Changes in Life...its Christmas Time

Children of Bodom are a Finnish power/thrash metal band. The music sounds very power metal but the vocals are more thrashy.
Christmas this year wasn't anything like last year, in fact it was the polar opposite. Last year i got EVERYTHING on my list and this year I didn't get anything at all. Not that my mom or I wanted to do it that way, its just that she is moving to San Diego in a month and there are a lot of things to take care of and no money for any sort of gifts...I didn't have any fundage either. It was still nice to see her though, I guess next year I will be visiting San diego for Christmas.
I am a bit bummed about her moving down there only cause she won't be 3 hours away...but then I realized some other problems with her moving....I still have a number of friends that I have spent the holidays with for the last several years and now that she is going to be living nowhere near Renton WA it makes it impossible to do such a thing...an end of an era so to speak. Guess I will have to invade my friends homes at other times of the year. They could always come and visit me too but that has yet to happen.
I did get to go to one of my friends/extended family's homes on Christmas Eve and I got a Orange County Choppers beer stein with some mint candies. It was nice to see my friend's new baby and also her older kids that I have known from the time of their birth, even spent their first christmas with them. Other than seeing Nikol and Jim with their family I didn't have that much of an eventful Christmas. It was sad more than anything knowing that its probably the last Christmas I will spend in the NW for a long time or ever. Life goes on, just gotta hold on for the ride.

5 weird facts about me...

Per RT's request...5 Weird facts about Michael J Leslie

1. My music collection goes from Beethoven to John Denver to Children of Bodom to Trans Siberian Orchestra to Bryan Adams to Def Leppard to Depeche mode to The Cure
2. I like romantic comedies...love to laugh and where is it the easiest to laugh? The Human condition when trying to keep a relationship together.
3. I can be a perfectionist to a fault...case in point, this weekend helping my mom with some work around her condo, i had to work aroudn what was already there without all the proper tools. i would ahve loved to have a radial arm/chop saw combo for this job as well as more stock to redo some of the trim work that was shoddily done.
4. I won the weirdest guy (funny haha) in my class award not only out of my classmates but also out of the entire school (my class was only 26 people total and the school had about 125).
5. Despite my size (always big for my age), I was bullied growing up till I eventually got sick of it and then I stopped taking sh*t from everyone, daring them to step to me.

Grades and Work stuff

Ok. Grades were posted today. I got an A in Human Development(a slight curve as I originally had and A-); an A in Elementary Art, B in Elementary Math, B in Bio Lab, and B- in Bio Lecture. The GPA is safe for now...
Got a new student that is into black metal...Dimmu Borgir is his favorite band. Fortunately this band, unlike so many in the black metal genre, embraces good production so its listenable. I dig the music but all of the satanic imagery and lyrics coupled with the cookie monster vocals kinda make it difficult to listen. He wants to learn some of this stuff. He is also taking keyboard lessons from one of the other instructors who is hoping that I can widen this kids palette of music...it should prove interesting; the kid is very close minded when it comes to music, I can remember being kinda like him when I was younger too because this kid can be a bit snooty about it as I was when I was younger and still can be at times. Nothing like having a new challenge...now to figure out some of the music from this band.

FINALS ARE DONE!!!!!!!

I am bouncing off the walls here. Got an A- in Human Development, B- in Biology, B in Biology Lab, A in Art, and my math final went well so i expect a decent grade out of that class to. Now I have a month off. Gonna be working on a couple different songs; Yngwie Malmsteen's Black Star and Steve Vai's For the Love of God over the break, as well as get my butt back into the gym. My ankle is not healed competely which is wierd but I should be able to ride bikes and treadmills just fine. Now to relax......ahhhhhhhhhh!

Holidays and Finals

Thanksgiving was a fun time. I spent it with some friends and their families, first at one families house and then we all went to another families house...people from my church. Once at teh second families house we watched War of the Worlds...so so movie, nothin to write home about. I missed being with family a little bit but I was with a sort of extended family. The bad thing about Thanksgiving was that I wasn't able to make any money on Thursday, I don't get paid for holidays...at least I don't think I do.
Next week is finals. I have so far gotten my Human Development quiz grades up to A, B, and C level and the final is worth 80 points. I already took my Bio lab final, went well for the most part. My bio lecture final is Tuesday and my math and art Final are on Wednesday. The Human Development final is going to be done over the weekend as it is online. I have two chances to take it and I get to keep the better score. I think things should come off pretty well after all this quarter as long as I keep my nose to the grindstone this weekend.
Tonight I get to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra for the fourth year in a row. Each year the show gets bigger and bigger. I hope they play more new material this year. I am really looking forward to the release of Nightcastle (their upcoming release, God knows when they will finally release it). The stuff I ahve ehard so far is far and away better than the stuff they have done previously.

life goes on...sometimes without me

Well, I sorta put a gun to my head when it came to studying for my latest biology test...I got a B. That will certainly help my grade. Still have a few more weeks to go. I have to catch up in my Human development class. I am of half a mind to drop it cause I am so behind. All the quizzes, essays, and final are on the internet so it made it way to easy to be lazy. I didn't keep up with the reading so its bitin me in the butt. We are able to take the quizzes as many times as we want until the quarter is over but the esays are a one time shot and I am sure the final is such as well. So my weekends for the next few weeks are gonna be full of biology and human development studying in the hopes that i can pull my fat ass out of the fire. I will be so glad when graduation comes this june...of course i need to keep on top of my classes or else I wont be graduating...my family would kick my ass.
I just took on another day at work, one of the other guitar instructors is full on Tuesdays and Tuesday seems to be a popular day and I havent been getting to many signups on thursdays and saturdays so I am hoping that my tuesday will be filled fast. I need money like yesterday. We have our last instrument petting zoo tomorrow, though I guess its gonna become a regular once a month thing for a while. Hopefully we will have a good number of people show up, I hate giving my time without any sort of benefit (ie new students). Maybe the Tuesday thing will help out. i do have a new student starting tomorrow but at the same time I had one student quit, her finances aren't where she can take lessons as often as she should. She was doing both vocal and guitar lessons. Hopefully she will start back up when her finances are better.

Petting Zoo and more tests to come

Yippee! I have yet another midterm in Biology and math this next week and then finals are in the first week of December. I am so looking forward to winter break, we have almost a month off. I need to meet with my advisor and apply for graduation, get the ball rolling on that. For the last few weeks we ahve been ahving a muscial instrument petting zoo at work. The idea is that people can come in, meet the instructors, check out/play various instruments (brass, woodwinds, drums/percussion, acoustic/electric guitar, bass, and piano), and also see the facility in hope that we would get more students. Our first week we had only two families show up, one which took some flyers to her elementary school that she taught at. the second week...no one but oen woman that is doing some promotion for us with the Parks and Rec dept. This week we had two different families show up, one kid wants electric guitar lessons and his parents want him to learn to read music/learn music theory as well. I am hoping to get him as my student but if they decide to put him in the theory class then the other guitar instructor may get him because the days I teach (thursday and Saturday) dont have music theory being taught on those days. We shall see what happens. We have one more petting zoo before the thanksgiving holiday, I hope more people show up for this one and then get more students from it as well. Then I guess we will start having the petting zoos once a month. This past wednesday we were on AM Northwest. We almost didnt get any mention because we were unable to get 10 people to show up that were affiliated with our group. They hooked us up anyways. It would be nice if they would do an interview segment with us as well, thats something we are looking into. Now to do a little work on a guitar and do some studying....

me in a penguin outfit at my brothers wedding. The tall guy is my baby bro.

Life, crazy life!

Work has been interesting, had some new students start up a little while ago, some are doing better than others. My 8 year old lefty learning to play right handed gets so much homework she hardly has any time to practice...my God people, she's a kid for crying out loud, not a college student. Several parents have gone to the teacher about it but she won't let up. The teacher is just out of college so she is a bit wet behind the ears I would say...it would be sad if the parents had to go to the school board about it.
Also at work we for the next few weeks are having a musical instrument petting zoo. We had our first one last week, only two families showed up but one of them is a teacher at an elementary school so she took some flyers so maybe this week will have more people. All of us teachers are a bit wary about the potential students touching our instruments so we have to watch them like hawks. The whole dea behind this promotion is for parents and potential students to meet the instructors in hope that some might sign up. Getting paid for it so its all good, makes for a long saturday though.
My math mid term went fairly well, I got a B. My art midterm went ok too; as long as I do my homework and shwo up for class I get an A in the class. I skipped biology today, not feeling so hot last night and this morning. Now to track down some food...

Mid Terms are almost done...

I lived through it but I know I should have studied more. My biology mid term didn't go so well, I got a 26 out of 40. I gotta buckle down and study more. I did study three out of the 6 chapters but I got bit HARD by the lazy bug thinking my good judgement would help me in the multiple choice test. Not to good judgement i guess...on all counts in this situation. I had my math midterm today and I think it went well but we ahd a quiz a couple weeks ago that I thought went well and I got a D on it because I didnt check my work; I had made some stupid errors. This test was easier though. My final midterm is for my art class. I have to draw a picture in pencil on a 12X18 pice of paper, not allowed to use color but can use shading and it is going to be put in an art show. I am still not so sure what to draw yet, I may get all my guitars out and arrange them in some form to draw them. So I still ahve my work cut out for me this quarter; can't slack off to much if I want to have decent grades.

Mid terms coming...Guitar is done

I got my project guitar back last night. Unfortunately one of the parts in teh trem system had disappeared so it made it a bit more difficult to set up. i got a replacement part today adn set the guitar up. It took a little while but the guitar plays well and sounds really good but I think there is something wrong with the middle pickup on the treble side, on the clean channel it is really weak. I will talk to the guy who did the work and see what can be done cause there is also a grounding issue, the guitar has a bit of a buzzing problem when plugged in.
Biology midterm next week and then there are some in my other classes but I am more concerned over the biology one...so much stuff to retain. No wonder I didn't go into the science/medical field. I guess my brain isnt heavily geared towards math and science though I can still pull a decent grade out of them...maybe its that I don't like studying, it puts me to sleep...wait...sleep is a good thing, but not when you have mid terms and there is studying to do. So off I go to study...amongst other things.

Guitar Center SUCKS!!! and other rantings

I have been piecing together another electric guitar for the fun of it; kind of a hobby and I took this guitar to guitar center to have some sautering done...the guy told me 3 to 4 days and then he was gonna charge me $75 for it. Installs usually cost $35 so this guy was a quack...I called a couple different times and my guitar still wasnt done so today i went back to the store and picked it up...the work I need done still isnt done but I know for a fact i can find someone to do the work for much cheaper. A couple of the guys I work with told me that a couple of their friends would be able to hook me up for cheap. I just want to play the dang thing...I am practically feigning for it. In other news....school is tiring. I will be glad to be done in June. I still am not sure about Grad school, I havent even applied yet but I do have one of the three recommendation letters. I would just like to take a long break from school and live for a while. I like to be able to come home and just chill rather than have to break open some books to study.

The wedding

My brothers wedding went off without a hitch...it stopped raining just in time...outdoor weddings kinda suck when its raining. I was about to start crying during the vows, it was very touching. I am very happy for my brother and i look forward to the lil bambino/bambina that should be arriving around March 17th or so...really close to my birthday. My oldest niece was born 3 days away from my 18th birthday...makes it alot easier to remember how old she is. Can't believe she is 13 already. The receptionwas nice. We had roast beef/turkey and a bunch of other fixins and my step mom and other brother Tim put together a DVD of David and Kristin from baby to their meeting set to a pretty cool rendition of Bach's Jesu, Joy of mans Desiring. Her dad made a small speech welcoming David to the family and speaking of Kristen's tenacity, then I did the same, welcoming Kristin to the family and giving my little brother away by way of saying "for all the years of (I lightly sock him in the arm)...now its her job." I feel very privleged to have been my baby brothers best man. I wish them the very best life that can be had. Now I need to catch back up on my homework...God, I hate school. Glad its my last year...unless i go for the masters...

Back to school. Back to school.

First day today...should be an interesting quarter. I ahd to spend over 300 on books this quarter but at least I won't have to spend that much next quarter cause I am taking a sequence of courses. I am really tired, I didn't sleep to well for the last couple nights so it makes it a bit more difficult. Tommorrow is a short day so i can come home and take care of some things. Mondays and Wednesdays are long for me, 9-5 with a hour and a half lunch break. That is only three classes in that time so my backside gets a bit sore. Tues./Thurs/Fri. I have only one class though I do have my bio lab right before class on Tues. I think I may like my art class.

Teaching 2

Well...I was able to break the scales and everything down to where she could understand...though I am sure i will have to explain it a number of more times before it really sinks in. Her folks have tied practice into her homework time so now she may practice more than three times a week which will actually help her get better. It would be nice to see her being able to play chords and songs clearly without struggling to make sure each note in the chord sounds out. It just takes a bit more time since she is trying to retrain her brain to think backwards, her being a lefty playing right handed and all.

Teaching

I have a number of guitar students that range from the ages 8 to 30. Today I was trying to show the 8 year old some new things, she seemed like she was wanting something a bit different after having spent the last several months working on the same stuff over and over (she is playing it better but it still needs work). A little background...she is left handed trying to learn to play right handed (nothing that I forced on her, she started to learn that way with another teacher and she has made enough progress this way that she has a hard time playing left handed). She is still working on getting her hands to change chords in time with a metronome as well as picking cleanly when going through the chromatic scale...so today sine she wanted some other stuff I gave her a whole thing on the major scale with its modes and told her to just work on the first one (Ionian mode/otherwise known as the major scale). SHe was confusing the chromatic with the major scale so now we will be going down the road of explaining the scale in about 500 different ways so she can comprehend it. SHe is a bright kid and I believe that if she sticks with the guitar and practices enough being ambidexterous (spell) will improve other areas of her life such as athletics. I have to explain things many times but its worth it cause she does have the desire to learn, I am not just baby sitting someone's kid.

Allergic to pain 2 and other stuff

Went to the hospital today...its a sprained ankle and a strained knee. Lots of ace bandages and an air cast. Fun stuff! Hopefully things will have healed up good enough by my brothers wedding on October 1st, now it turns out that I am gonna be Best Man. There's a first. I am still trying to figure out what track I want to do at the studio for my second mp3 for the website. I have been thinking of re-recording somethign I did on another project where I wrote the guitar riffs around the drums. I think the drums could be done much better than they were on the project I originally wrote it for. Its a heavy track thats for sure. Other tracks to consider include something in the hard rock vein and then there are some other incomplete metal tracks as well. It would be nice to record it all...just need the money to do it all, not to mention have a fulltime bassist and drummer instead of having to bring someone else in that is not as familiar with the parts to pull out a basic track.

Allergic to pain

I spent a few days down in Roseburg Oregon with some friends and wound up tweaking my ankle/knee. I can still walk on it but it hurts a bit. It didnt swell up a lot and I can move it around but if I move it a certain way it really hurts. I think its just a sprain or a strain...I have yet to go to a doctor as my insurance is not in effect right now. If it gets worse I will definately bite the bullet and go, I don't wanna have any permanent sort of injuries cause something doesnt heal right.

Nerd Test

Bored out of my mind I took a nerd test. According to the test I am actually cool. As if some online test determines a persons nerdiness...I took the test so that must mean there is some nerdiness somewhere. Oh well. I can hang with cool, I have always been one of those people that can hang out with just about anyone, barring the super arrogant pompous people...they are the ones I would like to remove from the face of the earth.

Recording this week

THis past monday I did some recording at work that will eventually be posted on the studio website. I will be finishing up one of the tracks tonight and hopefully in the coming weeks do a second track. THis is my first time doing a fully digital recording as well as doing any recording with my newest guitars, the Ibanez SZ520 I got for Christmas this past year, the Breedlove nylon string I got just a few months ago, and there is a possibility that my Ibanez bass will be heard too. Also heard in its first time recording is my Alvarez artist series acoustic. THe nylon string sounds amazing, and this is running it direct into the board. We miked my Alvarez, something wrong with my preamp on the guitar (oh crap...more expenses). We also ran my Ibanez SZ520 through the board for rhythms and leads, gonna be fixing the tones tonight, what went down to disc was not to my satisfaction.
So, tonight is gonna be fixing a few rhythm/lead things, laying down the bass, and vocals; hopefully getting a couple harmonies here and there (I hope it comes out good vocally). Nice thing is that I am getting to do this for free and then on top of that I don't need to haul my amp with me, though hauling several guitars gets to be a pain (I sometimes forget I have more than one).

Ridden Hard and Put Away Wet!

This has been yet another long week. Camping with 4th through 7th graders...oh joy. I was with a bunch of 6th graders. SOme fo them were really good and obedient and others were bound and determined to contradict and argue with me at every point that they could. I finally had to crack the whip and begin putting kids in theri place, even one of the counselors I ahd to set straight though he had a few things to point out where I could improve as well...the kids were looking at this 17 year old as the prime authority when he was at best a captain or lieutenant where I was the five star general. I love those kids but at the same time I wanted to break my foot off on their butts.
One of the other counselors that was in there with me was also playing guitar for worship...he acknowledges that I can play circles around him yet he still tries to cop a tude with me; maybe I am reading to much into it but I was certainly annoyed by it. Glad its over for now. I am exhausted and my feet are absolutely killing me from being on them constantly for the last four days, I was always having to chase down this or that kid or something else. Now time to rest and recouperate.

Goodfellas or Gangstas?!?!

This is me and some of my buddies after we spent a few hours shooting on Aaron's birthday (the dude standing behind me, I being in the Notre Dame shirt and Khaki shorts)...it was a lot of fun though the bramble bushes made their mark on my legs.

Weddings and Farewells and other stuff

My buddy Jorge just got hitched this weekend and then a bunch of my friends took off for Bible school afterwards. Its gonna be interesting to see what develops over this next year. I am really gonna miss my friends but I know what they are doing is as much a benefit to me as it is to them and the rest of our friends.
I spent the night in Roseburg OR last night (the location of the wedding) and saw one heck fo a huge bug. I was trying to fall asleep and then I heard thsi buzzing noise, it sounded as if someone's phone was on vibrate except this was really loud. The dude I road down with jumped otu of bed after the bug got a little to close for comfort. We turned on the lights looking fro the thing and finally found it and flushed it out. It flew up at my friend sending him running across the room as the bug went the other way.
This bug's body was as big as my thumb and had huge antenae, its wings must have been solid and folded on its back cause they were nowhere to be seen when it was walking across the floor. Rather than attempting to squash this beast of a bug I grabbed my flip-flop and used it as a catapult to send the bug out of the room. After shooing another large but smaller bug out I managed to get a little shut-eye.
I get to spend this next week at a kids camp (4th through 7th grade). I have done this camp for the last few years but this time I am staying with the kids instead of my own bed at home. Oh the adventure. I still remember going to camp as a kid and now some of the people I will be working with at the camp were serving with the kids when I was going to camp 20 years ago.

Life is gonna be really lonely around here after this week...

...Several of my friends are leaving for Bible school after a friend of ours gets hitched this next weekend. I am bummin. It looks like another page in my life is turning again...of course I have had a number of people bugging me about going to the Bible school but as of yet God has not put the desire to go within me. The reasons people give me are not good enough..."you can find a wife there" is one of them and I have had the thought that going would just get everyone off my back and then I would be a member of the club. I know a lot of people that have gone to this school and they encourage everyone to go. I hear them talk of their experiences there (ah memories) and then when there is anyone else that has gone then they have some long conversation to which I cannot relate to in any way; my not having not gone to the school sort of excludes me from this "club." Of course the whole "club" mentality or idea is in NO way a reality but sometimes I feel that it is; it gets a tad boring or lonely in my corner of the world when people start talking of their experiences with others that have gone through the school.
In my lack of desire to go people ask me, "don't you want to gain more of the Lord?" DUH! I wouldn't be going to church and as many home meetings and gatherings with people from church if I didn't want the Lord to gain more ground in me. Obviously I am a bit at odds with this...got some things to sort out, see where the Lord is leading.

mowwage is whaat bwings us tegethaa today

Come Oct. my baby brother is getting married. I am happy for him and Kristen, they had been talking about getting hitched for some time but they are now expecting so that gave the process a violent kick in the butt. I may have a new niece or nephew for my birthday (my older sister had her first child three days before my 18th birthday). I have told both of my brothers that if they get married before me I am gonna break their legs...my baby bro found a loophole...he kinda needs those legs to support the coming child and I cannot in good conscience break em now...gonna have to get him some other way.
There is an order to things...this certainly isn't it...

If I had a brain I'd be dangerous...and other stuff

Got myself a nice $141 speeding ticket the other day. Not the thing I needed to be getting when the finances are getting tight...I am house/dog-sitting again, this time its not for a week and a half, that was expensive on gas having to go back and forth to my house a number of times. I get to take care of a little Visla puppy; adorable little thing but he bites everything he sees...At this point I think I will keep pursuing the education degree, I am teaching guitar after all at a music school; having a degree in education might help. It would help if I had a music degree but making music academic was making me hate it, not to mention that I don't care for jazz enough to go that in depth and my classical chops are nothing to brag about. Those are the only choices at most universities. Crazy thing is that I can play rock, metal, blues, jazz, a little classical, funk, and other styles. Either way I am glad to have my job teaching guitar and I hope that things with the studio really take off this fall and in the coming years (thinking optimistically).

Pondering the Future

I have been mulling over whether or not I want to go into elementary education. I like working with kids but after a while my patience disappears and I snap at people from getting so irritated. I love teaching guitar and the place I am teaching out of has the possibility of turning into something major this next school year. I am not sure what direction I want to go in with a masters degree, thats if I even want to spend that much more time in school. I am so SO tired of school right now. I know I at least want to finish my 4 year degree, I will have that by next June. After that I am not sure, I think things at the studio will be flying by then so I could be working a lot there which would suit me fine. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch but I would at least like to have a battle plan...I thought I did with education but after these past couple weeks working with kids and being with them 24/7 I don't think I want to go that route, I would go insane.I guess I will have to see how things come out this next school year with the studio.

What a Looooong Week!

LAst week was a doozy! I was a counselor at a Summer Bible School for JH and HS kids. Great kids but after a while my nerves and patience were at their end. Now that the camp is over now I can get going on learning flamenco and my studio recording software. I had stopped to see what lessons might cost...gonna have to wait on that, the dude was a bit pricey. Now I need to get my house back in order...now to the car.........something I had thought was fixed isn't. The heat sensor and thermostat aren't working correctly where the car winds up heating up, not over heating but getting into the high normal area. Having driven the car pretty regularly a few years back I know that it doesnt run normally like this so I need to do some research. I know the engine is doing alright caused it passed emissions no problem. Cars, while good can be the biggest pain in the butt.

Finally got the new car

My brother drove in with his girlfriend last night with my new car and then he drove off this morning with my truck (now his). I had to take the car to a wash and wax place cause of all the bugs and bird crap. It looks pretty nice now. Its gonna cost me $142 to change over the title, barring that it passes emissions. It will be nice havin AC during some of these hot summer days and the savings in gas are gonna be nice. Feels much different driving a small car as opposed to my old truck. I am sure my bro is happy with it. Now I need to get a car stereo...it never ends!

Live with Luna' Web in 96'. I am at the right of the picture and Greg is playing my Washburn Nuno Bettencourt model I wish i still had on the left of the picture.

New purchases and random things

Picked up the bass yesterday; its really light weight compared to many basses I have played over the years. At a scratch and dent sale I picked up a project guitar for 100 bucks. The neck is perfect and the frets are just a little worn, the body has some dings in it and the bridge needs to be replaced as do the pickups. All those parts are now forthcoming. We shall see if I can get this guitar turned into something worth playing. On another note....
I am finally home...been house-sitting for the last week and a half. It was cool to have access to a pool whenever I wanted, though the chlorine levels went off the charts when I messed up the chlorination schedule by a few hours. The day I left the pool was back to normal.
I hope to have my new car by early next week...got myself a costco membership the other day, was hoping to get me some low price tires but I found a better deal at the Tire Factory. Oh well, I got me some huge bulk size food items as well as some decent razors that should last me a few months. I could easily spend several thousand dollars there. And I now have enough q-tips to last me for several years. Some of the packaging there is a bit extreme, as if a person is buying to stalk up a bunker or something, that or to feed a medium size army.
Seen a couple movies recently...Batman Begins and Madagascar. BB was by far the best of the two, surpassing the previously made movies by a long shot; and for lack of a better term to describe it ,I would have to say it was more "realistic" than the others.It was still dark but it didnt have that wierd tim burton twist that permeates all his movies. Madagascar...I should have waited till video, maybe I will like it better then. It was funny in places but when compared to other pixar type films, it pales.
I have gotten into reading again, not just guitar mags and the Bible but actual books. Winter quarter at school had me reading a book from Neil Gaiman called "American Gods," and I have since read "Neverwhere" and will soon start "Stardust." I also bought "The Dirt" by Motley Crue. Been wanting to read that one for some reason or another...

Yet another new guitar...

I just aquired an Ibanez bass guitar from e-bay. Great price too...$91. I should be picking it up sometime this next week as the seller lives on the other side of the Columbia river from me. Now I need to find myself a 12 string acoustic and I will be set for guitars for a while. Pictures will be short-coming.

what a day

I am freakin tuckered out! I have been house/dog sitting and also helping some friends clean up their house cause they sold it and are moving. Long days...Today I got my truck stuck out in the field cause I was being stupid in not taking this hill in the field at a higher rate of speed. I got stuck in a small ravine in the field and a jeep had to pull me out. Needless to say I didnt accomplish the goal for which I entered the field in the first place(removing signs). I finally got my settlement check from my car accident from last september. Other than taking care of bills and dstuff I am hoping to get my hands on a decent bass guitar. I am gonna be recording a couple tracks soon at East2West, just need a bass for part of it...not to mention figuring out what tunes I want to do. Snippets from those recordings will eventually be posted at the studio's website. off to bed!!!

OMG!

I am getting a new car. My dad is hooking me up with his Ford Escortthat may have 100,000 miles on it. He got it with low miles and now most of the miles on it are HWY ones. So I am giving my truck (79 GMC)to my baby bro. He had wanted to buy it when I did but he didnt have the funds so he let me go for it. Now he gets the truck he has been wanting since before he got his drivers license and I can now have better fuel economy and be able to put money away. I am stoked. East2West is located all the way on the other side of town and going out there twice a week on top of all my other driving around makes for several fill-ups. Whats great about the car other than mileage is that its a hatchback, I can easily haul my gear and keep it dry all the while having passengers. What a Godsend! Thank you Lord!

Off to work

I work at a recording studio/music school called East2West in Clackamas Oregon as well as out of my home teaching guitar. Right now I am out at the studio two days a week, Thursdays and Saturdays. To check out East2West go to http://www.east2weststudios.com/. I have a new student starting today. Off I go!

my amp rack. A Chandler power conditioner, BBE 362, Rocktron Intelliflex XL effects processor, Rocktron Pirahna preamp, Rocktron Velocity 120 power amp, and Rocktron 1X12 cab. 

my Alvarez acoustic/electric a Koa top and Dao back and sides. 

My customized Jackson Dinky EX. w/ EMG 85 humbuckers and EMG SA single coil, and and original floyd rose.  

Jamming in my living room in 2004 with my Jackson. 

Promo Glossy taken in 93' I still have that guitar though it looks totally different. 

My cameo role (big guitar solo) in American Cabaret Theater's "Rockspell." 

Live with Lunas Web; the band I was nearly signed with. 

Christmas gift 2004