I Wanna Top of that Drink With the Poison...

...so I won't have to think of another reason to wake up tomorrow; I can sleep all day long if you help me."
--Doby Watson

I'm sad, and I don't know why; I have no reason to be. You ever get that way? I dunno. I guess I'm just remembering my Christmas two years ago. In fact, I know I am. But I dunno if that's why I'm freaking out. For some reason, I really don't think so. Yargh.

So, for once I wish I was in Chicago right now. Why, you ask? Well, all 5(!) of my friends from up there that had moved in the past year are back visiting, there's a ton of great shows going on, and I need to get out of here. I'm so ready for college.

Here's the story of my break so far: Sleep. Work. Exciting, eh? At least it's a break, I guess. Oh! I did see Dave for the first time in like...a year tonight. We're probably gonna hang out / record sometime between now and the new year. And tomorrow I'm hanging out with Johnny and probably Bethany. That'll be fun.

I hate writers' block.

So, you guys remember that Nichole Brown girl that was such a diva? Well, she wound up making a 98 on her project. Wooo. She's planning on coming to Key Club Benefit Show...You guys know what to do.

I love Swedish music. I got 2 CDs from Swedish bands today: Napoleon!'s "Vaxala & I" and Rambling Nicholas Heron's "Here In Dreamland." They're nothing shy of amazing. Napoleon! plays like, 70's disco: super catchy, super awesome. Nicholas Heron plays kind of low-fi, mellow acoustic pop music. Quality material. You can check out both bands over at http://www.valiantdeath.com/ You can find them in the "New Valiant Death Releases" bar on the left.

Christmas is a weird holiday. Why should anyone give me anything? What did I do to deserve anything? Why not just give gifts to people at random times during the year for no reason? Blargh. I'm outta here. Hopefully your Christmases are merry and bright.

Each Mile Marker Lies Worse Than the Last...

Well, I'm officially an old man as of today. Wooo for 18-ness. Fun. All I did today was sit around and eat, because that's what my family likes to do. Oh, and I bought a guitar, but not with birthday money or anything (my family also enjoys getting me clothes that I'll never wear and ripping the tags off so I can't return them and thus get birthday money). It's an acoustic electric. My other one burned out so I kind of needed a new one anyway. It was cheap and will probably fall apart soon, but it came with a nice case and sounds ok, so woohoo. But now I'm broke. Un-woohoo. So goes the life of a musician, I suppose.

So, after I picked up my guitar the temperature had dropped to about 50-something and it had been raining for about 2 hours. Well, I had seen this dude trudging through the aforementioned mess on my way up to the store, and when I got out he was right across the road. This is some cold rain and it's gonna start getting dark soon, so what do I do? I call the guy over to my car and tell him to hop in. This was the first hitchhiker I'd ever picked up. Basically, he was a retarded, Spanish-looking man trying to get to California. He said he'd been in the rain for 2 hours when I asked and that I was the first person to pick him up since it started. Anyway, this guy was headed to 64 West, and even though it was out of my way, I took him to Grizzly Bear (the little convenience store / gas station / restaurant / whatever else thing right after the flea market on the way to Murphy). Before he got out I gave him $1.50 (because I didn't have much more) and told him to go grab some coffee or something. It was a little strange picking him up, but I'm glad I did. I just wish he had been a bit more social; I've heard hitchhikers have the best stories. But oh well. That was my good deed for the year. I hope he wasn't a mass murderer on the run or something.

So anyway, I got some Scholarship information from Berry today. They're giving me $9,000, as of now (it can and probably will go up), in academic scholarships and I'm getting like $4,100 from HOPE? I thought they only gave $3,000 for private schools, but I think my dad said that Berry added on to it sometimes? Anyway, that's fun. I need to find some more scholarships to apply for. Yay for free money.

I think I've finally got my Christmas shopping done. Well. Except for my dad's. But I know what I'm getting him. Exciting. Now for wrapping. My favorite.

Well, I got wrangled into playing at the Christmas assembly on Tuesday. I told myself that I wasn't going to participate in it unless some faculty member asked me to, and guess what happened. Mrs. Payne told me she was in dire need of acts and asked me if I would play. Of course, I said yes. I'm gonna play a crappy acoustic cover of "Sleigh Ride." I might play tambourine with my foot too. I dunno yet. I pretty much look like a moron when I do that, but it's not like it's gonna matter because everyone's gonna be laughing at my terrible singing voice already. Hmmm...

Well, I believe I'm gonna start getting ready for bed. I don't have to work tomorrow, but I'm gonna go to church. Then to Young Harris to do some recording with Rollie. Then to Hayesville for a show that's gonna suck (I set it up as a favor for a friend). Then back home. Unless something comes up. But nothing will. Nothing ever does. Because I live a boring life. And none of my friends live here anymore. Save like...2. But one has to work tomorrow. On her birthday. And the other one isn't really fun to hang out with unless there's more people there to start conversation. Because neither of us are very good conversation-starters. Typing like this is weird. Yup. Ok. Bye.

All That I Think About Is How You Should Be Standing Next To Me...

So, I heard before the idea got canned that the Newspaper class was doing their own list of Senior Superlatives. Mine was something along the lines of "Most Likely to Be a Record Producer." I scoffed and said that that'd never happen. Well...Now it has. I am producing and recording the new I Am Only Your Side Effect album, "Flawless Mistake." Two days in and we're about halfway through. Not bad. Basically all we have to do now is add vocals to all of the songs and random extras like eggshakers, bass, banjo, yadayadayada. Fun stuff. The album will be finished by next weekend and officially out by the end of the year. You know you want a copy.

I just told you about most of my weekend right there, but here's basically everything else.

Took the ACT Saturday morning. Everyone said it was easier than the SAT, but I really didn't think so. At all. I'm pretty sure I sucked this one up. Bad. But oh well. It happens.

Got my birthday present from my aunt -- a $100 gas card. Hallelujah. I love my aunt.

Kind of slept-in today because I wound up not having to work. Shazaam!

And now I'm off to finish my research paper.

Toodles.

Look at the Trees Through the Window and How They're So Alive...

...and I remember how you said we die, but not like this...
--Dustin Gamble

Well, things have been shaping up since last weekend.

Monday -- Nothing happened. Surprised? Nope.

Tuesday -- MY LAPTOP CAME IN! I love this thing. It came with iLife, aka everything awesome in the world, and I've been making music videos and whatnot like mad. I love this computer. One thing that's annoying is that the 'v' key can be a little unresponsive at times, but I'm not worried about that, as it should be a pretty easy fix.

Wednesday -- Show at my house. The Awful Truth and Dustin Gamble. Pretty awesome. I recorded all of Dustin's set. You should go check it out on my YouTube account. I think one of the videos was featured for awhile because it got over 3,000 plays in under 12 hours. Awesome? I think so. http://youtube.com/profile?user=DakotaFloyd

Today -- A bunch of nothing besides playing on the computer. I signed my papers accepting my admittance to Berry today. The cool thing is, if I change my mind before mid-March, I can get my money back. I'm probably not gonna change my mind, though. Something I probably will do, however, is apply to Georgia Tech just so I can say I got in (because I'm fairly positive I will).

And uhm, that's it, I guess? Man I live a boring life. Oh, and I HATE SLOW SHIPPING.

The End.

I Am Lost In the Crowd. I'm Standing In Line, I'm Feeling So Down...

I'm not feeling too well tonight so please excuse any typographical / grammatical errors in this.

So, Friday night was basically the worst night ever. Check it yo:
Right after school, I head off, with my car filled with PA system, to Mountain High Skate Park in Hayesville, NC to help Nichole Brown with her senior project, a show. Well, I'm the first person there, so I go ahead and set the PA and everything up and just kinda stand around for a bit. The first band shows up and the singer is either retarded, drunk, or both. He will not shut up. Soon after, another band shows up, Cornerstone. Cliche name, cliche music, decent guys. Within 30 minutes, A bunch of people have shown up, and I only know two of them. Finally, an hour later, the show begins. All of the bands are dreadful, tons of people are drunk and / or high, there is mass confusion among bands about, well, everything, and I only talked to two people the whole time. The rest of the time I laid down on top of a vert ramp. After the show was over everyone just left without saying anything. It was weird. I felt like I was being used to the max. Normally I don't mind, but this was kind of over the top. This show felt like a job. But the sad thing is, I would've rather been doing my job at Cobb's Mill than dealing with all the crap and wasting what little is left of my ear drums at this show.

On a much better sidenote however, the Key Club benefit show will be amazing.

Saturday was weird too:

Flashback to Wednesday. I'm working on Physics at Cobb's Mill with everyone else in the class. Joan asks me if I can work on Saturday. I say yes, thinking that the parade is in the morning because that is what I was originally told. Come Friday, I find out that the parade is at 4, right when I'm on the schedule to work. Well, I get up to town around 4 and have to sit through the parade in a parking lot, finally getting to work at 4:30. The first thing that's said to me is, "Hey, we looked for you in the parade." Yargh. Even though I hate parades, it was weird not being in this one and knowing that Dave and Joan were expecting me to be late because of it just makes it worse.

Oh, another thing that made Saturday weird / not fun: FedEx "Priority Overnight" shipping. You would think with a name like that the stuff I ordered would get here, y'know, overnight. Wrong. Shipped: December 1, Arrives: December 4th. Next day? Only if you're bad with numbers.


Sunday:

I woke up happy because this was supposed to be the last Sunday that Cobb's Mill was opened. Well, things changed. Magical, eh? Krieger's house after work was fun, though. Driving to Young Harris after that to write 3 sentences, however, was not. And now I'm home. With a headache. And it just started raining.