Hello SG. It has been awhile.

I hate the feeling of un-inspiration (yeah, not a word, so fuck you for pointing that out) I have been feeling for a while.

But this year, I swear to be better with my money and take some drafting design and CAD classes to expand my horizons. And maybe a refresher in animation as well. I have been out of practice on the latter for way to long.

Although I do find some of the stupidity of the suburbs amusing at times to take away that feeling though I described. Like that someone stole a faucet out of the employee men's restroom. Why? I don't know. They didn't even bother to take the cartridge that make the faucet actually work underneath.

Simple things, I tell you. Simple things.

So over the weekend, I went to go see Robyn in concert at the Metro. Yeah, not really fitting to my style of music, but what can I say. I like her style. She did put on a great show. Related note, I am pretty sure I was the only straight guy who went there without a girl. And 80% of the audience was male. I was thinking that would be easy way to hit on the girls. They didn't take my advances seriously or looked away when I said I was straight. C'est la vie, I suppose.

Work is....well....work. Nothing really new to report...probably won't be until January when my hours will be cut (again).

And so begins another wonderful holiday season in retail. This weekend they start with the Christmas music, so I get to hear that Mariah Carey song twice a day, 3 renditions of "Last Christmas," and 5 of the little drummer boy. But I will at least start getting back to a more normal and set schedule. And I will be getting most of the weekends off from what I heard as they want me to basically be weekday mornings, though that can be the craziest time to work.

I will be determined to make this my last holiday to work in retail...or at least at this job. Doesn't pay enough and I would like to find something better. So here is hoping.

Life Update:

July

Not much happened that month except that I went to Pitchfork on its second day. Wolf Parade and LCD Soundsystem were amazing. Shame that might be LCD's last time in Chicago.

August:

August was more active. Went all three days of Lollapalooze and an "after show" (though considering the show was the day before, hard to really call it an aftershow). The "after show" was The New Pornographers. It was my first time seeing them live (though I did see Neko last year at Lolla) and they didn't disappoint. Really good show. As for the rest of the days, I got a total of 27 bands to make my money worth spend (and didn't care to get up close to any of the bands). Best band for me was Arcade Fire. Other great acts included Devo, Dragonette, The Dodos, Felix da Housecat, Metric, and Social Distortion. I heard Warpaint was really good, but missed them. Didn't think I would have really enjoyed the festival, but turned out to be a really good one. Had a lot that whole weekend. Also went to Wizard World, but had very little money to spend there. Some the girls at the SG booth and watched my friends get pictures with some wrestlers and John Scheinder,

But I had a good reason that I didn't have much money. I bought myself a new iMac. Well, actually it isn't really new. It was a refurb that was $500 less than it was priced before the new ones were. And since my laptop was out of warranty, I decided a new computer would be a good idea, though since I never brought my laptop anywhere, look into an iMac instead of a new laptop. Even better, there turned out to be a 2 TB hard drive in this new machine instead of the advertised 1 TB. *insert your "that is a lot of porn" joke here*

School starts soon, so that means work will quiet down for a couple of weeks. Then shit will hit the fan with all the Christmas crap we will be getting. Not fun hanging winter coats when it humid in the non-air conditioned stock room.

So this pretty much is 5 years since I graduated from college...and I still work the same shitty job, living at home with in the burbs, etc.

Granted, I am happy that I am working (can't count how many of my friends were laid off), it just kind of depresses me I never was able to get out and make a name or stake for myself. I am looking into getting a grant to go back to school. Hopefully that will lead somewhere. If I can't the community college should be cheap enough to take some classes as "refresher courses." But I do feel like I am overstaying my welcome at home (granted I am good for doing some work around the house, fix some tech problems, and show them how use a cell phone). It is sad that when you joke that "if all else fails, there still is the military" starts becoming a serious consideration. Well, with the degree, I should get a bonus killing my debt no problem.

C'est la vie, as they say. I think I have been overusing that phrase lately.

In the meantime, I decided to grow a beard in the spirit of the Blackhawks in the playoffs and I can't wait for the series to end. I feel like I look a trimmed form of Zach Galifianakis...though my friend told me to try that on a really drunk girl at a bar (sure, it might work, but I am not that type of person). I do plan on going to Pitchfork this year for Modest Mouse, LCD Soundsystem, and St. Vincent mostly. Lolla....not sure. There are a lot of bands I want to see, but would it be worth it to go all three days? Especially since I am not too big on the headliners (sans Arcade Fire)? Not sure. I still got time to figure that out.

Not much going on here these days. Which helps explains the lack of updates.

I did see Fucked Up around my birthday and Puscifer last week. And I will say that Puscifer was a very bizarre (in a funny) show. Very entertaining.

I also decided I will be going back to take some classes. Learn more graphic design stuff that I never learned in college to see if that will expand my horizons on the job market (I only picked up some basic Illustrator stuff, mild Flash, and I don't even know what the fuck Quark is). Also take up a refresher course in 3D as well as I don't want to give up that dream. Other than that and looking for second job, same old same old.

But, nonetheless, I am cautiously optimistic these days. Well, when I am not at my job. That is still a hellhole, but at least I feel much at this point of the year compared to last year.

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.

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:

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.