Thinking About What A Friend Had Said, I Was Hoping It Was a Lie

       I finally managed to whittle the list down to one so it's Post 19: A Song From Your Favourite Album. Before I get to the song honourable mentions go out to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon, The Tragically Hip's Phantom Power, Matt Mays and El Torpedo's Terminal Romance, Rage Against The Machine's Renegades, and Neil Young's Harvest. So without further ado the title track from my favourite album

Great Album Creepy Cover

Neil Young's After the Goldrush is sentimental without being sappy, it's the rare album that works for every mood, it's calming, but still uplifting. The albums lead track "Tell Me Why" is a perfect introduction for what's to come while "Cripple Creek Ferry" manages to wrap everything up in a neat little package. The best known song would probably be Southern Man which is probably the song that seems the most out of place, It's the longest song on the album, it's also the one with the most anger. Unlike most Neil Young albums there are no long jams and Southern Man is the only song that has any of the "Disjointed" sound that would dominate the majority of the rest of his output. It almost feels more like a country album than anything else, A Cover of Don Williams Oh Lonesome me really drives this feeling home. The only real downer on the album would be Birds but even then it's not unwelcome. This is an album that when played on a car trip will make any time this album is playing fly by twice as fast. Really the only place this album wouldn't work would be at a wild party, other than that it can be played anywhere and fit in perfectly. If you have never heard this album from start to finish I highly suggest you go purchase it and listen to it in it's entirety right now
it's only 35 minutes long so I will wait.


I have decided upon a new goal for my life. To be the best at one thing. Let me clarify, one of my greatest frustrations is that in everything I do I am at best average, at worst awful. This encompasses everything in my life. There are a select few things I would say I am good at such as cooking, however I know numerous people who put me to shame in that regard. I don't need to be the best in the entire world I just want to be the best out of everyone I know. I don't need to nor do I want to be the best at everything, for that would make me even more insufferable. Of course for this to realistically happen I will need to select at least 1 if not more things to work on perfecting, and for some reason I believe that may be the most difficult part of this whole task. Things such as best Son/Brother/Boyfriend/Husband/Father etc. do not count since there is no clear way to figure out who is best and to compare skills. If you have any suggestions for what I should perfect feel free to tell me in the comments. Whatever it is I decide, I have a feeling I may have to wait awhile to be the best at anything besides being perfectly average.

The Daytimes Are Bad, The Nightimes Worse.

I'm having a hard time picking a favourite album for the next challenge post hence the long gap after being semi consistent in my writing which is incredibly frustrating since there have been many things I wanted to write about but no longer can since they are no longer relevant or applicable. One of them was going to be about how life is great and such but that topic has to be abandoned seeing as how so far all 9 days of 2013 have ranged from bad to terrible for various reasons that frankly nobody else needs to know. I am also finding it hard to find a song/title for this post since I keep over thinking everything and finding meanings that don't exist. Thankfully shuffle exists and cannot be influenced by outside factors even though there are times it seems the purposefully choose the songs that are the worst for any given situation.

Don't bother looking for some hidden meaning that doesn't exist. Go read a book or something

Remember I'm not picking these. It's the work of forces unknown

This may be my favourite album of 2012 but not even close to favourite overall

I have nothing to add here.

I hope in the next few days I can decide what my favourite album is and maybe feel one emotion at a time instead of everything and nothing at once. I also hope 2013 gets better because if it gets worse then I have truly done something wrong in a past life. Until then Goodnight and Goodluck

Guess I've Got That Old Travelin' Bone,

Let's just cut to the chase. Post 18: "A song that you wish you heard on the radio"

I want to learn the saxophone for the sole reason of playing this solo

It's a great song, it's slow, somber, but not overly sad. I'm sure I could here it if there was a dedicated classic rock station. Of course here in Yorkton there isn't one. CCR is one of the few groups that I can honestly say doesn't have a bad song. Are all of their songs great? Definitely not but there isn't a rotten apple in the barrel, However in music like apples if you don't like the taste of one you won't like the taste of any. There are two other musical groups who have the same distinction in quality, The Band, and Foo Fighters. This is also on the short list of songs I would want played at my funeral, One of the things I do when I want to kill time or focus on something unimportant and un-troubling is make playlists for every event. I have shared my thoughts on funerals here. I actually polished the second portion of that up into something much better for a SYP article I may replace the original or make a new post with the update.

I find more in more in my life I explain my actions and describe my personality, by talking about the various people in my life as I grew up. I come from a very large family of mostly healthy people so I have all kinds of influences to draw from but as I grow I find there are two people I am most like. One is obvious and makes a lot of sense which is my Father. For a small glimpse into the kind of person he is you can check out his Twitter. From being around him my whole life and being his son I have picked up a lot of his mannerisms, sensibilities, and ethics among other things. The one thing most people notice and comment on when first meeting the other after knowing one of us for awhile is how we basically have the same odd sense of humour that I really can't objectively describe. The other man I find in myself is my late maternal grandfather Arhibald "Archie" Locke. We were never particularly close but from sheer luck, some good some bad, and genetics, I have picked up quirks that are seemingly unexplainable and his personality.This is basically due to my picking up some of his undiagnosed minor mental disorders that are absent on my dads side of the family but seem to be lurking just under the surface on my mothers. However in my case these things didn't stay under the surface and are actually noticeable enough to be diagnosed. At one time I hated it and what it made me, but as I grow I am becoming at peace with it and can accept that it is an integral part of who I am for better or for worse. They are both a little quieter and a lot calmer than I am but I'm still a work in progress and I hope to one day be a bit more like both of them.

Indecipherable Korean, and Song About Boys

Post 17:  A Song That You Hear Often on The Radio

This is actually pretty hard since I generally spend 6 hours a day listening to and talking on the radio so for simplicity's sake I am excluding anything heard on the station I work at, This leaves me with the station I used to work at and there are two songs that I always seem to catch and they are both awful.

Seriously name me two current songs that are worse.

I have nothing to add for Psy, Taylor Swift on the other hand I have many negative thoughts about.

When is Taylor Swift going to grow up and sing songs that grown ass women would sing? Has she ever released a single that's not about boys and how much she likes them, or dislikes them, or how relationships are so haaaaaard etc.? Seriously she's turning 23 in a few weeks and still sings songs for 15 year old girls who have pictures of horses on the walls! When she started out it all made sense but thematically she hasn't progressed as an artist at all. Yes she has changed musically to keep with the times and is moving away from the very little bit of a country sound she had and is recording pure pop and asking some poor soul to lay a banjo track so her songs can torture me at work. I feel no ill towards Swift and she seems to be someone who isn't a horrible human being but unless she starts to write songs for her own age I never want to hear from her again.

I Am Tired Of Waiting

Usually I go on a tangent and then talk about the song choice but today I'm doing it the other way around. It's Post 16: "A Song That You Used To Love But Now Hate"

Beep Beep Motherfucker

This is the first Beatles song I was ever really aware of thanks to the "Beep Beep Yeah" being used in a radio jingle. The Beatles are great but this song isn't, I have no real memories good or bad associated with this song it's pretty boring and bland which are really the only things a song shouldn't be. If it wasn't for the album appearing as the default image for the video I wouldn't have remembered what album it was off of or if it was even on an album. All that being said I don't really hate this song, I am just indifferent to it iTunes says I have played it 6 times since January 2010. I also never really loved this song either I just enjoyed it a lot, I ended up choosing it because I don't have any strong negative feelings towards anything I have loved including music. Drive My Car just happens to have the largest gaps between how highly I used to think of it in the past and how ambivalent I am to it now. I also couldn't find any lyrics from this one to use as a title.

I can't think of a decent segue to my next topic and I don't want to beat around the bush so I will just come out and say it. I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND AND IT'S AWESOME!!! 
O.K. I'm glad I got that out of the system, I haven't gone and shouted this from the mountaintops and this is the public place I have put this statement out on so far. I am purposefully keeping this on the down low and on a need to know basis since it has always annoyed the hell out of me when others constantly crow about how awesome their significant other is and how theirs is better than yours and if you don't have one then your really up shit creek. Plus it is always fun to see people's reactions when they find out you have kept this kind of information from them. Still I will admit that it's hard not weave in mentions of the fact I have a girlfriend into every single conversation I have, but for the most part I have managed to avoid it, for now.
For some strange reason I find it easier to type out my thoughts and feelings in a semi-public place than it is to tell them to another human being in private so I apologize in advance for the inevitable posts about first world problems and the mundane aspects of relationships, I am almost certain the next post will address the fallacy that is normality, that being said plans were made to be broken.

Oh Dixie Land, I Hope You Understand

Blah Blah Blah, here are a couple tunes I'm really digging at the moment

This song makes me wish I was born in the southern U.S.

Or The 20's/30's Yeah I'd Be O.K. With That

I've been singing this one loudly and off key for a month

And to because 4 is better than 3 to wrap it up a song introduced to me by my best female friend 

I'll send this one to the one who calls me Nichimoose 

I have no intelligent comment to add to this. I will hopefully post another song challenge post next time but there's no real guarantee.

When It Starts To Fall Apart, Man It Really Falls Apart.

I am painfully pitifully out of shape, I am almost a gelatinous mass, I could be one of the people living in space in WALL-E. This is not an opinion or something up for debate, I am very much over weight and and it's my own damn fault. This sounds bad and it is but it has to be said in these terms otherwise I will just allow myself to become even worse. Now there is some good news, tonight I took a small step to becoming a not disgusting human being. I found a buddy travelled around Yorkton and found myself a full set of hockey gear. Buying the gear isn't enough though so I also went and played rec hockey tonight and you know what? I was awful, I forgot that most people can skate in more than direction and know how to stop, however for this being the first time I had been on skates in over 5 years and only the third time I had used a hockey stick while on skates it wasn't too bad and had I have been an in shape person it could have even been upgraded to O.K. This was not the case though and I was damn near dying before the opening face off, I soldiered on though and made it to the final whistle with a lot of time spent on the bench compared to my team mates but there was a noticeable improvement in my abilities and I even got my stick on the puck a few times. I'm currently a little sore and very tired and it feels great, I had actually forgotten how  good it feels be physically tired at the end of the day. I can't have been the worst person to lace up the skates because I got an invite out to play more rec hockey and I'm most likely going to take those offers up because there's no way more ice time will do me any harm.

This hasn't been a new revelation for me I have known for some time what I am and what I need to do  but I finally have a catalyst to make this happen. You see after going almost 4 years without going on a single date there is a member of the opposite sex who is interested in me. There interested in what I am now flaws and all but this person is drop dead gorgeous and frankly it wouldn't be fair to stick them with the dead weight I currently am. This won't be an overnight thing and I have enough positive qualities to carry me through until I am something I wouldn't mind seeing in the mirror. Right now this looks like something pretty hard to screw up, but I do have knack for messing up sure things and even if I do I'll be a better off than I am now. And yes, I do realize I somehow managed to post two blogs in one week.

I've Always Been Crazy, But It's Kept Me From Going Insane.

I have never claimed to be a man who could focus on one thing for very long, this why I am still working on a 30 project over a year and a half later. Had I been diligent I would have been done in January of this year with one post a week, August with two posts a month and with just a single post a month I will be done November of next year. Should this be done by then I will be surprised but one never knows, sometimes I will focus and put all my energy into something unimportant for a few months at a time which is what happened when I started this blog way back when. Anyways let us celebrate the half way point with...

I would pay good money to have facial hair like that.

 Post 15 "A Song That Describes You" That's about as accurate as any song can get, the title hits the nail on the head and lyrics such as "I can't say I'm proud of all of the things I have done, but I can say I've never intentionally hurt anyone" are as true a statement I can make. I wouldn't quite go as far to say it's my motto but sometimes life is best lived outside the lines.
      It also helps that this is a great tune by a country outlaw legend. I'm slightly dissapointed I couldn't find a studio version of the song, the one plus is that the old timers sound almost identical live as they did on pressed vinyl.  In the words of my father "The fact that Willie is still alive and Waylon isn't is proof there is no God" I wouldn't go quite that far, but it is unfortunate that most people only know Waylon for the Dukes of Hazzard Theme, one of my favourite shows to watch when I was in elementary school along with The A-Team which I am watching as I write this. Back then I watched both shows on Showcase Action and tonight I get to watch a thousand bullets get fired and 20 cars flip without anyone getting injured thanks to Netflix.

I Started Thinkin’ Bout The Rest of My Life

I Hope the Rest Of My Life Involves Long Scarves

Thinking about the future is one of my least favourite things to do but I seem to end up doing it all the time. Usually when I should be doing more productive things like sleeping or focusing on my job. I would probably be on much better terms with the future if I had more control over it, or if it happened to be just a little bit more clear.
     As someone who can't competently plan what will happen tomorrow let alone years down the line the future fills me with a sense of unease. There's also the fact that I am far too young to be concerning myself with such things but here I am none the less. If I were to fathom a guess as to why my future frightens me it would be because both my near and far past are filled with mistakes and regrets and after crunching the numbers it appears what is to come will follow the same trend of that which already is. There's also the fact that I am resistant to all change even that which would make my life better and all the future contains is an endless amount of change.
    As Joe Strummer once said "The future is unwritten" sadly my writing is illegible. 

Girl Look At That Body

I'm a pretty straight forward guy when it comes to most things. I make no claims of being a enigma wrapped in a mystery, I have voiced my opinion on pretty much every thing I have encounter and I've always held the belief that if your comfortable asking the question then I should be comfortable answering it. That being said there are anomalies in everything myself included my musical taste which brings me to Post 14 "A song that no one would expect you to love". I don't necessarily "love" the song that I chose but in terms of songs I shouldn't find any enjoyment at all in listening to, this is the one I like the most.

I'm not really that attractive don't worry I am already aware.

It's hard to attach anything of significance to a post with this song, so I have nothing more to add to this one other than it gets the floor packed at weddings and despite the poor lyrical quality it's catchy as a cold in the wintertime.

You Say You Want A Revolution?

Earlier today I was at work and say a link to a video entitled "Kony 2012" I clicked the link and watched for a minute or two then realized the video was 27 minutes long and there was no feasible way for me to watch it in it's entirety. Feeling that maybe this was going to be important since in the space of 5 minutes I saw it pop up two more times I googled Kony and found out who Joseph Kony is and saw what an awful person he is and learned of the evil things he was doing. I really didn't have time to throw my whole heart and soul into the plight of the child soldiers of Uganda seeing as how I had to do what I paid to do and whatnot. However it seems most of my friends had a lot more free time on their hands.

As of this posting 25 of my friends have posted the video and at least twice as many have made some kind of comment about them. In the last hour I've seen 5 different friends create groups dedicated to the plight of the Ugandans and the eventual downfall of Joseph Kony and have been asked to join two of them. I very promptly declined not because I don't care but because the events/groups were in cities that I did not live in and could not travel to on a regular basis and I would be doing a disservice to the group by joining and not participating. That being said I'm not jumping on the Kony 2012 train.

So hears the thing with these kind of campaigns. They get instanly huge crazy exposure right out of the gate, however due to the way they are delivered and the media they live in they inevitably die out since the collective population of internet has ADD and moves on quickly unless there is instant progress in whatever they are doing or if whatever it is they are working on gains more exposure. Seeing as how Kony just blew up in such a huge way it will reach it's saturation point in 2-3 days at that point some of the early learners who were drawn in but weren't really involved in the cause will get sick of seeing it so often. A day or two after that people who were so moved by what they saw and heard to join the cause after just a minute or two will suddenly find they have Jobs, and families, and things that are closer to home and much more urgent than the far away child soldiers who despite all the coverage will still be soldiers at this time next week.

Grouped in with the people who get distracted by their lives will be the Horror of the week club who will be on to the plight of someone else who is new and happening instead of the yesterday news citizens of Uganda. With those groups gone the people who got involved because their friends were into it will also leave and so the trend will continue until we see that those still fighting for the lives of child soldiers and their freedom will be the same people who were doing it before the videos went big.

It's no specific persons fault and I'm not going to belittle those who do get caught up in the whirlwind for however short a time since it is a good cause and for the most part their hearts are in the right place. The same thing goes for any similar campaign. A certain part of me wants to say don't do it unless you plan do it for the long haul but that would be wrong since you can't ask people to commit to something they don't know the second the try it. I'm sure a portion of the people posting the Kony 2012 videos will still be working for the cause next year it's just that the majority won't.

One of the main problems with these kinds of "events" is that there is no real direction just an end result. Every single group and video poster has said something about raising awareness, mission accomplished I'm aware now what? This has been a problem for the unofficial movements for ages from the post a colour and a country for cancer crowd to look at what your government is doing to your rights and freedoms groups. The few successful groups have managed to turn awareness into momentum by striking when the irons hot, but in today's instant access no wait times environment the iron will be cold in 48 hours.

If you are passionate about Kony or anything similar good for you, I hope you stick with it and accomplish all the goals involved with your movement and that you manage to stick through with it until the end. If you don't that's O.K. your not alone and if your movement dies from underneath you don't get discouraged just take what happened and learn how to ride the next wave of publicity to your goals.

UPDATE


Finally found time to watch the video, My feelings are still the same however I am glad to see it has a part two to it's plan that being said there are still some other flaws. I'm also pretty sure I'm being more sceptical towards this project than I should be but I just don't trust film-makers. I feel I may make a second post about this in roughly a weeks time.

I'm Gonna Be a Pirate On The River Saskatchewan!

So now I am back for Post 13 "A Song That is a Guilty Pleasure" I am aware I planned on making a new post sooner rather than later but life managed to get in the way. I picked up a second job which halved my free time and made it so I barely had time to eat and sleep let alone write anything that was more than a few sentences long. Even when I did have the urge and the time for making a blog post I found that I had to write stuff for Saskatchewan Youth Parliament, but that is now done and I have some free time this morning so here I am.

Personally I think the easiest way to describe a guilty pleasure or at least my definition of a guilty pleasure is anything you wouldn't tell your friends/family about. Even if it is non-typical of the things you usually enjoy or embarrassing but you still willing tell people about it then whatever it may be doesn't make you feel all that guilty. For me, my guilty pleasure is something I started listening to when I was 12 years old sometime during grade 6 or 7. Despite not always being funny I have always had a sense of humor so it almost makes sense that the first CD I bought with my own money wasn't from one of the well known names myself and almost everyone else would appreciate at some point in there life but instead was a live Arrogant Worms album.

I Know the song and the post title aren't the same but methan gas comes out my ass doesn't make quite that good a title. Actually on second thought it does and it's kind of true.

My first introduction to the group was the above song being sung by my counselors during  summer camp. Then one day I did a KaZaa search and downloaded all the different songs I could find and over the course of a few months managed to memorize the words to most of them. Then one day I found out the Worms were coming to Prince Albert so of course I had to save up a few weeks allowance so I could go and check it out and then spend another two months allowance on three different CD's. Even back then I didn't go around mentioning my enjoyment of the group and shortly after seeing them live I more or less grew out it and I doubt if I still have those three CD's and if I do I have no idea where they are. That being said should someone begin singing most of their songs I will quickly join in and all of their good songs are still on my iPod and I only occasionally skip them if no one else is around to hear them.

Are You Ready, For This To Take a Hold of You?

Nothing gets done during the summer. Scratch that less productive things happen during the which is why it has been roughly two months since I have posted anything. At first I felt awful about this then I realized nobody else made a post so now my conscious feels clean.

Since I posted last not much has happened my sister graduated friends have moved away and I started a weight loss challenge with some co-workers. The most significant of these three things is the one about people moving away since I am now without The Man Child and Leaf now that they are in Regina. I now live in an empty house by myself, well for a few weeks at least and I have learned something important about myself. I cannot live by myself. It just doesn't work at all I lay in bed all day and really lose the will to do anything. I think I need someone around to almost impress/motivate me to not be a total slug. Thankfully this should be ending in the near future however I realize that it will continue to be an issue whenever I move or when my roommate takes more than a 3 day vacation.

Well that's all I have at this moment in time next post I will most likely continue the 30 post song challenge with Post 13 "A Song That is a Guilty Pleasure" hopefully it doesn't take 3 months to get it written

A second recurring problem I have is the separation of David Johnson neurotic guy living in Yorkton and Fox FM's David Johnson. I know some of my colleagues have special twitter/facebook/blogs that are meant for the public to see as well as their own private ones but I am not one of those people I just have a fan page my sister made that I periodically update when I remember it exists. However more and more often listeners are finding me on Facebook and Twitter so I now have a dilemma. Do I add them as a friend despite not knowing them to give myself more exposure or do I delete the request and continue to post things willy nilly regardless of how they would affect listeners perception of me. Twitter on the other hand I have less control over who sees so I have decided to go through and sterilize it and remove all mentions and links to the blog since I really don't easy access to it however if someone is determined enough to find then I feel they should be rewarded in being able to read it and all the revealing stuff contained within seeing as how I am far too lazy to update two Facebook profiles, two Twitter accounts and two blogs especially when I go 3 months without uodating just one from time to time.

Do You Wanna Be Somebody Else?

So here is one I have been ready to do for a little while now. It's Post 11 "A song from a band you hate". I am actually really excited for this one since I am very opinionated when it comes to music and there is tons of stuff I dislike and even despise but there are very few artists I hate. In order for me to hate something there has to be no redeeming qualities or merit to anything the group has ever put out and there is only one group I can truly say this applies to.

I feel gross just putting this video on here. My blog has been violated!

My problem with Simple Plan boils down to one simple point. They are the biggest posers in the world. If you look and listen to what they do you see they release an album of music that is whatever is popular at the moment. Their first album was a cheap Blink-182 or Sum 41 rip off and had all their albums been that I wouldn't have that much of a problem with Simple Plan. Heck even on their second album which was a bit darker and sounded exactly like Billy Talent wasn't too large of a departure. Then they officially become shape shifting clones after their third album when they went almost complete pop because that's what was selling at the time. Simple Plan is the equivalent to guy who cheers for whatever won the Superbowl or respective championship and completely denies and forgets cheering for a different team the year before. We all know that person and we all have utter disdain for them since they have no opinion/style of their own and that's Simple Plan in a nutshell.

So I'm back home for a few weeks and I decided to not tell anyone except for a select few that I was returning and so far I am glad that's how I decided to handle it. Usually whenever I come home my phone goes off constantly and I find myself running all over to please everyone. This time I have spent two days at home relaxing, recharging, and recuperating. This does not mean I will not tell my friends and acquaintances that I am in the area since that would mean I would end up on the opposite side of the scale and see no one which would be no fun at all.

I've come out of internet exile and am now checking Facebook at least once a day just to see what everyone is doing. When I was in exile I nearly went insane a few times since I have a compulsive need to know everything about everyone which is rather inconvenient when you know people are telling and keeping secrets but I digress. I did go on Facebook a few times during exile to find out required information for a few events and to fulfill social customs and wish friends Happy Birthdays. I'm glad I went into exile for a little while since I now no longer feel the need to check Facebook every hour. The same applies to Twitter which I haven't returned to except to delete all links to my blog since I have decided I don't want future employers and random followers knowing most of the things I talk about here.

Why Don't We Just Give Up And Go Away?

Time is confusing. When I say that I don't mean the concept of time and the linear aspects of it I mean how time is perceived and how it relates to everything. As of yesterday I have officially been out of High school for two years now but it still feels like I was walking the halls and sitting in class a few days ago. On the other hand in two days I will have been living in Yorkton for a year and it feels like I have been here an eternity. I think Einstein explained why this is however I never learned this in my formal education so I can neither confirm nor deny this.

So in the two years I have been out of the public education what has changed about me? There are some obvious things such as the fact I'm at least 20 pounds heavier, my hair is shorter, and I now receive paychecks instead of report cards. Those in themselves are not big changes since at least one of those changes has happened to every graduate in the history of education. There are also some other changes that aren't as easy to see but are definitely more important. I can now admit that I am wrong. The inability to admit that I was wrong or that I possibly had made a major mistake led to me nearly failing at least one class and alienating numerous people. Even though I am still socially inept I can at least talk to people without breaking into a cold sweat, and most importantly, even if you don't agree with what they say or if you think they are 100% wrong  listen to your boss and do what they say. Usually they turn out to be right and even if they aren't the only way you can show them that they are wrong is to do things their way and let the chips fall where they will. It's not earth shattering stuff but it's stuff I never learned in school.  

There is a second reason I'm focusing on graduation today. On Thursday my younger sister will graduate and she will officially be better than me. This isn't an opinion it's a fact. Just focusing solely on education I graduated just outside The Honor Role thanks to Math B30 and after grad I went and received my diploma in broadcasting after a 5 month stint at a broadcasting college in Saskatoon. In a few days my sister will stand behind a podium and deliver the valedictorians speech and then go to U of A for a few years to get a degree in pharmacy and most likely make more money than me for the rest of my life. Despite the fact that I will play second fiddle from this point on I wish her nothing but success seeing as how the more successful she is the better the house I will be visiting when I take my vacations in future years.

You Say You Got A Real Solution Well You Know, We'd All lLove To See The Plan

For some reason I thought my next post was supposed to be a band I hate. I spent a few days thinking about which artist I absolutely despise and came up with a definitive answer only to discover this post is actually Day 11 "A Song From Your Favorite Band". This is a much more enjoyable post to write since I can think about nice things not wretched things. To make this easier for myself I am interpreting the title as bands only not artists so that I can come to a decision much faster. At this point in time there are two bands that are more or less tied for being my favorite and only one of them has been featured so far so it's time to say hello to John, Paul, George, and of course Ringo.

If I remember correctly this is the third song I sang in front of an audience. Not by myself of course that would be horribly awkward there was an actual rock band involved.

 O.K. so I'm going to have ask you to bear with me for a second because I'm about to say something that will sound incredibly odd/wrong but don't worry it will all make sense in a few minutes.


We are wasting all our compliments on dead people. Think about it dead people apparently told the best jokes, were the best at (insert activity), did the craziest things, and in general were just the best people ever. I am not going argue whether all these statements are true but how much to you want to bet that when they were alive people said they told bad jokes, wasted all their time doing (insert activity here), did the most idiotic things, and were in general a giant pain in the butt. If you ever have the misfortune of going to a funeral you will hear everyone praise the recently deceased and remark and how much they will be missed. How often do you think the deceased's friends and family gave them these compliments when they were alive? Probably not nearly as often as they should have. 


A few years ago I read Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom. It's actually quite a good book and I would suggest it if you're looking for a nice light read. Anyways in Tuesdays With Morrie I first heard about "living funerals" The whole idea behind a living funeral is that funerals are wasted on the dead since they can't hear the nice things being said about them and being a corpse and all it's quite difficult for them to converse with all the friends who have traveled to pay their respects so why not have the funeral shortly before you break on through to the other side? Of course this only works if you know your going to die shortly and in a perfect world there would be no need for a living funeral since everyone would tell you how much they appreciate you and how important you really are to them on a regular basis so that should the unfortunate happen both you and they will have no regrets in that regard. 


Just to clarify nobody I know has died recently this is just on of those things my ADHD filled brain decided to stop on a few days ago and for no reason whatsoever it incubated into a full fledged post/thought. So in conclusion if there is anyone who is important to you be it parents, friends, or partners etc. tell them how great they are I'm sure they would appreciate it and it might just make their day

When The Day Is Long And The Night, The Night Is Yours Alone

It is starting to become glaringly apparent that there are certain things I simply cannot do. Actually I should rephrase that since I can theoretically do everything, there are certain things I simply cannot do well. This list includes but is not limited to sitting still for more than two minutes, keeping a normal sleep schedule, intimidating others (I still don't get why people laugh when I get genuinely furious seeing as how I am 6'2 and manage to yell even when I'm calm), complex math, and the latest addition to this list is play baseball. There are a few reasons for my general lack of skill in baseball starting with the fact that not only do I have no experience playing the sport I am also horribly out of shape. I may have never been the epitome of physical fitness but there was a time when I was halfway decent at most sports. Currently I can more or less hit the ball. There is a 30% chance that if a ball comes in my direction I could catch and there is 10% that any ball I throw will land within 5 feet of it's intended target. I would say I throw like a girl but that would be incredibly insulting to females everywhere especially the ones on our team who throw the ball quite well. That being said I am considerably better than I was in the pre-season game but I still have a ways to go if I want to say I am even "decent" at baseball. Also for some reason it took 4 days to write the first segment of this oh the joys of ADHD

Ok time for Post 10: A song you can fall asleep to. I'm going to skip the intro and just lay it on you today

I'm not a huge fan of the video since it makes the song depressing instead of soothing

So I went with R.E.M.'s Everbody Hurts for a couple of reasons. It's not overly loud and it's not so quite that you have to strain to here it , it's not upbeat but it's also not so slow you think your at a funeral, plus it's long enough that you can fall asleep before the next song starts and forces you start the process all over again. Everybody Hurts is a different kind of song compared to most of R.E.M.'s other work and the only other place in their catalog where you will find similar songs is on the 1992 album from which this post's song came Automatic For The People. It's also worth noting that the string arrangement on Everybody Hurts was composed by none other than Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones who was the Led Zep's "Quite One" mainly because he did his job well without fanfare and didn't subscribe to the theatrics of Jimmy Page, John Bohnam, and Robert Plant.

My Daddy's Sleepin' And Mama Ain't Around

So last time I talked at length about what was going on in my little corner of the world and then put the song challenge result up. This time I'm going to switch it up by talking about Post 09: "A Song You Can Dance To" first. This is another hard one due to the fact that I can't dance unless copious amounts of alcohol are involved. I don't particularly enjoy dancing and when I dance it looks like someone having a seizure and a heart attack at the same time. That being said a select few songs have the ability to get me out of my seat even when I'm stone cold sober.

Did you really expect to see something hot and new here?

This is pretty self explanatory. It's a novelty dance that doesn't require more than one move and it's catchy as hell and it gets played at almost every wedding. This could possibly fall into the category of guilty pleasures as well. 

So who want's to come to Yorkton to go and see Gord Bamford next Sunday? I hope somebody does because our sister station GX94 is having a backyard concert and Gord Bamford is the main act. Even though this is a GX event Fox employees are allowed to go and since I happen to not be at work during the backyard concert I signed myself up to go along. Unfortunately I made a mistake when doing so and added a plus 1 beside me name because everyone else on the list had as well. It wasn't until this morning when a co-worker asked who I was taking to the concert. At first I thought he was mocking me then I realized I had inadvertently said I was bringing someone to the concert. I went to quickly remedy the situation then I realized that this was perhaps a great opportunity to invite someone to go along. I quickly remembered that I don't know anyone in Yorkton who doesn't work at the station but now that the idea has entered my head I want to take someone along. This is of course very unlikely since the show is in 7 days and I will probably just white out the plus one when I come to work tomorrow but stranger things have happened. So if you or anyone you and I both know want to see Gord Bamford let me know!

It's These Expressions I Never Give, That Keep Me Searching For a Heart of Gold

I am not dead. I am aware that I have chosen a very odd statement to start this off with and I am sure nobody actual doubted my vitality but it has been said if you don't have an online presence you aren't really alive and at the moment I have no presence. In fact this is the first time since last Sunday that I have posted anything online at all. I also haven't seen what others have posted except for the blogs I subscribe to. Its a state of self exile that came to be for two reasons. First in the span of two or three days I had 5 things happen that on their own are inconsequential and would be almost non-issues but combined in a short frame of time made it so that I was better off not having a way to spew words forth to everyone I know. Second I noticed that the only reason social media exists is to make points and argue about stuff. I have enough stuff to deal with without arguing everything from which kind of ice cream is better to the various political ideologies. I will admit from time to time I enjoy arguing but that's only when it involves people who are articulate and knowledgeable in the topic at hand or at least can add something to the conversation. This is not the case with 98% of the arguments so for the time being I shall remain in exile except for blogs.

This is post 8: A Song You Know All The Words To. This should be incredibly easy seeing as how I know the words to a bunch of songs. However it's a case of I have too many to choose from so I decided to go with one I can play and sing and that always seems to get requested when I whip Neil out. Considering my guitars name this song is fitting

This song also comes from my second favorite Neil Young album

This is also one of the few songs I don't mind playing when it's requested since it's actual quite enjoyable to play. It is easily recognizable, it is mainly chords but also has an easy fill, and everyone knows it. When I first learned how to play Heart of Gold I could also sing almost exactly like Neil Young. This is no longer the case but I still break it out whenever I get the chance.

And If You Want To Find Me I'll Be Out In The Sandbox, Just Wondering Where The Hell All The Love Has Gone

So it has been well over a week since I posted anything and there is a very simple reason. I got stuck. For whatever reason I was incapable of finding a song for posts 6 and 7 for the song challenge. Thankfully my best female friend reminded me that they didn't have to be good memories so I now present the song that reminds me of somewhere as well as a certain event.

So the place is my high school and elementary school gyms and the events are of course the dances that some people might have enjoyed. I was never a big fan of school dances but I also didn't dislike them. If I was forced to take an official stance it would be neutral. The only reason I ever went to these things is because I really didn't go out much in elementary school so these were rare occasions to do something besides sit in my house on a Friday night. The first time I went to one of these I was over joyed it was fun there was junk food and people and music. I was having a grand time until this song came on and ever since that moment dances in general have gone downhill from there. What was everyone just mingling and jumping around became everyone scrambling to find a partner. As luck would have it there happened to be an almost perfect ratio of boys to girls unfortunately there was an uneven number of participants. This was the first of many times I was the odd man out and it seems that ever since then 9 out f 10 times whenever the number of people doesn't work out I end up on the short end of the stick. As well at this dance and even still today I have an aversion to asking people to be my partner in anything so really the reason I'm the odd man out is my own fault.

So the first dance and the first time I heard this song at a dance was a hint of things to come. The same applies to the second dance and playing of the song except it was a new lesson this time. Having learned from past mistakes I now knew that I would have to go outside my comfort zone put myself out there and take a chance unless I wanted to watch from the walls again. However I was shocked to find out that nobody wanted to dance with the weirdest kid in class and I was promptly sent to the wall feeling worse than I did at the previous dance. The same cycle of hesitating and hoping for the best a few times then taking a chance and failing more or less continues to this day and I now find a reason to use the bathroom when this and any other Aerosmith song plays at various types of dances.