Well, today was maid day. She is always downstairs when I am leaving every other week. This time though I must've forgotten to read here message last time that said - you need laundry detergent. She told me that as I was leaving. I said," Well, it's been a long time but I think I can figure it out." So, alas, I am now stuck with trying to figure out how to do my own laundry. I never did laundry correctly and I probably won't do this upcoming batch correctly as well. There are rumors around town that stuff is supposed to be separated. I have never separated anything. I just throw the whole pile in the machine, put soap in, and press start. I remember using that technique in college, one time I did end up with pink clothes. There are also so many options on the machine that I have no idea what they mean. What does "Permanent Press" mean? What the difference in water temperatures on the clothes? How can you tell what size load do have like medium vs. heavy? Is there an option on the dryer that unwrinkles clothes? Well, I'll probably just throw everything in and hope for the best. Switching topics, tonight at 7:15 central time on http://www.texasradio1.com my band will be interviewed on the radio. Hopefully I'll think of something witty to say on the air. Like if they ask "How do you find Ft.Worth?" I'll say,"Turn Right at I-30"....

Thought of the Day

"Are you a mod or a rocker?"

"I'm a mocker..."

-- Beatles A Hard Days Night

Hmm, some days it is difficult to find things to talk about. I think I'll talk about Corporate Red today. A lot of people were surprised when I went for the pop-punk kind of genre because I am primarily a blues player. I have found though that the rhythms in pop-punk actually have more complex strumming patterns then blues or classic rock. Most blues and classic rock songs have the guitar doing traditional down-up down-up strumming, even though the rhythm might have more chords in it. In punk there are a lot more variations on strumming. Like down-down-down-down, down-up-up-down-down and down-down-down-up-up.  I have gotten 10 times better in my rhythm playing that I would be if it wasn't for Corporate Red. I do like our songs too. We are catering to a wider demographic and can play around town because of the genre as well. The best thing about Corporate Red or playing for that matter has to be when I get on stage. Some people say I become a different person, hopping up and down and pretty much dancing while I'm playing. It's like I loose my inhibitions on stage. I think it's the opposite of stage fright. It all goes back to high school when I appeared on stage singing "Sweet Home Alabama" in front of an auditorium of people, alone, with just my guitar playing to keep me company.  I was soo nervous before I got on stage, but I rocked the house. Hearing screams from the audience became a big ego booster. Now I can't wait to get on stage and show em all what I got. I think it has a lot to do with feeling like the audience is there to listen to me play and not to look at me and knowing that can play with the best of em. And that's all I got to say about that.

Thought of the Day

[to Rita about Phil]

Larry: "Did he actually refer to himself as "the talent"?"

-- Groundhog Day

Well, this weekend was a blast. I decided since I had been going stir crazy in my house on the weekends that I needed to get out. So on Friday I went to Deep Ellum and saw "A Hard Night's Day" - a good Beatle Cover Band, "Opposite Day" - a Zappa type band from Austin, and "Woodbelly" - a Sting and Bob Marley type band. They were all good. I was supposed to meet a friend there but they cancelled so I went at it alone. I still had fun. Then on Saturday I did my taxes in the morning - apparently I overpaid on my taxes this year. Then in the evening me and Mr.t went to Shreveport and did some gambling. I started off well at the blackjack table and then got down to $15 and then came back ahead for a profit and then lost it all on the same table. Then I went and tried some new games like "Let it Ride" and "Craps". Since I had no idea what I was doing I lost, that was to be expected. Whenever I go gambling I bring my money to lose, that way I won't be disappointed when it happens. I have been lucky at blackjack in the past. When you know how to play a game the odds can be moved to close to even. On Sunday I got back into town at 3 and then had to get a new cell phone. My existing one had part of the cage holding the SIM chip break off when I had dropped it. This time I got the new N-Gage QD. It is smaller than the original and I can check my email on it and play games. It is just what I needed. Then I had a small gathering at my place for the super bowl. I made the world's best hamburger and watched the commercials. As a Dallas Cowboys fan I was going for a tornado or a hurricane, but it didn't happen. Now I am back at work, getting ready for two big shows this week and an appearance on internet radio.

Thought of the Day

Steve McCroskey: I want the best available man on this. A man who knows that plane inside and out. And, won't crack under pressure.

Johnny: How 'bout Mr. Rogers?

 -- Airplane

I think I'll take you back in time and tell some of those wonderful stories of college. Today I shall talk about the Great Road Trip of 1995. Back then we all had fun doing spontaneous kind of things like taking trips, going gambling and skipping class. Nowadays my friends don't want to do anything fun because of wives and kids, but we can always remember. It was a Friday afternoon; I think it was in the spring, not sure. My friends "Beau" and "Doug" were getting antsy and so somehow we end up in my caddy heading west. We really had no idea where we were going. I think we started off thinking we would see Billy the Kids grave.  It was located somewhere in New Mexico. We left Lubbock at about 7ish on Friday. We decided to take turns driving. When we hit New Mexico Beau and I witnessed a streak of light fill the sky for just a second. It was probably a meteor, but since it was New Mexico you never know. We got there around 11ish and looked over the fence at it because the place was shut down for the night. Instead of turning around we decided to go see White Sands so someone else took the wheel and we headed off. Beau, who was not in his right mind, decided to stop the car along the way and climb one of those mountains you always pass, and say "how pretty, who in their right mind would climb it?". So naturally peer pressure persuaded me to follow. So there I am, it's 1 in the morning, the wind is chilly the mountain is hard to climb and I finally get to the top, panting and out of breath.  I collapse near a cactus and almost pass out thinking to myself "How did I end up here?? We are going to die out here and no one will ever know." About 20 minutes later when I got my breath back we head down the mountain, and naturally my mountain climbing skills are top notch and as I walk straight down the mountain I can think to myself how easy it would be to fall and I almost fall about twice. We get back to car, I get in the back and lie down and curse Beau under my breath. Then we continued on our way. We got to White Sands early in the morning, get out and walk around for about a half and hour. I think along the way we stopped and got breakfast. So we were like, hey since we're in New Mexico we might as well go to the real Mexico. So we get in the car and switch drivers. I think I was driving that time. As we head into El Paso there is this really long road with nothing in sight and I was really tired. So naturally I decide to close my eyes, just enough so I could see out the slit in my eyes while driving. Doug notices and screams "wake up!" I think I swerved the car a little and then pulled over. We switched drivers again and headed to El Paso, the dirtiest city in the US.  Then we had to park the car and walked over to Juarez. Juarez was like a third world country, everyone was begging. The kids were upon us asking to buy crayons and flowers from them. We took a walk into the shops and even had lunch there. Honestly the food wasn't that good. I'd rather have Taco Bell. We then walked around and decide its time to head back to Lubbock. So we head back to Lubbock. On our way back the border patrol had setup a road block and told us to get out of the car. We told him how we were college kids on a spontaneous adventure and he had these huge dogs put their paws all over my car. They let us go on our way. It took a while to get back to Lubbock. When we arrived in Lubbock it 6ish the next day we had gone 888 miles.  I decided we needed another 12 miles so I drove around the loop to get us there. So in the end it was 900 miles in a 24 hour period. We did have a good time and we gained the knowledge that anything can happen in 24 hours. I also gained the knowledge that I shouldn't climb mountains. Ah, youth.

Thought of the Day

Phil: Do you know what today is?

Rita: No, what?

Phil: Today is tomorrow. It happened.

-- Groundhog Day

Since yesterday was the State of the Union Address I figured I'd talk the state of my union. Ever since I got off that 3 week sickness I've been feeling like my old self. I finished taking the antibiotics the other day. I will miss those in some ways as I can see me going back to zits and the like. I've had GERD for over 3 years now and even though Nexium is a good drug I fear a hole is developing in my esophagus (that sucks). I was up last until 2:30 taking Tums, Nexium and Alka Seltzer. (I guess I shouldn't have had ribs and pizza yesterday).  I will probably talk to the Dr about surgery next visit.   My job is going well. From what I hear the offer they are going to finalize is basically a lateral move except I get vacation days and am a permanent employee of MSD. My band is still playing. We will be on TexasRadio1 on the internet next Wednesday night and then do a show that night at "The Aardvark" in Ft.Worth. Then that Saturday we will be playing in Deep Ellum with a national act (Mermaid Purse) for the Dallas Music Festival. We are still in the process of getting the book deal. At the moment we have gone back and are redoing our previous work for a final proposal. If this doesn't work then I will complete my new language specification and publish it on the net. The goal of the next 5 years for me is what I like to call the second best source of income, and that is "royalties". The first is actually real-estate, but you need a high initial investment in order to profit off of that. As far as women goes, I am still pretty picky and intend to be. I want a very specific type of women: a smart, good looking, career-oriented, positive and non-complaining, non-controlling, non-nagging type of gal. If you know of any of em let me know.

Thought of the Day

Phil: Do you ever have deja vu Mrs. Lancaster?

Mrs. Lancaster: I don't think so, but I could check with the kitchen.

Well, today is a red-letter day in history. The groundhog Phil has seen his shadow. Ever since I was a kid I was amazed at how a rodent could determine if spring would be early. I have always been disappointed. Apparently out of 95 times he has not seen his shadow 15 times. Talk about disappointment. I often wonder what goes on behind the scenes. Do the judges determine if they want an early spring? Do they actually look at the groundhog and shine a light on it? My favorite thing about this holiday has to be one of my favorite movies of all time "Groundhog Day". I usually watch that movie 3-5 times a year. It was kind of the inspiration for me taking up the violin. The premise was that if each day seems the same then learn something new, and thus I took up violin. Even watching that movie makes me question as to whether the groundhog can tell the weather. It looks like the judges just say what they want.  I wonder what the people in Punxsutawney thought of that movie. Gobbler's Knob probably became a haven for people wanting to live the same day over and over again. All in all we can be sure of one thing - spring will start on March 21^st.

Thought of the Day

"Phil? Phil Connors? Don't say you don't remember me cause I sure as heckfire remember you."

"Ned? Ned Ryerson?"

"Bing!"

-- Groundhog Day

Today I'd like to talk about something near and dear to everyone's heart, and that is SPAM - the email of champions. Spam initially was thought of as something cute and fuzzy, like a little kid trying to get you to buy them a toy. Then it evolved into the teenage years where spam became a 12 year old boy obsessed about body parts if you know what I mean. Then when everybody got mad at spam it evolved again. This time it jumped right to old age and started talking like a dirty old man, always wanting to keep everything up. Occasionally they'd want you to get a prescription here and there. And now spam is in the dementia stage. It is sad really, to see spam degrade to such a state. I now receive spam with gibberish in it all of the time. "byu theis caiialis fromm me" is just not going to work. I don't understand how it can think somebody will buy something with an ad like that. Sometimes it's like their not even trying to sell me anything, they just want to talk. "How about your good self?" says one email. No punch line, no link. "How's Tricks? Ayeye qay" says another email as I quizzically stare at it. Then there was a sign of coherence in another email, but alas, no link, no punchline, just text from a novel "Every evening he had studied the sky from his narrow yard, which resulted curiously in the gift in later years of a great reflecting telescope to a famous university" All I can say is why? The only explanation has to be that spam is close to death. They've tried everything. In order to get past all of the filters they have to send out emails that don't make sense, which won't work. So as spam dies we can remember its formative years as a cute and fuzzy bunny.

Thought of the Day

"The key to faking out the parents is the clammy hands. It's a good non-specific symptom. I'm a big believer in it. A lot of people will tell you a good phoney fever is a deadlock, but you get a nervous mother, you could wind up in a doctor's office--that's worse than school. You fake a stomach cramp, and when you're bent over, moaning and wailing, you lick your palms. It's a little childish and stupid, but then so is high school."

Ferris Bueller