today is my last day of freedom. tomorrow i start back at my old, much hated job at kinko's. at least it's money. damn…the things we do for money.

last night i somehow got sucked into watching figure skating. it was 3am, and it was the only thing on tv. i tried to get up, but i ended up sitting right through it. i only turned the tv off when the speedskating came on, which i had watched earlier that evening. damn olympics.

that new adam sandler movie, mr. deeds, looks to be as funny as some of the sandman's classics, like happy gilmore and waterboy. it can never touch billy madison, so i won't even put it in comparison. nothing can touch billy madison.

last day of freedom and i don't have a clue what to do…this sucks.

time for some lunch.

tomorrow i swallow my pride and go back into kinko's for an interview. the only thing that keeps me from getting totally depressed is my decision that this is only a temporary thing. damn you, pride…damn you.

random instant messenger conversation:

person: you have been hit with the valentine love triangle. you must send this to 10 other people or on valetines day you will be the loneliest person on earth but if you succeed you will get a gift from that special someone…
me: i am already the loneliest person on earth.

that person then decided i wasn't worth the effort.

i have decided that i completely hate sum 41 and alien ant farm. completely. as a matter of fact, i pretty much hate all modern popular music. there…i said it. when did music get so stupid?

i have it on good authority that matt has tried to leave scott, chris, and me out of his account of the proceedings of friday night. scott's response: "maybe he just didn't enjoy our company."

transmission3000 is back. it may be running kinda slow if the server gets maxed out, but hopefully that will work itself out.

hey, bob…just who is the new guitarist for hey mercedes, anyway?

fuggit…i'm sure i've got some stones to listen to, or something…

we've finally hooked the dsl back up, here at casa di…chichester? its not really the bipolar house anymore, without matt. hrm. anyway…we're now enjoying blazing fast internet access and wondering…"how did we live without this?"

just to flex those bandwidth muscles, i'm downloading royal tenenbaums. not that i'm intentionally breaking the law, or anything…

scott and i met up with chris, matt and paul last night, up at the back door. a few pitchers of beer were drank. quite a few beam and cokes by the matt. we hung out there until they kicked everyone out, then we headed over to matt and paul's to listen to this. it still makes me crack up, even after hearing it a hundred times or so. in a row.

today was a pretty lazy day. i hooked up the dsl and got it running while scott was out at band practice. then scott and connor came back to the house, and we headed out to the record store and za's for calzones.

we ended up at the irina show, which started incredibly late. the panic button played their first show tonight, and they were really good. connor kept calling them "gang of four meets santana." i think the santana elements were more subdued than that, though. but what the hell do i know? your black star played, turning in an awesome set that i thoroughly enjoyed, regardless of the fact that i was sitting in the side room about to pass out asleep.

then irina played. best joke all night: a friend of irina asked steve "hey…how did you train that bear to play bass for you?"

i understand that you will only get that joke if you've ever seen irina. so…nevermind.

now it's late, i've finished downloading an assload of stones songs, and i'm bored and tired. i think that calls for me to go to bed.

what the hell else do i have to do?

i hate it when you reach one of those inescapable points in life where you're forced to eat crow. i'm now in a position where i will probably have to go back to kinko's to work until i find a better job (or until i get back from tour, whichever ends up happening). this is really "burning my butt," as they say. i'm trying to avoid having to work at the same store, just as a pride thing. but from what i hear…that store has had almost a complete turnover in personnel. who knows…maybe i'll go down there tomorrow.

tactic: act like i'm the one doing them a favor. that should be good for some shits and giggles.

still not sure about this haircut. i miss the hesher shag.

"remember when i had cool hair?"
"yeah, man…it was totally cool."

i was at the store earlier and apparently guitar world has an interview with ian macaye. i read the entire thing in the store, just too stunned to comprehend what this could mean for the world. it was a pretty good interview, though. it gives some nice insight to the fugazi recording process. as a matter of fact…

did you know…fugazi actually recorded all of in on the kill taker with albini in chicago, but they scrapped the whole thing, deciding it was just not "on"? yeah…they went back to dc and recorded the whole thing again after working the songs out more.

i also bought some girl scout cookies thin mint ice cream. it rocks. get some.

kai: you're welcome for the pedal, champ. when the fuck are you gonna fly me out to hawaii, jackass? what's your email address, anyway? i lost it.

"nothin' man. just fuckin' forget it."

the hair is now cut. the back is now shorter. gone is the beginning of "euro-mullet." to tell the truth…i don't know how i feel about this here haircut. i guess i'll have to wait and see how it looks tomorrow.

other than that? chris is here. he must be really bored. he ended up going with me to get my hair cut.

hopefully my new haircut doesn't look retarded. oh well…i always look retarded.

now, post-gnarly beard shaving, i'm left with the age old dilemma…do i get a haircut?

photo reference here and here.

i wish i could make up my own mind, sometimes…

my plan to grow a badass beard derailed itself earlier today when i looked into the mirror and saw what that hideous thing actually looked like.

after some deliberation, i decided to shave it all off. but not after i left myself with a honkin' magnum p.i. moustache for about 20 minutes. the world is not prepared for it, my friends…someday it will rise again.

scott and i missed a lot of the super bowl commercials due to use losing interest in the game very rapidly. there was a lot of guitar playing and flipping of channels, mostly back to the "playmate edition" of fear factor). they showed a fear factor "best of" episode, but that was pretty weak. scott admitted to watching quite a few episodes over the summer.

what we really crave is the chamber. so far we've only seen one guy survive the chamber, on the cold setting, but no one has beaten it. when will someone satisy our craving for insane television?

today i have decided it would be neat to legally change my name to "funk-o-tron." how awesome would that be? although…now that i think of it…how many ladies would want to date a guy named "funk-o-tron?" damn it.

j. funk-o-tron hall had such a nice ring to it, too.

today i have to mail out my phase pedal (bought by a fellow blogger, no less…hello, kai). and get some lunch, i also need to redo my damn resum? that i keep putting off, which is no good. maybe if it's stop procrastinating by writing in this blog, some shit would get done…

now i just have to create and alternate resum? with the name "j. funk-o-tron hall" at the top…priceless.

super bowl sunday is always one of those days where i try to figure out something to do besides sitting around the house doing jack shit. of course…all i've been doing lately is sitting around the house, so i probably need a change, anyway.

last night i laid on the couch watching from russia with love. sometimes all it takes is a bond movie and your evening is made. i thought about staying home and watching snl, but chris called and demanded that i meet him up at cahoots. beers were consumed, big buck hunter (also known as "shoot shit") was played. after chris got tired and went home, i hung out with alexis to see if she needed a ride home, which she ended up not. we sat and talked about contrived people and girls with their thongs clearly showing out the top of their pants. as you can tell…it was a delightful evening.

now i'm sitting around, listening to crain and feeling hungry. really hungry. like i need to go out and kill a buck, just to get something to eat.

or not.

i was driving down the road earlier — just one of the little back neighborhood streets around here — and it's this dreary, overcast day. so i'm driving down the road and i look ahead of me and there's this patch of light in the street. just this big patch of bright sunlight. i pulled through it, and looked up to see the sun peeking down at me out of this tiny hole in the mass of clouds that covered the entire sky. it seemed like, for that moment, the sun decided to stop, take a look around, and give me a wink.

now that i've written up that little account, i'm wondering what the hell i was supposed to get out of that moment. one slim moment of bright on a gloomy day…

i think i have a good idea, but i think i'll keep that one to myself, for a little while.

i called the unemployment office yesterday. it looks like my former place of employment has completely trumped my claim to collect benefits. crap. now i've ben sitting around for a month without a job and nothing to show for it. crap. i could appeal the decision, but that would waste time and then it would be two months of me without a steady income. not a good plan. looks like my plan of laying around, living like billy madison until tour has just flown out the window.

moral to the story: time to go get a job, slackass.

tonight…bowling. monday…search for gainful employment.

at least i got to see the sun today…