Good-Bye Ruby Tuesday (and good ridance)

Have you ever had a good Tuesday? I don't mean a not bad Tuesday, I mean a good one. Tuesdays always seem to be the low point of the week. Mondays suck, but everyone expects it, and at least theres a bit of freshness to them. Tuesdays just seem to have no motivation or anything to them, they are the day that just kinda slinks on by without much being accomplished or noticed. But once they are past, then the week is half over and the thought of the upcoming weekend is enough to make the rest of the week bearable. At least in my view of things, thats how the week seems to work. Any way you look at it, I'm glad the Tuesday for this week is over. Although, this coming weekend is my weekend to work, so my break doesn't really come til Monday, but a weekend still seems weekendy even if you're working for some reason. Plus, we are playing at a fairly big show Friday night, so that is something to look forward to. (insert concert plug here) 5 band line up, Benedict Affair headlining with their brand new cd available for purchase and enjoyment. First band at 8:30, doors at 8, $5 for the show, or $10 for the show and the new CD.
Ok, the whole sleeping thing hasn't exactly been resolved for me, so I'm tired even tho its about 7 hours before my bed time, so I'm gonna go take a nap.
_____ of the day: A Tuesday is a terrible way to waste 1/7 of the week
The Tuesday'd Ogukuo

News Flash...

My body hates me!! And I can't say I blame it. I've pretty much been messed up sleepwise since the TX a week ago. Earlier this week I was gettin out of bed around 7 pm, not good. Cause then I wouldn't be tired the next morning at 7 am when I was tryin to go to sleep. So yesterday I took a sleeping pill, went to bed and slept from 9 to 3 pm. Then I woke up and I've been in an odd state of wake/drowsy since then. I'm hoping that goin to bed at a regular time (for me at least) and starving myself of sleep will help me get to sleep at a decent hour today.
In other news, after several months of research and comparing and looking I bought Andrew's Boss distortion pedal off of him on a whim. It was more or less a matter of him offering, I said sure, and that was that. I like it, it sounds better than the Big Muff I tried earlier, but that may have to do with a complete lack of knowledge of distortion pedals on my part. Either way, it adds some neat sound to my general bass output. Next in line is a pedal tuner so I have something to fuss with between songs. I'm still trying to decide between an uber cheap one that will be kinda tricky to work with, or a decent one that will be nice but cost a bit more. Oh decisions.
Besides that, life has been pretty vanilla. Oh, I'm looking for a new car. Any suggestions? Right now I'm in love with the Mazda3, its small, fuel efficient, semi-cheap, and kinda zippy, a good combo in my opinion. Hopefully I can find one to test drive soon, I really would like to know what they drive like before I'm totally sold on buying one.
Ok, short post, I'm off to fold laundry (I also bake, play piano, and like long walks on the beach, any takers??)
________ of the day: just kidding
The still-tired Ogukuo

Weekend in review

Friday night: 5 straight hours of M*A*S*H, does it get any better than that?? And, I didn’t go into work til 12:30 instead of 10:30 cause I had stayed an extra 2 hours that morning. I was happy.
Saturday: Me not so happy. I got home from work at 7ish, and tried to go straight to sleep cause I needed to be at the Beej at 12:30 for TX stuff, figured 4 hours would be better than no sleep at all. Well, I figured around 10:30 am after laying in bed for over 3 hours that I just wasn’t gonna fall asleep, so I gave up and got up. TX stuff all afternoon, well, actually we were onstage for about 5 minutes, but were there all afternoon. The show itself went well, we done good. I think a lot of new people know who we are now, so hopefully they will start coming to some shows and hear the rest of our stuff. The TX as a whole was a vast improvement over last year. A lot of good acts, it seems that there are a lot more talented people in this years freshman class than last years.
Sunday: I feel asleep like a rock at 3 am, and woke up at 7, fully awake but still tired. Don’t you hate that feeling? You can’t sleep but you’re really tired. And I didn’t fall asleep again til 10:30. Then I slept straight thru til 4 pm. This overnight shift is gonna kill me. I may switch to days just to have a real sleeping schedule again.
So now I got Monday night off, then work the rest of the week til Saturday night. Don’t know of any excitement this weekend. Actually, I’d kinda like to fast-forward life to the first week of March. Starting then we (hopefully) got a show on the 9th, I getta (hopefully) go to Omaha the next weekend, and we’re (hopefully) recording our first LP the weekend after that. March is looking pretty cool weekend-wise. If all the hopefullies happen, that is.
Ok, time to go see whats on the History Channel.
_______ of the day: I saw water dripping off a roof today! w00t!
The thawing out Ogukuo

Equality Ride

Any of you heard of that? It’s a program where homosexuals (Christians, from the appearance of their website) go on a nation wide tour of Christian colleges speaking about homosexuality and its relation to religion/church/relationships with God. They are coming to Dordt March 8 and 9, I’m quite interested to hear what they have to say. I think its fair to say (not to mention obvious) that they will take the stance that homosexuality is not a sin and that those who have that sexual orientation deserve the same rights as the general population. And I’m guessing presenting such an idea at Christian colleges will probably get met with a lot of resistance, most of it wrapped in a rather unfriendly package. I’ve been reading a little bit of what people have to say on DordtTalk and the Facebook group for the event, and the general premise of it is that people are not in agreement with the messege that Soulforce (the organization behind the whole thing) is putting forth. Some of the arguments are well thought out, some are nothing more than inflammatory remarks that don’t promote healthy conversation.
If you have the time, I’d recommend looking into whats being said by both sides. I dunno the whole schedule of events, but stuff is happening March 8 and 9, and there seems to be ongoing discussions on both DordtTalk and the Facebook group for the event. Click here to see a bit of what Soulforce has to say, they have a few good articles online, the ones I read where about homosexuality in the Bible and how Dr. James Dobson views homosexuality (look under the resources tab). I’m not saying I agree or disagree with what they say or how they say it, just that knowing what they stand for is helpful in being in the discussion.
_______ of the day: Huh, I got nothing
The Ogukuo

I've seen clouds from both sides now

The show, it was good. For the most part. Looks like we're almost set up to record an LP over spring break, I'm stoked.
I'm back at work after a 3 day weekend, and I'm glad. I like the time off, but it messes with my sleeping pattern so much. The first night I went to bed around 2 am and slept til 4:30 the next afternoon. And by slept, I mean I was in bed, I probably only slept half the time. Same thing Saturday night. I forced myself up Monday afternoon at 1:30, and then took a 2 hour nap later. Ahh the bliss of being back to sleeping from 8 am til 4 pm like normal.
So lately I've really been into Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell. Only song by her I know, from Love Actually. I dunno why, but its just the song I feel like listening to now. That and Nocturne 2 by Chopin. I've decided to stop trying to play pop music on piano and focus on classical, for a few reasons. A) pop music almost never stands alone on piano, its always played with guitar and drums, etc, making it hard to practice alone, and 2) its really hard to find free sheet music for pop songs online. However, finding .pdf files of classical pieces is really easy. Nocturne 2 is my latest endevour, it'll prolly last a week or so and then I'll realize its way too hard for me and I'll give up. Its such a beautiful piece, but kinda hard to play.
Things to look forward to this week: TX rehersal on Thursday evening, and TX on Saturday. That was stupid, I shouldn't have written that, oh well. Ok, I'm done
_____ of the day: "celibrate your countries freedom by blowing up a small part of it"
The somewhat random Ogukuo

Oh, one of those blogs

I seem to be in a pattern of posting right before goin on my biweekly 3 day weekend. So, instead of dissapointing the 2.7 people who read my blog, I'm gonna keep tradition and blog, since I have a 3 day weekend coming up :).
Whats interesting is my entire 3 day weekend is going to revolve around about 20 minutes of music that are to take place Saturday evening. Yup, another OJK show. We are opening for AY (I'm too lazy to type out their name, but not too lazy to type out this whole paranthesis'd explanation). On an entirely related note, we made it in to TX. Yay, go team. Assuming the exponential drop in attendance of the TX doesn't continue, we should be playing for a good size crowd, with lights and monitors and other fancy trinkets that are neat.
Besides those two tidbits of musical funness, theres not really much to write about. Except perhaps that my landlord thinks we use too much soap when we do laundry, causing water to back up when the washing machine drains. I personally think it has more to do with an entire washing machine drums worth of water being forced into the system in about a minutes worth of time, but silly me, what do I know? I only delivered and set up washer/dryer sets for a few years of my highschool existance. Can anyone really justify the reasoning that soapy water would back up a system when water from the sink or toilet or shower wouldn't? Certainly doesn't make sense to me, but like I said, what do I know?
Ok, enough sarcasm and witty satire for now, too much sugar will give you cavities, you know.
_______ of the day: to quote a "beauty" from 'Beauty and the Geek' last night: "You can take a beauty out to the ranch, but you can't take the bikini out of the beauty" Huh??
The 'only 3 more hours' Ogukuo

I hate blogger, but love irony

First off, I'd like to offer a hearty "FUCK YOU!" to blogger and google for forcing me to switch to the new blogger. Yes, forcing, I no longer could sign in and blog, it automatically switched me to a page where I had to switch formats. I don't care if it offers more shiny beads and trinkets, I dont give a damn!! Sigh, this is what 'progress' brings us I guess. So now everyone stand in line next to me, raise your right arm to a 45 degree angle and yell "See Kyle" over and over (say See Kyle, it sounds strikingly like a certain German phrase). The Nazis had pieces of flare they made the Jews wear.
So, despite the fact that I now hate blogger, I actually have something quite amusing to post. I think its amusing at least, but I like irony. This morning on my way home from work an ad came on the oldies radio station for some call-in contest to win $1000 for Valetine's Day. It was called 'Cash for Couples' or something really cheesy like that. I was thinking to myself that if I called in and somehow won, they probably wouldn't give me the money because I'm single. Then I started stewing about the whole idea of Valentine's Day in general, and how someone renamed it Singles Awareness Day (SAD), and how everyone expects you to at least have a date on February 14. Well, I work that night anyway, thank goodness. But anyway, back to the radio, once they were done with their little schpeel about the contest, they went back to playing music, and the first song they played was Rhymin' Paul Simon's "50 ways to leave your lover." I smiled inside, oh the thought of someone at the radio station actually having a sarcastic sense of humor at the unholy hour of 6:45 am was just pure awesomeness.
So I thought I would share that bit of sarcastic irony with all of you, since I doubt anyone else was up at that hour, especially on a Saturday morning. And now, after 4 pm, its time for me to get showered, dressed, and start my day :).
______ of the day: If you don't find that at least a bit funny, I feel sorry for you
The pissed off/laughing Ogukuo

Looking for a change?

Anyone wanna move to Fluelen, Switzerland with me? I toured there a few years ago and out of all the places I visited in Europe (which was alot, although not alot of time at each place) Fluelen was my favorite. Its on the Southern tip of Lake Lucerne, about an hour from the city of Lucerne. It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Also one of the cleanest, drinking fountains pumped water right out of the lake, in fact its perfectly safe to drink right out of the lake, and the water has a sweet taste to it. I wish I could move there. If only I spoke French, German, Italian or Rumantsch, the four official languages of Switzerland. German is predominant in the Canton (county/state) of Uri where Fluelen is located. But, learning German wouldn't be that hard, would it? Maybe I should start doing that now. So, anyone interested in learning German and moving to Switzerland with me?
_____ of the day: mountains!!!!
The day-dreaming Ogukuo