“If one candidate is trying to scare you, and the other’s trying to get you to think; if one is appealing to your fears, and the other is appealing to your hopes - it seems to me you ought to vote for the person who wants you to think and hope.” - Bill Clinton, 10/25/2004

You can find the original article quote came from by clicking right here. My credit, though, goes to Jonah Matranga who posted it in his blog on myspace.

Truth of the matter is, President Clinton is totally right. And with the way things are starting to play out politically, this weekend will be interesting to see.

But this is why I believe in hope and thinking. More on why I support Barack Obama another time, but with a quote like that one, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to repost it…

The other day, I picked up another nickname. And interestingly enough, its only the second one that I’ve ever been given other than some variation of my name. And its not even like I’ve been called anything other than Adam or Cohen. Yup, with the middle name of Jacob, I was never called A.J. growing up, if you could believe that one.

That came from a letter left in my family. When I was born, a dear family friend of my grandparents whom we called Aunt Bertha, wrote me a letter. In the letter, it described how my name was important, the meaning of it, and what it stood for and meant, and because of that, I should never go by A.J. I should never have that type of shortening done to what was already a great name. My parents still have that letter.

So growing up in classes, I was always the “Adam C.” when there was more than one adam in a class. Seeing there was an “Adam D.” and an “Adam F.” that I went to school with, quite often I was well used to being the “Adam C.” And I guess it was alright. Sometimes I was just called “Cohen” by my friends. It helped distinguish me there too.

Then in middle school, that all changed.

Around 5th or 6th grade, I met my friend, Dave Hall. The first time I went over to his house, I met his father, James Hall. I was never to call him Mr. Hall, that was his dad’s name, he said. So I called him Jim. And he? He called me Zeke. Where did he get Zeke from? I couldn’t tell you really. In his own words when he first met me? “You look like a Zeke to me!”

Dave would call me Zeke around our friends, around my parents, around anyone and everyone. So whenever I’d introduce myself, I always said “Hi, my name is Adam, but you can call me Zeke. Just don’t call me late to dinner!” It helped me stick in folk’s minds. I wasn’t just another Adam, no, now I was also Zeke.

Zeke is what I used in a lot of my old screennames and e-mail addresses. I would use it as an icebreaker in meeting new people. It just became me, and I guess it was because not only did I look like a Zeke, but I guess I acted enough like a Zeke to be a Zeke. For my 21st birthday, some of my friends got me a shirt that mimiced the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity on campus. It was green with the giant yellow greek letters Zeta Kappa Epsilon. Not only was I Zeke, but now I could wear it in pride.

And with that, it comes to my last nickname. Kotter. I’ve been affectionately called that on the 7M3 message boards the past few weeks before the show and it was sealed in place on Feb 23rd when the band came out to the “Welcome Back Kotter” theme song. I wish I had more on that joke, but I’ve got nothin’. Love the nickname, though. Works well for me. But if I was only as funny as Gabe Kaplan.

Anyways, for a kid who never grew up with a nickname? I think I’m doin’ pretty good right about now…

Ever since first installing WordPress on my site, I’ve had a lovely little bar that said that my version was out of date. It was something that I sort of got used to seeing and I just ignored it. And then, as I started adding plugins to my site, I started to get frustrated and feel like I fully wasn’t in control and that I was just letting my WordPress run me. That I couldn’t do something as simple as just upgrade WordPress.

As simple as. I didn’t know it was a simple upload and overwrite operation after backing up your files. Really I didn’t. Every time that I had thought about it or mentioned it to someone, it seemed like it was a grumbling gruesome effort. Like you’d be reformatting your computer, then installing Dos, then Win3.1, then Win95, then WinXP, just to have everything back to normal. A sort of “all day affair,” if you will.

Nope, a simple copy and paste. Overwrite all old files? Yes please. You know, I’m slowly getting the hang of things around here. And I think that scares me…

In other news, I’m going to probably have the other upgrades I want to do on my site done within the next few days… Not that I know of what I want to upgrade, but its just a few plugins here and there.

And I’m slowly queueing up my weekend drafts so I’ll be posting those before you know it… And probably on the run from my cell phone. Man, I’m way way too connected with this sucker…

I used to work an overnight job. From midnight to 8am a few nights a week around my school schedule, I’d be up working in one of the on campus housing communities. They called the job Residence Hall Auxilary Patrol, or RHAP for short. We were the liasons between housing and the students at night so that the Resident Assistants (or RAs) could sleep overnight and only be woken up when there was a severe problem.

That being said, there were many times that I’d be out of work at 8am, to bed by 10am, and up again at 2pm ready to go for the day. Only a 4 hour nap and I’d be golden.

This morning and other subsequent days that I’ve been facing? Not the case.

Last night I crawled into bed just around 3am and when the alarm went off at 7am? While I got up and was decent in getting Sarah out the door for work this morning, while watching my morning TV shows, I fell asleep on the futon a few times.

So what does anyone who falls asleep that much do? Decide to go to campus to get coffee. Logical decision, you know? Or at least I think so.

———————

Side note: The past few days or so, I haven’t had much substance. There’s one issue that comes with writing everyday. When you do that, sometimes you sit down before thinking an entry out. I’ve got a few that I’m working on for other times, and I’m drafting the beginnings of some from my cell phone, actually, and letting them sit up top for me to work on a bit later, but I guarantee I’ll have some good ones coming up soon…

If you’ve looked at my site directly within the last 7 hours or so, you might not notice much. I think the only thing that’s really noticeable is the fact that my RSS subscription feed info at the bottom of the page has been replaced by my Feedburner link. That and the nice “flare” as they call it, for each entry, because I know that you’ve been dying to Digg my entries. Hell, I don’t even use Digg, but I wanted to put it there in case someone else did. I might have to look into it.

So… Like I said, I was going to do some work on WordPress yesterday. Amidst my homework, I took a few breaks and installed a few plugins. I’m still debating doing my WordPress upgrade, seeing I’m about a version out of date, but I’m a little afraid of doing an upgrade. You see, when I initially installed WordPress on the site, I used Fantastico. It was already on my site, and it did everything for me without me having to worry. But now, if I upgrade, well, I’m going to have to fully back everything up (which I’ve been doing anyways, so I’m not too concerned) as well as figure out how to actually physically install WordPress. Maybe I’ll wait and do it on Friday. We’ll see.

Needless to say, when you find a good plugin, you shouldn’t see much of it on the frontend of a site. Things like the Digg/Facebook/del.icio.us/StumbleIt link from FeedBurner are good to see, but other ones aren’t as visible. So, I’ll share some of the changes…

1) I’ll be starting tomorrow and going back to day 1 and tagging entries. This is in preparation for installing Related Posts. I’ve seen it in action on both of Goob’s sites and its a nice little one that will automatically back link to a few posts that are similar to the one you’re reading, if you look at the single post view. Nice little feature.
2) Of course, as you can see, the Feedburner Feedsmith plugin, which will be taking care of my feeds and letting me better track whom might be reading me. Not that I’m all that concerned, but it’ll be nice to know, seeing I don’t get many comments as of yet.
3) I hadn’t really optimized my page for accessibility and finding, but I felt it would be a good idea, so I put on the Google XML Sitemaps. This’ll help me increase my traffic some, which I’d definitely like that help with. More readers is nice in the end.
4) Mobile accessibility was almost a key theme with three plugins that I put into place. First off, I added in one called Text Me which will send me text messages everytime I get an admin e-mail (i.e. comments, new users, etc). And if you add to that my WPhone plugin that simplifies my control panel for me to use when/if I log in to my cell phone, and my Wordpress Mobile which lets my site now be easily read on any cell phone? Well, let’s just say that not only can I easily use my site on the go now, but I’ve also made it easier for folks to log on with their phones/PDAs and read my site too if they wanted.

So that’s about it when it comes to updating. The truth is, I really like using plugins. They’re making my life much much easier on my site when it comes to adding things here and there…

Yesterday was an exercise in cutting corners. Matter of fact, Saturday was too, just cleaned up better…

See, on the weekends, I don’t have much time to sit down and write, so I’m starting to “pre-draft” during the weekends with additional thoughts of mine and I’m just saving a few drafts so I can come in on the weekends and click and post.

In fitting with my Saturday morning theme, I’ll include this, which is a link to the 7M3 setlist from Saturday night. A bit more traditional, seeing it has “Cumbersome” and “Water’s Edge,” it’ll probably look a lot more comforting than the Friday night setlist. The difference? The Friday show was a “superfan appreciation show.” In other words: Folks who have heard “Cumbersome” and “Water’s Edge” so freaking many times that they’re sick and tired of hearing them and all of the “Cumber-fucks” in the audience who scream for just those two. Not that I don’t like them, but I’m glad to hear some of the cuts like “Flagship Eleanor,” “Home Stretch,” “Angry Blue,” and the infamous “? Song.”

Other than that, speaking of cleaning up, I’m going to be adding some WordPress plugins over the course of the next few days. I also really need to go back and start tagging my entries, seeing I haven’t since day one. When I have my new plug-ins installed on my site, well, I’ll give a heads up to them because a few of them will be functionally nice for some friends, I know. They’ll especially be that way for me.

I’d better get some food and off to homework before having my fun today…

One of the links I have in my Firefox on both my Portable Firefox on my USB drive and on my home computer is for the Orlando Craigslist Musical Instruments for Sale section… Usually a hotbed of activity with numerous new instruments posted daily, I’ve seen a lot of really neat guitars that I wish I could have picked up. Of course, I say that about half of the guitars I see, even though all I really want in my hands is a ‘52 Telecaster and a Gibson J45.

Needless to say, I won’t buy those off of Craigslist. I’d probably buy the reissues from a vendor direct, but that’s beside my point…

My point is, on the site, I get really frustrated with some of the things I see posted. The same folks come back daily to advertise cheap overpriced guitars, or things at or above retail value. Take today, for instance. Someone posted a kit and wanted $260 for it. If you googled the same exact guitar kit? Either $199.99 or $249.99 depending on what color you wanted and if you wanted a 10 or 15W amp with it. I post my rebuttal as a new thread saying he’s ripping them off, and mine gets flagged and removed, not his. Yesterday, someone else was asking $250 for some guitar, and another gentleman came on and commented with a new post that the same guitar retails new for $175. Neither was removed. The world is out to get me. Or not. Hah!

Or, take the instance where I saw someone posting two vintage guitars, very distinct guitars that you wouldn’t see very many of, wanting $150 for both of them. I messaged the guy and got more pictures and he told me that someone already was interested, but he’d hold them if I really wanted one. I was just curious, so I passed. But two days later? Someone who posts tons of guitars and obviously looks like he works at a pawnshop is selling guitars that look exactly like these two, asking $100 for one and $150 for the other…

I have no doubt that folks do mark up grossly. I’ll admit to it myself, because I’ve bought guitars and other things for cheap off of there and other sites and turned around and marked it up a little and resold it. But never above retail price.

Then again, it comes down to business, ethics, and what I can relate to and how I feel about things. You see, I like to be an honest businessman, and I can’t sell something I don’t believe in. Thusly, if I know what something’s worth? I won’t sell it for more than what it’s worth, no matter how much value I know I personally assign to something. Just how I am. But I’m not going to knock folks who can mark it up and do so and feel good about it.

No, I’m just going to feel sorry for the suckers who buy into it and buy the crap… Especially whoever buys that strat kit.

See, the biggest rip off in the music world when it comes to buying electric guitars? Are these entry kits. They’re worth what you’re paying for them when you first buy them, but you’d better be using it to learn. Depreciation on entry level guitars is sad… Pay $150 or so for it, and because the market is so saturated with people who want to learn how to play? Expect $75-100, unless its in really good shape. Same goes for these kits; pay $260-300 for one? Expect to get maybe $175 or so.

But that’s an entry for another time… For now? I think I’ll head back to Craigslist, and try not to be too frustrated…

Is that they come too few and far between.

Like usual, we do a big breakfast around here, but the problem is making sure that we have all of the fixings for it. Today? I’m like Old Mother Hubbard. Costco will be our “brunch”

Add to that the fact that my brain is set on “tired” from the fact that I rolled into bed close to 1am last night after seeing Seven Mary Three at the Backbooth. If anyone’s interested, I posted the setlist on their fan board for the night. As to tonight? Another late night with seeing them at the House of Blues.

Side note to seeing them is that I did see two very amazing opening acts. I’ve seen Steve Foxbury a long long time ago opening for 7M3 at the House of Blues, but now knowing who he was and his music, it was definitely nice to see a set of his that I knew. I recognized “Pink and Brown,” “Roses (Will Never Grow Here),” and “All in All,” and the other tracks that I didn’t recognize, well, it made me want to listen more to his music. But, I’ll have to juggle that with Aaron Lee Tasjan’s EP that I bought at the show. He really surprised me with his musicianship in his own songs and when he was backing 7M3. All around an awesome night.

And both of those artists have free music to download on their pages. So definitely, enjoy them in good health. Me? I need to wake up some more because I’ll be back rocking in another few hours…

If you’ve noticed in a recent picture or three, the bottom half of my face has been a bit “fuzzy.” I’ve been growing a beard, and that will be ending as of shortly aftermidnight or so on Saturday night. So why?

Well, I’m not a striking writer, and I did find TIME’s article on beards quite interesting, but I grew mine for solidarity with some friends of mine from the 7M3 message board. In some recent promo shots and at recent shows, Jason Ross has had a massive beard. So, one of the fans had the idea that everyone should grow beards in solidarity with the band.

Me? I’m game with that. It takes me about two weeks or so to grow the amount of scruff you saw in the picture that I posted yesterday. Yup, that’s only two weeks, folks. There have been times that I’ve gone a month or so and had more, but for two weeks? I’m proud of it.

There are advantages and disadvantages to it. For one, I don’t worry about shaving in the morning, of course I only shave about once or twice a week anyways so it doesn’t save me much time. Next, I look a bit older and folks are less likely to hassle me because I look a bit scruffy and evil. Though I usually prefer the “fluffy/evil” look, I’ll let this one pass. The disadvantage of it? Well, for one Sarah doesn’t like it. And I understand that its rough. But come Saturday night after the show at the House of Blues, I’ll be sliding into bed clean shaven.

I’m young, might as well get away with a facial hair stunt or two like this before I have to worry about “the man.”

Seriously. I’ve been doing that since day 1 of this site, trying to make sure I post something a day. I’ve held off on a few topics because I want to be better read before I shoot off at the lip on here, and there are other topics that I just haven’t even covered yet. But as long as I keep living, I’ll always come up with something new. I’m a writer, its in my nature.

Its like a great little blog I read about writing everyday. I found that on another blog that I’ve had bookmarked for a while about first year blogger mistakes. Both are very good points, and things that I’ve had in mind…

But for now, this is more of a utility entry for me… Just wanted to say a few things of webmaster note…

1) For folks who might remember my old site, TryingSoHard.com, it’s been just a frontpage that notes about the change of location to here. Well, I was talking with my father the other day, and he mentioned something about being able to host more than one domain with my package through SearchItUp.com. I looked into it, and he was right. So the other night, I copied all of my files from my old host to my desktop, then uploaded it to this host. I’ve got enough space that the small 50k of all of the files I had up there doesn’t affect this one at all. Needless to say, that’s where most of my old pictures were, so it let all of those on my LJ, MySpace blog, and such stay as they were. Cool.

2) Speaking of subdomains, I launched one for one of my classes the other day… When I have the necessary web stuff up and running on it, I’ll be linking it here because I’ll probably want some folks to trial run it for some input on it. That’ll be fun. Creating a web based simulation for a Training and Development class.

3) I check my Webalizer stats for my page to see where folks are coming from, search strings, etc. Seeing its provided by my host, its all I really need for a sense of traffic. It tells me that I get around 90-160 visitors a day, which is respectable for me to think about that so many folks are reading. If you are reading, please feel free to register and comment, I appreciate it, and I don’t bite. And besides, if you register and comment, you can always download my music for free too. And when I get a new album done, you’ll be up to date before having to download them all in one shot…

4) Which leads me to something I talked about: my “greatest hits album.” Needless to say, its going slow. I have little to no motivation to re-record some of these tracks that I’ve recorded 2-3 times already. I’m slowly working on it, but it’ll be something that will take a whiiiiiile longer, I’d say.

5) Oh, and speaking of the Webalizer stats from point #3, I noticed something sort of funny. See, this blog is pulled onto my LJ as public entries and it’s also pulled as a syndicated feed there too. What I had completely forgotten about, was the fact that there are public feed readers that pull the latest X pictures. That being said, I’ve noticed on days that I post pictures, my traffic “spikes up.” I’m a whore, so I’m going to post a picture now. :D

And if you haven’t noticed, and my friends on Facebook probably already noticed this, but I’ll say it here. I have a decent digital camera, but I don’t use it. I’m a slacker. Its a lot easier for me to snap a few shots with my cell phone and mobile upload it, rather than find a camera cable, unload, reload, etc. And my cell phone is smaller, of course, so I always have it with me. I need to really thank Susan for pointing out the mobile uploads to me and suggesting it, seeing she’s my phone buddy with the same phone as I have.

But that’s about it, really. Busy day with tests and papers to work on, but seeing I’m a good boy who follows the news, well, I’ve been thinking a lot about change…

More on that point later. I’m really making sure what I say is right when I say it…

There’s a very funny thing about marriage that I’d like to share as my post for the day. Its something that the more and more I look around me and the portrayal of it in pop culture that I really have to sadly shake my head at.

See, growing up and all throughout our lives, the institution of marriage is something that’s instilled as a bit of a “final goal” for successfulness in our lives. We’re set up with dreams of the marriage and a “happily ever after.” Disney has done a great job of placating this in our heads, as the rest of the media does as well. Seriously. Cinderella gets her Prince Charming, the Beast is really a prince, and Snow White only goes to sleep but doesn’t die from the poison apple. And the one true love and its kiss. All of that stuff.

And so when we head away to college or we move out of our parent’s houses, we see marriage as one of those things on a “to-do” list. Not everyone, I know, but a good number of folks. And because its so culturally infused, we have it subconsciously whether we’re really thinking about it or not… For me, I thought that. I’ve always gone into every relationship I’ve been in as if it was my last one for the sole reason that there was no reason for me to “line up” replacements–it meant that I wasn’t giving the person I was with my all and I would be setting us up for sabotage.

With marriage, we’re always shown it as a final beautiful snapshot. Everything in white and black and floral and colored and beautiful…

And the truth is, a shot like that is a moment in time. I look at that picture and I’m only 24. Sarah’s only 25 there. It’s almost been a year and now I’m 25 and Sarah’s 26. What about next year? And the year after that? And after that?

We look at these pictures and we forget that a marriage is work. Its a relationship. Its people working together to make what they have between them work. And its two people who have a shared love for each other, for life, and for sharing everything that comes between them, as one.

We overlook all of those things when we talk about marriage. It’s the final scene in a movie, it’s the coup de grace, the big cheese.

No, its not. Its only barely the beginning… There are always pictures we take after it, and there’s things that need to be worked on from time to time. Keep it as a well oiled machine, just keep on keeping it on… We can’t let life get in the way of a marriage or things like this. Not at all. Life is meant to be shared with those we take into it.

And that, is what a marriage is.

For about the past month or so, I’ve been talking about the new Seven Mary Three album, day&nightdriving. I can’t count how many times I’ve posted that same exact link here, but if anyone wants to figure it out, maybe I’ll give you a cookie.

Needless to say, there are very few bands that I get all “fan-boy” over. If you know me well enough, you know that it comes down to just a handful, with them being the ones that I have posted on my links page, primarily. Seven Mary Three happens to be one of them. From the first time that I saw them in 2002–when I actually was able to get up on stage and sing with the band–I’ve been to a total of four of their shows, and this Friday and Saturday, I’ll be able to bring that total up to six. Always with a strong show and a back catalog of over 5 albums of material, they’re a forgotten rock gem.

Five albums? I should say six with this new one. The guys known solely for “Cumbersome” and “Water’s Edge” are once again striking at their mold with their new release, day&nightdriving. Twelve tracks long, the style of the album most mimics their sophomore album, Rock Crown with varying harder and softer songs and intricate arrangements of guitars and other instruments. My fan-boy nature aside, this album struck me at first listen. I really didn’t know what to think of it. I didn’t like the flow from song-to-song, and I had to play it again. And on the second listen, I started to get it. I really saw the sonic landscape and it made perfect sense. This album isn’t an album that you’ll put in for instant gratification, no not first listen at all, but this is an album that you’ll put on to let grow with you. This is what an album should be and could be if more bands focused on their arts–strong collections of songs that you don’t want to skip over when you come to them because they don’t make sense to listen to in any other order; strong collections of songs that tell stories.

Let’s take a look at the individual tracks that make up this story…

1 - Last Kiss: The lead off single from the album, “Last Kiss” strikes hard and strong. The acoustic guitars layer up slowly to the peak of the electric guitars and the band coming in on the second verse/chorus area. Short, sweet, and to the point, the song feels very poignant on love lost and left behind, and the hook line that comes up in the chorus is fast, ferocious, and delivered with such passion that it emotes fully and wholeheartedly the wavered sentiments of the verses.

2 - Laughing Out Loud: And here is where the first jolt hits the listener. A bit of a slower paced song from the first one, “Laughing Out Loud” has a swampy muddy feel to it, with a few bright guitars that chime through from time to time. The real treat in this song is that even though the first track sort of showed you a more elaborate songwriting style, the lyrics here are beautifully interwoven right up to the end hook of the chorus. Because of the ever mutating nature of the chorus here, its a familiar and warm welcome.

3 - Was A Ghost: If the jarring change in the first two tracks wasn’t enough, by the time you come up to the reverb laced distorted intro to “Was A Ghost,” you’ll be scratching your head. A fan favorite from the first “T-I-M-E” that it was played, the “R-U-S-T rust” line has become a call-and-answer part of live shows. The lyrics shine over simple guitar riffs, but that’s the key to Jason Ross and Thomas Juliano’s back and forth nature with the music: very simple guitar parts by Ross with intricately weaved melodies and riffs by Juliano. Look for this again on the whole album.

4 - Dreaming Against Me: The album’s multi-faceted appearance is drawing close to a close by this point when the country-tinged “Dreaming Against Me.” The first few times I listened to it, the only thing I could think of that felt close to this stomp-happy song was Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Down on the Corner.” A happy sort of track with a very positive “Hey, everything’s gonna be alright” chorus that you’ll find yourself humming in your head away from the song, the lyrics really shine here as well.

5 - Hammer & a Stone: Speaking of lyrics and sides of the album, “Hammer & a Stone” is the perfect example of the softer acoustic nature of some of these songs. A long time solo track that’s been heard at acoustic shows, the longing nature of the track and the analogies and syllogisms with the imagery envelope the listener in the open road and a transition between the twilight and the dusk. The acoustic guitar blended with the piano and a touch of sustained guitar in the background all melds together perfectly.

6 - Break the Spell: Back to the swampy distorted nature of some of the songs, “Break the Spell” is an older track that fans have heard for many years coming. I personally have a live recording from 2003 with a different chorus, and the chorus has undergone a lot of rewriting, but the melody remains the same. And beyond all of that, I can tell you that I walk around singing this song myself because the hook line just gets stuck in your head. A perfect build-up and very simple melody that has beautiful overlaying of lead guitar, this song is what songwriting could and should be.

7 - You Think Too Much: I’ve used the word “swampy” to describe a lot of this album, and on “You Think Too Much,” it fits that bill, but in a similar vein of “Laughing Out Loud,” with a twist that sounds like it belonged on 7M3’s Economy of Sound album. Serving as a good lead-off to the proverbial side B of the album, this track doesn’t shine or sparkle but merely glows. Its a nice mid-tempo rocker that doesn’t stand out too much till you find yourself singing it later on, trying to remember why you didn’t notice it the first time through.

8 - Strangely at Home Here: First heard back in 2005 at their 10 year American Standard anniversary shows, “Strangely at Home Here” was immediately a fan favorite. A fun song that connects the listener and the music to a memory of a favorite bar or hang-out, the upbeat nature and acoustic laid back feel would make this one sparkle or shine as a later single from the album, or a beautiful B-side to any second single.

9 - She Wants Results: The familiarity of the songs might have sunk in to this point, but the sampled drums on “She Wants Results” will certainly wake you out of that rut. A quiet softer song that further makes you feel like you’re on the night side of things, the lyrics are softly woven around the format of the guitar and the blatant sample. As a whole, the track grows on the listener, and it just takes a while to sink in, but the pleading message of the chorus intertwines with things so desperately that you start to hear it differently very shortly.

10 - Upside Down: While “Dreaming Against Me” has a country-stomp feel, “Upside Down” has a bit more of an AM country feel. The longing in the chorus and the lines leading up to it are the perfect country two-step that most folks shy away from. But make no mistake, the thing that makes this un-country are Ross’s vocals. While still bordering the twang in a lot of places, the progression of the song forces onward from the basic driving nature and lets you feel more of a softer alt-country a là Train type of pain. To bypass this song would be a travesty. It feels slightly out of place, but makes more sense the more you listen to it.

11 - Dead Days in the Kitchen: Another softer acoustic piece that by this time you probably forgot were on this album, “Dead Days in the Kitchen” feels like it should be the absolute last track on the album. It has a complete resolution in its tone and voice, leading into the type of song that you’d imagine listening to on the end of a long night drive as you pulled into your driveway. Quiet and somber, that doesn’t mean this song still doesn’t have the flow. Very nicely done instrumentalization as a whole.

12 - Things I Stole: And if “Dead Days in the Kitchen” was the song that you’d listen to pulling into a driveway, “Things I Stole” is the track you’d sit in your garage and listen to before tip-toeing quietly into your house. With an impromptu feel of picking up some guitars, the country-ish nature of the song doesn’t belittle it in any manner. It feels like the perfect closer to the long journey just taken, even if its a step or two beyond what you expected.

As a whole, these tracks meld together in some sub-etheral way that as different as they are all individually apart, together they make sense. It is a true album in every sense and heart of the word, and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who has a chance to pick it up as it releases today. Only $9.99 on iTunes, most stores have it for about the same price. Or if you’re in Orlando, you can pick it up at Park Ave CDs for about $12 and get a free ticket to see them at the Orlando House of Blues with opener Big 10-4 on February 23rd. It’s worth your money, trust me.

Besides, that’s the only way you’d get to hear them play new versions of “Cumbersome” and “Water’s Edge,” seeing they’re both not on this album.

As a whole, I’ve been thinking a lot about a guest on last Thursday night’s The Daily Show. My friend Goob mentioned this recently on his blog and took the article to one angle, but I’ve been thinking in another means.

Folks who know me know that I remain glued to my cell phone quite a bit. I love my little Samsung M510 and I love my Sprint service. I’m glued to it. And when the iPhone came out, friends turned their heads my way and asked me if I was going to get one. I was already that addicted to my phone and its abilities and connectivities, what was the real difference to adding one more thing, right? Touch screen, full internet in the palm of my hand, what more could I want or need?

The thing is, do we really need all of that? Do we really need to be able to surf to all of that porn or news or video all at the flick of a finger across a touch screen? Do we need to be able to have a completely interactive fully integrated phone with our mp3s and calls?

I know that I can do a lot with my phone, and I know as a whole there’s a lot more I could do that I don’t, or a lot that I do that I can’t, but in this era of times where a text message has replaced a simple phone call, or if someone shoots me a MySpace or Facebook message and my phone flashes with a new text? Or I can read my Gmail or MSNBC.com or any of those other sites on my phone. I read Orlando’s Craigslist on my phone, and I even have a spare AIM screenname that forwards messages as text messages. I get so many alerts and other bleeps and blurbles that its a wonder that my phone hasn’t committed seppuku.

What I’m trying to get at, is in this modern world where we could drop a simple phone call to someone to say “hi” or make plans to meet at any one of the three Starbucks you find at any intersection (the fourth corner is either a bank or a Walgreens, seriously), we rely on these messages and this connectivity.

AT&T keeps claiming “more bars in every places” and the other carriers say they’re connecting families. The truth is, we’re so distant because we focus on just another screen when we’re away from the one here at home to deliver us anything that we can’t just let it be.

And we wonder why we call Blackberry devices “Crackberries“? We have no restraint.

I’m just as guilty as anyone else. Heck, I always watch out of the corner of my eye to see if my phone starts flashing… I mean, it is easier than obsessively refreshing my e-mail…

The thing I hate about going to sleep after doing something where I’m hurt the day before is waking up the next morning. All the time being awake before, you have a chance to start pushing at the pain and making it where you don’t hurt as much. Well, where you try not to hurt as much. You’re still fighting the pain, but you have a chance to really push against it. The same goes for my foot, of course. It still hurts, but as the title suggests, I’m dealing.

So why am I up so bloody early? Because its Sunday, and I like breakfasts. And I do them big. Especially on weekends that my sister is here, I’m a breakfast machine. Right now, I have the cinnamon rolls just left the oven and have been iced, the hashbrowns on the stove top, and I’ll be starting my wife’s hardboiled eggs and everyone’s turkey bacon soon as well, and then my sister’s over easy eggs, and my omelete comes dead last. And this will all be done within the next 30ish minutes. I’m just that good.

I could be a cook. But that’s for another entry…

As a whole, I’m a fairly mellow type person. It takes a lot to work me up, or just stupid things as a whole. But when I get worked up? Usually not a good thing.

Take about an hour ago. Stupid small argument where I was the one raising my voice. I walked out of the apartment after Sarah and I slammed the door shut. Feeling particularily violent, I kicked the door frame.

Door frames don’t kick back, but they do a very good job of standing still.

Needless to say, my right foot hurts, and I’m suffering for it: the apartment we visited in looking for our upcoming sublease was on the second floor. So after walking down our stairs, I had to walk up theirs, walk down theirs, and walk back ours. Not fun.

I think this evening bodes some Tiger Balm, ice packs, and my homework. And a lot of resting it and taking it easy.