Two Things:

1) Received a call tonight from a composer I had done some work for about a month ago. It turns out that I didn't do as good of a job as I thought I did...well...I mean, I sucked. It turns out that I don't know ProTools as well I thought I did, and I didn't check my work as thourougly as I should have. Not great news, but I expected as much since I didn't get a call back from him for a month. The really unfortunate thing was that I wasn't in town to go back and try to fix my mistakes. The session for this gig was on the same weekend we went to Nashville, so I was already in Twain Harte dropping off the kiddies when he called to tell me I screwed up. Usually I like to fix the mistakes I make and correct my errors whenever possible, so I felt helpless being seven hours away (and about to get on a plane...) when I heard that I needed to come back and re-do my work.
 Yikes! So that was a little bit of a downer...

2) The Happening
M. Night Shyamalan. Currently one of the most brilliant storytellers and filmmakers. The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village...all brilliant. This guy literally ranks among greats like J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias) and Steven Spielberg (E.T., Indiana Jones, Schindler's List) as a modern magic-maker when it comes to film.
This movie...not so much...

I'm used to the abstract ideas and plotlines, but this was a little "out there" for me. I even jived with the Lady in the Water story about narfs and otherworldly creatures...but The Happening was never quite as sure of itself as it was in the first five minutes. The first few scenes are magnificently horrible to watch (there's a bit of killing...primarily people killing themselves), but the morbid concept never really pays off in a way that leaves the audience satisfied.
I am a pretty loyal fan when it comes to someone I really like, and I have stayed through thick-and-thin with "Night". This just seemed a little thin.

On the other hand--it was scary, in a thrilling way. If you're looking for a good scare, this movie is a lot less harmful than most movies out right now that are thrilling or scary.

Final thoughts:
Being a musician is hard. Being pretty much any kind of artist is hard. I have a lot to learn...
The Happening didn't pay off like I was hoping, but it's not horrible. There are some unforgettable moments, but plenty of forgettable ones too.

I'm really tired...hopefully this makes some sense!!!

Attention all geeks!

There is just so much to cover...where do I even start?

1) iPhone 3G unveiled today.

We've all been waiting for it. We knew it was coming...but really? Only $199? AMAZING!
So here's the deal. There is a TON of new stuff coming out for the iPhone very soon. The kind of stuff that will transform (once again) the industry and undoubtedly catapult the iPhone to the top of the so-called cell phone charts. All new 3rd-party apps, push email and calendar, remote wipe, all kinds of business friendly features to make this thing happen for apple, AND it's going to run on a network that is almost 3x as fast as the current one. I'm pretty certain iPhone will destroy the blackberry. Apple ran out of them this year...after making 6 million.
But here's what's up...for a current iPhone user, all of this will be available with the iPhone 2.0 download--so the new phone will look sleeker and run on the faster network (which, admittedly, is a HUGE draw). But the rest of us won't be left without all of these cool new features...thank you, Steve Jobs...

2) Lego Indiana Jones for PS2

...rocks! I got it with a Best Buy gift card that APU gave me when I left. Best present ever...and the game is a blast! Nathaniel and I played it for a while today, and we totally kicked butt at it from the GET-GO.
And when he went to sleep he said, "Daddy...don't play it without me, OK?".
I didn't answer...on purpose...muahahaa...

OK FINE, I WON'T PLAY IT....
...(ahhhhhhh...it's soooooo tempting)...

3) The Happening opens this Friday

M. Night Shyamalan's next masterpiece.
I'm SO there.
Harkins...Friday night...Time TBA...who wants to go?

Is this what it's come to? Really?

I seriously just get more and more angry every time I go to get gas these days. It is SO, terribly, horribly frustrating.

I want to never drive again...just so I don't have to pay this ridiculous price for gas.

SO FRUSTRATING!

Nathaniel is pretty good at video games (you know...to a point).
He catches on to games pretty quickly, and every time we're at our friends' house (J & A--our friends with a Wii) we lose ourselves in the magical Nintendo land called Wii.
Some people go to magical lands like Narnia, Middle-Earth, or Care-a-lot...we go to Wii.

And what a magical place it is indeed.

Noah sometimes likes to join in the fun and pretend to play or throw the wii-mote around pushing buttons trying to accomplish whatever task the Wii-zard has set before him. He is usually not all that successful at such attempts.

But today...

Today Noah BEAT Nathaniel at Wii bowling...124 to 103.

Nathaniel was shocked.

So were we.

It went like this:

Nathaniel: "I think Noah beat me..."

Noah: "I WIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!!!!"

This song has some definite sentimental value. It was the first thing I taught both at MLCS and at Midway...
It also has a timeless message and is pretty much straight-up scripture. Word. It doesn't get much better than that...

I'm going to read this passage again today...cause with gas prices at freakin $4.39 gallon, I'm stressin' out.
I never want to drive ANYWHERE ever again. Oh dang...but I have to...and don't we all?

That said--praise the Lord I work 10 feet from my house, and Christy may have just found a job that is about 1.5 miles from our house...

We still drive to San Diego...so that's the only time we'll really feel the burn. OUCH.

Life has been interesting.

The first two weeks of my venture into self-employment/pursuing musical things was slim. I made lots of phone calls...sent lots of emails...and played a lot of Wii (btw--don't have one of my own...but would love to get one sometime after I pay some bills).
I relaxed, organized myself a tiny bit, and walked out of a highly structured environment into a place where I was absolutely free to do whatever wanted. I'm afraid I was not prepared for that...and I'm still trying to figure out what my "normal" day will look like. Right now I'm playing-it-by-ear a lot...and it's scary for a type-A personality like myself.

Although, I have to say that I like being my own boss. I mean, who could be a better boss of me than MYSELF?
HAhaha...just kidding.

So the next two weeks of my life were FAR more interesting. I got work! And the last few days have been especially busy--in a really good way. I'm learning a lot and still settling in...and I think it will take me some time to figure out my normal routine--if that will even happen. But now it's late and I'm not thinking clearly...

Ah--please lift up a prayer for Christy to find a job. She needs to find something asap. The house we moved out of had a $1600.00 deposit, which we were planning on getting most of back to help in this tight time. We got $400 back.
So Christy called and fought with them on the phone, several times. They made some huge mistakes, and ended up giving back another couple hundred dollars, but not nearly enough. So my work couldn't have come at a better time, but isn't enough to really live off of YET---so please pray for her to find something in the meantime...

Nathaniel's having a birthday party for his school friends in Covina this Friday even though his real birthday isn't for another 6 weeks. We wanted to give his friends a chance to come to his party since we'll be too far away once school is out. We'll also celebrate in San Diego.
Don't ask me what he wants, because I'm not really sure. But Christy knows. (or just buy him a Wii...muahahahahaaaaa)

I just discovered the new-in-MAC-OSX-v5-application SPACES.

AND I LOVE IT.

I feel sorry for all of you PC users. You don't know what you're missing...

LOST was amazing. I have so much to say, but here are a couple of gold nuggets for you fans.

Doc Jensen's amazing article to sum it all up

ABC Alternate endings.

Thoughts anyone?

iTunes has been freezing up on me. Just today and yesterday...it's really weird and is quickly becoming extremely annoying.

And let me tell you, I am no dummy when it comes to these things. If there was something I did to make it that way, I would certainly figure it out and try to rectify the problem. However, I see no catalyst that triggered this problem.

I'm getting upset with it.

I DID download a massive update for the MAC OS tonight (after having many problems...). I was hoping it would solve the issue, but it did not. Boo.

So from someone who lives in iTunes...I am sad.

On that note...I've also somehow lost the ability to print to PDF despite the fact that I own Adobe Professional 8.0 and 7.0.
This also makes me upset, though I've found a temporary work around...

I need to tell you about my chiropractor.

I really like my chiropractor. I found him during my first semester as a freshman at APU. He was literally the closest one to APU, and that's the reason I picked him. However, it turned out he was awesome. You see, he uses this method that not many chiropractors use--The Activator Method. It's incredibly accurate and far less invasive than the normal bone-crunchers you probably go to on a regular basis.
So if you do the math, I've been going to this guy exclusively for 11 years.

Yes...even when we lived in Twain Harte we'd still occasionally take a trip down to L.A. and work in an appointment for me.
Uh-huh...

I'm Just.

That.

Crazy.

Well...this method of chiropractic entails laying face-down on the table while the doctor adjusts your back with the little metal activator-thingy...and I guess I've been sleeping at night a little less lately, so I've noticed this tendency to start nodding off during my visits. I mean, I'm face down on the table with my eyes closed for goodness sakes...after about 20 minutes of that, I start getting sleepy!!
Usually I'm able to catch myself dozing and wake up before I say/do anything stupid like not respond to one of his questions or something...

But not today.

Today I guess I was dozing off...and he starts talking about this restaurant that is Christy's favorite--Tulipanos on the corner of Citrus and Gladstone. We used to go there all the time...

Anyways---so he's saying his wife went there for lunch today and he's going to be eating leftovers, etc...and I THOUGHT I was doing pretty well...interacting and talking about the restaurant...well...I started talking about how there is a guy that comes in to play guitar sometimes during the nights and weekends.

"Have you ever heard or seen the guitar guy?" I ask.

he mutters something about how he hasn't...and he's only been there during lunch so maybe that's why, etc...blah blah blah...
 ...and I start accidentally dozing.

You know that state of consciousness that is between sleeping and awake? The one where you can be "woken up" in the middle of the night by your friend's mom and/or grandma and told to get out of your friend's dad's office and instead go sleep in your friends room, and then wake up the next morning and not know how you got there? That state where you can still respond to people but not know what you're saying or doing? Where your dreams are happening, but they're just an extension of your current reality?

Well...I must have been in this state...because in response to the Doctor saying he hadn't seen the guitar man, I rattled off something to the likes of this:
"Yeah, he hasn't been in any of the pictures I've seen..."

pictures? PICTURES? of WHAT?!? I have no idea...and it was at that moment that I realized I had just said something ridiculous and reeeeeeeeealy tried to recover...

I have no idea exactly what I said next, but I can tell you it wasn't pretty...it was more just a mess of words strung together trying to dig myself out of the half-asleep hole I had so quickly dug myself into.

Oh boy...

On a totally unrelated note:
I love 30 Rock.
I just saw an episode I had missed before the finale and it was hilarious. Totally deserving of the Best Comedy Emmy.