guitarkungfu

i've been practicing martial arts for years and, for the longest time, i have been considering using kung fu on my guitar (not a judy chop on it!). using kung fu to play guitar. Kung Fu fighting techniques were created upon studying animals and applying that knowledge to a fightng form that imitates the animal being studied. Kung Fu guitar is the same kind of study applied to guitar playing.

the sloth
this style of guitar playing is brought upon by the study of the sloth. it is a slow and graceful style in motion, but the grating sound is caused by the player using 'sloth-hand'; hooks, generally carved from wood and resembling a sloths claws, are used to both fret and rake acrose the strings. done properly, sloth-hand has a mystique that is rare in other forms of guitar playing. a simplicity, with very rich undertones.

Falling down

the fell i took a few days ago was representative of a lot of things going on in my life. aside from coming to terms with the fact that falling hurts more than it used to, mentally and emotionally i have taken a few falls, including a fall back into depression.

"stupid and useless. won't amount to anything. no discipline. freak. pervert. gross. never was. untalented. dorky. fat. ugly. pathetic"

you know what all depression tells you... that stuff.

i am cramming for the test of my life via the fpsi tpm 10th edition. this is only the first in what i can only imagine are countless countless life tests that applying for the position of firefighter will bring. let alone actually being one.

despite my downward descent into the realms of despair, i have remained positive regarding this venture and my position on this has not changed. besides, the fall didn't hurt that bad and considering all the physical work i had done, 1 fall while standing on a pile of broken down boxes isn't too bad.

still losing weight, i just need to really concentrate on food intake and cut out the sodium. i have slipped up a few times this last week, but not bad. i am not going vegan or something, just trying to practice a little m o d e r a t i o n. god that was difficult.

anyway, i managed to stand up after the fall and straighten my big-huge-pants and shirt, dust myself off and get on with things. there you go.

feelin' it

We have completed the move. this one was painful. During the course of this move, we only had 2, maybe 3 minor communication breakdowns and that was all. most importantly, I didn't even THINK of smoking a cigarette. My main problem was that, after eating sugar snap peas and carrots as a snack for over 2 weeks, not eating that and instead eating 1/2lb combo burritos from taco bell (among other atrociously unhealthy, but convenient and comfortingly delicious foods) made me feel just plain awful! My sodium intake skyrocketed and my ankles swelled, my feet hurt, my body ached, my head hurt, lips dry, vision blurred, sinuses bled, joints ached, i could go on. That will show me! I should have known better than to have the mindset that I was rewarding myself for all the hard work by feeding myself toxic/delicious crap. Despite the pain and the communications breakdowns we had, the move went pretty smoothly. here is how it went down:

saturday, may the 5th
rested that day in preparation for the trials ahead, packed 8pm till 2am

sunday, may the 6th
packed all day literally. all day.

monday, may the 7th
packed all day
2 pickup truck-loads of boxes moved that night
a/c unit froze up and started pouring water into the closet and then the hallway started to get sloshy with water. called the office at 5:05pm when we noticed it and maintenance came in with a 'tude. Said someone would come and wet vac the carpet, but we never saw them. Came back home, slept for a few hours on the couch.

tuesday, may the 8th
9am got truck uhaul
loaded furniture took first load at noon
loaded starting at 9:30 and moved all day
took 3 loads in uhaul
3rd one was washer, dryer, folding table, exercise ball and wavemaster punching bag.
slept on couch/recliner
the pain in my legs became excruciating. What caused it was pulling the heavily loaded green hand truck backwards up the uhaul ramp.

wednesday, may the 9th
took uhaul back
Jennifer's mom said we should fight the $70 back-charge we were being charged as a penalty for breaking the lease. We fought it and won! packed kitchen, closets and scott's room with Jennifer's mom
mentally in a bad state.
took 12 hours

thursday, may the 10th
cleaned apt, leaving only my music equipment and various other crap
had to go back to work

friday, may the 11th
picked up equipment that morning then went to work
jennifer went to work and afterwards, replaced drip pans that evening

saturday, may the 12th
installed the washer, unable to install the dryer-need to replace the cord with a 3 prong [instead of a 4 prong] plug.

sunday, may the 13th
went to see Jennifer's parents for Mother's day. My parents out of town.
completed the installation of the dryer

monday, may the 14th
was told we didn't turn water off after taking washer & apt is flooded (Bulls**t.)
replaced aireator on kitchen sink
repaired broken baby/dog gate
unpacked some things
re-tuned guitar
set up computer
smudged the apartment

courts

this is the last post from the apartment complex the courts of azathoth [waterford]. The place is evil. moving has been pretty bad, but we both have been thru worse. the worst part is yet to come...

A lot of things

It is today and as I sit here avoiding the inevitible beneathe a rather spectacular perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system, we are removing our quarters, lofting our dusty hoard upon our backs and moving to a new abode.

I have come a long, long way and at this point I can safely say that I am still not craving a cigarette. I thought about them a lot recently, seeing (my attention focusing on) strangers flick their butts.

Having been screwed by our landlords I wrote a letter (that was never sent) which will explain what has been going on pretty well:

First and foremost, it is not our desire to leave [the apartments], as
evidenced by our history with you previously in unit [x] and currently in
[y], but rather it is due to unfortunate and extenuating circumstances. My high
paying job of nearly 5 years came to an abrupt and unforseeable end. I found a
new job very quickly, but it pays almost half what I was previously making.
Because of this, I think it is obvious why it is in both parties best interest
for us to vacate the unit as soon as possible.

I was told by your associate [Mr. X], that we can only be granted a 60 day notice and would be charged for breaking the lease. I did explain our situation clearly, but he stated to me that there was nothing he could do about it but send an email to you, of which he read to me over the phone 3-7-12 saying that we would not be given any breaks, except that we could pay the fee over 6 months.

I am writing you because we feel that being charged for breaking our lease agreement and not allowed less than a 60 day notice despite these circumstances is reprehensible, especially when we have lived at the courts at waterford for 6 years. We think of ourselves as family and this treatment is more than unfriendly. It is deplorable.

Although I do appreciate the offer to settle the debt in house without sending to a collections agency, I protest the mere mention of a collections agency at all, considering we have NEVER failed to pay a single month's rent and we have never even paid a day late.

Our desire is nothing more than to be released from our lease without fault on
3-31-2012. We are not expecting our security deposit or our pet deposit back. We
should neither be charged for breaking the lease nor should we be charged for
the month of April as we will have vacated the unit by then. You can expect our
full cooperation in showing the apartment during our remaining occupation to
facilitate its immediate rental and prevent [the apartments] from any financial
losses. I hope that our imediate rental payment history and good-standing
account sufficiently indicates our continued accountability and sincerity.

Please let us know the feasibility of our request and if we can do anything to make the process proceed smoothly and to your satisfaction. Also, please let us know if you would like us to speak directly with any other management parties about our request.

Because of these events, we have been living day-by-day in a slumber, avoiding thinking about it, thinking about it, getting mad about it, crying about it and punching the wavemaster punching bag. Hard.

Needless to say, I have not worked on MAYA the RPG. Because of the upcoming film 'Prometheus', I did do some work on one of the settings for MAYA called, among other things, "Beyond Acheron". Otherwise, I have been almost completely useless. Working an extra 2 hours a day at my job for 4 days straight, I am tired when I get home and have not been sleeping well. That is about to come to a halt and I am ever-so-grateful. Yep, we are gonna have a roommate. We are going to actually be able to save money now!

I have been very political, mostly because of my involvement with the game NationStates. A lot of interesting topics have been coming up in the forums there which also connects to Beyond Acheron because of the government system that I devised for it is also the government system of my nation in NationStates: The Republic of the United Nations of the Earth (RUNE).

Still eating the good stuff, though. Along with a lot of bad stuff. Weather has been so hot I am dehydrated now. I am drinking water as I type this [sip]. Dust in my lungs, dust in my veins. I can feel the histamine in my blood and I ache. Benadryl night. Coconut rum night. Goodnight to a lot of things. A lot of old, bad things. Goodmorning to a lot of good, new things. Gotta get back to packing!