Unposted postings

I haven't updated this blog in a month at least and really I have no excuse for it. I have done plenty of things. I have had plenty of interesting (to me) thoughts that I needed to write down. I even have yet another Birthday coming up that I definitely have had on my mind a lot lately. I have written about those things, but I get distracted half way through and I save them for later never to be seen again. Sorry about that. I do plan on going back and finishing them up so you can see them it just takes awhile so I can figure out the point I was trying to make with that post or just what I wanted to say in general. This is just to let you know that I haven't died and that I do plan on updating eventually.

One day.

Hip Hop isn't dead it's just malnourished and underfed

About a week ago I was having a conversation about music. There hard been a miscommunication of sorts. She was under the impression that I listen to mostly punk. Now I will be the absolute first to let you know that I don't have the most genre specific music tastes. I constantly have my iPod on shuffle sliding from genre to genre with no real connection between the over 7,000 songs that I have in my collection. However I will say that my first love is and always will be hip hop. Well when she heard this in an effort to get back at me for calling her favorite band mediocre she called hip hop "crap". Now this isn't a comment that I have never heard. Shoot they even worked int into a wrestling angle in WCW where Jeff Jarrett wrote a country song called "Rap is Crap". I think Jeff is working on a gimmick infringement lawsuit on Cassie as we speak over these comments. In response I simply said "that's only because you haven't heard the good stuff yet.". So after a little bit more talking we made a deal that she would create a CD of punk songs that I would enjoy and in return I would school her in the good hip hop. Apparently she didn't think I would be done with mine in two days. Here is my playlist for you guys to look at and gain a proper appreciation for all things hip hop. I had a hard time coming up with a proper order to put the songs in so I decided to go with Alphabetical just because it seemed to work. I've included youtube videos so you can listen to the songs too, though I will warn you there will be swearing so listen at your own risk.

B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad) - Outkast
I needed an Outkast song for the mixtape. It was either this one or Miss Jackson. I decided the very explosive antiwar song would win out on the apologetic song about divorce and the effects on the family.



Bleed Slow - Atmosphere
I dare you to find a better ode to the death of a love one.



Brenda's Got A Baby - Tupac
The effects of teen pregnancy in the ghetto. This is why we miss Tupac.



C.R.E.A.M (Cash rules everything Around Me) - Wu Tang Clan
The story of a youth's understanding as to how the drug game has destroyed his life and why he felt there was no way out of it.



Fight the Power - Public Enemy
One of my comments to Cassie was that she would be surprised with how much Punk and Hip Hop have in common. If this mix tape only consisted of this one song she would still have to agree with me. (also the man is evil and needs to be stopped)



G.O.D. (Gaining One's Definition) - Common
When I need a reminder as to why I go through all the crap I do in my life and that I still have things to give in this life I listen to this song.



Hip Hop - Dead Prez
Quite simply this song is the very essence of Hip Hop. It's angry, neglected people reaching out to share their message to educate those who have been blinded by the disaster that is popular music.



The Inkwell - Blue Scholars
This song made me love Seattle. There is so much out there that slips through the cracks that you have to find and cherish.



Katrina Klap (Dollar Day) - Mos Def
Hurricane Katrina was a horrible disaster, however it led to many of my favorite hip hop songs ("That's life" by Killer Mike and "Georgia... Bush" by Lil' Wayne are a couple others I suggest you listen to, well unless you liked GWB). Some will think of Mos Def as just an actor but this song will remind you just how good of an MC he is.



Keep On Rockin' - Asheru
I just found this song on Saturday and I already think that Asheru is my new favorite underground rapper.



Little Girl Gone - Devin The Dude
There is so much emotion and love in this song that it makes me wish I could find this lost little girl and save her.



Little Weapon - Lupe Fiasco
The snare drum alone makes this an amazing song but when you combine it with Lupe's delivery and the symbolism to his lyrics it becomes truly EPIC.



The Message - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
The sad part of this song is that while it should have served as a time capsule of the 80's and led to the clean up of the ghettos, it instead is a timeless classic that is STILL culturally relevant.



Mr. Wendal - Arrested Development
I can't not give at least my spare change to a homeless person thanks to this song.



The Nature - Talib Kweli
Perseverance and growth in the face of our problems and an ode to changing the nature of our lives and help those that are in worse conditions than we are.

Talib Kweli (Feat. Justin Timberlake) - The Nature from The KatyCapsule on Vimeo.

Sound of Da Police - KRSOne
Just in case Fight the Power left you asking more questions than it answered here comes the great KRS-One to make it a little clearer that the Man is evil. His verse comparing the slave Overseer and Officers is especially moving and poignant.


Soundtrack 2 My Life - Kid Cudi
I think I like this song mostly because I identify with it so it obviously becomes a favorite.



Turn Off the Radio - Dead Prez
Dead Prez are the only group to show up twice and with good reason: they're amazing. I chose this one showcases exactly why pop music is horrible and the only proper solution to getting rid of it is to turn it off. I haven't listened to the radio in years and I am quite proud of it.

A brief post of thanks

As a male I don't usually get to receive the benefits of the Relief Society. I mean I get the benefits of their smiling faces and their wonderful company on dates and whatnot but I don't get that sense of community and sisterhood that a regular member of the Relief Society SHOULD get. Instead as a man I am subjected to the Elder's Quorum. Now I may be entirely off base when I say this but, at least with my experience with a singles ward EQ there is no community or real togetherness. Rather it's a bunch of males sizing each other up as competition and declaring themselves superior in some way to make themselves feel better. The sisters have enrichment where the get together and talked and craft and learn skills that better themselves as people while also growing closer together as sisters. The men however have "Manrichment" where we sit around and watch sports, or play video games while eating pizza and beating each other up either physically or via the bloody games. I think that just made my point for me. I do have some friends in the EQ, but for the most part I keep to myself and I find myself making friends with the sisters which probably bothers oh so many of my brethren which I will admit is at least part of why I do it.

Anyway back to what I was trying to talk about before I tangented myself into dangerous territory - the Relief Society. I honestly do think that the strength of any good ward is in it's sisters. Earlier this week my mom went in for gastric bypass surgery. After she was released from the hospital she was required to stay in a hotel here in Seattle in order to recover fully and make sure there were no complications. She couldn't just go home because she lives in Prosser and that's too far from the hospital for them to get to any problems in a timely manner. I tried to get the time off from work so I could stay with her all day while she was in the hotel but unfortunately a coworker had already requested the time off and I was the only other keyholder available to close the store so I couldn't get the time off I needed. What commenced was a stressful week of me trying to figure out how to ask for help and who to turn to. Naturally I turned to my friends from the church and I also talked to my boss about working my schedule so I was working the least amount of hours possible while my mom needed me.

I heard very little back from anyone that could actually help me. I had friends in Idaho and the Tri-Cities say they would help me in a heartbeat if they could. My EQP and friend Carl volunteered for the first night with my mom which was a huge load off my shoulders. Then my good friend Laura called and said she could help the second because it's her spring break. I had Sunday off thanks to my wonderful boss Wes, and then I started to get phone calls and emails from other SISTERS in the ward offering their time to help. A lot of them couldn't actually help but they sent their prayers and well wishes anyway. Then my friend Megan volunteered for Monday and it looked like all the shifts that I had told people about were filled.

One little problem - when I sent out the email I miscalculated when my mom was getting to go home. I thought she was leaving on Tuesday because that was the fifth day. It turns out that she needed to stay for five NIGHTS and so once again I was left with an open day. Miraculously I didn't even need to ask for help. Sunday in the morning I got a phone call from Whitney in my ward's Relief Society presidency making sure that I had all the days covered and asking if there was anything she could do. I mentioned that I still needed Tuesday night covered and she said she was going to take care of it. I felt relieved as I passed on the information that she needed and I went about my day believing that someone would come through and that Tuesday would be okay.

After church Whitney called me and said that not just one sister but two of them volunteered to help on Tuesday and that Erin would be there from 4-7 and that Geneva, a sister that met me for the first time a week ago, would watch her from 7 until I got home from work. Everything worked out and on top of it all my mom has been feeling better and better as the days go on. I can see her strength returning and her spirits lifted and I can't help but think that while spending time with me is part of the reason for it, I really think that being able to see that other people who don't even know who she is care about her enough to take 4-6 hours out of their day and spend it taking care of her out of the kindness of their hearts is a much bigger part of it.

I just wanted to take this time to say thank you to all of you who helped, or promised to help, or wanted to help my mom this past week. Specifically Laura O'Brien, Carl Cutler, Laura and Byron Schmidt, Megan Wixom, Erin Leigh Chapman, Geneva Pelfrey, Whitney Thompson, Rachael Knudsen, Aimee Elber, Andreanne Loiselle, Jon Cox, Derek Child, Kurt Kaiser, Brian "Little Bingo" Stephens, and Wes Miller. Without you guys working with me I really don't know how I would have survived these five days. Both my mom and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being the single most amazing people that I know. I love you all, and I never say that so you know I mean it.

new feature

So I have had an account on formspring.me for awhile now but I haven't bothered to do anything with it. Well that all changes now because if you will look to your right you will see a box where you can ask me questions. You don't have to tell me who you are if you don't want to (obviously I would like it if you did but whatever). you will have to go here to see the answers to your questions, but I think it will be worth it.

Essentially I am just playing around with another pointless social networking site in an effort to help make my life more open and available for those who want to hear about me, which as far as I am concerned should be everyone since I am incredible.

I have finally figured it out

After exhaustive research I have finally discovered why women are so completely insane. It turns out their minds are constantly trying to decipher every word and action that men such as I make. And of course as opposed to taking the logical and responsible thought pattern as to what a man is saying they twist it into some malfunctioning rude statement or a blatant attack on their person. Now before you misconstrue this as me being bitter and angry because a girl hurt me recently. I can assure you that that is far from the truth. No instead this morning while I was at work waiting to clock on thanks to MSN I stumbled upon a Cosmo test on "50 guy phrases translated". Now I'm a guy so I figured it would be good for a laugh and that I would see some sort of honest article to show to women that while occasionally we don't say what we mean, by and large we aren't some slimy jealous jerk who only wants to have sex with you and will say anything to accomplish that feat.

Holy crap was I wrong. First they only give 3 possible answers to the questions, and I'd say 75% of the time they are all snarky, horrible, and absolutely not what I mean when I say something. For example when I say "I like your shoes" that is not me trying to get out of trouble by saying something nice that I don't mean. No it means I like your shoes. THAT WASN'T EVEN A POSSIBLE ANSWER.

Seriously though women I have to know, do you actually think this way? Because I'll be honest I don't think most men are like that. Yes some of us are I will admit that. Some of us are so full of ourselves that we can't actually carry a conversation without it being about us and we will say anything to get out of an argument even "I like your shoes". However that's a minority. There are nice, honest, sincere, kind, loving, good men out there*. Stop trying to analyze what we are saying to find the base of our character, try our actions. Those are much more telling as to what we mean than what any ridiculous quiz will tell you.


*they're called homosexuals.

Thank you for entering my life, now please never leave me

I have an absolute crap load of music on my computer, 7,888 tracks to be exact. If I listened to all of the songs from beginning to end it would last for over 3 weeks without repeating a song. Obviously I have never actually achieved such a feat because I always seem to get distracted and find myself only listening to the newest stuff that I have downloaded and then my favorite artists when I get an urge to listen to say the Beatles or Outkast. However when I am out away from my computer I just put the entire archive on shuffle and let it go until the batteries die. Sometimes it plays a song that I enjoy, others it plays something that I just don't want to listen to at that time, which is where the skip button comes in handy. Occasionally it will play a song that I have never heard in my life. These moments are rare because I always try to educate myself on what I am downloading to see if I like it, but when you just download the entire catalog for a particular artist you are destined to come up with something weird. I've grown used to this and it has given me a few new favorite songs by my favorite artists that I wouldn't regularly have heard.

Earlier this week though something interesting happened. I found a song that I haven't heard of by and artist I have never heard of. I don't know where they came from, how I managed to download these songs or this artist, and I most certainly have no clue what made me go through the effort to download 6 tracks by this guy. All I know is that I like him. A lot. His name is Stephen Malkmus which isn't even a name I can connect to a stray download because of a name. It's like he came out of absolutely nowhere. He isn't even the type of music I regularly enjoy or listen to and yet I can't stop myself. And so here I am on my blog rambling incoherently like I am prone to doing about him. You should all go listen to him and discover a love for him much like I have. At least you'll know where you were introduced to him.

Bowling For Soup

Alright so I rarely do these types of updates but I had such a good time that I figured I should share with you, my wonderful blog readers (all 7 of you). Last weekend I went to my first concert of 2010. I went to see Bowling For Soup, which some of you might be surprised is still out making music and have several other songs besides 1985. As I am not one to come to something like this all on my own I brought along my friends Cassie, Hollis, Jon, and Michelle.

Guess which of these three didn't seem to belong at this concert

Now there were multiple highlights to this show which include:

Slow dancing at a punk Rock show.

MONETA!!

I couldn't tell if he was wearing this ironically or not.

And the most rocking and unfortunately supervised nine year old ever.

Now these "look what fun I had" blog posts aren't complete without videos so here are some that I took at the show.

1985 with wonderful singing along by myself.

A cover of Katy Perry's Hot and Cold that made me immediately think of Sarah Pearce.


My Wena, quite possibly my favorite song on their new album. No Hablo Ingles is a close second.


Their Encore, which proceeded to stay in my head for the next 3 days.

Great fun was had by all, and I can't wait for my next concert.