ok. so, my car is fucked right now. apparently the clutch has pissed off the engine and now they're just not communicating. i think they're at the note-passing, or speaking through friends phase, but things aren't looking all rosy in oil & piston land.

anyway, i've got work to do, but i wanted to post an update real quick-like. first off, the assistance that you've given has been invaluable regarding exactly what the hell i should be doing with my time. we've got a winner so far, but i'd love to see some more votes to really drive the point home (yes, of course, i haven't done any work on any of these projects yet, but my computer's been being a bitch lately as well–seems like the things i own always have a bad habit of breaking down at the same times.) anyway, on to the vote:

votes   project
_1__ finish 2nd poetry book
____ finish & submit short story(/stories)
____ write new poems
_3__ write screenplay
_2__ continue working on novel
_1__ redesign coffeemonk.com
____ design separate myfavoritemartyr.com
____ today/tomorrow mixed 2 CD set
____ mixed cover songs CD
____ learn to play bass for Old Man
_1__ put together (personal) media server
_1__ design new bipolar theme
_1__ finish playing computer games i'm in the middle of
____ put unboxed comics in boxes

so, there's that. please feel free to comment on this post to cast your vote as to which project i should work on/attempt to complete first. those of you who have already voted from the first post, you can vote again. just 'cause i'm nice.

we had our band practice last night, got a little bit done, so it looks like our demo should be officially ready this coming sunday. we're crossing our fingers. once that's done and distributed, then you guys can all come and see us play (assuming we can convince any club owners to let us set up a show). but now, the moment at least two of you have been waiting for (which two, i'm not sure, but there's gotta be at least two of ya.)

the first (public) Lucifigous Prick pre-demo mp3 release
The Wrath of Orson (mp3, 10.8MB, 11:26)

enjoy. and feel free to let me know what you think.

so, brian caught me at the Rud on friday and mentioned that he was going to Michigan on saturday. somehow, i'm not sure how, he managed to convince me that i should tag along with him, to go up there and meet Hey Mercedes and some of the various other indie-rock icons that would be in attendance.

so, after the Rud & the Backdoor on friday–a night of debauchery to be sure–we both managed to drag ourselves out of our respective houses and get out of town about three hours later than we'd originally intended. but no matter, suffice it to say, brian drives fast. but aside from the momentary shock of blowing past a cop somewhere around Toledo, the drive was pleasantly uneventful.

the show was good. I enjoyed most of the music, but let me tell you, you put 4 or 500 sweating indie-rock kids in a huge room with limited ventilation, and the atmosphere gets oppressive at best. by the end of Hey Mercedes set (the first we were able to see), i was entirely ready to head back out into the cold Michigan night for a smoke and some elbow room.
the second band i saw was called "!!!" (which i think means "pretentious jam-band" in japanese). honestly, i enjoyed their music, and they seem to be very talented musicians, but basically all their songs just sounded like extended jams. perhaps there was structure there and i was just not in the mood for "party music", or perhaps the fact that the lead singer was pretty much a complete dick factors into my distaste. needless to say, i didn't stick around for the whole set.

let's see… then we saw a band whose name i can't remember, but it was two or three fat guys (one of whom unfortunately removed his shirt halfway through the performance) and a normal guy. They played some hard-rocking punk music and were really pretty good.

final band we watched was coalesce (see brian's pics, linked in his post.) who put on a good show. my tastes generally don't lean that far towards hardcore punk, or vocalists who scream more than sing, but they really tore it up onstage and i enjoyed it.

after the show we made the rounds again and hooked up with the Mercedes and Coalesce boys, headed out to the hotel, grabbed ourselves a room, and hung out with a bunch of people i'd never met before in my life. i pretty much felt like an outsider the whole night, but Sean helped make us feel welcome when we went out to grab some late night dinner at a place called Coney Island.

After that we were pretty much beat from our long day on the road and at a show (after a night of too-much drinking), and called it a night.
The next day's drive was again, thankfully uneventful and we made it home only about 45 minutes later than we'd intended (after stopping for an hour lunch at Denny's).

exciting stuff, eh?

yeah, i know.

anyway, in other news, there's not much other news.

the prick's demo is almost ready for public consumption, so hopefully, if i can remember to take some damned CD-Rs with me to practice tomorrow, i'll be able to upload at least one track for you to enjoy and comment on.

that's it. i'm out.

well, tonight I went out to the bar (which was a big surprise to brian, since i'd told him about an hour earlier that i wasn't interested) with paul, neil, & lisa, and we met up with brian there and hung out for a bit. at some point, i ordered a large sampler (mmm… sampler platter) only to come back to the table and find that neil & lisa were pretty much already on their way out the door. well, not that that really matters, 'cause between a hungry brian, a semi-hungry me, and a not-really-hungry but unable-to-resist-the-sampler paul, we finished the thing off without much trouble. shortly before the last morsels were yanked by greedy hands from the platter, brad and dave came over to join us. paul offered brad a won-ton, and brad's first reaction was to ask me which of the many sauces went best with them. (of course, the answer is "honey-mustard") brad then proceeded to dub me the "king of condiments," a declaration he even repeated later when his girlfriend joined us. so, apparently, either through pure obsessive behavior or a history of good advice, i am, at least in our little circle, the King of Condiments. thank you. you may rise.

another thing i've realized though, is that i could be in the running for a totally unrelated title. i'm pretty sure i could make a strong showing in a contest for the "king of work avoidance." not that i avoid doing the work i get paid to do, that is, not my actual job job. but my god, when i get home, there are literally 10 to 15 things i could be doing at any given moment. 10 – 15 projects i've started that i really need to finish. and what do i do? well, of course, as i recently explained to paul & brax, i've only got two weekday nights that are really worth anything–personal project-wise. Tuesday is band practice night (band-practice from ~7:30 to 11:00pm). Wednesday is geek night (trip to comics store, dinner at Denny's, then Enterprise at 8:00pm, and DS9 at 10:00pm). Friday is… Friday. That's socialization day. Friday is the day matt comes down from the mountain to carouse with friends and other assorted real living people. Friday is the night (typically–unlike tonight, which was an aberration) where matt goes to the bar to look at the few hot girls and (as noted in another post) not speak to any of them. Saturday is much more open, and should be the day where i get all kinds of shit done, but it is usually the day where i sleep a whole lot, then laze around the house. Sunday's another sleep day, and then also another band practice day, which accounts for at least 14 hours. So, i'm left with Monday & Thursday after work, and whatever hours & can squeeze out of Saturday & Sunday to accommodate all those things that i need to do. Needless to say, not a whole lot is accomplished usually.

I have to say though, that this past week/weekend has been pretty decent so far. on thursday, i went out to the hardware store and picked up this neat toolbox and some other bits & bobs, and constructed (what will be) a nice guitar effects pedalboard. so, i had quite the productive day on Thursday. today, after doing the normal saturday sleeping 'til 4 after a night at the bar thing, and lazing for a couple good hours once i got up, i actually managed to do a few productive things. i got the velcro strips placed on the plywood base for the pedalboard, broke out the guitar for 30 – 45 minutes and played around, then checked email for a little bit. oh, and i also sketched out some ideas that i had for a logo for My Favorite Martyr (no, it's not just you, that site is so horribly out of date, it's almost funny again. BUT! it does have the first mention of Old Man–paul & neil's band–on the web!), and for a flyer design for Old Man (which i was going to try to mock up & post, but i haven't been able to find any appropriate imagery yet). of course, there were several other things i needed to do (as i told brian when he asked about going to the bar), but after about an hour of sitting in front of the computer avoiding them, i realized it was a bit fruitless for the time being.

y'know, perhaps i'd get more done if i spent less time avoiding work and more time doing it. but my biggest problem has always been not so much finding things to do, as deciding between the things that i need to do. so, i'm going to ask for your help on this one. (realizing wholly that the majority of my pleas for public response have brought few in the past–but now that we have the comments system in place, perhaps that'll be different now…)

here's the list:

votes   project
_1__ finish 2nd poetry book
____ finish & submit short story(/stories)
____ write new poems
_3__ write screenplay
_2__ continue working on novel
____ redesign coffeemonk.com
____ design separate myfavoritemartyr.com
____ today/tomorrow mixed 2 CD set
____ mixed cover songs CD
____ learn to play bass for Old Man
_1__ put together (personal) media server
_1__ design new bipolar theme
____ finish playing computer games i'm in the middle of
____ put unboxed comics in boxes

and here's the plea: help! help me figure out which of these things i should attempt to do first. if you wanna go crazy, put the whole list in order of "importance." but at least tell me the one thing you think i should focus on until it's done. this is the struggle i'm presented with every time i enter the door to my house from work or being out on the town or whatever. and i've yet to reach a decision on my own. so, give me a hand. there are no prizes to be awarded, but if it's something that either exists or can be translated to the web-medium, i'll be sure to post it here first.

well, i've been getting pressure again to establish some sort of regular posting pattern, but unfortunately, there's been enough going on to deflect me from posting when i think about it, and not enough going on to really warrant posts of any kind of substance. life seems to be pretty much status quo for me at the moment, no warrants, no arrests. no all-night benders with cheap booze and cheaper girls. such is the luck.

i finally got myself one'a them handheld deevices. Handspring Visor thingamabob. i tell you, that thing is going to steal my soul. I've got bejeweled on it, and SimCity (not to mention the actually useful applications like shopping list programs and address books & whatnot.) between just figuring out what the fuck i'm doing with the thing, and installing all the various software on my work & home machines, and playing those addictive fucking games… i really not sure what's going on any more… it's March, isn't it?

anyway, works fine, life's fine, band's fine, car's fine. uh…

hung out with brian tonight and actually got Paul to come along, that was nice.

damn, it's late, i haven't accomplished much of anything, and i have got to get to bed.