Astraad’s Neighborhood

This post really has nothing to do with anything.

First, I've figured out that white and blue are the colors of the future. Hardware is white and the lights on said hardware are blue. Case in point: the Wii. It's white, sleek and generally cool looking and it has a blue light on the front. Yep.

So this week has been an incredible week for game annoucements. First it was the hype leading up to what we now know is Diablo 3, which is thankfully sticking what it's good at. Letting you kill lots of monsters. Right in the middle of that, I was broadsided by an announcement out of the blue (no pun inten... Well, yeah it was intended) for Mega Man 9, which is not merely a new classic MM game, a new NES game! I'm pretty much the epitome of stoked about that. Last but certainly not least is the confirmation that Chrono Trigger will be released on the DS! Again, stoked!

So that's all the good gaming news.

I bought a new Jekyll & Hyde pedal this morning. I'm excited to start using that because it means I can now save some money on flights because I won't have to take my amp every time. And speaking of trips...

July 30th I'll be back in NYC for my first show in the city. Definitely stoked about that!! Then I may be moving there in October... But that's for another post.

I shall now hit up the sleep chambers. Peace out,
Mike

Just testing out this new blogging app "Blogit" on my iPhone.

I'm finally done with my college experience...

And it just hit me like a ton of freaking bricks.  I'm alone in this room, trying to pack the last of my stuff, thinking about when and if I'll ever see some of these people again.

It's mildly terrifying.

That said, I don't think I have regrets, except for not practicing more, but I can't undo what's been done, so there.

On a brighter note... I have tickets to see YES(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) on August 2nd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11eleven!!!!!

Yeah.  I finally understand that whole bittersweet thing people talk about.  But I can't sit around and mope for much longer... I have to keep packing.

Until next time.

Also, as a side note, I'll be starting a video blog for the tour I'm about to leave for on Monday afternoon.  I'll get the Youtube link or whatever I put it on when its up.

Peace!

Ever felt like you were invisible before?

I did tonight at the choir concert.  Kinda weird.  People I'd normally talk to just were in their own little worlds and didn't even care that I was attempting to get their attention.

That's all I got tonight.

Also: Carrie Underwood is freakin' hot.

I seem to disappear for months and then spring back up in a blaze of glory at lot these days.

I don't know what all that's cool that I've done lately (outside of visiting New York City that is!).  Incredible time, and I will for sure be moving there.  I'm just not sure how or when exactly.

NYC Easter '08

There's the album... it's totally not in any sense of chronological order thanks to Vox not understanding that the way I brought the pictures in from Flickr is the way I wanted it.  Oh well.

Graduation is rapidly approaching.  I'm really glad.  SOOOOO ready to be done with schooling.  At least in the traditional sense.

Also, start playing Travian... it's fun.  Silly little web based MMO.

Yeah.  I should probably get the rest of my gear and go to rehearsal.  Maybe I'll tackle a topic of discussion sometime soon.  It might be fun.

Farewell!
Mike

I think my room mate really thinks he's playing music.  He acts like playing guitar hero is a jam session.  It's really funny.  Considering that I can pretty much sight read most anything guitar hero throws at me on expert, and I can play a majority of the songs on there, it doesn't have as much of an attraction to me anymore.  It is fascinating though, the amount of time my room mate has put in to getting good at guitar hero.  He's done everything from sit down and analyze the parts to figure out the rhythm to start singing parts from the songs.  I'm just kinda like, "dude, I love the game, but good grief...".  They scroll through the list like they're picking tunes from a fakebook and are like "man, I love that song... let's jam it".

How silly.

Also, to whom it may matter... I broke down and made a Myspace Music page.

Also, also.  I might be potentially moving to New York to play with Andre Henry.  That is all.

I was checking one of my friend's Facebook updates and saw that she had new pictures from when she was home over Christmas.  Cool, and all that.  But when I read the title of the photo album, something hit me.  It was entitled "A bit of vacation" or something along those lines.

What hit me was the idea that going home is no longer going home.  Yes, it's still that safe place where everyone loves you, etc, etc.  But really, it's vacation from life.  My parents home is no longer the center of my life and personal existence.  Right now, the center of my existence is my dorm.  Four months from now, the center of my existence may be a house or an apartment with some friends.  Maybe later, it'll be a place with my wife (whoever she is).  But home.  Home.  Home.  That place I've known for 20 years (wherever it's been globally) will never be HOME again.  It'll be a vacation from my new home.  That saddens me a great deal.

I shall leave you with a picture that I find amusing.

1170052654314

Call of Duty 4.  I picked it up Monday night.  Fabulous game.  The single player has to be the most intense FPS experience I've had since the original CoD.  I've found myself getting to cover after being shot at and feeling almost as stressed and tense as my character is.  Definitely action packed from start to finish (which I'm still not finished with it yet, but ya know).

Then there's the multiplayer.  I've only been able to jump in for maybe a half hour so far thanks to the intarwebz being superlame here at school.  But even that is really, really great.  One of the better multiplayer experiences I've had.  I really like the XP system they have set up and the "rewards" for achieving certain goals.  And then on top of that, you get to create your own classes and customize your gun.  Way cool, indeed.

So.  My verdict.  Well worth the price of admission.

Aight.  I'm out.
Mike

Welp, I'm sittin' here in my dorm listening to Radiohead's In Rainbows and watching my room mate play Trauma Center on the Wii, and I figured I'd write something.  This is my last semester of college before I'm finally a free man.  An odd thing to say, really, considering that I'm only 20.  But I want out.  I want to do more real work.  I don't want book busywork anymore.  But I digress.  I don't really want to get into that right now.  It's an odd feeling, though, this almost being done business.  I can't even remember a time when I wasn't in school.  Since I was 14, I've been in college, first for computers, then for music.  I dunno.  I don't really have anything useful to say right now.

I've been really proud of myself the past few days.  I made a deal with myself to not listen to anything on my iPod except for shuffle and to not skip a song.  I made it through nearly 200 songs, and I heard a lot of stuff I hadn't heard in a while.  Really cool idea.  I need to do that more often.

My room mate's playing Wii Sports now and I'm listening to The Slip now and we're probably gonna grab some random late night food here pretty soon.  I need to go to Best Buy and get CoD4 and Rock Band soon.  Maybe I'll play some more Indigo Prophecy tonight.  I really like that game.  Pretty nifty concepts with the story telling.  I recommend it.

Alright.  I'm out.
Mike

I've finally decided to come back to this.  Why, might you ask?  After not posting anything for ages.  Simple.  I've been trying to figure out how to get a blog style site made to replace my current website.  But then.  I realized.  What the heck?  Why don't I just make the old Vox blog my site?  So.  Here I am, back again, with the best of boths worlds.  I can upload my music, and do pretty much everything I wanted to do.

Also, you might have noticed that I changed my book selection and cleaned a couple things up a couple days ago.  Or longer than that.  I don't know.  Anyways.  I was reading the Golden Compass at one point, because I wanted to see the movie and didn't really want to go in completely ignorant of the story.  So I started reading it.  I never finished it.  It had a great, great beginning, and a set up to a really cool alternate history kind of universe.  But long about, oh, I don't know.  Let's say the 12th chapter or so, it started being a chore to a read.  Now I got to the 18th chapter and I haven't read it in about 2 weeks.  It's too random and non-believable for me to enjoy.  Too bad, too, because at the beginning I was really enjoying Pullman's universe.  And his daemon idea really intrigued me.

So instead I started reading something more along the lines of what I really enjoy.  Mostly Harmless.  I love me some Hitchhiker's Guide.

Also.  I just had a TOTAL oversight, that I need to fix right now.  I've been jamming with this cat Andre Henry this past semester.  He plays a crazy blend of music, but basically it call comes back down to what he calls "progressive soul".  I'm going to provide you with a link to his myspace, and I highly recommend you go give him a listen.  I think it's pretty cool stuff, and hopefully you do, too.  The tune I played electric on that's currently on his page is called "How am I Supposed to Feel?"  There's three more that I played on, but he hasn't put those up yet.  I'll update ya if he does.

Andre Henry

So that's it for now.  I'll keep this moving a lot better than having to maintain a "real" website AND a blog.

Peace, and Happy New Year, by the way.
Mike