Friday

Friday I felt pretty good most of the day. Everyone was ready for a three day weekend. Work went by fast and I actually got things done because, well that is what I do. At night I went out with some friends. I was actively trying to keep my chops up as far as conversation. I have been not doing well around people lately. Not feeling very social. As a result I had this thing in my head that I need to get out and talk to some people. Too much facebook, twitter, texting, etc can really kill your social chops. So I went out and tried to talk to many people as possible. It went well and I felt good about getting back out and being silly with people. Tonight my friend K is having people out, so I wanted to make sure I was outside my head for that.

Saturday was productive. Two Loads of laundry, put my drums away, swept, hair cut, cleaned out my closet. Went and bought some toilet paper. Damn this blog is excited as hell isn't it? I am thinking about doing a video blog and posting it to the internet soon about some random stuff. I haven't done a video blog for awhile.

Randoms..

St. Joseph is known for the psychiatric hospital.

Thursday

Thursday is my superbowl because I get to play guitar all night. I downloaded some bass instructional video and it taught many important lessons. The most important is that instructional videos are really dumb. I got out of work late and headed down to black and gold. We had a new drummer who looks a bit like Daniel Tosh. His name is Cole and I was alittle bummed that I couldn't play drums a bit, but this guy picked up what we were trying to do right away. There is still some huge holes in our musical game. One of the dudes just shreds metal, other dude is alternative/folk, and I don't really know what either of them are playing because we don't have a set list. I will say though from what I recorded on my mp3 player it sounded pretty good at times, which that is a big positive that we can get a drummer who we have never met and manage to play something that sounds pretty good. Overall I am happy that it sounded good on mp3 but alittle bummed that we don't have like a list of songs to play right when we get in. I guess that is me just trying to control people places and things and also an example where I just have to be patient. Things will work out and I should just try to have fun. It is after all just a garage band I really dig this girl that works at the black and gold. Her name is Ashley and I try to troll her most of the time (Troll means just be over the top to get a reaction not totally serious) So I will do various stuff to her like yell "WHAT UP GRRRRRRL" in the dumbest fashion possible. Now many people have many approaches into getting a girl, but after 10,000 hours of practice I like to be over the top and energetic and something will come along that we have in common. She put on a record....a real record of Johnny Cash, and I showed her my Johnny Cash shirt that I had and I also told her about the one time I sang harmany with him on boy named sue.....wait...maybe I am getting myself confused with Kris Kristofferson again. That happens all the time. Anyway Ashley looked good yesterday and I kept it low key because I was tired, she laughed at a couple of my jokes. "I told her that I am jobless because I have a felony, when she inquired what did I get arrested for...I told her FOR BEING TOO DANG AWESOME!"

Sidenote sometimes saying TOO DANG "Insert whatever here" is very funny.

She laughed she looked good and the band played on. Later I was hoping she would come out to talk to me but this guy with tats was on her. The band also had a couple guys watching us all night. I wish we would have played better for them, but like I said earlier I ask God to give me patience and see the big picture.

After the night was over I came home and just ate some pulled pork and relaxed. I am in the process of putting our jam sesh on mp3 so I can study it today. Mine as well listen to my friends play music over some random butt rock band from 01'


How about those Royals and Sporting KC? The Zues...The Zues...The Zues is on fire.

Wednesday

Wednesday went pretty much as normal. I made lots of phone calls. I guess our band is supposed to try out a new drummer tomorrow. I am sure that will be zany as normal. Jason and I went to black dog. We had some laughs. I promised myself not to let dumb stuff ruin my day. I talked to a girl who loves comic books. Salvy Perez hit a couple homeruns and yesterday Soony Saad scored two goals in a Champions league game. Go Soony! I tuned up my bass drums and I printed off a bass book, so I am looking forward to studying that. I really want to get 10,000 hours in on guitar, so I can be considered a master at it. Today I was actually prety happy all day. I hope there is one day that I don't feel sleepy mid day. I always feel sleepy and I have to chug mountain dew to stay awake. That is really the only thing that hinders my enjoyment of my life is being tired, mentally tired, physically sick, or physically sore. I need to pick up my apartment tomorrow. There is crap all over the place. Unfortunately I am barely keeping my eyes awake writing this so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Tuesday

Tuesday was good. Sporting KC won. I met up with Ryan and Albert to play guitar. That was fun. I ended the night with Jason and Taylor at black dog. I have been practicing patience and working on my work ethic as of late. I am always working on something. I hope some of the younger kids I talk to follow my advice, if they well that is their road to go down. I have so much to say, but I am pretty tired. I just like to point out no matter what your beliefs in religion are if you pray really hard, over time you develop lots more peace and happiness. Sometimes I will be mad about something or frustrated and I can really let go of the small bullcrap things way better than I could back in the day. I know most of my frustration comes out of fear. Fear of not getting what I want or fear what people think of me. Once I realize what is really going on I can work on thinking about something else or letting it go. Thinking about other peoples needs always helps as well. I will sometimes pray for someone else for as long as I can (10 minutes or so) it really eases my own inner frustrations. My frustrations aren't even that bad, they are ususally linked to the Royals hitters or I am not as rich as I want to be. I guess I will go over my day once again woke up, Prayed, went to work, came home called Ryan, called Albert, worked my way into getting a jam session going. Jammed, then went to black dog and hung out. I have to say I am getting better at doing stuff in a timely fashion. When I get home from work there are certain things I want to make sure I do. Practice guitar, watch a youtube video that makes me laugh, write on a piece of paper things that make me happy. I always make it a point in my mind to set aside time to do things I really love. Chores and bills need to be paid as well, but I realize now how much more life is enjoyable when you set boundries for yourself and say...this is the time to work...this is time for yourself to laugh and smile....this is the time you work on guitar. Speaking of boundries I noticed a big boundry tonight is that I really can't work late. I am at the point in my life where I set a hard boundry. that I don't work beyond a certain point. I really need my time to watch the royals or play guitar or go to a meeting or go to black dog. When I was younger I was such a people pleaser I would make myself mad and sick working so late. So that was kind of cool that I really asked God for direction and the answer that I got is "Ray you aren't going to be happy missing the things you hold dear" things like playing guitar, dressing up like Nachos and throwing cheese on people. Wait...what?

The Royals and Random stuff

The Royals were off the chain today. Billy Butler was doing work. He is batting .350 since the all-star break.

I have been listening to Malcom Gladwell lots lately. The more I listen the more his stuff rings true. Especially how to learn you have to be in an intense learning envirnment. I also think talent is overated. You have to have good direction and 10,000 hours at a craft to be a master at things. It is a lesson that you have to be really patient at your talents. Really hammer on them to let them grow.

Monday

Monday was a pain in the morning, but got better afternoon. I met with Raymond for awhile. He is doing well. I played bass and watched some music videos. I watched a video about Malcom Gladwell. I really understand how lucky I am to grow up in America. I have had advantages that most people haven't had. It is my job to really work at my skills for 10,000 hours so I can be a master at what I do.

Some Deep Thinking.

I like to think and journal. I like to think what effect my actions have. My thinking plays a large part in how fun my life in and how much growth I have as a person. One thing I have to always remember is how most the things are now about other people. Having kids really help people be unselfish but I really strive to think how to make my Team at work better, how to make the day the most fun for the people around me, and this is a huge step in my life. I am always going to have my days where I throw a pity party. My pity party is because I have high expectations from the work I put in and the results that come out of it. It is unrealistic. So I always strive to get to the basics. Help other people, think of other people, also be thankful. I am forever thankful that I can pretty much queue up any song ever on youtube. What a blessing that is.

I am making a youtube playlist along with a new mp3 playlist so I am here to remind myself I have a pinback/Deathcabforcuitie playlist on youtube and a spoon/depeche mode playlist on Winamp