The good news is that my paycheck is going to rock.

The bad news is that Chris broke his arm and will be out for a week.

This calls for a master plan of organization. Things are starting to pick up again, and wow, I feel like I'm college again, trying to juggle all the fun things in the midst of midterms & hell week.

My internet presence is jumping again. I heard back from OD so we're gonna get ready to get that sucker up soon. I've been do a bit of tweaking on Dead Sexy's site, and I have an update to the interface for Fluffy's site that I want to run by her. I have updates for RAM getting ready to go on, and so far I've gotten some good feedback for the pictures I took at the show. Now I just need to get some info from Lance and Thorn about these two temp sites, and away we go.

And for the real career, well, I've got three lighting gigs coming up. The first is a one day paid show next week for a dance tour coming in, then I'm doing lights at Virginia Western for Antigone at the end of the month, and After Happily Ever After the beginning of the year. Gotta keep that portfolio up to date.

So I'll probably be in rehearsals regularly starting in two weeks. It's gonna be a busy month.

Song of the Day: Otto's Daughter - "Don't Care (Industrial Remix)" www.ottosdaughter.com

Now that I'm caught up on the morning, here's a little update on my day:

Scariest driving experience ever. Even outdoing me driving through the big ice storm in Blacksburg two years ago only a few weeks after I had gotten my car.

I went ahead and left my house about 15 minutes early today because I knew the water was going to be bad. I pull out of my driveway and drive down the left side of the road because the complete right half of the road had turned into a mudslide from the construction up the street. I got down to the bottom of my subdivision and the real fun began. About half of the road had water pooling up on it...the storm drains were completely filled, and as I looked off to the left I could see that the entire roads and yards of people near the stream were completely covered. I turned off to go down Broad street and reach the bottom of the hill to find the cross street had completely flooded out to the point that a car that had tried to cross it had gotten stuck. At which point I turned around and called my boss to tell him I would definately be late if I made it in at all. I head back up the road, make another few turns and finally get through the water and to main street. What was normally a 3-5 minute drive had taken me almost 20 minutes. Once I crossed main street there was more flooding by the fire station that I had to drive around, but after I got on the way towards the civic center things weren't too bad. Driving down towards GE was pretty scary...that stream always floods, so water was just standing everywhere, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it might have been. Past the VA was probably the worst...by then it had really started to pour...we were going maybe 20mph at the most, and for about half a mile it was just standing water the whole way through. At that point I had serious thoughts about turning back, but realized by then it would probably be harder to get home than to get to work. I was really dreading Shenendoah since it always floods everytime we get a lot of rain, but surprisingly it wasn't really any worse than usual. I actually just barely made it to work on time...even though it took me 45 minutes to get in this morning.

So driving home should be another fun experience. I have a feeling that this morning was probably worse than I saw since it was still dark, so at least this afternoon I can see what's actually happened. I never thought I'd see my part of Salem under so much water like that...

In other news, pictures from the 51 Peg / TBM show are up on RAM. Check them out!

Song of the Day: Jars of Clay - "Flood" www.essentialrecords.com

Saw this site on Corrie's Xanga the other day, and it's creepy how accurate it is:

"Although the name Laura causes an active mind and a restless urge to explore new ideas, we emphasize that it causes a materialistic approach that frustrates higher humanitarian qualities. This name, when combined with the last name, can frustrate happiness, contentment, and success, as well as cause health weaknesses in the solar plexus and reproductive organs.

The name of Laura brings opportunities for success in business and financial accumulation. It fires you with ambition and promotional ideas, ideas that are original, progressive, and large-scale. With this name, success to you is a foregone conclusion, for you cannot conceive any reason for not reaching all your goals, as you have self-sufficiency, supreme confidence, boundless energy, and enthusiasm. As long as you have a sense of freedom from monotony and drudgery, and can see progress being made, you feel buoyant and optimistic."

Jeff: Next we're gonna play that song...you know, the one we play...
Me: I love that one!

Heh, heh...alllllllllllriiiiiiiiiiiight! Yesterday was awesome. After waking up, doing my make-up and outfit girl things and packing up my camera and sampler CDs, I went down to Tech to pick up Jacob and off we went! Traffic was pretty tight on 81 all the way up, but once we got into the area it was surprisingly clear. I had thought we'd be late, but we found ourselves in the Springfield area ahead of time, so what do we do? Jacob calls his grandma, and we make a surprise stop by her house before heading to the show. It was cute! Jacob's really close to her, so it was nice to meet her for a few minutes. Then we found our way to the Jaxx (a little late, but it was ok because I still got my samplers into the venue) and met up with Corrie, Elise, Sarah, and Sarah's friend Carly. The opening bands were alright, that is, until the surprise 4th band got up on stage, and had an announcement made that they had paid a lot of money to have their set recorded, so everyone needed to move back from the stage completely. Now, I don't think they meant it to come out that way, but wow...how pretentious? They probably would have sounded alright, but the vox was turned up waaaaay too high, and their stage presence was dead (probably because they had alienated the audience and had no one to play to). So yes...how not to do a show.

Then. Finally. The Birthday Massacre. They kicked off with "Blue", my favorite song, and wow...they sounded so good and powerful live! Now that I think back, this is probably the first time I've seen any female singer live, and well, it was pretty inspiring to see someone who on the outside seems so small just rock like Chibi did. Just a plain great show. And for pictures? Well, I seemed to be having an on night...I've got about 20 or so from TBM alone to post on RAM.

Then 51 Peg came on to end the evening. I felt kind of bad for them, because it was so late by then a lot of the younger kids had left I suppose for school the next day, but it was still an amazing show, and I got a bunch of great shots of them too. I've been spending most of my afternoon today just editing pictures.

I did get to talk to some of the band members from TBM. Talked to Rhim for a bit...I was mentioning some of the stuff I did and brought up RAM and he was like "Yeah, I've heard of that site...it's a new one doing band promo, right?" Haha...awesome! Also talked to Brett for a bit...he was filling in on keys since Adam left, and he was really friendly, too. I really hope these guys all come back this way soon.

And I got both setlists. Rock, rock on.

The drive home was pretty uneventful since I was fading fast. But my boy was cute and kept me awake, lol. We got into Blacksburg around 3:30 or so, but by then I was out of gas, so I had to crash there for the night. After being woken up by a call from my dad this morning wondering where I was, I headed back home, and here I am...

Such a great show.

Song of the Day: The Birthday Massacre - "Happy Birthday" www.nothingandnowhere.com

So after an interesting night at work, I hastened down to Tech last night and was actually lucky enough to make half of the set! There weren't a whole lot of people there, but a good handful of friends. I walk in and head towards the stage and and yell, "Hey, it's Tripleside!" and Jacob laughs, says he'd been wondering where I'd been, then looks to Kent and says it's time to play that song, and launches into 'Running Awake'. SOOOOO CUTE!!! Corrie, hope we didn't disrupt your first TBM / 51 Peg experience too much, lol.

So this morning, the cuteness continued. Jacob's a huge fan of the Sims, and we spent 3 hours creating a new 'family' consisting of me and him...wow, it was unreal how close 'I' looked in the game, and how we acted...it was totally like us! Every two seconds it was cuddling everywhere, lol! Except for the random techno dance party in our living room. Don't know where that came from, lmao.

After our digital cuteness session, we headed for lunch, mulled over the tragedy that was the football game (in more ways that one...damn Blacksburg traffic) and I dropped him off at Kent's for the afternoon. I headed out to see Jeremiah, since yes indeed his travel orders are in, and this will be the last time I see him before he flies out the 10th. *cries* I'm really happy for him though...he's now been told he'll be on a Hawaiian cruise which suits him better I think than the originally Medittereanean cruise he had heard about earlier...but it means I'll be big brother-less for an entire 6 months. He really is family to me, and I'm gonna miss him a lot; and more than for just the footrubs, lol.

So I'm back here in Salem...just laid out my outfit for tomorrow's show! I'm getting ready to burn the sampler cds...I have I think 10 artists now...how cool is that? This thing is gonna rock...so after I do that and wash my hair in preparation for tomorrow's hairstyle (nothing major...just pigtails using my new miniture fluffy hair bands, but I haven't had my hair like that in so long...and it's, well, so long, lol) I'll be all set. I really need to talk to Corrie though. I just realized I don't remember where she lives, nor do I have the directions from last time. So as long as Jacob can get me to NoVA I figured in the meantime I'll somehow reach her by phone. If not, well, I guess we can all meet up at the Jaxx if nothing else works, lol. No worries - these things always work out somehow.

Gotta grab some CDs for the ride...51 Peg and both TBM albums to be sure, plus, what's driving without some JCS and Reality Check? I'm actually really looking forward to the driving part, too. Not that me and Jacob don't see each other pretty often as it is, but it's gonna be great to just chill and talk to him for 4, 5 hours straight each way. I know that these past few weeks have been really stressful for me with work and trying to get my life set and in order, but I can only think about how much more difficult it would be if I didn't have his steady presence with me. As I was driving home tonight I guess I felt like maybe I hadn't said it enough, but yeah...I know things would seem so much bigger and overwhelming if you weren't here.

I talked to Mike last night and he said the pictures he took a few weeks ago should be in this weekend. Yay!

Song of the Day: Jimmie's Chicken Shack - "30 Days" www.jimmieschickenshack.net

So it looks like this sampler cd is going to be a complete success...I've heard back from eight artists so far with the go ahead...it's gonna rock! And Jacob is a sweetie - he's got a fast burner so he's gonna help me knock these out tomorrow.

Jeremiah called and he's getting ready to head out on his cruise gig, so I'm hanging out with him for part of the day tomorrow...he's gotta cut his hair, lol. So that should be fun.

Then gonna wake up around 10 on Sunday, run down and get Jacob, and head on up to NOVA. Gotta get with Corrie and figure out what we're gonna do...

In the meantime, I'm stuck here to at least 10, though it looks like it'll be later because we have to strike this huge set tonight. So I doubt I'll catch any of the show tonight. :-( Ah, well. I knew I wouldn't be able to make all of them...

Song of the Day: Otto's Daughter - "Don't Care" www.ottosdaughter.com

So after the other nights "hate me" post, the evening improved with IM convos with both Lance and David (who I hadn't talked to in I don't know how long) and a phone call from Jacob. Yeah, I guess things aren't that bad, but maybe I need to hit that low point to motivate myself to get started again.

So yes, I did get the weekend off, so Jaxx, here I come! It'll be great to see some people again; me and Jacob are going to meet Corrie up there, and she's running merch with Sarah I do believe, so that'll be cool to meet her, too! A lot of people from TBM's board said they'll be there, so this should be loads of fun.

I had an idea on the way to work; well, basically regurgitated an idea that Claudia from Lunarclick* did a few weeks ago at the Orgy/Deadsy show. I'm in the process of contacting artist associated with RAM to see if they'll let me burn some songs to a small sampler CD to give out at the show Sunday. I'm going for about 5 - 7 tracks, and think using those small, floppy sized cds might be cool. I dunno. Still in progress...we'll see who bites on that one.

I woke up this morning with the beginnings of a sinus infection. I didn't really pay attention until I got downstair and my mom looked at me and saw how swollen my face was. Joy. Now it's starting to hurt. At least I'm only here for about 5 more hours.

Also, due to some booking errors, Tripleside is playing this Friday night at Attitudes now, along with Drew and Jeff. Should be very cool, but unfortunately I don't get off work until 10 so I doubt I'll be able to make much if any of it...but I'm gonna try!

Song of the Day: Jimmie's Chicken Shack - "Let's Get Flat" www.jimmieschickenshack.net

Sunday, September 26th: 51 Peg & The Birthday Massacre @ Jaxx

I WILL be there!

Song of the Day: Orgy - "Beautiful Disgrace" www.punkstatikparanoia.com

I have no one to blame but myself. I went against all of the ideals I had sworn I'd follow, and sold out, went corporate, and sacrificed my loves and passions for money and the delusions that I would soon be engaged to a man I'd only dated for a few months. So now I'm in a job that is eventually going to not only distract me from my goals but outright interfere with them.

And how much is eight-fifty an hour anyways?

Today just sucked. I was at work so late tonight, and I don't know when things are going to improve. I don't like this. I don't want to be here. I'm exactly what I thought I'd never be...the theatre major that lives at home with the parents, never moved away from college, and is working a job that has nothing to do with the career she was intending to pursue.

All for the goddamn money.

So I'm sitting here now, wishing I had something to distract me, but of course it's too late to do anything because, hey, imagine this, I have to work tomorrow. As all of my friends are out drinking, hanging out, going to shows, whatever...I'm stuck in Bassackwardsville VA, trying to pretend that I'm the type of person I always resented.

Jacob just left to go out for the night. I wish he hadn't, but what kind of girlfriend would that make me to say "yes" when he asked me if I wanted him to stay. God, I suck. I really do. I can't believe this is the kind of person I turned out to be.

So I'm going to go cry myself to sleep now, or maybe just stress about what's going to suck more about the job tomorrow. Because there's nothing left to do, and no one left to talk to.

The full and honest truth. I hate just about everything in my life so far, and I'm going to hate myself even more if I don't break it all to pieces soon.

I got a palm pilot at work today as a gift from a client. That was pretty cool.

All in all, not much else is going on. I pretty much finished OD's site last night, so I'm just waiting to hear back on how we're gonna flip that. I hope she didn't decide she hated me for taking so long, lol. Then I'm getting started for Redrum's site. Or maybe Mind Over Me's site. Or both. Gotta work that one out with Thorn, lol.

I miss my Jacob...he has disapparated since this morning and has not been on email since! ;-)

Song of the Day: Orgy - "Leave Me Out" www.punkstatikparanoia.com

Everyone else was.

LJ Pirate by steely_glint
Username
This week I have mostly been stealing...?
You are a...	Pink Pirate
Your ship is called...	The Black Pearl, you unoriginal sod
Your treacherous first mate is...	fluffystarr101
Your loyal bosun is...	starlit_rain
Your sexual plaything...umm, I mean your cabin boy	phyxsius
You lost your...	Spleen
To a...	Cabin boy you molested
And replaced it with a...	Cutlas
Your pirate pet is...	Woodworm
Your pirate catchphrase is...	Splice my mainbrace! (nudge nudge wink wink)
Quiz created with MemeGen!

Song of the Day: Fluffy Starr - "Find Me (demo)" www.fluffystarr.com

Another good day comprised of more Indian food. Plus I spent a good part of the day organizing my CDs and their jewel cases...wow I really am starting quite a collection. Then this evening I made a shitload of progress on Otto's Daughter's website. Like, got most of the visuals section done (we're talking over 60 images for me to make thumbnails of, then to code) and worked on the merch page for awhile. I had that page done and then they went and got more merch, lol! Did the links section too. So all that's really left is finishing the visuals, and then reskinning the message board and guestbook. Fun times!

Hehe...watch Harry Potter & The Sourceror's Stone. Rules of the game: everytime someone says "You-know-who", Muggle, and Wingardium Leviosa; whenever Alan Rickman is on the screen, and whenever Hermione is a whiny bitch. And everytime you miss one and someone calls you on it, it's a double.

I was totally out before Hagrid had even gotten the dragon egg.

Anyways, great weekend so far. I spent most of it with my boy...today we went to Swagat to lunch, and he seemed to enjoy the Indian food more this time, which is good! We walked around Valley View for awhile, unsuccessfully looking for the pants I want for the show this weekend. Then we headed over to Best Buy for a bit, and then back to Blacksburg. We were cute some more, this time to the point of almost calling up Corrie to make sure she didn't pass out while she was driving or something - we may have to work out a system of making sure she's in a 'safe zone' before we're too cute, or something...

So after taking a nap, Jacob fed my craving for cheese sticks with a good dinner at Attitudes, and I headed on home. I have tomorrow off from work too, but I have a feeling most of it will be spent sleeping. I'm so tired.

Working continues on Radio-Active. Got two major plugs this week...Corrie gave me a shout out on her blog AND bought ad space (which will go up once I figure out why my banner rotation script is not functioning)...how cool is that? Then Fluffy mentioned her upcoming interview in her blog, too...there's also something else cool coming with that, so yeah...watch out for something Fluffilicious! Heard from Elise, and 51 Peg's interview should be done after this weekend's three shows...wow...a week until I see 51 Peg and TBM...can't wait!

I'm beginning to think that me pursuing a life of fame is too much work, and not really what I'm about. If I could move to LA and start a record store and maybe a small venue with it for this genre of music, I would be happy. That's the current goal. Maybe in a year or so I'll have enough money to do just that. But in the meantime, I continue on with RAM in its online form...

Song of the Day: Celldweller - "Switchback" www.celldweller.com

So how about this weather? I think people think I'm kidding when I say, yes, it is possible to have tornadoes here in Virginia; we had two during the time I lived in Lynchburg. And then two more in the area today so far. Fortunately, I was in the basement all day being a dedicated tech for a group (first time...booyah) so the worst I had to deal with was the house right wall turning into a waterfall again.

I went down to Tech last night to listen to Micheal Badnarik speak. I have to admit, I had been following the Libertarian nominations and had originally supported two other nominees for the presidential race. But after seeing Badnarik in person...wow. Very straightfoward, very honest...not afraid to say, no, I don't agree with that. He did a wonderful job of explaining Libertarian principles. I really wish more people could get an opportunity to hear this view.

It drives me nuts that most people only think there's two options. A few quotes from the night: "What's the point of voting for the lesser of two evils, when either way, you still end up with evil?"

And "The only wasted vote is one cast for a candidate that does not have your respect." I do have some friends that are strong supporters of either the Republican or Democratic parties, and I know that they have paid attention, and are making informed, respectable decisions. But what kills me is those that just don't care...even not enough to vote. *sigh* Ok, I'll step off my soapbox now.

Anyways, and hour to go...

Song of the Day: Tripleside - "Walking Through Fire" www.tripleside.net

Last night, somewhere in Northern Virginia, Corrie became mysteriously ill a few minutes after 9pm. As she tried to shake off the feelings of unease, she realized it could only be one thing:

Someone was being disgustingly cute.

So when am I the person to ever let things sit? I'm in my room last night, and if my mom had walked in, well, we won't go there. I'm listening to the Lamb CD Jacob had loaned me over the weekend, staring at the pictures Mike had taken of us walking on the rain unnoticed, and cuddling with the items of clothing I had appropriated from Jacob's room, and realized that I didn't want to go to sleep the same way I did the night before.

Yeah, I have to be at work at 7am. It was only 8:30.

So I drove down to Tech, and after being I think the only one on 81 driving slow enough to not be considered for reckless driving, I meet Jacob at his apartment (not without Mike driving beside us as we're walking in, playing music more fit for a sappy romance movie.) I think we've gotten things figured out. We'll both be working to make things better.

Plus, we're really good at being cute. Sorry Corrie. :-)

Song of the Day: Lamb - "Gorecki" www.lambstar.net

Just when I thought it was going to be a slow evening...leave it to everyone's favorite webmaster to pick things up...

Zeta Vande: I saw Steve this past week
Zeta Vande: that was wierd at best, lmao
mindbinge: did he give you your money
mindbinge: lol
Zeta Vande: what do you think? lmao
Zeta Vande: ah well
mindbinge: you should have stolen something
mindbinge: lol
Zeta Vande: HAHAHAHAHA
mindbinge: shoes...anything

Those two photos keep catching my eye
And I can't stop staring
Casually holding the umbrella over my head, you a little behind...

I forgot to mention earlier that my metal allergy overnight picked my face as the next battle ground. I'm afraid to go out in public...what a great time to have a job in customer service. Getting ready to dye my hair again. I went with the red for one last time.

I never thought of you being protective type
Only at this angle now I see
That I've been blind.

*sigh* This is gonna be a long week, but in the end...it's just a week.

You opened my eyes, you opened my life.

Very busy day at work...constantly on my feet. Nothing bad, just always up and running. But hey, only an hour and a half to go.

Good news, too. Chris has been offered the lead position, so all of my buds, get ready to apply for the open Tech space. :-) I'll let you guys know when it officially opens up, but yeah...start refreshing your resumes.

I think this afternoon, if it gets sunny out, I'm going to practice the long lost art of sun tanning. Might as well get some summer color before it's gone. I need to redye my hair too...do I keep with the red highlights, or go ahead and switch to purple for the show at the end of the month? Decisions, decisions...I might run by the mall too before I go home to see if I can find those pants I'm desperately looking for...at least I have the boots now. Wow...I can't believe I'm planning an outfit a month in advance. It's very uncharacteristically girly of me, lol.

At least I'm only working until 2 today.

So the short story is, me and Jacob are taking some time off. We'll get together in a week or so once we've figured out what we really need and what our future, if there is one, should be.

Jeremiah called last night - it's good to hear from my big brother, even when I am kind of busy, lol. Oof, Fluffy!

Found some interesting stuff online last night...can't be more specific since I don't know who really reads this anymore, but yeah...things might be changing in a rather large way soon. And about damn time.

Meh. Off to work I go...

"Erasable, Expendable...
I wish I didn't need you now.
I need you now, I need you now, I need you now..."

Song of the Day: Celldweller - "Symbiont" www.celldweller.com

Otto's Daughter - All I Ever Wanted

I think confrontation is a lost art. Anyways.

On a brighter aspect I got a shitload of work done today on RAM...a few photos from the 3S show Friday (pixel overexposure again...I remember when I used to be good at this), updated artist listing and FAQ page, updates on myspace, and a new staff page with me, Jak, and the open positions still available. And Adam is working on some promo images for me, so that's very cool too. Good day for work...

Song of the Day: Orgy - "Social Enemies" www.punkstatikparanoia.com

Good weekend, as usual! After waking up from almost no sleep after the Tripleside concert, I dragged myself to work, but it was a decent, slow day, and the ending was very interesting. I was about done with my room sets when one of the risk management guys comes in, and basically, he starts telling me about rumors of a fallout shelter that's said to be under the hotel...apparently, people have seen blue prints, but no one really is sure where it is. So for awhile now he's been attempting to find this thing, and in the meantime he's found some very interesting things. In doing his rounds through the building, he's starting to notice dead spaces everywhere, AND some very odd rooms. He showed me the hidden suite on the hotel side that was apparently built with misappropriated funds a long time ago, plus several very odd sealed off rooms...one below ground with a submerged patio, where recently the concrete wall has started to crumble and reveal a doorway that had been covered over. Next to it and up a few floors is another room with no doors to it; they've tried breaking through the walls but they're completely solid...even odder is that there's a small window on the outside to it, but it's been blackened up and appears to be very reinforced. So, yes, I am intrigued.

After work I headed over to the Civic Center and chilled with Steve for an hour and a half. It was good to see him again - he seems a lot happier on this tour, and his coworkers were very cool. So we all sat around on the tour bus for a bit. For the most part it was an uneventful meeting, but at the end he started getting a little sentimental, going on about how he let a good thing get away and he still loved me...heh...easy to say that when the pressure to follow through is off, eh? Hehehe...no worries, though. He's still a friend, and things are cool.

Then I headed down here, to Tech, and me and Jacob went to Ed Falco's play reading last night. It was really, really good, and nice to see some old friends again. After the play we grabbed some dinner (desert for me) at El Guad, and then spent the remainder of the night being absurdly cutiful.

And today I'm still here...we're doing more work on 3S stuff...we went to Office Max and got some officy things for managing paperwork and finances, and now I've been working on preparing the "Oh shit, I forgot" box of band supplies in case we need things like extra picks, guitar strings, batteries, etc. Always prepared as a manager, no? Hehe.

Song of the Day: Tripleside - "Bitter" www.tripleside.net

still with all that we have
known
think we'd find a way
to be unshaken
and with all we have
lost
wish we could find a place
where everyone could
live inside your dream
call it paradise
say it's circumstance
as long as we're
alive
I'm with you
- JCS, "Unshaken"

Song of the Day: Tripleside - "Triumphant Return of Spring" www.tripleside.net

There is no life where I will ever fit, is there?

Song of the Day: Club Decease - "Death Next Door" www.clubdecease.net

I'm beginning to think that it's against God's will for the Tripleside merch board to be made. Not only is my printer possessed, but I just found out that for months now my dad's printer has been refusing to print color. Yes, we changed out the cartridge, yes the printing settings are right...I do this kind of shit for a living, remember? So yeah...now I have to find yet another alternate way of printing these things tonight. Blah. I need to go out and get the fabric for it in a few minutes...maybe I should dig my printer out anyways and see if it's somehow become a souless peice of equipment again.

I'd also like to take the usual five minutes out of my week and say this: if you don't feel comfortable driving the posted speed limit, then you shouldn't be driving. Period. Doing 20 in a 45 is not acceptable to anyone else trying to make it to work on time. I now have to get up and leave earlier just for the inconsiderate jackasses that insist on holding up traffic. There were more angst related driving incidents this week, but that's the most repitious. I think I may start a new blog just to rant about bad drivers.

I heard from Martin from Booboo's Punch the other day, and they'll be releasing their album in about a month and a half...that's very exciting...they have a Celldweller-ish type of feel to them, so if you're into that, you should check them out. I also saw that 51 Peg posted on TBM's board the other day about the Jaxx show...remember a few weeks ago when I said I might have done something cool? Hehe...yeah, vague, whatever...but the truth is I was trying to help Disown get on that show. I hadn't heard anything after that so I assumed it hadn't happened, but I see now that it's still a work in progress, so who knows? I really hope that works out...keep your fingers crossed.

Speaking of shows...Tripleside, tomorrow night @ Attitudes, playing second. Show is scheduled to start at 8:30, so I'm thinking the boys will go on at like 9:45ish. If you really care, just call my cell or something.

Song of the Day: that "Something Wicked This Way Comes" song from HP3 www.harrypotter.com

So since my blog FINALLY decided to publish, here's another update...but more recent. Heh.

Water. Everywhere. The Hotel is very old, so you can imagine how many leaks we have. Could have been worse, but yeah, it was bad enough. Then, of course, the roof in my bedroom decided to start leaking too, so that's fun. As if I didn't have enough to do, now I have to move all of my crap around so that someone can come in to repair the drywall. *sigh*

So it looks like my opportunity to move back to Tech is no longer an opportunity. Maybe it's really just L.A. calling my name. I gotta move out, I gotta move out.

Oh, I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but Michael Badnarik is coming to talk at Tech, like, next Thursday evening I think? I am so there.

Song of the Day: Jimmie's Chicken Shack - "When You Die You're Dead" www.jimmieschickenshack.net

Good last day of vacation. After waking up I went down to Tech for the show, and much fun was had by all...Jacob let me play some Anjeliina, which seemed to go over well, plus some Lunarclick* and Orgy...so yay! That was my good band promo for the day.

Well, not all of it...I actually got myself motivated this evening and wrote up and sent off three interviews that I really needed to do for RAM, so hopefully I'll have those up soon, since the one I have in review is, well, still in review...*smacks Lance with the trout*.

I also got Club Decease's new album in the mail, too...thanks Jak! Jak is their promo manager, and he's going to be working for RAM now too...official announcement coming soon, but yeah, he's gonna be taking care of the promotion side of the site for me, running the street team and online presence things...awesome! So yeah, just popped the CD in, and it sounds good! I wasn't completely thrilled with the old demo I heard back on D1 back in the FFA days, but this new stuff rocks! Very impressed indeed.

So yeah...gonna work on the 3S merch board here in a minute...everyone's coming to the show Friday, right??? *grin*

So in few I'll be on my way back to Tech for...

EVERYONE'S FAVORITE RADIO SHOW!!!

That's right, due to a convenient convergence in scheduling, I'll be on Jacob's show again today...3:15 - 5pm. Yay! So I've got new music from Anjeliina, Lunarclick, Orgy, Otto's Daughter, and Snake River Conspiracy...so listen in!

Song of the Day: Lunarclick* - "Good Enough" www.lunarclick.com

In case anyone is counting, this will be my 801st blog post. 801 entries to describe my life for the past 2 and a half years.

Anyways, wow, what a great weekend! I woke up yesterday in that pleasantly numbed "I still can't hear a damn thing" mode, then hopped online where Heather IM'd, asking if I'd like to go thrift store shopping. And when do I turn down thrift store shopping? So after washing my hands of the unfortunate car shop incident (and no, they had not found my reciept) I managed to avoid several inept drivers and made it to Heather's apartment, and off to the Y we went. I found a very awesome leather jacket there for use later in the year. Then my boy called to let me know that he and Mike and Laken were on there way to the Western store to continue looking for items for his Snape costume, and eventually we managed it so that we all met at Goodwill afterwards. After some very silly outfit attempts, we headed on (not until I had gotten a very cool gold shirt) and went to Steakback Outhouse for dinner. Such a great group...lots of fun was had by all, aside from Private Jacob's unfortunate Titanic re-enactment. (Hahaha...better than Mike's LJ version, eh? ROTFLMAO...two inside jokes in one! Boo-yah!) After everyone went there seperate ways, me and Jacob spent the remainder of the evening being cutilicious. Then today we spent most of the day at Kent's so that they could record and practice, and I started working on the merch board for this weeks show. I should have that finished by tomorrow.

So here I am, again, in Jacob's boxers and t-shirt, ending out a good weekend. Only the fun isn't over for me, since I still have two days off...ALLLLLLLLRIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!

Song of the Day: Jimmie's Chicken Shack - "High" www.jimmieschickenshack.net

And the saga continues. At the brilliant suggestion of my boyfriend, I headed on down to the car shop before my parents left for dinner - I mean, these guys would have to give me my car if I'm sitting there glaring at them, right? Heh. So we drive down, and as soon as we pull in I notice that my car is back outside in a new space, so I'm like, wtf? Why haven't they called in the first place? I go inside, and the dude is shuffling around papers everywhere...come to find out my car had been finished for quite awhile, but they LOST the reciept for the part they had to order for me, so they didn't know what to charge me. Fifteen minutes later they finally give up, charge me for labor, and ask me to come back tomorrow to pay for the rest of it. Because this company apparently can't do mail billing OR credit card authorizations. I casually replied it would be no problem, since they could always give me a discount. I honestly wonder if I didn't show up tomorrow if they would even notice.

But the best part is this. Once they took off the bottom shield they realized the top one had rusted through as well. Because it would have been too hard to check on that the first time, right? So not only did I have this huge aggrivation of my car in the shop for the past few weeks, and not only do I have to go out of my way again tomorrow to pay them for a reciept they may or may not find...but my car is still broken, and I will still have to take it back in (SOMEWHERE ELSE) later on this week.

The good news is that I was leaving the shop right at 6, so I made a quick stop for my camera, and made my way to Hollins for the second JCS show. Well, as we all know, websites are notorious for having the wrong times on them, so while we all thought doors were at 6, well, doors were at 7:30. But, no worries as I didn't get there until a little after 6:30, and I spent the remaining hour chilling with Dana's dad waiting for Dana and Laura to arrive. That was great...Dana has the coolest parents, so it was good to talk to him since I hadn't really sat down with him in like a year. I'm glad that things are sorting out for everyone it seems.

So the show started, and I guess you can imagine...a bunch of very uncool freshman in an all-girls school. It was just wierd. The first band was technically and sound-wise very good, just very boring and un-original pop rock...after about 20 minutes of what I swear was the same song again and again, I was constantly looking at my watch and reminding myself that it could be worse...it could be those two drunk frat guys playing DMB covers from last night. Anyways. Finally, they finished up and JCS came on to set up.

Technical disaster. You know that you're in trouble when your sound dude is rocking his IATSE local shirt. I mean, no offense to local crews, but...wait, sorry, you're gonna be offended. "Hey, look at me, I helped load in for Incubus!" *sigh* So none of the mics were working, and I watched this dude, looking like he was about to burst into tears, switch out the mic cable three times. Troubleshoot much? If all 3 mics are not working, yes, it must be that one cable, er, all 3, that you just switched out? Re-dic-u-lous. Finally someone thought to trace the lines to see that the mics were plugged directly into Jimi's amp or some wierd shit like that, and re-ran the XLR. Finally. The show.

The show was great. They played everything I needed them to play...only about 2 months too late. Beautiful, Unshaken, Fill In The Blank, even 30 Days...all those songs I played again and again to get over Lance. I kept thinking that this would have been the best concert for me...if I had still needed it. Kind of a wierd, almost missing the absence of the pain kind of thing. I guess it's odd for me to be content again, lol. Like, uh, I have no stress to release for the first concert in my life. Not that I'm complaining.

So I got a few ok pictures from the night, but not as many or as good of quality as I had hoped...one of these days...I'm going to be at a show were the lighting is good. I'm hoping that day might be next Friday. The pictures from last night are up on RAM, and tonights will be there by tomorrow I imagine. Click on "Photo Gallery" underneath the Features section.

So...here I am, in Jacob's t-shirt and boxers, and my ears are still ringing. It's been a day in the life of Laura...

Now I know better than to go writing names in here when I'm about to go off on a rant, so if you would like to know which company I'm talking about, feel free to get in touch with me personally and I'll let you know who NOT to do business with.

I took my car in over a week ago because I had started hearing a horrible rattling on the passenger side of my car. Now, I didn't take it to the dealership first of all because they couldn't even see me for a week. So I took it down to main street where my dad had previously done business. Error #1 - pissing off return customers.

So they were able to see it that day, and tell me that my heat shield needed to be replaced. They would order the part and call me in about 3 days. A week later, my mom gets the call. Error #2 - Major delay in scheduling.

My mom calls them back for me as soon as I get my work schedule (since I'm at work all the time they're open) and gets me an appointment for this morning. So I bust my ass to get back from tech at the crack of dawn, and when I get there, they've lost my records, claimed that we had never gotten back in touch with them, and that I was lucky they hadn't shipped my part back to the maker. Error #3 - Enormous communication failure within the company.

They said they'd call me and let me know how things are going. Finally, at 4:00 I call, and they were just pulling my car in to start. I told them I had to be somewhere at 5, and they said earliest I would get it would be 6.

I am horribly disappointed in the customer service. If you are thinking about getting your car worked on in the Salem area, please check with me to make sure you're not going to make the same disasterous choice in business that I did. Or you might end up missing your favorite band play. Twice.

So in case you were wondering, Jacob = cutest boyfriend EVER! (in my subset of ever, that is, lmao - inside joke).

Last night was just great. No other way to describe it. There were so many people there, and Tripleside just rocked! The night was fairly informal, which lead to the original 20 minute set limit to about an hour per band, so much Triplesiding was had by all. And Jacob, aww, I can't think of it without saying it, lol, he played our song last night, and announced how it was our 2 month anniversary and that everyone should buy us drinks. While I unfortunately remained sober (cheap bastards) the night was wonderful, even when Kent and Jacob had me come up and sing with them on Walking Through Fire...wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it was going to be. But yeah, wow, Kent and Jacob sounded so good...now I'm looking forward to next Friday at Attitudes more than ever. I got a few good pictures from last night...here's one...the rest will be up in a new "photos" section going on RAM in the next few days:


So...today I really will do some writing for the site...my car is back in the shop to get the heatshield replaced, so I'll be stuck here for awhile. I should be able to make the first JCS show tonight...but if not, well, definately the second one. I also got my copy of the Vague single in the mail today...it's good, but they way they pressed it means it won't play on my computer, so I have to listen to it through my crappy boombox. Ah, well...

Song of the Day: Tripleside - "The Message" www.tripleside.net

So I spent a good part of the afternoon playing "Let's find Laura's camera" but finally, I found it next to the tribble. Speaking of the tribble, it's good that I checked my card before I erased it, because I had forgotten about some extra pictures I had taken at the radio station...hehe...so here you go...DJ Tribble:

That is so my desktop background.

Jacob called earlier saying he had heard something about a JCS show tomorrow on Henderson Lawn...which is kinda wierd being that they're playing at Hollin's that night. But it is completely feasible, seeing that JCS will do double shows, and that the Tech show is scheduled at 5, while doors at Hollin's is at 6...and that's not even taking into account the opening band there. The only snafu in keeping me from being at both shows is that I have to take my car in tomorrow, so I have to get up super early tomorrow morning and do that if I want to have a ghost of chance to get back to Blacksburg tomorrow afternoon.

So I'm not too sure how I feel about the whole Steve thing...I haven't seen him since November, and I honestly thought that'd be the last time. However, as with most tours, he may not even have time to do more than say hi to me on the back dock of the civic center before loading out, so yeah. Whatever. Glad he's doing ok.

Nad: you gonna come to the show at tech tomorrow afternoon?
me: maybe
me: I have to take my car to the shop
me: so I don't know if I'll make it down in time, but I'm gonna try
Nad: that's cool
Nad: there's still the second show
me: exactly, lol
me: but I almost feel cheated if I only get the second show
me: it's like, left-over sex

Alright...time to do my last bit of promo for this show, then head on to Tech to cuddle with the boy for a few hours. :-)

So I woke up this morning not only feeling like I had a boulder sitting on my pelvis (how's that for the monthly creative euphemism?) but with voice mail from Steve saying he'd be in Roanoke next Saturday. Well, maybe I'll get my money back finally. I also got cuted at by Jacob, so the morning wasn't completely lost, lol. And how could it be? Tonight is THE night...that's right...if you're in the Blacksburg area, come out to Champs to see Tripleside play their first show of the school year.

So I just threw in Anjeliina's CD, and I'm impressed so far with the first 10 seconds...couldn't really tell much by the clips they had up on the site, but they're friends with DITC, so I knew there had to be something there. Yeah...good stuff! I should bring this to Jacob's radio show...

Anyways...what to do today? I can't decide if I should redye my hair before the show, or if I should bust out these CD reviews and a few interviews this afternoon...hmn...well, either way, I'm starving so I think I'll eat now, lol!

Song of the Day: Anjeliina - "The Winds" www.anjeliina.com

I forgot to mention that I have Cool Edit Pro now...me and Dana are talking about it. The original intent is to remix one of Jacob and Kent's old songs, but now it opens up all sorts of possibilities...my music, stuff Dana is doing, remixes of Orgy, Fluffy Starr...ALLLLLLLLRIIIIIIIIIIGHT.

So yeah...I have 6 days off from work because of the holiday weekend. Planning on doing some major work for Otto's Daughter, D1, RAM, and a few other projects. Plus there are two great shows this weekend...Tripleside at Champs tomorrow night (hehe...me and Jacob's 2 month anniversary) and then JCS Friday. God, I can't wait to see them again!

So I got my promo CD from Anjeliina in the mail today, and apparently Adam's DVD is here, too! So good day for music!

There's some quote Data said on TNG that sticks out in my mind...went something like this: "I saw my problems as challenges to overcome, rather than obstacles to avoid." As you get to know me better you'll see that as long as I think there's a chance I'll keep fighting to get through. Walking away isn't really an option.

I remember talking to my friends about how I couldn't understand how things between me and Lance could have been so good at the beginning, then just fell apart. But now I'm coming to realize that a relationship's "working" value isn't decided on the good times, but how you get through the bad ones. True, the first month or two with Lance was like heaven, but when things started to get rough in our lives...well...that was that. In the global view...our first problem was also our last. If you think about it, it was the same thing with Jeremiah, too. So if now, I'm in a relationship where we're both willing to stay in it and get knocked around a bit, well, now I know something must be working right this time.

Off to work...last early morning for the rest of the week, yay!

Jacob, I love you.

Song of the Day: Otto's Daughter - "All I Ever Wanted" www.ottosdaughter.com