serena Ryder
The Toadies
Rage Against the Machine
Sunday:
That day I went with friends and our goal was to see NIN, so we stayed by the Bud Light stage, but because we got some good spots, we decided to just stick around. On another note, I really didn't like Iron and Wine. Probably so many people kept blowing pot smoke in my face. I did hear Flogging Molly's set (which was pretty damn good), but I only really saw John Butler Trio, half of Iron and Wine, Love and Rockets. Of course, that whole night was meant for just NIN and they didn't disappoint. Not going to lie though, I kinda did wish I saw Blue's Traveller and Saul Williams, but like I said, I got a good standing spot.
On other notes, I got MGMT and (a second copy of) The Toadies CD signed. I also like how nobody remember who The Toadies are at my place of work. Or my circle of friends (except for the girl I went to see NIN with who was pissed when I told her that as she loves them).
Iphone's camera sucks for concert pics. Then again, it is a cell phone, shouldn't expect much I guess.
I will update sooner or later with Lollapalooza stuff and pics, but right now I am fucking tired. Fun great weekend, but also exhausting.
I will update sooner or later with Lollapalooza stuff and pics, but right now I am fucking tired. Fun great weekend, but also exhausting.
