Portland Burger Week, the youth, and your youth.

Three interesting topics, topics that seem like they would be related, yet they are not. Why? Because I live with a teenager who doesn’t like burgers and no teenager likes what their parents like or have liked, so of course the youth of today would not like what we (people my age) liked in our youth. Of course, I have learned over the past few decades that teenagers don’t actually like anything. Not even the stuff that they like. I would say it is rather confounding, but that is what happens when you are all-knowing and all-seeing, as all humans between thirteen and nineteen are. What was cool ten seconds ago is no longer cool now that you (an adult) are aware of it and have commented on it. It will probably come back into style again in a few minutes, once you have forgotten about it (or at least shut up about it) though.

Wait, isn’t that the definition of a hipster too? So, really it is about as ironic as the things mentioned in that Alanis Morrisete song Ironic, that most hipsters are really teenagers, no matter what their physical age may be. If you are confused about that, it is o.k., it really doesn’t make sense when you think about it. Just realize that teens today like exactly the same stuff you did as a teen. (Although the stuff you liked is old and no one cares about that stuff anymore. The stuff today is way cooler than what you had, no matter how much it resembles that of your youth, even if it is something like a vinyl record that looks like it was pressed decades ago, yours is not cool and you probably only paid ten dollars for it. Their copy is and that is why they paid fifty for it.) Plus they have rebooted versions of a lot of stuff, kind of like how you keep seeing the movies and t.v. shows you grew up with being remade for today. Almost exactly the same, except somehow usually missing the important subtleties of the original, kind of like the old Ditto machine copies in school, or a picture taken with a SLR camera in low light without a flash using a low speed film.

Of course you have no idea who these currently popular bands like Nirvana, Guns and Roses, The Beatles, Iron Maiden or Metallica are. You could go to the Nirvana concert with your kids, but you just wouldn’t get the music. (Actually, I don’t get it either. Will they have a hologram of Curt Kobain? Is there a Jimi Hendrix Experience re-union coming up next? Is this the secret to the Rolling Stones still being on tour?) Sir Paul McCartney was just some old guy no one had ever heard of of until he did a song with Kanye West. After that, he got knighted for having been such a good back-up player. (Rebooting his earlier rise to fame when he collaborated with Michael Jackson in the eighties, you know that weird old guy who had his own theme park and did something with Elvis Presley. Possibly even had a semi-popular pop song.)

Next you might even start thinking that you recognize those shoes and clothes at the store that are all the rage today. Shut up. Get out. You have no idea what Converse shoes are. They are the newest, most comfortable things ever, with the latest technology in comfort and design. Airwalks are not cheap skater shoes, they are expensive and awesome. Keds are not the shoes the poor kids used to get at K-Mart, they are just as cool as some Chuck Taylor’s or Air Jordans. There is even this awesome new shoe by Reebok that has an air pump in it and it make the shoe fit perfectly on your foot. I wish they had something like that when I was a teen. Jumpers, skorts, and Polo shirts with popped collars, pleated slacks, oversize blazers, print pants that are really loose in the leg with elastic at the bottom, all never before seen fashion couture.

Urban Cowboy burger and a Hefeweizen (along with some green stuff).

Now about that Portland Burger Week. Remember, this is unrelated because teens hate burgers (they hate everything.) It appears to have started a couple of years ago and has been growing since. Basically there are a bunch of restaurants, pubs, and bars that offer a gourmet style burger for just five dollars. Some of them also have a drink special to go with it. Some of them don’t even normally offer burgers. It is a good excuse to get out and try new places and get a tasty burger for five dollars. We are talking real hamburgers too. Thick patties made with real meat (except the vegan one), although not necessarily just ground beef. Ever had a lamb burger? The toppings vary from traditional things like a western style burger (at Widmer Brothers) made of short rib and brisket, topped with caramelized onions, Tillamook cheddar, bacon, and chili-peach bbq sauce, to things a little more over the top (at Burnside Brewing Co.), a beef patty topped with pimento cheese sauce, smoked country ham, caramelized onions, fresno pepper slaw, Kool-Aid pickles, and a BBQ-spiced pork rind.

Slowburger’s Pimento cheese burger, a side of cheese fries, Trumer breaded onion rings, and a Fat Tire Slow Ride IPA.

Widmer Brothers burger was pretty delicious, the Hefeweizen there is one of my favorites, and sadly, the waiter was a little busy hanging out elsewhere. Not sure that I would be a regular there, with so many other places to go and Widmer normally being a little on the pricy side, but not a bad place.

The Slowburger is small and shares it’s patio with two neighboring restaurants. We got there just in time, only one person ahead of us and a group left their seats. The burger was done to a medium, but it says on the menu that you can have it made to order. I would go with a rare next time, I like mine raw and juicy and this was a little dry. Overall it was ok, but not a wow burger. Good cheese fries and onion rings. They were playing good punk music and had a nice six piece mural on the wall that consisted of an American flag and a guy wearing a Slayer shirt eating a burger. True Americana.

Coming to you live, The Dead Guy.

Back again.  But in a new location…  We pretty much skipped over the whole back in California thing, which was exciting, but also very hectic.  Now we move on to the Portland, Oregon chapter.  That’s right, I moved back up in the world.  It may not be as frostbitten as Minnesota, and I may not be as grim, since I have three wonderful ladies with me, but never fear, I am still The Dead Guy.  See the new banner which clearly explains it all?  Even more clearly than the number 42.

How did I end up in Portland, the land of Hipsters, Hippies, Yuppies, and now Yupsters?  Does it really matter?  I am pretty sure that Donald Trump couldn’t give a rat’s arse. The important thing is, what crazy adventures will we have?  Don’t think that just because I have a baby they will be any less crazy.

There is a lot to be experienced, including some really good coffee, micro-brews, baby adventures, and teenage girls… Oh wait, that sounds kind of creepy. Let me clarify that.  I have a teenage stepdaughter now, and all the craziness that living with a teenager involves will surely make for some interesting stories.

Stay tuned and stay fabulous.  If you are fabulous.  Otherwise, don’t change.  Unless it is for the better.  So long, sayonara, and goodnight for now.

Oh, before I forget, Michelle Bachman, why aren’t you running in the primaries?  They need someone like you!

Hello? Is it me you’re looking for?

Life. Crazy. Yep. So here I am in San Diego, only “I” is now “we”. I am pretty sure I mentioned something about my significant other, or SO, (I am writing this on a tablet, so I am resorting to cheating instead of typing full words). Possibly also mentioned something about a baby…. yes, it has been awhile, and I have not had time to look back. Surprisingly, I have time to type this. At least until we evacuate.

Yep. Evacuate. Flash flood warning is in effect. We come to San Diego for my SO’s conference, and it just happens to be literally the one time it rains this year. Lots of rain. Like possibly as much as an inch in an hour. Time to evacuate. I think it rained an inch in five minutes in Minnesota once. Then it continued nearly as much for the rest of the week. It did not flood. Might have gotten closer to only a thousand lakes as they all became temporarily conjoined though.

There really was an alert about flooding and evacuation. My cell started blaring an alarm just as I had gotten the baby back to sleep. She woke up while I was in the bathroom pooping and her mom was in a meeting. (I know, TMI, but I’m a dad now and this blog is going to go there and beyond.) So I just got her back to sleep and BEEEEPPPP!!! BEEEEEPPP!!! BEEEEEPPP!!! Of course you can’t just push a button to mute it either. You have to figure out that there is an OK button on the on screen alert to shut it off. So of course she woke up again.

Now if there was a nuclear event, alien invasion, or Jimi Hendrix playing live down the street, I could see this alarm as reasonable. An inch of rain though, I know it is shocking in California, but to the rest of the country, it is nothing. So far it has hardly even sprinkled and the alert window is almost closed.

On the bright side, she saw the alert, and even though she can’t read yet, she said (and I am translating of course); “this is bullshit. I’m going back to sleep.” She did go back to sleep, and I got to type this up real quick. Hopefully I will have more time soon to update you and amuse you all with our crazy adventures.

As for the title today, it has nothing to do with anything, but someone knows what it means and it will make her smile.

Life is crazier than ever.

It has been awhile since I have written here. A long while. I miss it, but life has been crazy and busy and crazy busy. I am living in California again. (Did I mention that before? Has it been that long? I need to review this thing.) I have a wonderful life partner, she has two teenage girls, and now, as long as the earth doesn’t end in spontaneous combustion prior to her birth, I have fathered a daughter who will be born any day now. Yes, The Dead Guy is going to be a dad. Of a real human no less. It just doesn’t get any crazier. I am super excited about it, and more details will follow soon. It may take some time, possibly even months, but this blog will be up and running again with more insane adventures than ever before, a recap of the most exciting things that have passed, and of course my crass social commentary and eclectic music stuff.

I want to ride my bicycle. I want to ride it now.

It was a glorious fabulous day weather wise today. I awoke and it was 50 degrees. Sunny. Not crazy humid. Blissful. I decided to take a quick break from responsibility to enjoy the sun. To take my bicycle out, something I haven’t been able to do for almost six months. So of course considering how long it has been, I figured I would just make it a short trip. Something easy. Yeah, yeah, you know the routine.

There is a trail at the edge of town, if you want to call it a trail. Flat and paved, a path that maybe was once a trail. But this is Minnesota and they see things differently than I do. Anyways, I went there once last year. It is a nice shady ride, pretty flat, and it ends in a campground the next town over, so it is only about 10 miles long. Nothing too crazy.

I threw my bike in the truck and drove out there, it is a couple miles away, mostly uphill, and well, you know, taking it easy (lazy bastard). I get out there and start my ride. The first couple of miles go pretty smoothly. The snow is mostly gone and the weather is good. It looks like late fall with the leaves on the ground and the bare trees.

There are snowmobile trails and horse trails along the sides of the path. Mostly pretty uneven terrain, I am not sure how well a horse would do on it. I haven’t seen any out there except at one of the stops that is like a large coral. I can imagine it all evens out with a few feet of snow and is no problem for a snowmobile. But then I spotted it. A clear trail that went off up the hill. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to check it out. It went for a little way and then ended at a gully…

Is that a trail going across the gully? It just might be.

Down the rabbit hole we go….

Now you can see there is clearly a trail here. A bit of a challenge, but a trail.

It looked like there was a peak that I could ride up to, so I followed the trail a little ways. It really was a trail, although it was not meant for bicycling.

Riding uphill in the snow and ice on a bicycle is not the easiest thing.

I didn’t end up on the peak I had planned to hit, but I did find more trails and eventually a sign with a map.

You are here. On a trail. In the green section. Theoretically. Thank you, have a nice day.

Well, now I did it. I had ridden off into some circuit of trails, with no idea where I was and definitely not in shape for this kind of riding. You know how that usually ends….

But nonetheless, I persevered. What else was I going to do? Having studied the map I knew there was a peak. All I had to do was go up. So up I went. Traction was a little slippery, it was pretty muddy.

You get to a point where you just aren’t going anywhere. You hop off the bike. It literally is not going anywhere. No, there are no strings, no kickstand.

Eventually I made it to the top. There was even a sign stating that it was a lookout spot. It was a decent view.

After that, well it was all downhill from there. At least mostly downhill. That expert bike trail on the bluffs, yeah, this was comparable, and also not as will kept. The occasional fallen branch or log blocking the path. But overall a pretty good ride. Then it was back onto the regular path and back to the truck. All in all a pretty uneventful ride. Probably the last one I will have out here, because the weather has started to decline again, thunderstorms and rain, which will be back to freezing and snow by Tuesday. But in a few weeks, I am gone on a whole different kind of bike ride. Headed back to California. 🙂

Another Paganfest!

It is that time of year again.  The birds are chirping, the snow is melting away (mostly) and the Paganfest North America IV tour is making its way around.  Last year was my first time, but once again I like the lineup.  Possibly one of the best hard rock/metal lineups in a long time.  About a year in fact.  It isn’t even like I listen to these bands much normally, though they are growing on me. (I do listen to a bit of folk music and heavy metal, so in a way it seems logical that I would like it)  They are just the kind of bands that put on a really good show, a nice high energy show with a positive vibe. Some of them sound even better live than on record. Even though it is in a small club with only a few bands and nothing else, it still really does feel like a festival.

In Europe where most of the bands are from, they usually hold these kind of things in parks and castles, but in America I have found that we are lucky to even get bands like this playing.  Something about how the fans are violent, unintelligent, degenerates that cause chaos and mayhem, doing lots of drugs, fighting and killing each other, worshiping Satan, and all kinds of other things to undermine the basic values of American society and cause chaos whenever they gather.  Admittedly, there are people who are violent, do drugs, and commit criminal acts in the metal scene, but doubtless no more than if you did any random sampling of society in general.  How long has it been since there has been a shooting related to Hip Hop?  Less than a week ago in Florida? But it is the places that hosted metal and alternative music shows that get closed and concerts get banned. But I digress. (Don’t think I have something against rap music either, I grew up with it and still listen to it, though I don’t like most of what is popular today. There are just certain things relating to politics, religion, and music that really bother me. One day I will write a post about it.)

So the line-up for Paganfest IV is Ensiferum, Tyr, Hiedevolk, TrollfesT, and Helsótt.  A sampling of established bands from Europe and one newcomer from America, same as last year (but all different bands).  Last years American band, Huntress has moved up to playing the Mayhem Festival, which is usually not my type of thing, a bunch of American metal, usually mostly young Nu-metal, cookie cuter thrash and hardcore bands. Not to mention, it seems that all the guys who really are violent, drugged up, unintelligent douche-bags in the metal scene seem to love going to those kind of shows and listening to those bands, or do they just go to every big arena concert because you can find them at rock and country shows too. But this year is a mixed bag, with a few bands I am actually interested in playing, so who knows.

Opening act Helsótt, a band from Southern California, combines thrash, death, and pagan folk music to make their own style of fast paced folk metal. Not bad, but not anything I am too excited about. I think it is the vocals/lyrics that are kind of meh… They are a good band as an opener. The kind where you will not be heartbroken if you show up late.

Heidevolk is from Gelderland (the Netherlands), same as my dad. A band with a very viking sound, clean vocals and very technically proficient playing, while keeping it musically interesting. They also use a lot of traditional and acoustic instruments, although not in this video.

TrollfesT are from Norway, the land of trv folk and black metal. They are actually spawn of the black metal scene I think. They have their own unique style and are deathly serious. Totally satanic. Definitely The devil. An example of just how evil and brutal Norwegian metal can be, they covered one of the most evil and brutal artists of our time:

Tyr is another viking metal band from a small European island called Faroese (between the United Kingdom, Norway, and Iceland). They are a bit more old school 80’s early 90’s sounding combined with a viking feel. More straight forward metal musically, in that they are a traditional vocals, guitars, bass and drums with no keyboards or folk instruments, but lyrically definitely fitting in.

Ensiferum is the headliner, haling from Finland. More of a blackened/symphonic folk band. Folk instruments and keyboards, strong death vocals with choral backing vocals and clean choruses.

So, maybe Michelle Bachman can come out and protest this show, because after this I should be worshiping pagan gods, sacrificing unborn babies to Satan, raping and pillaging across the land and spending time dancing naked in the forest while high on who knows what. I would recommend those who are weak of heart or spirit not watch this video that shows the graphic truth about those Satanic devil worshiping, drug abusing, metal and gothic listening freaks. It shows atrocity’s typical of what happens when they get together for their evil rituals in the dark hours of the night.

Road Trip Home!!

It is still a little ways off, but it is planned and I am super excited. I will be finishing school and getting out of this place. It isn’t that I hate this place, but it is not a place I want to stay any longer than I need to. There just isn’t anything here for me and a whole lot of stuff I don’t feel like dealing with (like the horrible weather). That, and I miss my family and friends, plus I have a whole new future to look forward to which is not possible here even though being here was key to developing that future in many different ways, both personally and professionally.

So a quick summary. Details will be filled in either on the road or after the trip is done. Of course it is still a month and a half away, but like I said, I am excited and ready to get going. While it isn’t the first cross country road-trip I have taken, it is going to be the first that I have done with a partner. It is also the first time she has been on a road-trip and she is excited too.

About two weeks before, I will be doing another cross-country road trip, only on the motorcycle, a more direct route home, and solo. Not as exciting of a trip, but I’m sure I will find somethings to talk about. Same exciting destination.

Day one: Driving out of Red Wing, MN for the last time. We will be heading north-west to the town of Fargo for lunch. Have you seen the movie? I need a new copy so we can watch it before we leave. Will we see Steve Buschemi? That would be awesome. Sadly about half the places in the movie have been razed and the others are all out of the way for this trip. Oh geez. But will we hear the accent? Yah, you betcha. (Not that I don’t already hear it a bit, but I hear it is stronger up north.)

We will also see exciting things like a giant bison, and a giant cow, and at least part of the Enchanted Highway, which is giant sculptures made from scrap metal. Those North Dakotan’s and their giant sculptures. (About a week before I get to see South Dakota’s giant sculpture as I ride my motorcycle across the country.)

For the night we will be staying at the Eagle Ridge Lodge near Medora, in the Theodor Roosevelt National Park. I am hoping for a good cowboy style steak dinner followed by a nice walk and sunset in the Badlands.

This photo of Eagle Ridge Lodge is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Day two: After our country buffet breakfast (Dinner and breakfast are included in our stay) it is off to the Copper King Mansion. Located in Butte, MT. it is a 34 room mansion built by on of the wealthiest people in the world at the time (1888), William Andrews Clarke. He only had a measly $50 mill, making a paltry $17 million a month, so I don’t expect it to be that fancy. Going cheap I only booked us in the Master Bedroom Suite. When I vacation, it’s either the tiny room in a seedy motel with a dead hooker rotting in the wall or a multimillion dollar suite in a huge mansion B and B (though the room actually cost about the same as staying at a good hotel).

Day three: A long day on the road, we travel through four states. Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Sadly we don’t have time to stop much, but I imagine we will eventually make it back around, at least a visit to Portland and Newport sometime. For this trip our stopping point is Springfield to stay the night with my grandmother. A short visit, but she will be meeting my girlfriend for the first time.

Day four: Breakfast and maybe lunch with family, then it is off to the beach. Or at least the coast. We will travel west to Florence, pretend we are tourists and look at the little shops and stuff. Then it is south to Umpqua Lighthouse State Park. If memory serves me correctly, I stayed there when I went on my motorcycle road trip a few years ago. It was a nice campground and the lighthouse was awesome at night.

Day five: A nice casual drive down the coast, stopping at beaches and lighthouses, then we hit the Avenue of Giants. The Redwoods. I booked a nice room with a garden view in an old house in the old Victorian town of Ferndale which is located in the redwoods.  It is also known as the Moon of Endor, where the Ewoks live. Should be a nice relaxing stay.

Day six: The last day of the trip, we go down south, passing through a few small towns until we hit Vallejo, then it is east towards Sacramento, and south to home where I will be starting a new life, both personally and professionally. A wonderful girlfriend who has two great daughters and the beginning of a career as a luthier and the start of Atrum Kithara building unique instruments. That should spawn all kinds of interesting adventures.

Yesterday was decades ago.

Time is crazy. It can be measured with mechanical instruments like clocks and hourglasses, the movement of celestial bodies: the sun, moon, and stars, and appears by those standards to be a constant. Yet at the same time, I hit the snooze button which is supposed to go off in five minutes, and what seems like a mere ten seconds later, somehow 15 minutes have passed. I walk out the door to the driveway and five minutes pass, but only when I am already close to running late. I don’t think it could be more than 20 feet and I walk at an average human pace. On the flip side, waiting for things like water to boil, or watching paint dry, somehow time crawls during those times. (Yes I watch paint dry. It is a recent thing. I have to do color matching in one of my classes and the color changes once it is dry, so you mix, dab, wait, adjust, repeat. Since the whole class is about applying finishes, this is something I am doing while I am waiting for other projects to dry.)

You might wonder what brings on this topic. Or you might not. Since you are still reading I will go with the assumption that you are curious.

A lot of events occur in life and different people put different importance on different anniversaries, such as birthdays, relationship anniversaries, and other time milestones. Age seems to be a big one for many people. I have never really paid much attention to most of that type of stuff. 16 was great because I could drive. 18 I could do a few things more I guess, but nothing that special. 21, that age coveted by many teens, was about as special as 20 and 22. Maybe less so, because I may have actually done something those other years. Many people dread turning 30. I have no idea why. Other people have ages in their lives that they have certain goals to meet, or dread to turn, or some other significance. For me, well, I look forward to retirement, but not at any certain age. Even that is questionable because I am pursuing a career that I enjoy and hope to be my own boss well before any thoughts of retirement, so it might actually be a thing to avoid, something that happens when I am just no longer able to work.

Now that I haven’t explained or even really hinted at why I bring all this up, I guess I will go ahead and get to the point. A lot of markers have come up recently that make me realize about the passing of time. Bands I remember seeing when they were unknown are celebrating with 20th anniversary tours. It was about 20 years ago that I met my girlfriend, though I had no idea that 20 years from then we would be dating. In fact I had no idea then that she liked me like that. So glad she still does, and even more so now.

Not everything goes back to 20 years ago either. This month marks living here in Minnesota for a year, blogging, and being a pen pal. I am just over a week away from finishing the third quarter of school. I am almost done with school. That is something that actually started about 20 years ago too. Not school, but building my first guitar in school and deciding I wanted to do that as a career. It is a dream come true, as are a few other things that have happened recently in a sense. Some things that I didn’t even realize were things I wanted until they happened. Life is funny that way.

In my class most of the guys are around 18-22. It is interesting to hear them talk. In some ways it makes me feel old. At other times I think I have just grown more open minded and wiser. More experienced as time passes. Some of the stuff I grew up with is still as relevant to these guys as it was when it was new back when I was that age. Other things are obscure and novel or even unheard of to them even though it was commonplace for me. I suppose it is part of life. I used to want to stay young forever, but now I don’t really care. I just want to stay me, to keep experiencing and learning. Age has become meaningless and the passing of time, though it catches my attention every now and then, especially now, is still not really that relevant to me in general. I am approaching middle age and I am happy with where my life is, where it is headed, and because of that I don’t regret where I have been.

I suppose there are a few things I am really looking forward to. One is next weekend, spring break. I get to see my girlfriend who I don’t get to see nearly enough of right now. That is something that makes me want to experience some massive snooze button time for the next week or so, though I really do enjoy school. The other thing is similar. Looking forward to summer when I will be done with school and will be going home. It has been a great experience and adventure being here, but at the same time it hasn’t been easy and I am ready to get back to regular life again. I suppose that is a sign that I really am getting old.

A slice of cheese from my youth, and while I liked it back then and understood the concept, I think I can really relate to it now.

Not bragging. Yet.

I was curious about my school work load, it seems a little high. I remember someone mentioned we are going more than full time in this program. Yeah. I looked it up and I am taking the credit equivalent of one class short of a two year degree. The thing is, the credits are almost completely focused towards guitar stuff, so instead of a degree, I get a diploma. Oh well. Already have a degree, an A.A.S. I could almost say it was worthless, but it did allow me to get my math and English requirements taken care of so I didn’t have to top the credits of a two year degree for this diploma. Plus I ended up using what I learned to apply to a lot of other things, including almost earning another A.A. degree at another school. (I was two classes short and they cancelled the program. Goiter-less bastards!) I think I have taken the equivalent credit load for a Master’s degree at this point. If only I had focused… Nah, then my life would be different and I am quiet excited about where things are headed.

Not only am I doing the equivalent of a two year degree, I am doing it in two semesters. Don’t think that I don’t get the equivalent amount of homework just because I am going for a tech degree either. I have more homework here than I have ever had in any other full time college program and I have attended a few. These classes require bookwork, online research, planning, working on projects, etc. on top of almost 40 hours a week class time.

To make it even more fun, the standards for these classes are tougher than any I have ever had. Normally an “A” is 90% or up. A “B” is 80-90%, etc. In these classes, it is more of a 93-94%+ is an “A” and below around mid 70%, you fail. There are no “D”‘s. What are we graded against as far as workmanship? My teacher said he doesn’t expect us to be perfect, that is impossible. He only expects us to be as good as a certain company that builds boutique guitars in the $4-10K price range, not an industry standard, a representative of the top the industry has to offer. They actually employed a few graduates from the program.

Many projects get one chance to get it right. Even if you can redo something, the time it takes may set you back to far on your other projects. When this is the first time you have done something or worked with a certain tool, etc., not to mention the not completely predictable nature of wood, it is easy to make mistakes. But if you are working on someones vintage guitar that they use to make a living with and cherish like a child, and you are doing a unique repair, well, you really don’t want to make a mistake there either. Good practice. Slightly stressful. So much for the kick back, who cares, rock and roll lifestyle.

I think almost a quarter of the students fail each semester. I think many more barely scrape by. So how am I doing, you ask. Thanks. You may have seen in my last post that I made President’s List last semester. This semester is tougher, I have made some brutal mistakes, I have fallen behind because of the P.O.T.U.S., (but not the current C.I.C. and actually two of them were at fault, damned President’s Day holiday) and the snow. Yet at this point, I am pretty sure that I am going to graduate with at least Honors, if not High Honors. So yeah, now I’m bragging. But I am working hard to earn it. If you want to see what I am actually doing in school, some of it is at Atrumkithara.wordpress.com.

Now I leave you with a nice little ditty by that medieval/jazz/alternative band from the 90’s Miranda Sex Garden. It makes me think of how my brain would sound if it was put into music.

One year later….

It has been a whole year since I started this. I had it going pretty good for a while, but then things changed. School started, life changed, and all kinds of stuff. All for the better though. Just not the better for the blog. But I am still here, still frostbitten. Still The Dead Guy. Up in the air about the grim part. It is pretty brutal out here, and lonely, maybe in some ways more so than before and yet not. But regardless, there was a turn in the tunnel and now there is a light. I will soon be done with Minnesota, maybe done with the frostbitten too. But the dead will always be dead. (With the exception of zombies and not to be confused with the undead.)

When I came out here, I was planning to go to school for three years. Now it is down to this year, plus a summer class that was just added. Figuring time and money, the second year of the guitar program is just not worth it for me. Especially with a $2k tuition hike and the first year already being about 1.5k more than I had planned. Mostly the second year is more appropriate to people going to work in more factory type companies. I am looking to do independent builds. That is where the summer class comes in. It is a group build class, but it is aimed at working in a boutique type shop or becoming an efficient solo builder. As for the violin program, it would be nice, but for the money and staying here for another year, I just can’t do it. Plus the current teacher is retiring so I don’t know what they plan for next year.

I started writing as a pen pal to a friend about a year ago too. We had been communicating for a while before that and had originally been friends alsdfkjap ago in high school. The relationship has evolved since then, first becoming very good friends, and we are much more than friends now. It is not easy, due to distance we don’t get to see each other much. But at the same time, we have developed a relationship that is based on communication and a bond that defies the distance and I think it is something that is pretty special.

When I first moved here, it was winter time. It was a mild winter though. This year is a normal winter for here I guess. It is tough. I don’t know how these people survive. (I don’t just mean the cold either. I really don’t understand how some of them survive in general.) I can handle the cold, but it really sucks. I have gotten quiet good at drifting on the ice and snow in my truck. I miss my motorcycle and bicycle which are still months away from being useable, though there really isn’t a whole lot of places here to use them either. I miss the sunshine. I don’t look forward to the humidity of summer here.

I will miss…. absolutely nothing about this place. I don’t hate it, there just isn’t anything interesting here. I had no idea that it could be so bland. I have spent time in the countryside in California and Oregon and thought it was great. Here it is rural, but not quiet countryside. I think that is part of it. All the inconvenience of being in the middle of nowhere with none of the benefits and many of the inconveniences of being in the city too. Yes, I am still grim.

On a lighter note, I am learning a huge amount of stuff in school. What do you learn in college? Finger painting!

I am doing pretty good in school too. It is far from easy, but I have managed to keep up my grades pretty good. This is the second toughest schooling I have done. I had a class in high school where we had one test for the first semester that could fail you for the whole year no matter what else you did. No make ups either. I was really sick and missed it. After that the class got real easy. This is kind of like that, in that if you miss a day it is really hard to make it up. Some of the assignments you could just fail. Your grade is affected by attendance too. There are schedules and if there is a snow day, well, that sucks because that can set you back too. Should you mess up on something… well, you learn not to mess up. It makes sense though, because in the real world, especially if you do repair work, you don’t get to make mistakes or get an extra day without having an unhappy customer.

Now it is time to eat. Well, to cook. Food is scarce. Fresh vegetables are no longer available indefinitely, due to the freezing weather in California. At least according to the signs in the store. Yet when I talk to people and look at the weather report for California, it is not freezing there. The truth is out there. Right now I am not feeling so inclined to search for it though. But if you have any info let me know.