Stealing Jacob's idea completely, I'm now doing my own shortlists at the end of every month. Basically a CD full of new songs or newly re-appreciated songs.

February 2005:
Amphibious Assault - In Your Room
Beck - Ghettochip Malfunction (Hell Yes)
Celldweller - Goodbye
Dead Girls Corp. - Bombs Begin
Dead Inside The Chrysalis - Dreadlock
Dead Sexy - Given
From Lies That Were Told - Shut Up Sit Down
Heart Of Darkness - My Darkness
In Winter - June
I:scintilla - Capsella
Jay-Z & Linkin Park - 99 Problems / Points of Authority
Kasabian - Club Foot
Otto's Daughter - Losing You
The Birthday Massacre - The Dream (Violet Digipack Mix)
Tripleside - Running Awake (V-day Mix)

So good weekend. I spent most of it in Blacksburg with my cute boy. This afternoon Mike came over and we had a hair dye party. We did Jacob's a medium red color, and then Mike's a bluish black with some streaks of purple. Awesome. Very Jay Gordon-ish.

Then this evening - band practice! I went out to Derek's tonight and had our first real rehearsal - it went well on my end, but technically, everything that could have broke did. Their house computer had crashed hardcore this week due to a worm, then we get out to the studio and he goes to set everything up - turns on the amp...and nada. Thing is completely dead. So he reroutes through another amp, and we set some levels and get started...and I can't hear a damn thing. Somewhere between sound check and starting the first song my mic bit the dust. So he gives me another, and we go. Got through the first song a few times and it was great! I lost my nervousness, so we moved on...and no go. None of the other midi files would play. So, at that point, we called it a night and just spent the rest of time hammering out details about what we wanted to do now. I think this is gonna be awesome.

So now, I need to start looking around for some sound equipment. It's gonna be fun finding cool things - I'm gonna get my own little set up plus what I need for the band, and - my favorite part - a vocal processor. We talked about it and I think it'd be a really cool toy to have. So yeah, once my schedule changes and I go to the 5-10pm shift with rehearsals me and Derek are gonna go to StageSound and test out some equipment. Awesome.

I'm very excited. Now, time to answer a few emails...

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

I win. And I mean, I win everything.

So work was good, as usual. I'll be done with inventory tomorrow, and then I can really focus on the theatre. Today I did a bit of inventory, but spent part of the time replugging some old studio fresnels the theatre got when the campus closed their TV studio. So that's cool - now I've got a few more high wattage instruments at my disposal.

I ran into Rafe at work today, and it was great to see him. Haha, ok, for the story. I didn't wanna post this too soon, but I have to confess that before I left the hotel I just had to, well, leave my mark. How can people like us leave anywhere without a good prank? Now, mind you, I was careful to make sure what I did wasn't permanent, didn't interfer with work, or leave the department. What did I do, you might ask? Hehe, well - I took in a pad of small sticky notes and wrote "Laura Was Here" and put them all over the A/V office and storage areas. I put them in varying locations of accessibility - some really obvious that people would find right away, others that, as I hinted to Chris the day before I left, 6 months from now he's gonna move a piece of equipment and think, "Goddammit, Laura was here, too!"

So Rafe said he thought it was brilliant; in fact, he and Kristi were in the office when Jeremy booted up the computer for the first time after I'd left, and he said they just died with laughter. Hehehe, I had made a pretty hideous wallpaper to match the "Laura Was Here" theme. Apparently Chris isn't too fond of the whole thing though - so I need to remember to put a big fat one on his computer when I go over there next week to pick up my pay check, lmao. Good times...

Jeremiah called, and he's doing really well. He's gonna be back for a month during the early summer, then do another tour with the cruise line. I'm so happy for my big brother!

This evening's been good, too. I went to the store to pick up a few things, and while I was there, guess what? They finally started carrying those instant Indian food meals I love, so I basically bought all of them. That'll feed me at work for a few weeks. Got myself a pack of Black and Tan, too, because I deserve it.

Song of the Day: Otto's Daughter - "Mars" www.ottosdaughter.com

Someone created a profile for Queen Elizabeth on myspace, lmao. Classic.

So I forgot to mention this the other night, but how about that Batista, eh? Hehehe...I can't believe I like wrestling, lol. *points at Jacob* All your fault. I'd also like to take this time that Batista should make this his normal wrestling outfit. Hot:

Song of the Day: Beck - "Ghettochip Malfunction (Hell Yes)" www.beck.com

Go Here

So me and Jacob are working on a cool RAM-related project. One of the dj's at a major online goth/industrial radio station contacted me and asked if I would like to send in some 30 second promo spots for myself or my bands, so we've been working on that tonight. I've come up with a couple of good mixes for the projects I work with and some of the artists that have new releases out or coming soon. Then Jacob will be doing the voice overs for me. Because his voice is super sexy like that. Rowr.

I've decided that if I'm gonna use this new interface, I'm gonna have to be like Corrie and spice it up with some photos...yeah...I'll start on that next week or something, lmao. At least I can do a better job of doing a song of the day here.

So I got some wierd insurance offer in the mail through IATSE of all places. Well, it's nice to know I'm on the list, even if I haven't been called in years. I guess I should give them a ring sometime soon and push myself forward - I could use a good load-out now and then, right?

It's supposed to snow tonight, so I'm staying here instead of seeing my boy. But it'd be cool to have a day off work, so we'll see what happens. Then my overhire got cancelled on Saturday, so I don't have to be in that morning afterall, so that's nice...very nice...no more 7am's for me.

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

Yeah, I changed my template. It's kind of annoying to use one that's so generic, but I was tired of the old one. I'll make more changes to this one I'm sure.

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

I just wanted to say I love my Jacob. :-)

But in other news, life is still good with the new job. Today was another small test of my abilities. B was out sick today, so I had to cover again on my own - had some issues come up, but with my previous knowledge and a degree of decisive moves I was able to take care of everything. Made me feel really empowered. I've learned so much being at the hotel, and now I'm in a place where I feel I can really make a difference. I'm actually excited to go to work. Wow, what a great thing!

Today I also started sitting in on rehearsals for The Importance of Being Ernest. To be honest, I hated reading the play in HODAT and was sorta dreading this show, but after seeing two of the main characters work through most of the first act I was really encouraged. I've really liked Ted's directing style in the past, and I think this one's gonna be just as good. I've got a bit more extensive plot to hang this time around (seeing as I have more time and now get paid for it, right?), but it should be a fun show to light.

Musically, I've been updating RAM - new board skin, new redesign coming soon. I just ordered In Winter's demo cd, so that should be cool. Lots of cool CDs coming in the next few months, including the full In Winter album, Porn, Cherry2000, Vanity Beach's NOTN (re-release), Garbage, Lye, and more. All within the next few months.

Oh, did you guys see the news about Head leaving Korn? Said that he'd found Jesus and was going to bend his musical pursuits that way. I personally think that's pretty cool. Korn will still go on, plus we may get a new good Christian hard rock band out of it. I'd love to see more bands like the old Circle of Dust, dc Talk, and Plumb stuff I had back in the day.

First "official" day at the college - started the week in full effect. Wow, what a great job. I spent most of the afternoon working on inventory. As annoying as inventory in its nature is, it hasn't been that bad. I've gotten through all of the buildings; now it's just hitting the few classrooms I couldn't get in, rectifying missing equipment, etc.

I also ran into my little freshman today! It was good seeing him again. He's gonna be running the light board for the next show (just like old times, eh?) so I talked to him for awhile about that. Then Steven, one of the student workers showed up and sorted nails while I worked on some things. He's a pretty cool dude, and it's nice having at least one person there sometimes while I'm working.

My big "event" of the day was replacing a lamp in one of the overhead projectors in one of the classrooms. Seems easy enough, right? Hahaha. Ok, here we go. First off, I at least had the presence of mind to check the inventory to see what type of projector was in there, because unlike at the hotel where we just had two models (that use the same lamp in fact, if I remember right) we have maybe 15 here? So sure enough, I'd been in that room, so I went upstairs to get the right lamp.

Yeah...lamps...with all that work I've done on them - sorting them on the shelves, pulling down the massive boxes hidden in the air shaft above my office, etc...you'd think we'd have a supply of usable lamps. Nope. No more. So back to the computer...finally found that we had another lamp with the same voltage, lamp base, glass type, and a slightly lower wattage. So I tried that. It seemed to work - I let the projector run for a few minutes to make sure it didn't catch on fire, blow up, or any other fun things, and it seems good. So yeah...it took, what, an hour or so to change a lamp? Hehehe...

Things like that will change though. That's why I'm working there, right?

In other news, I spent yesterday with my boy. He caught whatever I had it seems, so I had to take care of him. And that was cute! So I stopped by the store and bought him some soup and OJ and cold meds...AND some Indian food! I had found these awesome Indian instant meals back in college that they only seem to have in the Main Street Kroger, so I picked some of those up. I'm gonna have to get more of them and take them to work with me, or at least eat them once I move out, lol.

In music news, lots of cool stuff is happening. I talked to Lou the other day, telling him I wanted to get back involved with D1 again, so that's gonna be fun. Also, we've been doing a lot of neat stuff with Fluffy's site. We've got a "registered users" only forum for new goodies - pics, mp3's, videos, and more. So hopefully that'll get everyone's attention in time for the album. Then I had a musical shock this weekend - Jacob got the new Beck EP and it's soooo cool! You might have seen the "Hell Yes" video or heard the song...that song in itself is pretty fun, but all the other songs are even better. So I'm pretty excited about that. I never thought I'd ever recommend Beck, but there you have it. :-)

Song of the Day: Otto's Daughter - "Losing" www.ottosdaughter.com

So...here I am. Today's my last day at the hotel. I've set all my rooms for tonight, now I'm just waiting for others to end so I can tear them down and go home.

It's kinda sad, though not really as much as I thought it would be. I don't like making a big deal about leaving, but it's not really the last time. We all know we're gonna see each other again soon. I see Rafe and Jeremy all the time at the theatre, and me and Chris are making plans have him and his fiance come down to Tech with me and Jacob to watch Wrestlemania. I'm sure I'll see Nick at the bar sometime soon, and maybe see Dave around too. And I'll be back here some too I'm sure.

I guess honestly I never get too worked up about saying goodbye. I figure you'll always keep in touch with the people that matter. And loosing friends on a good note isn't really a bad thing. Life changes. Appreciate the times you had. Move on. Always look back and smile.

I check this blog a lot at work, and I know at least one of the guys reads it, lol. So yeah, since I'm lousy at saying it to people's faces...I love you guys, thanks for everything. I've learned a lot here, and I really appreciate the friendships - especially with some of the things I went through when I first started working here. Much love and respect.

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

So neither time at work was too bad...and only three more days to go at the hotel.

In other news, I've started planning out a new photo shoot for...me! One of my buds is starting some freelance photography on the side, and I'd like to play around with some stuff maybe for the band, maybe just for fun, so it works out for both of us. I just have to find some time to get together with him soon, and find some good places to do this. But in the meantime, I'm going through my clothes, planning outfits...

"Cutting my hair is part of finding myself" - The Ashlee Simpson Show.

Gag me. Seriously, though, MTV has this show now, and I figured I'd watch to see how that side of the industry lives. I was talking to John this afternoon and realizing how out of the mainstream I am. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's never a bad thing to at least be caught up on everything. Hence why I'm watching MTV. Plus, nothing else is on.

In other news, I downloaded iTunes the other night and started using that. It's taken a bit to get adjusted to, but I really like the ripping features and the playing console. So I've got my entire music selection on shuffle. And I signed up for AudioScrobbler, so that's cool.

After posting this here, I'm going to copy and paste it to the "Fuck That Shit" club on thefacebook.com.

Ok, remember how I got the black plague last year? And by black plague, I mean the flu? Dying a slow painful death would have been more merciful. Well, I swore then that I'd get the flu shot from now on. Then the immortal genius that is America put all their eggs in one basket and we ended up with the flu shot shortage and - you guessed it - yours truly ends up with the flu again this year, on Valentine's Day no less. This day is cursed. Fuck that shit.

To be completely fair, my dad says I have "Para-flu" or something to that effect - basically a prologue to the real thing, that'll come later this year. So it's not as bad as last year, but my back feels like I had an SUV back up over it a few times, and I think my lungs are getting tired of attempting to continue breathing. Meh. All this hit yesterday when I was with Jacob. So we spent our day together with me lying around in pain in his bed, and him feeding me soup. *sigh* Today hasn't been much different. I imagine tomorrow won't be either.

The good news is that in the mail today I got both the Stiches single AND my copy of The Birthday Massacre's Violet Digipack, all the way from Germany. Definately glad I got this - I should have ordered a few extra copies for distro later on. Oh well.

I also got my final bill from the dentist, for everything insurance stopped paying for. Meh.

Overall things haven't been bad. Got a chance to call Fluffy for a few minutes the other night before I went to Blacksburg. Then me and Jacob and Mike all went to the Cellar for Mike's birthday, then afterwards went browsing through the music stores. Surprisingly enough, our friend Jack is now working at one of them, so I immediately mentioned that Jacob would like a job there this summer, lmao! I want to keep my boy nearby, you know? :-)

Song of the Day: Fluffy Starr - "Telefone" www.fluffystarr.com

How to spend down time at work, part II:

Stolen from Nad's blog, which was stolen from Heather's blog, which I'm pretty sure I did on a message board thread awhile ago anyways...
Choose a band/artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Orgy
~Are you male or female: Eva
~Describe yourself: Re-Creation
~How do some people feel about you: Beautiful Disgrace
~How do you feel about yourself: Dreams In Digital
~Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: Pure
~Describe where you want to be: Sonic
~Describe what you want to be: Vague
~Describe how you live: Make Up Your Mind
~Describe how you love: Platinum
~Share a few words of wisdom: Chasing Sirens

So life is going well since I wrote last, oh, you know, 4 hours ago? I actually feel productive though...I set all my rooms way early, so now I don't feel so bad about chillin' out - I even did half of Chris' 'to do' list that he left for us. Been working online, too. Hell, I even updated D1. I'm planning on emailing Lou next week and get that party started again. I'd really like to start helping out, especially since the other D1 artists haven't really had their stuff updated in awhile. Maybe I can do that this time around...that'd be awesome.

Wheee...how to spend down time at work, part I:

Fill this out if you're as bored as me...
1. Who are you?
2. Are we friends?
3. When and how did we meet?
4. Did you ever have a crush on me?
5. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
6. Describe me in one word.
7. What was your first impression of me?
8. Do you still think that way about me now?
9. What reminds you of me?
10. If you could give me anything what would it be?
11. How well do you know me?
12. When's the last time you saw me?
13. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
14. Are you going to put this on your blog and see what I say about you?
15. What makes you want to fill this thing out?
16. What's your most vivid memory of me?
17. What's your favorite movie? Would you recommend it to me?

Ok, now for the real bloggie stuff. Had a fairly good week. Lot's of work still, but hey - a week from today and I'm done with the hotel. This past week I got a lot done at the college - lots of the inventory has been taken care of, and I've just about completed my HUGE theatrical light and projection lamp inventory. I honestly think once I total everything up we're going to have half a million dollars worth of lamps alone. I noticed upstairs in the office there are even more to go through, so this should be fun. Next, I'm going to inventory the actual lighting instruments. I'm particularly intrigued by the four antique Kliegl Lights we have that appear they may actually still function. That'll be cool.

We had a production meeting for The Importance of Being Ernest yesterday. I think one thing I really like about the college is the willingness to change and improve. Lately they hadn't been doing production meetings at all, but I requested we start making them a regular occurance for our productions, and there you have it. It's still a learning process to feel out where everyone fits into the picture - trying to figure out where my boss falls into overseeing my designs, etc., but I think we can work it through and come to a good conclusion. I'm really happy to see he's willing to respond to things I'd like, like scheduling these production meetings, buying me equipment I need (got a huge papercutter for my gel - that's awesome), etc. I think it's going to work out really well.

After work I headed down to Blacksburg to hang out with Jacob for awhile, even though I had to be back here at 7 this morning. It'll be so nice when I can see him whenever I want, after next week. We had a good night - lots of cuddling, but also lots of talking about the future. I guess things might be up in the air for awhile, with him graduating, getting a job, moving to a new apartment, and me changing jobs and also probably moving. Speaking of which, I had a great revelation the other night - come to find out health insurance isn't going to cost me even half as much as I was expecting it to - seriously, I can actually pay my entire rent at the apartment complex I'm looking at with what I'm saving. So moving out is now a very real possibility, especially since the overhire stuff seems to be holding pretty steady - got paint jobs, theatre jobs, websites and more all coming up soon. Wow, the taste of freedom is upon me...

Music-wise, the launch of Electricult seems to be going well. I can't wait for the next couple of releases. It looks like the re-release of Vanity Beach is going to include extra tracks and new artwork, so that rocks. Cherry2000 and Porn have new releases soon, too, and I know those will be just as good. I'm also designing a site for a new venue here in the area. Roger is opening a new club in Radford, so that should be pretty cool if it takes off.

I guess that's about it. I've been kinda reflective lately, given what time of year it is. This is going to be my first happy Valentine's day in awhile. It just occured to me last night how much time has flown by; this time last year I was trying to decide what was happening with me and Steve, and just beginning to get to know Lance. How much has changed since then. You know how you can connect certain music to events? I was driving home last night listening to PSP for the first time in a while, thinking about how that's what I listened to constantly when I was driving down to see Lance. In a way, it's kinda sad I guess...that feeling, not that you're missing the person so much as you're missing that section of your life. In some ways I still feel like I lost part of myself last year. It's such a terrible thing to fall out of love with someone.

But, like I said, this year's different. :-) I've been shopping all week for cute things! Last night was funny; Jacob painstakingly hid all my presents, but I found where they were anyways - he had to keep dragging me away from snooping through the hall closet. Hehe. So tonight should be fun - I'm going down after work so we can spend the rest of the weekend together - since I have to work Valentine's Day, obviously, meh. We're gonna have a nice dinner and just be all sorts of cute all weekend. Yay! Maybe we'll go to a movie or something, too - now that I'm thinking about it, we haven't seen Phantom of the Opera yet. That'd be really cool. :-) Yay! Gonna be a good next two days...

Ok, I should go do some work now, lmao...

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

This gets me a "Karma Bites" award.

I went downstairs to get a beer out of the fridge and fucking slammed my finger in the door. But I'm thinking, "Hey, at least I got the beer first" and made my way in pain back upstairs. I start drinking though, and damn, this stuff tastes like shit...well, yeah...now that I look at it, it's non-alcoholic beer. That's what I get for drinking my dad's booze.

Stolen from Corrie:

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Valdyr
2. Zeta Vande
3. Umm...Drew calls me L-Train?

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Confined spaces
2. Failure
3. A metal fabrication factory

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. E-mail
2. Dr. Pepper
3. Contact lenses

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. Thrift store rhinestone studded belt
2. A ink "B" on my hand from the show last night
3. A good pair of jeans

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS AT THE MOMENT:
1. Dead Inside The Chrysalis
2. The Birthday Massacre
3. Amphibious Assault

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS AT PRESENT:
1. The Birthday Massacre - Broken
2. DITC - Dreadlock
3. LP & Jay Z - 99 Problems vs. Points Of Authority

THREE NEW THINGS YOU WANT TO TRY IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS:
1. [officially] own my own business
2. move to LA
3. start my own band

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE:
1. I have a cardboard cut out of Mr. Spock in my bedroom
2. I'm distantly related to the royal family of Germany
3. I used to be a volunteer archeaologist

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. move the fuck out
2. spend more time with my boyfriend
3. soley freelance for a living

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO:
1. LA
2. Key West
3. Australia

THREE KID'S NAMES:
1. Amber (for multiple reasons, lmao)
2. Teleri
3. Laren

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Be at complete peace
2. Feel like I "made it"
3. Create something completely unique and altering

Oof. Ok, so 1 week, 6 days to go. Work hasn't been too bad lately, just a lot of it. Yesterday I went down to Tech for awhile and watched the Superbowl commercials with Jacob - afterwards was a new Simpsons episode and then the preview for American Dad - it was pretty much the same as what's been floating around, but with extra stuff. Should be a cool second to Family Guy.

I've been getting lucky with some music stuff lately. Finally found a place online to order the Violet digipack, so that should be here in a month or so. I also found a good deal on Orgy's Stitches single, since I feel like in order to be a good fan I need it. Jacob was kind enough to give me his copy of the Blue Monday single. There's also a cool thing on Ebay I want, but I'm not going to mention it until the bidding is over. :-D I'm also trying to find the old Celldweller EPs. I think there were two of them? If anyone sees them, let me know.

Today I spent the afternoon inventorying lighting and projection lamps. We have maybe 600 lamps so far? I crawled upstairs because B said there was a box of extra lamps up there. Try 7 instead. So I had all those to add along with the full shelf we have downstairs already. I can tell cleaning this place up is going to be fun.

In my searching the other day I found other cool stuff - more lights, strobe lights, a fog machine, stage glass, a full set of floor CYC boxes and - get this - an entire run for another stage electric. Apparently someone had donated this $40,000 dollar package of equipment to the theatre, but the only thing stopping installation is the $10,000 it would take for the extra electricity to be run. Ah well.

Anyways, I'm gonna take it easy tonight. Feeling kinda sick.

Song of the Day: Fluffy Starr - "NV" www.fluffystarr.com

It's strange how watching your friends get married puts things into a perspective you never thought you'd understand. Rafe and Kristi's wedding was this morning, and it was very sweet. I've sworn all my life that I'll never get married, but lately I've been seeing the attraction of being a relationship based on constancy and not passion. Meh. I better not think about this too much, hehehe.

Song of the Day: Linkin Park & Jay Z - "99 Problems / Points of Authority" www.radio-active-music.com

Happy birthday, again. Now quit your bitchin'. :-) *hugs*

In other news, how about a weekend update? So to elaborate on my previous post, not that I need to, yes - some freak stole my windshield wipers off my car. Because, I mean, the headlights were too expensive and the tires too difficult? WTF? Can you really not spare the 6 bucks to replace them. Christ.

And, yes, my mom's been in the hospital. She's got two slipped disks, one of which is ruptured. She's home now, waiting to see if she needs surgery. If it's not one thing, it's another.

I'm also starting on my twice yearly sinus infection. But hey, it's not the flu.

It could be better, but it could be worse. Pour me another glass.

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