SCORE!

Finally! This shit-box is finally doing what I want it too. So, I took my Firewire card back to Dynamics and they didn't have any others so they just refunded me the $55 I spent on the card. I went over to Computer Solutions, found one for $25, plus it was a newer version of the card and also came with a cable(which I can't use anyway) and video editing software. Plus, my F-control now works. Been fiddling around with it for the past while. IT's not perfect but it's awesome. I can't play sound out through my speakers if they are going out the headphones and anyhing I play on my guitar won't come out the headphones or the speakers on my comp..I can only get a direct feed from my mixer..although i might find a way to fix this...I can still record the sound so I figure I might just have something set wrong.

Just got back from a concert in which I bought the Shoot the Messenger Ep, Come Revolution. Haven't listened to it yet but I love these guys live so I hope it's awesome. Although I must say, it's been exactly a week since I've seen Tool(actually, exactly a week ago, I was still at the concert) and this concert wasn't even close...no coloured lights let alone lasers. Plus nothing moved but the band members......kinda boring. It was much quieter than the Tool concert too.

Hmmm. Indeed.

Well, just finished re-installing a bunch of shit to my computer. I was starting to have problems with it(to much fucking spyware) and so I decided to wipe it. It was much quicker this time since I have a second hard drive I could easily move to files I wanted to keep. Although it has fixed most of the problems(not being able to delete certain files, etc.), it didn't fix the main one, and that is my firewire connection. This leaves me at one conclusion. They Firewire card they sold me is shot. I've tried everything. Putting it in a different slot, trying different slots on it, different hardware and software. As far as I can tell, it's my last option. I guess I'll run over to Dynamics tomorrow and exchange it for a new one. No problem there. I just want my fucking F-control to work.

Fuck It.

I'm just about ready to throw this fucking computer off a cliff. It's a cheap peice of shit that has to break at every chance it gets. I finally get a little progress on upgrading it and it fucks me over. I'm sick and tired of spending money on it fixing things that wouldn't have broken if it was any other computer. Don't ever, under any circumstances, buy an Acer computer.

Tool.

Oh my God. Where to start.....I guess I'll start at the start of the trip. Jon, Jeremy and I headed up to Regina on Wednesday and caught a ride with Rob(and met some crazy chick invading his house). We headed off to Calgary and an awesome experience. After switching drivers a few times we stopped off for the night in Brooks, Alberta(Between Medicine Hat and Calgary). After tenting for the night we finished the drive and headed to the zoo(and with only one or two wrong turns).

After spending a few hours there seeing the lions and tigers and monkeys and zebras and hippos and all the other good animals, we headed over to Davin (last name)'s apartment and hung out there for a couple hours. We headed off and were just going to walk but to our dismay we found we could not close the trunk..The latch was broken. We found a parking spot about a block away from the stadium for only 10 bucks and our stuff was safe.

It took us about 2 minutes(not even) to get to the stadium and about 10 to walk through it and another 15 to get in. We had missed the opening act(ISIS) but we weren't too worried about that, we wanted Tool. We split up into our two groups and Jon and I found our seats. Directly in front of the band, but two rows from the roof of the building. Although we couldn't see the band members too well we had an excellent view of the lightshow. WE decided to go get merchandise and food. I gots a hat and a t-shirt. While we were standing in the line for food I heard a riff and I said to myself "Hey, that sounds like Stinkfist" And then Maynard kicked in and I said "Hey, That IS Stinkfist!" So me and Jon rushed to our seats..This is where it got good.

The concert started out with a bang and ended with a bigger bang. The band was playing on a stage with a 6 foot wall behind made out of big screens and the floor was the same thing. These screens were white and could either be projected onto or actually show a picture themselves. Through wild colours and designs they kept you interested. The riser for the drums also had lights on it. As the concert went on some other things moved in. Three large rings with lights covering them that near the end tilted and showed the bottom with some sort of design from hell. Some lights streams that almost looked like curtains, lasers, and more and more spotlights. The colours were vibrant and the music was loud. They kicked it into high gear as they played old songs like Stinkfist, Sober, Lateralus, Schism(and a few others) mixed in with new songs like The Pot, Jambi, Right in Two and Vicarious. Sadly they did not play the wings duo but the concert was aimed at a faster tempo. They kept the blood flowing as they hammered your senses with wild colours, loud music, and earth shaking rumble and the smell of weed mixed with fake smoke.....IT was the best concert I have ever been too and any others will have to try very hard to come close to matching it.

After the show We immediately headed off, Rob had to be at Dave(id) and Amanda's wedding by noon to take pictures. At Medicine Hat we stopped and Jeremy took over driving and I was in the passenger seat keeping him awake. We found out that you can drive from Calgary to Moose Jaw on a tank of gas in Rob's car. Once we got to Regina Jon headed off and the rest of us showered and shaved for the wedding. WE headed off on what I was told would be a 2 hour trip. It was 3 but since we had been an hour early we actually arrived on time.....Things were almost going too well. The ride was much more comfortable without three people crammed into the back of that car. We got there and started taking pictures. At one point we drove out to a farm only to find that the car Dave(id) and Amanda had been driving had a screw in the tire. They headed back to the church while Jeremy and I got to work. Five minutes later we were on our way. Everything else happened pretty well. I think some great pictures were taken(although I haven't actually seen any of them) and the wedding went off pretty flawlessly. Dave(id) is now a married man and Amanda is now a married woman. Congrat's to both of them. After the reception when the dance was starting I headed off with Kristie and Steve because Steve was going to Weyburn anyway and I needed to be home by 2 today cause I work.

I hope everyone who gave me a ride knows how much I appreciate it, Rob, Kat, Jeremy Steve, Kristie and anyone else who took us in because without them, I may not have been able to see Tool, and it was an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life......IT FUCKING KICKED ASS!

Edit: Sorry I don't have any pictures, I took two pictures at the zoo and my camera stopped working.

Tol.

Just back. one hour sleep in past 40 hours. me tired...tell mor temory.

L.G.T.

Well, leaving to head off to Calgary in a few hours. Gonna see Tool for what will peobably be the best day of my life. Screw getting married, this is fucking Tool. Gonna have some pictures, hopefully some of the band and maybe some audio files, but you won't get any of the audio files. I'm not gonna try my luck to get my camera in too much because I'm there to watch them, not to bring you guys home some pictures. Plus, out of the three people that read this thing, two of them are coming along. Anyway...see in a few days.

Clean up

I took a bunch of blogs off the blog list on the side because they weren't posting. Now, the links are still there, I've just made them comments so if you want it back or just want me to link to your blog in the first place, tell me. Or if you want me to take yours off that's cool too. I just had too many there that haven't updated in a long time and a few that the people had said are gone.

ughh.

Frick I'm tired. In the past three weks the only days I've had off I have had to work at the WIT. Really sucks. The only thing keeping me going now is the fact that I am only 4 days away from seeing Tool...............I CAN'T FUCKING WAIT!!! And I got a real big paycheck on Thursday which makes those 10, 11 and 14 hour days more worth while.

I've got an idea of what my next Tattoo is gonna be(although It's gonna have to wait till I'm done school and have money. It's actually a bunch of things and once it's all complete it will be huge. It actually incorporates the one I have into it. On my left arm, on the same spot as my right one, I will get a cross woth the same flower curled around it, then just below my neck I'm going to get an eye..probably the Tool eye just because it is the best for what I want it to symbolize. Then at about the middle of my back It will have a head from the side looking up with it's mouth wide open and eyes clenched closed, like it's screaming. coming out of the mouth will be vines that lead to the other three tattoo's and each of those will have vinces that lead to each other. The one I have now will symbolize evil, the cross one will symbolize good, the eye will symbolize the spirit and the head will symbolize the body. The body will be the only one without an eye on it symbolizing that without the other three, we are blind. The tentacles are how they are all brought together and symbolizes life. I have a rough drawing of it(and when I say rough, I mean rough) and I think if done right, it could look pretty fucking cool. I'd get they guy here in Weyburn to do it since he is familiar with what I have and what I want.

Big day.

Lot's happening today. So I started the day at 12am doing a crew close at work. Got out of work at 1, which is pretty damn good for a crew close, and went home. I sat down at the computer and played guitar for a while and then watched the Daily Show and the Colbert Report only to find that it was 3:30. Went to sleep and was woken at 8:30 by Steve and Jon phoning to see if I still wanted to go to Regina. So I jumped in my car and we headed for Regina. Once their I bought myself a mic(so now I can record good quality vocals...yay!). We then headed to the Southland. Steve wanted to go to HMV and so we went..I walked out with a cd and a DVD. The DVD is the Lamentations DVD put out by Opeth. It shows a live performance and behind the scenes of making their duel discs.

The cd is a pretty interesting cd, and not something I would normally buy. It is a string quartet tribute to the Tool cd Aenima. This cd goes through the entire cd(even the weird tracks, like (-) ions) with only Violins, Violas, a Cello and a Contrabass playing. It is a very interesting take on the cd, and one I am enjoying. Although I would say that I like the original cd more, this one isn't without it's charm. The players are obviously very talent and some of the things they do with their instruments I didn't know could be done. It also makes you fully realize what the band means when they say that Maynard's voice is an instrument.

Anyway, we then headed over and watched Talladega Nights, but I'll give you a review later. We headed home after the movie and I then had to head over to work right away, I worked at 5 - 12:45. Had one worker walk out on us so I have to cover one of his shifts tomorrow. I haven't had an actual day off in a long time...the only days off I have gotten in the past 4 weeks are Thursdays and I work with Clint those days....ah well...my paycheck is going to be huge and I'm going to see Tool next week. Anyway, another worker might have walked out on us but I'm, not sure how that's going. All I know is that she called me the most psychotic person she had ever meet....which I think is the biggest compliment anyone has ever given me.

Anyway, got everything done tonite and now I'm sitting in front of the computer with a string rendition of Fourty-six & two playing and a Milk to go and Reese cookies which are way to Fucking rich. Might work on some lyrics to add to that stuff on my myspace or I might just go to sleep...probably the latter.

Talladega Nights - A funny movie. The only real problem with it was that it's story line just came from Anchorman(which I called). He's big, drops down because of his own fault and raises up to win and be the hero. But it's still a funny movie(although not nearly as funny as the news network game fight scene in Anchorman) and well worth the watch. I give it 8 gay French men out of 10.

I Am Going To Make Your Death........Interesting.

Well, I finally caved and got a Myspace account(Before Jeremy too, I just haven't mentioned mine yet). It's a band page and I've got 4 songs on it right now but I would like to replace them...or at least add some lyrics to three of them. Might go up to Regina with Steve and Jon tommorrow and buy a mic but I'm still not sure. I'm working on a song right now that I think is better than anything I've written before.....and it's all thanks to Behringer.

So, it sounds like Jon and I have a ride to the Tool concert. Rob, Kat and Jeremy are being gracious enough to give us a ride(mainly Rob I guess since it's his car...I think). About 11 days till the concert....I can't freakin' wait! But this stupid thing called time says that I'll have to......Sometimes I want to put time on the list...and it's getting closer and closer to making it.

Firewall - Harrison Ford stars as a computer programmer for a bank whose family is kidnapped and will only be released when he gets them into the bank so they can steal money off the computers. Thier plans go bad when they find there is nowhere to plug thier computer into and Harrison Ford must figure a way to steal the money using what they have. A good movie but some of the computer stuff they were doing didn't make sense to a guy like me.......just gibberish. This made it a little hard to get going but it still makes for a good movie. It's really a mind game between good and bad. I give it 8 hacks out of 10. I also noticed that they do not talk about Firewalls at all in the movie..they just don't come into play.

So That's Why Baseball Sucks.....Well, One of the Reasons.

I was just reading an article about baseball that answered the question of how much baseball was played in a baseball game. IT states that although the average baseball game last 2 hours and 34 minutes, two seperate findings have found that the ball is actually in play for 9 and 12 minutes.........That's it. Another reason added to the host of reasons why baseball sucks.

Do you?

Ok, I need to borrow a Firewire device from someone to test and see if my Firewire card is working properly. If anyone knows of anything, please contact me.

Went and talked to Adam at Music Craft today and talked a little on how to properly set up my mixer and F-control. He's not sure what is wrong with it but he figures, as do I, that it is either the Firewire or that my computer is telling me I have software that I don't. Either way I have to figure it out. He showed me the equipment he uses.....it does a lot less but costs a lot more. I figure his will NEVER break and will produce near studio, if not studio, quality sound. I might take a look at the Firewire setup he uses but if it's my computer that is the problem then that isn't going to fix it.

Listening to Bleak over my amp right now. Not the greatest quality but the Bass kicks ass.

Guh?

Man, packing shit up sucks. I started to pack stuff for the trip to Vancouver but it's hard because everything I'm bringing is what I'm currently using so I have basically packed nothing. I just gotta pack the rest of the stuff and get it into storage.

Went to Dynamic Technologies today to see if they knew what the fuck was wrong with my computer and was met with a dumbfounded look. So no help there. If I don't get a good response from Behringer this time I guess I'll just have to send the F-control back....which sucks because it is so freakin' sweet. At least my Eurotrack works......mmmmm, Eurotrack.

Dad and I were going to go to Clarica and see about taking money out of the RESP but they are closed till August 18th on summer holidays......Jerk-wads. I never got a summer vacation this year...hell I hardly get a day off each week.

MONKEY!

What Is That You SAAAAAAYYY???

Well, I still haven't got my F-control working(haven't had time to work with it) and I still love my Eurotrack Pro. Also, you smell....ok that's me. I just got off work.

So, I went and worked that 14 hour day and for doing it, my boss gave me 20 bucks worth of movie gift certificates. He's making me feel real bad about leaving in September. We got a new pop machine and front area at McDonald's last night..looks pretty snazzy. Oh, that reminds me:

Waluigi is one of the regulars at the Wal-MArt McDonald's. I swear to god. This old guy comes in With pointy ears and a big pointy nose and a chin that reaches as far out as the nose. And also he always wears blue. I know Waluigi is purple but when purple fades sometimes it turns blue. You see, this guy is old..I figure all the games were made a long time ago and he has aged since then and retired in Weyburn....it's fucked up man.


Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang - See Pilot's World. I give it 10 Abe Lincoln's out of 10.

Interesting.

Well, The F-control was fine. I plugged it into Jon's computer and it was immediatly recognized(Thanks again Jon....YOur a life-saver). This leaves me with two conclusions:

1. The Firewire card I got is shotty.

2. The 6 megs of ram I am short is making a difference. Requirements say 512 and I have 506.

So I went looking for ram today but seeing as I only have two slots I have to buy a 512 stick....and everone is out of them. Plus this will leave me with an extra stick of 256 megs of ram...if anyone is interested, call me(It's DDR ram).

I gots a picture of my setup minus my guitars...here it is:



Not bad..I just need a new amp now. The Eurotrack Pro is the big thing on the amp with all the nobs.....it's a mixer for those of you who don't know(Shanna) and the F-control is the little white box on top of it, next to the headphones...it's a sound card for those of you who don't know(shanna).

And now....lets all make fun of Shanna.

WHy am I picking on Shanna today you may ask? Well, the answer is simple....She's my sister, why not?

Bye.

Argghyay!

Well, gots my equipment from Cleo's yesterday. I got the mixer up and working and played with it last night till 3 am. I love it already. The F-control, which is the portable sound card that I will use to attach the mixer to my computer I have not gotten working as of yet. For some reason I can't get the driver to install. It tells me to hook up the device and I do and then nothing happens. All the lights on the F-control work properly but that fucking driver installation program stops there. I went and sent an e-mail to Berhinger support though and asked them what was up so maybe I'll get a reasponse soon...hopefully.

Anyway, I broke a string last night and now I am going to replace it.......good bye.

YIPEE!

Cleo had it in! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Somewhat-Proud Owner

Ya, my computer is starting to be pretty good...doesn't kick ass or anything but in the past month or so I have doubled the ram and hard-drive capacity and got myself a firewire card(just bought it today.) Now once my equipment from cleo's comes in, I'll have a pretty sweet recording setup. The Firewire card was suprisingly cheap..only 55 bucks. The kit that allows you to have a port for it at the front of your computer cost nearly 80. crazy.

I broke my glasses the other day and have yet to take them in and get them fixed. I found my old ones so they are doing the trick for now. I'm gonna get the others fixed tommorrer. ANyway, I'm going to buy strings for my acoustic..which Jeremy has right now. And to see if Cleo has got my stuff in yet(probably not..it hasn't been that long, but a guy has to have hope.)

14 and One Half.

Yup, I just got off a 14 1/2 hour day at work. I was supposed to work 11 - 7 but at 5 I was the only one in the grill area. One guy was doing Brower and would be back soon and the other guy that was supposed to be closing decided not to come in to work. Luckily supper was slow but when the boss asked if I wanted more hours, I said yes, turning my 8 hour day into a 14 and a half hour day. It was crew close(the night maintenence guy had the night off) so instead of getting out at 12:15 like normal, I got out at 1:30.....super fun! Anyway, I'm gonna finish my sub(I haven't eaten since 3) and then go to bed.