The Lotus Eater

Well I've been thinking about what equipment I would like to buy and in what order I'd like to try to get it. This is a list of that.

First, I wanna get my Mesa 4x12 Oversized cab. This will be about $940. I'm in dire need of a decent cab and I figured, why settle for something shitty when I'm going to want to upgrade to this in the future anyways?

Second, I wanna get a bit of rack gear. I obviously need to buy a rack first, which will probably be a 4 or 6 space one, unless I get one that is made into a road case for a head, which I might do, I'm just not sure yet, because you have to order road cases based on the dimensions of the head or whatever is in them, and I'm not sure which head I want to get later on. But anyways, I want to get a rack tuner, Korg preferably, but I will probably get a Behringer one or something. If I don't get a rack tuner, I might just get another one of the Boss pedal tuners.

Third, I want to get a BBE Sonic Maximizer to put into my rack, just because they make your setup sound really good.

Fourth, I would need to get a power conditioner for the rack, which would be some Furman model I'm sure.

Fifth, and probably way after I get everything else before this, will be a new head. I'm looking at Mesa Dual Rectifiers or a Bogner Uberschall. Either one is going to be pressing towards $2000, which is why this is coming way after I get the rest of the stuff I listed, plus my head isn't really bad at all, and works for most of what I need it to do.

Sixth, I wanna get a Mesa 2x12 cab to go along with my 4x12, or maybe even a second 4x12 one?

Seventh, I wanna get an Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci model. These things are the nicest guitars I have EVER played in my life and I would die to have one of my own. I played one in Guitar Center last Monday and it blew me away how amazingly it played. Too bad even the standard ones are like 2 grand...

Anyways, that's my blog about gear. Lemme know if you have any thoughts on it, or something else I should get instead?

"Fleeting in sorrow
Pushing your spirit away,
Seeking the weakness of dislike,
Whispered from the heart.
To be, we're all in the mourning,
To despair."
-Opeth, "The Lotus Eater"

Christmas!

This is a few days later than I had hoped but...

My Christmas actually turned out pretty decently, which is quite the opposite of how I had originally thought it would. I did not ask for too many things, and the few I did, I pretty much got them. To name a few: 1 terabyte external hard drive, 4 gigs of RAM for my laptop, and my gym membership.

The Monday for Christmas I went up to my Dad's house, where I stayed until Christmas day. It wasn't too bad really. There is a weird kid that lives across the street from Dad, who kind of acts a little bit "slow" and I feel bad for him, but he certainly is persistent about coming over to my Dad's EVERY time we come in the damn door. But I got to finish Eldest and relax for a few days, which was pretty relieving. I got to hang out with my Dad a pretty good amount too which is always fun, haha. I saw my aunt and uncle some too, which was cool. All in all it was fun.

Christmas day I came back home to Wilmington and had my second part of my Christmas gatherings. I got to see my uncle Gary and all my other family for the most part. We had a good time, and as usual I was the one handing out all the presents from under the tree. The last few years I have had my little cousin Maguire helping me as well!

So that was my blog to sum up Christmas! Short but kinda sweet, I guess? I might post one to sum up 2008 like Ryan did, but I'm lazy and I don't want to spend the time typing up my favorite shows, albums and movies like he did! Haha.

Literature.

I've become interest in reading and writing even more as of late. I have tried to write some little fantasy type stories, but they've all been terrible and generic. Once I find my creative niche I'll post up some of the stories and stuff I've been writing.

Anyways, I was in the bookstore with Lauren a few days ago and she came across a book where a bunch of random authors are given a word and then 3 minutes to write about it. I think it was a really cool concept and I'm curious as to what I would write if I was put in that situation. Maybe I'll buy that book with some of my Christmas money.

I was riding home with Lauren and her Mom the other day and her Mom mentioned that she had set a goal last year to read at least one book per month. I'm setting mine for two a month, at least. There is only a little bit of December left, but I will probably finish Brisingr within that time frame, and will start reading my next book which will be either The Highwayman by R.A. Salvatore or Twilight. I also have a version of Beowulf that I might read.

I figured since I had not posted in a pretty good while, I would post a little something. I will probably post something tomorrow that kind of sums up 2008 and explains how my Christmas went.

MORE Downloading. 11-30-08

• Ásmegin - Arv
• Darkthrone - Dark Thrones and Black Flags
• Elvenking - Two Tragedy Poets
• Fimbulvet - Der Ruf In Goldene Hallen
• Guahaihoque -The Return Of The Ancient Gods
• Heralder - Twilight Kingdom
• Kivimetsan Druidi - Shadowheart
• Lothloryen - Some Ways Back No More
  
• Morlock - Reipapolk
• Russian Circles - Enter
• Russian Circles - Self Titled
• Russian Circles - Upper Ninety
  
• Stirnagard - Toner Fra En Ukristen Tid (Demo 2000)
  
• Thyrfing - Hels Vite

Was in the mood for some viking/folk metal type stuff and found loads of it on a torrent site. Also found some black metal stuff I wanted to check out. Gonna have plenty to listen to, ha.

Kivimetsan Druidi really caught my attention out of all these bands. They are sick ass folk metal with female and male vocals. Check them out here.

Downloads 11-29-08

• Abigail Williams - Gallow Hill
• Abigail Williams - In The Shadow of a Thousand Suns
• All Shall Perish - Awaken the Dreamers
  
• Architects & Dead Swans - Split
• Architects - Nightmares
  
• Architects - Ruin
• Botch - 061502
  
• Botch - An Anthology of Dead Ends EP
  
• Botch - The Unifying Themes of Sex, Death, and Religion
• Botch - Unifying Themes Redux
  
• Botch - We Are The Romans
  
• Carry The Torch - Dead Weather
• Cradle of Filth - Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder
  
• Dark Funeral - The Secrets of The Black Arts (2007 Remastered Version)
• Deez Nuts - Stay True
  
• Deicide - Til Death Do Us Part
• Disfear and Doomriders - Split
• Doomriders - Black Thunder
  
• The Fall of Troy - Phantom on the Horizon
  
• From the Pawn - Ambitions of Man
• Grave Digger -Ballads of a Hangman
  
• Grave Maker - Bury Me at Sea
• Hank Williams - 40 Greatest Hits
  
• Inside Out - No Spiritual Surrender
• John Legend - Evolver
• Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak
• Ludacris - Theater of the Mind
  
• Napalm Death - Time Waits For No Slave
• Northern Kings - Rethroned
• Opeth - Burden (Single)
  
• Poison the Well - I-III EP
• Satyricon - The Age of Nero
  
• Slipknot - Iowa
  
• Slipknot - Self Titled
• Tears of Magdalena - Myths and Legends
  
• Trenches - The Tide Will Swallow Us Whole
• Twilight - OST
  
• Valencia - This Could Be A Possibility
  
• Walls of Jericho - Redemption
• Willie Nelson - Born for Trouble
  

Might actually post a blog again soon, just doing this since I'm downloading a lot right now, and I don't wanna forget what all I downloaded.

Blinded by the Sun.

The new Gym Class Heroes album "The Quilt" is awesome. My favorite tracks on it are "Blinded by the Sun" and "Drnk Txt Rmeo". The whole album is awesome though. I've been playing it almost non stop since I downloaded it the other day.

I had a pretty uneventful day today. I basically sat around, cleaned up my room to get it ready for turning it into a studio, and played some Xbox. Call of Duty 5 comes out soon, and I'm definitely gonna be getting that. I found two more records in my house too, one by some band called "Nutcracker" from like 1978, and one by Gene Johnson called "Always True" from 1981. I also remembered that I had gotten At Half-Mast's "Alive, Alone, and Waiting" on clear orange vinyl from where I made them a moving banner a year or something ago.

I also get my license next week, but I won't have anything to drive until next weekend probably, unless I can drive my Mom's car until then, which I doubt will happen. My family wants me to sell the van and get a little car, but I like the van a lot, ha. They're right though, gas is gonna cost too much to drive it a lot.

"You told me it's the truth
But I'm still afraid
I'm not the one
That would jump the gun
If I had proof
I'd take off my shades
And be blinded by the sun"

-Gym Class Heroes

Vinyl!

So I've been thinking about this for awhile...I've wanted to start collecting vinyl. I've had a few my Dad gave me sometime last year or so, and then tonight I bought about 10 more. Lauren is getting me something to play em on for Christmas, so I'm pretty excited on that. She said it has a USB connection too...so I can probably start working on producing beats and stuff. I wanna learn whatever I can that involves recording in any way since that is what I really wanna get into later on.

Anyways, here is a list of what I got today:

• Agallah - The Crookie Monster
• Anthrax - I'm The Man
• Aretha Franklin - Everyday People
• Bukshot - What's On My Mind
• Dre - Naomi
  
• Cheri Dennis - Freak feat. Babs
• Michael Jackson - They Don't Care About Us
  
• New Edition - Last Time/All on You
• Plan B - Life's a Beat
• Wreckx-N-Effect - Rump Shaker

I'll probably get more than just the value bin stuff pretty soon. I'll post up the stuff my Dad gave me before too, although, it was mostly classic rock type stuff though.

Zannah.

Ah, it's been ages since I've posted on here. But I feel the need to post something again.

I've more or less been in love with reading lately surprisingly and I have spent a lot of time reading. I read both of the Star Wars Darth Bane novels, and I am now anxiously waiting the release of the third book, which is said to come out in late 2009. Since I knocked out the second book, I've got awhile to read some other stuff. I finished Eragon and began on Eldest, so I'm gonna finish that one up and then read Brisingr. I wanna read some non-fantasy books after I get done with those, any suggestions?

It's just past one in the morning right now and I'm just beginning to show signs of being tired, which isn't a good sign for me since I have to be up for school in the morning around 8. But I am very relieved after today to find that I am passing all of my classes, with only one being below an 80. I have a 90 in Senior project/English IV, a 94 in Electrical Trades (I literally know less about that subject since I've started that class), an 84 or something in Digital Video Productions (Easiest class ever, but still fun, Mr. Halstead is awesome) and then finally, I have a 74 in Algebra 2. I'm just happy to get by passing a math class after my terrible failure in Geometry, haha.

I've gotta pass all my classes this year, and as long as things keep on going smoothly like they are, I'll be out of high school right on schedule. Report cards come out on the 10th, which means I will be able to drive. The van will be back on the road again, so expect to see the old brown stickered up van all over town all the time if you live here in Wilmington.

I think I'm gonna start posting on here a lot more often again and it will be less about just what I have been up to, but about stuff I've been thinking about and stuff I have ideas I want to share on.

Side note: The new Taylor Swift disc comes out November 11th, I'm pretty excited on that (Call me lame for it, but I don't care).

Once again...

...sitting in electrical trades class doing nothing. Laurens been gone to Maryland because her grandma has been sick. She wasn't here for our 2 year, which sucks.

Uhm I got interviewed for some odd reason by Kelly for his blog? Check that out here - lifeingeneralkid.blogspot.com

Working today, going to dads for the weekend tomorrow. Hopefully there is something to do up there this weekend. Would go to a show but im not about to go by myself unless its something really awesome which I doubt.

Anyway that's about it I guess. Ill post again while im at dads since I won't really have a lot to do while im there. Oh and check out freerice.com its pretty addiciting and its for charity. Every right answer donates 10 grains of rice.

Haven't posted in awhile...

Currently sitting in electrical trades class...in other words doing nothing at all for an hour and a half and posting from my sidekick. Teacher doesn't really care what we do, but its an easy credit. Listening to all the rad rednecks and chavis talk about fishing, dip, and trucks is all the entertainment I really need.

Senior project has been a nightmare for me so far...its a lot harder than I had thought it was going to be. Writing an 8-10 page paper takes a long fucking time. Im on page 7, and I still need to get my conclusion done. Giving my paper to my advisor next block so he can check it over the weekend, and ill finish up the last page and stuff this weekend too.

Besides that, my only weekend plans are and practice after school today. Finishing up new song, and probably just running through the set a time or two. Saturday I gotta work 4 to close, which will be boring as hell. But that paycheck next week will probably be worth it. And then we play luckys sunday with ambush, liberty and joe grizzely. Ambush is good and liberty sounds ok from their recordings. Joe grizzely isn't so good though, haha.

Me and laurens 2 year anniversary is the 21st...hard to believe its already been that long. I hope we get to do something awesome for our anniversary. Im making sure I don't have work and have no other plans to make it as happy as possible for the both of us. I hope we stay happy and together for a really long time. I think we still have the potential to last. :)

Edit: in algebra 2 now. Last class of the day. The weekends only an hour away! Im so ready to get out. Getting mad sleep tonight after practice and whatever. Might try and get farther in Eldest too. I was really into it but I haven't gotten a chance to read a big chunk of it cause of this damn paper. Whatever, after I get eldest done, im moving on to brisingr. Might pick up some other books after that, depends really if I feel like I have the interest and time to read.

That's about all I guess.
Joey

Downloads 10-2-08

• DrugxTest - Needle In Your Neck
• Kingdom - 9 Lives EP
• Merauder - Master Killer
• The Plight - Black Summer
• Pressvre - Beasts EP
• Pulling Teeth - Martyr Immortal
• Rise and Fall - Hellmouth
• Solidarity - Changes Are What Brings Us Home
• Unearth - The March

Pictures from ASBTB @ Lucky's 9-29-08

Check them out here.

Plus this show was on my birthday which makes it even more rad. There are lots of good pictures from other shows around the state. Add and support Ryan's photography.

Downloads 9-30-08

• One Life Crew - Crime Ridden Society
• Taylor Swift - Beautiful Eyes
• Taylor Swift - Live from SoHo
• Taylor Swift - Sounds of the Season

Downloads 9-27-08

• Alpha and Omega - Death's Bed
• Colin of Arabia - Snitch
• Lewd Acts - Dark Days
• Life or Death - Sentenced
• Staring Problem - You'll Always Be Sick
  

Downloads 9-22-08

• Barricade - Barricade Ep
• Barricade - Be Heard
• COA/Pressvre - Stalemate
• Lie and Wait/Overdose - Split
  
• The Mongoloids/This Means Nothing - Ahead of the Game
• Violation - Devoured
  

Bored at 7 in the morning.

I'm sitting at Tyler's house at 7 in the morning, cause its too late for me to even tryin to go to bed now, especially if I hope to be even somewhat alive while we record/if we record today. Waiting til 10, then calling Dave to find out if we are gonna be able to record today or not. If not, I'm either going to attempt to go back to bed, or going home and sleeping in my bed, cause this foldy chair thing is the most uncomfortable thing I've ever slept on in my life.

Apparently, there is a North Carolina Hardcore forum, that's pretty active, so I've been lurking that for a bit. It's funny watching kids from here argue with each other.

Anyways, we spoke with Scottie P. the other night, and apparently the winter tour thing is still possibly happening. It'll just be ASBTB and Ghost Hunt with Empires on a few shows. Tigerstyle isn't able to do it, and since they are from Florida, instead of debating on going north or south, it was easily decided to go up north towards New York, etc. I'm super excited to get to tour again, and this time with hopefully no bull shit like last time. Hank probably won't get to go, so we'll hopefully find someone else willing to fill in for this short tour, and then hopefully Hank will be able to tour if we tour again over spring break.

Also, apparently Travis Barker and DJ AM were in a plane crash and are both in bad condition with a lot of burns. There were 60 people on board the plane, and 4 died. Apparently the plane didn't take off and then crash, but it went off the runway and ran into some sort of control towers. Sucks to hear news like that, especially when I've been listening to their damn mixtape lately. Best wishes to them.

That's all for this one I think, no one reads this but Sarah, and that's cause she's the biggest creeper ever and likes to make fun of me for anything I say, haha.

Downloads 9-14-08

• Dropdead - 2nd Lp
• Smartbomb - Diamond Heist
• Smartbomb - Chaos and Lawlessness
• Sluts - Self Titled

Debating on compiling a list of all the albums I have either physically or mp3s of. Kind of a waste of A LOT of time though...maybe next time I get way too much free time I'll do that.

September 20th

Ahem.

Was another terrible day. I've been in a slump the past few days, and today was the worst one so far. My grandma went into the hospital today also, which only made it worse on me.

Hopefully I'll cheer up again once Monday gets here, but school I'm sure will just stress me out worse.

On a good note, I reserved Wrath of the Lich King today, which is awesome for me, so I won't have to pay as much when it comes out. Also, I set up my direct deposit at Party City so that I can just have my pay go directly to my checking account. I call in Friday and then I should start a few days after that. I'm excited to have a job, and hopefully I can get enough money and do well enough so that I get to stay there after the Halloween season ends.

I slept in all day today too, so I'll probably stay up kinda late playing on XBL and on WoW. Trying to hit 70 and get some decent gear before the expansion comes out and I'm way behind.

Anyways, that about sums up my day I guess.

Downloads 9-13-08

• Dystopia - Dystopia
• Kylesa - To Walk a Middle Course
• Man is the Bastard - Mancruel
• Witch Hunt - This is Only the Beginning...

Didn't download much today, but that Kylesa album is awesome.

Not much at all.

Today was Tyler's birthday, which was fun. He's gonna be a frat which is awesome.

Right now though, tonight blows it pretty hard. Going to sleep. Not much else to say...

Employed/Today's happenings.

I GOT HIRED! HELL YES. I got the call today in the middle of 1st block. I'm now officially hired by Party City. It's just seasonal but I might get to keep the job after October ends if I'm lucky. Just got back from signing papers/filling out all the stuff. Seemed cool, I know a lot of the people that work there, I start work next Friday on the 21st, so that will be sick. Finally getting some damn money. This will help me pay for all the stuff I want.

Not really any plans for tonight, was gonna hit up some free fighting class thing at Gold's with Lauren, but didn't have a ride, plus it's raining and shit...which blows. I wanted to go work out again anyways. Somewhat soon I'm gonna go get a membership at Planet Fitness, cause it's cheaper and way closer.

Anyways, unless I find a way out of it, I'm stuck home for the night. I guess it's gonna be WoW and COD4 all night, til I go to bed, which will probably be sorta early cause I didn't get to sleep til like 2:30 last night. I also found out today the official release date of Wrath of the Lich King. (New WoW expansion...I know, I'm a nerd) It comes out November 3rd. I'm going to go reserve it as soon as I get the money and the time to go to Gamestop again. Also, I'm thinking of putting a countdown on here til that date, but that would be really fucking lame of me...but then again I don't care.

Senior project is going well, got forms today for my mentor and such. I'm supposed to use someone that works at the Music Loft here, but I need to get in touch with my friend Brantly to take me there to meet him and make sure he's cool with me using him for it. I'm pretty excited to build this home studio. I am also ordering the stuff I need for it really soon, which will be awesome.

Continued later before I go to sleep...

Downloads 9-9-08

• Breathing Fire - Demo
• Crom - The Cocaine Wars 1974-1989
• Give Em' Hell - We Are The Wolves
• Harm's Way - Imprisoned 7"
  
• Mindsnare - The Death
  
• Mongoloids/KLU split
• pg.99 - Document #14: Singles CD
• Pelican - Australasia
• Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw
• Steel Nation - Soul Swallower
• Weekend Nachos - It's A Wonderful Life

Just posting this so I can remember what I downloaded easier, so that I can go back and make sure I listen to all the stuff I downloaded.

YES!

Ah.. Yeah, I think I got the job at Party City. They called Lauren's mom cause I had her as a reference and she asked them if they though I had the job, and they said yes. So it'll be awesome if I do, especially if I get to keep it after the Halloween season ends. Either way, this will let me clock in a good amount of hours hopefully even if I do have to leave after Halloween.

I've been listening to a lot of post-rock and other ambient music lately, stuff like Pelican, Isis, Red Sparowes, and Russian Circles. I really like this kind of stuff, it's a good alternative to what I typically would listen to. I wish I would've liked Russian Circles back when I saw them, but I was extremely close-minded about music back then, and the music I did like was terrible. Go check out some of the bands that I listed, and expand your musical tastes. I did, and I love that stuff now.

Anyways, I came home early from school today, just missed one block, which was Algebra 2, but I'm not that worried about it, I suck at math, but what we're doing right now is pretty easy. I just slept once I got home cause I didn't sleep at all night before last. I'm about to eat Subway and then probably play some more Call of Duty 4. If you have a gamer tag, lemme know. Mine is JOJOEDGE.

I keep hearing about some ring over in Switzerland or something that can accelerate particles? And apparently it turns on tomorrow, and then in a few months they'll put a beam of protons going clockwise, and then a few months later shoot another beam going counter-clockwise. Then eventually they'll move them so that they hit. This apparently will prove the big bang theory and also prove to some point the quantum theory and that there are 11 dimensions instead of 3. It might even make a miniature universe? Pretty interesting stuff, I should read up onto a little more.

Interview/other stuff.

The job interview didn't seem to go that great, but that's probably just me being my own worst critic as usual. I knew one of the other guys getting interviewed, so that was good. They interviewed three of us at once, which was odd, and nerve racking as hell. But Ralphie works there and said he should be able to get me hired which would be sick.

Went to the gym today with Zach, Lauren and Daniel, actually got some good work in, which was good, cause I've been lazy as hell.

I'm super tired cause I only got like 2 hours of sleep last night.

Oh and... apparently Blogspot is pretty trendy? Didn't really notice that, but apparently a lot of people have these for some reason. I know that no one cares what I have to say when I go on about random stuff, but it's something for me to do, and get out what I've been up to.

My first post.

Just got a blogspot, and it seems pretty rad.

I doubt anyone will really read the stuff I post on here, but I don't care, just something else to pass my time...

I feel like drawing and screwing around with photoshop, but I need to get to sleep. It's 4 and school's only like 4 hours away... doubt tomorrow's gonna be a good day. Have a job interview at 5 after school, so I hope that goes well... a lot of guitar equipment I want/need.

On another note, the Travis Barker/DJ AM mixtape is sick, if your into real hip-hop, go check that out here. The download is free if you put your e-mail and stuff in.