Update: October 26th, 2003 - 22

Usually I look forward to my birthdays and all the activities that are supposed to ensue on them. This year wasn't all that different; I went to the Downstairs just like last year, except this time I wasn't blasted out of my mind. I went with my ex-roommate and all around cohort in crime, Mick. Ken probably would have went along if a) the downtown scene wasn't so homosexual to him, and b) he didn't have a math test early the next morning.

So it was just me and Mick, as per usual, going to get wasted during the middle of the week. Just like old times... I heard that he tried to get other people to come down with us, but all of them declined. Gee, I wonder why. But enough of that negativity. It was my birthday, for Christ's sake.

We got there and immediately I was dissapointed. Instead of the usual music, they had a reggae guy playing from 10 until close. Not good. Now, you'd think that live music would be right up my alley, but not in this case. This guy played the most repetitive riffs, and to make the rastafarian effect complete, he had to be stoned out of his gourd. So that kinda sucked because though I'm not the biggest fan of rap music, I was kind of looking forward to the "dancing" because hey, it was my birthday and soon I'd be drunk...so what better excuse would I have for basically dry-humping a girl for 4 1/2 minutes at a time? But it was all for naught.

I was sitting there at my little table with Mick, taking in Game 4 of the Series between sips of the rum-and-coke I have come to love so much...when lo and behold a girl comes up to me out of nowhere and asks if it was my birthday. Turns out she was the girl I had been talking to just hours earlier online. I hadn't seen a picture of her, so I didn't know, but she had seen one of me, on this very web site. We actually, kinda-sorta hit it off. I mean, she didn't tell me to fuck off or anything, and we had a lot of fun talking about things and making fun of the reggae guy. We drank more and more until it was closing time, when her older and much bigger cousin informed me and Mick that "nothin was gonna happen between her and either one of us tonight." Normally that would have put a damper on my night, had I actually thought I had a chance in hell of pulling it off. But it didn't, and because, somehow, she sensed I wasn't having an all-out great time (she kept telling me to smile...) I got a good night kiss of a birthday present. In the words of Quagmire -- "Allllright!"

The "fun" didn't stop there. Me and Mick went to Rosa's and ate pizza down by the lakefront. I was thinking that it's a great place to take a girl, but I had none, so Mick was as close as I was gonna get. After that I went and snagged what was left of my liqour and went back to his place to drink some more. We played this stupid-ass golf game until I gave up and told him I Was going to McDonald's. This was sometime around 5 AM, so they were closed, and I went home.

I've done a lot of stupid, annoying, spiteful things in my life - drunk or not. This thing I'm about to tell you probably tops them all. By a longshot. I get home, and check my AIM for messages, to see if anybody cared that I was gone all night. Well, I got one from Julie (she's in the "Friends" section) so I answered it. I didn't expect a response, but I got one anyways. It was simply "eww." I think she left the sounds on while sleeping, and I woke her up. And that set me off in a big way. I sent more messages telling her I was coming over...and being a man of my word I did. First I tried to figure out a way into my old building without having to ring her doorbell. No luck there. I banged on her windows a few times. Still nothing. Finally I resorted to the doorbell. I waited. I waited some more. Finally, I hear a door open. It's her.

And she is pissed that I woke her up. I thought it was pretty funny myself, and proceeded to act out what was probably as close as I could come to a drunken come-on without it actually being one. After maybe 5or 10 minutes in the hall she made the mistake of letting me in. And then I remember trying to prove to her that she in fact did make the initial reply "ewww" to me. Next was really just some kicking and punching and slapping, which was fun, I guess. I also remember tackling her on the couch. That rocked, but it would soon be the end for me, as I mock-left just to fuck with her. Unfortunately I waited to long to grab the doorknob and I was locked out. That wasn't enough to bring me down though. I kept my jabbering mindlessly and she kept replying, at least for awhile. Throughout the thing, she kept egging me on...which as you know is something you should never do with me (among other things). So I walked away, rang her doorbell for awhile, knocked on her windows, then left.You may think I was an asshole for all of that. And I am, but hey, her nipples were hard. What do you expect. It was now light outside and I decided to go back to McDonald's where I ate a drunken cuisine of a sausage biscuit, hashbrowns, and milk.

When I got back Ken was up and ready for class, and he was going to eat breakfast. It was free at the Commons, so I went with. On the way I was informed that I had to be "physically removed" from Julie's room. Score another one for Kevin... After that I went back, played some Madden, then waited patiently for class to start. It never happened as I crashed sometime around 9:30, thus ending my drunken odessey for October 22, 2003.

Update: October 7th, 2003 - Musings, Etc.


Jesus, I haven't updated in a long damn while. It's not like I haven't noticed. I mean, it's in my AIM profile when my last update was, and I update that damn thing all the time. In fact, I might go so far as to say that more people see my stupid profile with it's trite quotes than actually see this web page. So you can probably estimate that amount at 3 or 4.

I think part of the reason the updates are so sparse is that I don't have access to a digital camera like I did last year. I think I had more fun writing some of the captions than I did writing the articles. And everyone likes to visualize things, so there's that idea too, which goes into my screenwriting class that I suck at. I only suck at it because I'm no good at writing action that people would see on the screen. My professor says she can't seem to care about my main characters 'cause there's nothing going on there. I don't blame her. Besides, my writing has always been an extension of myself, and that translates into my characters being like me. Like she says, dialogue in screenplays are conversation, only better...I believe that my main characters are me, only better. They have the sack to do the things I can only dream of doing, and they say the things I wish I could say. So, does that really surprise you that they don't ever seem to be likeable? I thought not.

So I guess I need to rediscover my muse. This whole beer-cigarettes-and-girls thing isn't exactly working out. I'm getting tired of it. I was sort of excited for this year to begin, what with having a girl possibly interested in me, living with the jackass, and all the drinking that would be done. But it's turned out to be rather shitty. She rarely talks to me anymore and I didn't do anything, which has to be a first. Usually it's me being way over-agressive... And Ken? Well he's still a jackass. My drinking has been cut down because I have early classes this semester. What a disappointment.

I don't know why, but I've been thinking of moving this site to the UWW servers, if only because there's no ads, and possibly faster loading time. But that would be a lot of work, and probably wouldn't even work out all that well because I only get like 5MB of space. So whatever.

I could probably go on and on about the last month, but you know me, I don't really want to. It's in the past and the best thing I can do for myself is stop thinking about it, and maybe have a drink or three (or five) to forget about all the bullshit.

Update: September 6th, 2003. The Boy Is Back In Town. Year Four, Week One.

Don't read into my title thinking I'm going to be giving you a week-by-week account of my life in Whitewater. You all know I'm far too lazy for that. It's a shame that I don't own a digital camera because then I could take pics of how the room is set up, among other things.

Thankfully Ken moved in a day ahead of me, so he was there to help me move in all the crap I've collected over the past 4 years. Once again I got off being a lazy bastard. After we got everything set up and I settled in, the drinking commenced, and I got fairly drunk as per usual. Then, brimming with confidence from the liquor, I asked this girl I've been talking to lately if she wanted to meet. Angie said yes, and I walked (read: stumbled) my way there. I was my usual drunken self and amused Angie and her roommate for maybe an hour, but not much more than that happened. I have yet to meet her again.

Other than that first night, the weekend was pretty nondescript.

I hate school. If it wasn't for that pesky "needing a job to survive" business I wouldn't be here. But I am, and my senior year is off to a decent start. Just about every class looks to be OK, especially because I've had a few of the professors before. Some could say they might even be fun. Except for health, because health is what I'd like to call "super-gay" because I don't want to do it. I don't need someone to tell me that I am unwell and unhealthy, but whatever. The one thing I noticed is the sharp decline of hotties in my classes. Sure, there will always be a few I would throw one into. but the selection has been thinned. However, there is still loads and loads of eye candy for me to look at on the way to class.

So I made it through the week without making a complete ass of myself in class, even though I did comment on the Me First show at the Warped Tour ("Two chicks made out. It was cool.") and also on my white-trash neighborhood, which a girl had the nerve to claim that Cudahy isn't White Trash...she's from South Milwaukee, and we all know they are ghetto. And dumb.

The week ended pretty much where it began, with me attempting to drink myself into oblivion. I succeeded admirably on that one, and it was even more social that I had planned. I found some people outside smoking, and then all of the sudden more people came from a busted party, and before you knew it they were all in my room. Of course, they all (the girls, anyway) wanted to leave to go home...but we followed them out of boredom. So I became almost like a freshman again, going from dorm to dorm for no reason at all. I forget when I first came home, but I went back outside and me and Ken started yelling back and forth, which prompted a girl to look out her window. So I started a retarded conversation with her, and ended up playing Mario 3 with her for about an hour. She called me "weird" on several occasions, which is what I have come to expect.

The only way this week could have been better is if I got laid, which won't be happening anytime soon. Either way, I suppose I'm ready to start another mundane week of going to school and drinking beer.

Update: July 28th, 2003 - Red Vest Represent

I recently landed a job at the K-Mart in my town. It's not exactly my favorite place to be. I've never liked shopping there, and I never really thought I'd work there in a million years. Well now I do.

Ken brought to my attention that I have now sold out to myself by working there, mostly because I take shit from customers. The term "sellout" is thrown around a lot today, usually by music elitists who really have nothing meaningful about the music. But I got around to thinking about it (I gave it 3, 4 minutes tops) and decided, that yeah, I have been selling out to myself.

I rule.

The prime example here, of course, is my job. I'm working at a place I hate, I'm wearing clothes I would otherwise not be caught dead in, I'm forced to be pleasant and curteous to the customers, and most of all, I can't talk back. There was an old man I Was checking out (yes, I work the register), and he was arguing about KLEENEX. Tissues, for Christ's sake! Never mind the fact that I may have actually rung up one too many, though my manager came and looked at it. Anyways, he's standing there pissing and moaning about the price of his kleenex. Under any other circumstances, I would've punched him in the head, or more than likely told him to fuck off. But, I couldn't. I had to remain calm (not hard for me, unlike someone else..), I had to keep apologizing. In other words, I couldn't be me. This is just like how I cut my hair, not because I really wanted a change, not because I thought it looked dumb, but so people would stop bothering me about it, and so girls would probably give me a chance to talk to them, considering now I didn't look like a mid-90's rock star. I played the game, like so many before me have, and like endless amounts of men and women will continue to do. Is that wrong?

You know what, I don't care. I'm gonna keep playing this "game" because it will get my farther then by just being a major asshole the rest of my life. As Blink-182 says, "I guess this is growing up."

All the other things aside, I like my job. The majority of the people there are pretty nice, and understanding that I don't know shit. There are some cute girls, but who the hell knows if they're anywhere in my league. The rest are just, what seems to me, lonely single mothers with kids. I don't know why I chose to include that little fact.

(Just because I want to be cool like all my other friends who run blogger type things)
Song of the moment: Blur - Coffee and TV

Update: July 14th, 2003 - Friends are done

In a rare showing of ambition, I managed to go on a little writing binge and finished the remaining three "friends" pages. Go and check them out.

Update: July 8th, 2003 - 2nd Half of Summerfest / 4th of July Weekend

Lewis Black - Big Easy Stage 5:30PM, June 30th.

Lewis Black's act at Summerfest was one of the funniest things I've ever seen or heard. The rantmeister was in fine form once again for his 10th straight appearance at Summerfest. His hour-long set was relentlessly angry as he went from talking about different places he'd been recently to this nation's obsession with health ("Five years ago you would've laughed at that joke, but they got to you, didn't they? Son of a bitch!") and everywhere in between. He spent a good part of the second half of his show talking about the greed that has been infesting the CEO's of some of the biggest corporations. He joked that if one of them were going to spend $16,000 on a shower curtain, it better be made out of somethingt very rare, like say, Martha Stewart's vagina. ("I can see you're shocked, because you didn't think she had one!") I would tell more of his rants, but I don't remember too many of them. Why? Because I was too busy laughing my ass off at them. Go see him the first chance you get. And then try to buy him a shot of Jagermeister.

Spirit Creek - Rock Stage 6:30PM, July 6th.

Spirit Creek is a local band that shouldn't be local. People really need to hear this band. Unfortunately, the way the industry is, I don't think they'll ever really get that chance. That withstanding, they still put everything they have into their shows, small crowd or not. And the crowd was rather dead, but I think that had more to do with the weather than anything. SC played mostly songs from their new album entitled "Us Against The World" so it was hard for me to get into those songs, though "Analogue" sounded like a winner. Other highlights included "And Together" ("The real Spiderman soundtrack song!") and "The Masquerade."

Evanescence - Harley Roadhouse 10:00PM, July 6th.

Let's be honest here (since when have I not been?), Evanescence is only headlining Summerfest because of their major radio hit "Bring Me To Life." That song is everywhere, almost to the point of annoyance. It really showed with the diverse crowd, ranging from little girls to middle-aged men. Whether or not they become one hit wonders, only time will tell. Either way, they played an energetic set for an hour and fifteen minutes, though some of the songs seemed to just run together even though they threw in a cover of The Smashing Pumpkins' "Zero". A lot of people left, as I expected, after their hit single. However, they missed the best performance of the night: the pleasanly mellow "My Immortal" featuring just lead singer Amy Lee and her piano. With that smoking-hot voice of hers, it was very moving.

Overall, Summerfest this year was a big rip off. 12 dollar admission, 4 dollar beers, and rather mediocre performances by most of the bands that I saw. Oh well, there's always next year.

Girls like this supposedly hang out up there. You might think she's a butterface, but you'd still hit it.

I went up north this past 4th of July. It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the great outdoors (the movie of the same name. however, is a different story), but I have no girlfriend to watch the fireworks with, no friends to party with, and no money to spend on myself, so I went up with my family to somewhere in Waushara county (I have no idea what little village) where my grandparents live in the summer.

We started off by getting there around 9:30 at night. Drinking commenced shortly thereafter, and continued out by the fire until around 2:30AM. I had 6 beers in that time, but was nowhere near drunk. I think it's a good sign that my mom's side of the family knows me well enough not to bother me about girls. Because if they did, I would've had to go off on some tangent about how girls don't like me, or how insane they are, etc., etc. They did, however, interrogate my sister about her boyfriend. I actually spent most of the night being anti-social with my dad.

I woke up the next morning at the ungodly hour of 6AM. I don't know why, but I couldn't fall back asleep. So I was going on 3 hours of sleep for the 4th. Me, my mom, and my dad went out to the middle of nowhere, King, WI. Why? Because my mom wanted to go to some of the craft stores. So me and my old man went to the world-famous Wally World Bar ("It's not just a vacation, it's a quest!"). I think it was the biggest dive I've ever been in. All the townies in there knew each other, so we kind of sat away from the bar. The only redeeming quality was a sign that hung over the hallway that led to the pool table. It said: King has no town drunk. Here, we all take turns. We headed back to the house because we were supposed to go down by the lake for a cookout and fireworks. Before that, though, we were sent to get ice from the Saxeville, WI hangout The Ding. We had drinks beforehand, and they were OK, and a whole quarter cheaper than the drinks here. More townies were encountered, and they were more vocal. "Who played this crap?" asked some lady. The song, which I picked, was Nirvana's "You Know You're Right." My dad told me to tell her that it was me, so maybe we could start a bar fight. I thought better of it, because Saxeville doesn't need some punk kid from the city starting a ruckus. They must have a younger crowd there at night, because the jukebox was rather current, and the bartender was pretty cute.

The fireworks on Long Lake were actually better than expected. Someone must have a hook-up, because one guy's looked pretty professional. I had more beer and got bit up by mosquitos, but at least the fireworks amused me.

If I was 2 or 3 years old, and a girl, this would be my opinion of my trip up north.

The last day was creeping by slowly, I wanted to get the hell out of there. The only amusing thing was my 2-year-old-cousin, Hailey. I know I hate kids, but she was being incredibly cute. She was repeating everyone's names and asking people to play. At my aunt's house, she was dancing and trying to get my other baby cousin to dance. Well, Nate didn't want to and it was one of the funniest things I've seen. He started to cry as she tried to shake his arms to the chicken dance, and all I could think was, "I know how you feel, kid." And lastly, she whined that she didnt want my mom to take a picture of her, which is always cool.

A thing that really doesnt have anything to do with my trip, other than that we were up there when it happened was this: I heard Metallica on a classic rock station. On two different days, I heard "The Unforgiven," "Whiskey In The Jar," "For Whom The Bell Tolls," and "Turn The Page." You have no idea how old that makes me feel.

June 29th, 2003 - Summerfest so far = disappointment

I think my computer is finally working like normal again, so I should be updating with a little more regularity. WIth that said, let's get to Summerfest.

Summerfest, for those not in the know, is the biggest music festival in the world. 11 days of non-stop music on plenty of stages. The perfect place for a music junkie to go to waste 12 bucks admission and 4 bucks on overpriced beer. There are usually 3 or 4 acts that I see every year, probably 4 or 5 more that I don't get the chance to see. I'll be reviewing 4 of those shows in this post.

None of the concerts I saw were bad, but as is usual with outdoor shows, none of them blew me away. In fact, none of them came close to impressing me.

Pat McCurdy - Big Easy Stage 9PM, June 26th.

I don't recall ever being at opening day. But here I was at 9 o'clock, sitting and waiting for the so-called Wisconsin legend and crowd favorite Pat McCurdy with a friend of mind and her friend who I didn't know. They were both in love with Pat. In fact, most of the crowd was in love with him. I, on the other hand, was a "Pat Virgin." Not that that means anything outside of the hip circles who like him, but still, it was my first time seeing him. Probably the only time, too. Musically, he's nothing special at all. Just a man and his guitar, playing repetitive tunes to the themes of sex, drinking, masturbation, and in his trademark closer, sex and drinking together. Normally, those things would be right up my alley. But they were amusing at best, annoying and tiresome at worst. Sure, the crowd was enjoying it, singing and dancing and all... maybe I'm just not a have-a-good-time kind of guy. Utter happiness and positiveness doesn't mix with me very well, I guess, especially if I'm not in the mood. And I wasn't, considering I had spent a better part of that day walking around by myself.

Weird Al Yankovic - North Shore Landing 11PM, June 26th

Weird Al Yankovic owns Pat McCurdy any day.

My second headliner fared a little better than Pat, if only because Weird Al is a lot more clever. He opened with "Couch Potato" and "The Angry White Boy Polka" and went on to perform other selections from his new album, "Poodle Hat." That was his first mistake... his new disc isn't his strongest work. After that he did an incredibly long medley that stretched from his first single "My Bologna" to "Jerry Springer." It covered a lot of ground, but medleys aren't Al's strength...his antics on stage are. And being in an outdoor environment on a small stage didn't accomodate that very well. And even if it did, I couldn't see him anyways. Thanks a lot, Pat. Yankovic and his band really kicked into gear for the last four songs, his encores, if you will. "Smells Like Nirvana" and "Fat" were the highlights there. He ended with "Yoda" and that was the whole show.

Alkaline Trio - Harley Roadhouse 8PM, June 28th

Alkaline Trio were one of the few "big" indie bands on the stages at the 'Fest this year. However, the young crowd that was there were there to see Sum 41, not the Trio. Now, I like Alkaine Trio's work. I have all their albums, I've seen them at The Rave and was very impressed with the show. But this time around I wasn't into it, and neither was the band, it seemed. The whole set was sluggish and mostly forgettable with the exceptions of a couple of songs ("Armageddon," "My Friend Peter"). The vocals weren't high enough in the mix, especially when most of the crowd was busy talking to their friends. All in all, it was quite disappointing for a band that's right on the brink of breaking it big.

Everclear - Miller Oasis 10PM, June 28th

Everyone who knows me knows that Everclear is my favorite band hands down. That being said, they are not without their faults, mainly the fault that their sets have been incredibly short lately. When I saw them at UW-Whitewater, they played 15 songs, which was shorter than the 19 I saw them play at Summerfest 2000. This time, they played even less, or at least it seemed that way. Don't get me wrong, Everclear will still kick your ass 9 ways from Sunday, only now they seem to be doing it in shorter bursts. They played almost exclusively their hits, but did throw in "Like A California King" and a very nice acoustic version of "Brown Eyed Girl," which the crowd got into a lot. But other than that the set list was quite bland and almost exactly the same as Whitewater's. A non-musical highlight came when, during their cover of Cheap Trick's "Surrender," they invited people to dance on stage. Many people were up there and Art told everybody to "back the fuck up" which most of the people did. One kid apparently got a little rowdy though, and a security guard took notice of it. They got into it a little, and it ended up with the guard pushing the kid off the stage. It was pretty funny. Once the song was over that was the end of the show, and I could just sense the crowd going "That's it?" Well, the house music came on and they immediately took down the mics... so I assume it was.

Well, that's it for my first two Summerfest visits. I have two more to go, and I hope that Lewis Black and Ben Folds can be a lot more entertaining.