Spicy Song Of The Week

Ok guys, this is exciting! We recorded and mixed one of our new songs over the last few months, and then sent it off to New Jersey to get mastered. I still don't understand what mastering is. My job is to play guitar and sing... so that's what I do. And the final product is pretty sweet, so I'm happy with it.

Here's the catch...we aren't releasing this song until next saturday, but I wanted to include it here so that when I make the playlist available for download, it would be included!

Darcy likes to introduce this song on stage by saying, "this is the song about how I have no friends." Okay, Darcy...well if it mean we keep writing songs like this, then no friends for you.

Tic Toc

Walking Backwards

Walking Backwards

!! I finished my paper, which brings my list accomplishments to 4 out of 36 tasks complete! Woot. woot......gah.


Do you guys remember passing notes in class? And there was a cool way that girls would always fold them. They were almost boy-proof: if a boy tried to open them, they'd just rip them and then the secret message would be lost for.ev.er. Notes were a big deal. Passing them between classes, asking girls out, getting denied, and managing inter-group relations and other junior high drama. Doodles, codes, games, ahhh good times..

BUT.

I just talked to a few girls in grade 10, and they didn't know how to fold notes. They couldn't do the triangle or the square. In fact, they didn't even really pass notes at all!
WHAT? A keystone of any childhood! Gone?!

Guess why. Cellphones. All these kids have cellphones. They just text. It's safe, its secure, and it's more efficient than passing it three desks over hoping the creep in the middle doesn't read it. (I was that creep sometimes. I read them).

Sad revelation. Please teach your younger siblings how note passing works. We can't let this die.

Ok that's enough from me. Time to go be sociiiaall.

The List + failure = no surprise

My 'Week On' list of things to get done is looking more like a list of things I wish I could have accomplished this week. I managed to stick to the working out routine and that's about it. Work + plus certain other out-of-the-ordinary activities have eaten up a lot of time. And now I've spent how many hours sitting around trying to write an outline for an essay about Galileo and his awesomeness.

I have not forgotten about SSOTW...it's just that this song can't technically be released yet ;-) so it'll still count for this week, but i'll probably write it later today or tomorrow, though you won't hear the song for a few days yet!

Now..back to Galileo.

Go Canada! Olympics are awesome!

Here We Go

I'm so good at sleeping in. It's on my resumé right below 'expert music listener'. I'm a little nervous for school only because I'll have to wake up at EIGHT AM. That's just not how I roll. I'm sure 74% of people reading this were up before then yesterday, but only a gifted handful of people can stay up until 4am for no reason and accomplish nothing and not be bored.

Either way, structured days will help me stay organized, as I've started tutoring as a part-time job. GO me. Plus we are going to be playing a lot more open mics and acoustic shows this semester. Hopefully this all keeps me busy enough that I don't 1) join a gang, or 2) get bored. Boredom kills me a little, I think. Perhaps I'll get back to my regular writing schedule by then.

Things I hope to accomplish this semester:

• write that book
• find that passion
• make that plan
• fix that GPA
• fix this body
• fix this mind
  
• write those songs
• meet those people
• cook those meals
• Smile
  

TEGAN AND SARA TONIGHT!        YES.


I have to say that New Years is now my favourite Holiday of the year. Why? There's no garbage attached to it. No one has to buy gifts or cards. You can spend it however you want! Wanna go out drinking? GO! Want to go to a movie! GO (see Up in the Air) Want to play Parcheesi with the cat lady? DEFINITELY.  There's only one rule. You MUST stay up until midnight. Don't be that person. It's a pretty phenomenal concept that every moment passes forever. We don't go backwards. Every moment that has already happened is concrete, static, unchanging. What's done is done. Crazy. With that in mind, we can really only ask two questions:

1) Why?

...Why not? Don't waste your energy questioning what has happened.

2) What's next?

Dunno.

I really hope this is a good year. It's up to me, I suppose.

They'll Call me...NoSleep Man!

Or 'zzz smasher'!

'Pillow Fighter'!

Yeah so sleep and me apparently aren't talking. I'm fine with that. I never really needed it anyways. It's time to embrace the new me: awake, groggy, confused, anxious, and studying at 3am.

I must be superhuman. I just don't need sleep I guess. We're entering day four of seriously messed up sleep patterns, and I'm 'tired' of fighting it. Instead, I'll just roll with it. I shall call the hours that I am awake for 'Day', and the hours I am asleep 'Night'. And it shall be good.  And on the 7th day, I will not rest.

I don't need the sun. That's why we have light bulbs. I don't need meals either. I'll just eat constantly. I just ate some tortellini and after these chips are gone, I'll finish off the trail mix. Then some more tuna sandwiches. And then hopefully some more milk appears in the fridge soon so I can have cereal. I'd go buy the milk myself, but the store hours do not adhere to my personal timezone.

My exam is Thursday night. I'm not sure how much choice I have in this matter, but I might as well see if I can stay up the whole time. A challenge! You with me? Let's do it! I'm pretty much superhuman by this point, ravenous appetite and all. I better go make some tea and/or coffee.


Ten bucks says I'm asleep in two hours :-/

To sleep, perchance to dream--

aye, and where's the grub?

Spicy Song Of The Week

Guys. It's Sunday already. And you know what that means.


NOTHING. Sleep in, take the day off...don't make plans today. It's winter, you should sleep. That reminds me... there's this awesome band called Wintersleep. Hey, why don't I just make them the Spicy Song Of The Week! Brilliant!

Tamborine

Wintersleep

Welcome To The Night Sky

I've seen this band play and I only have one things to say about their show:

Don't see it. Like seriously, sooo disappointed. Wintersleep dudes, if you're reading this, let me try and explain to you that playing the song is more important than stopping to tune. I might not even notice a change in the sound, but you look like an idiot standing on stage tuning, looking like you'd rather be anywhere else. You better feel privileged that I still consider you one of my top 6 favourite bands!

I had high hopes. You dashed my dreams. Take it back.

[Tuning. He might have actually played, too..but I missed it.]

[You'd think this was just a bad picture with that facial expression, 

but I assure you...his face was not normal. 

Sharpies and white glue at least.]

[Seriously lacking rockstar quality? Yea..kinda.]

But I LOVE their two CDs. The first one is something I'll pretty much only listen to through headphones because it sounds like songs written about and for stalkers. It's really creepy stuff, but soo well done. The second album, Welcome To The Night Sky, is just a solid album. front to back, top to bottom, inside to out.

Last year, I forgot to show up for one of my finals. Well...it's not so much that I forgot, but more like I didn't know what day it was, and didn't bother checking. Then like a fool one morning around this time last year, I woke up in a panic (at like noon) and checked exam schedule. I had missed my Religion final. I wrote him an email using phrases like "I confess my irresponsibility" and "if you could forgive" and other religiously based words. Maybe it was my vocabulary, or my dashing good looks, but he did let me come in and write the finals, giving me a solid three days to learn the whole course. Close call! Go check your exam schedule again right now! And study!

Kids, don't be like me. It's too exciting. You can't handle.

Speaking of exciting, I just boiled some eggs. Dinner is serrrrved.
Just kidding..it's actually my third dinner today.

Spicy Song Of The Week

I won't be writing again until next week. I shall attempt to channel all creatvity into BSing a 10 000 (slight hyperbole) word paper that I should have started two weeks ago. The Word of the day is masochism:

I would rather lose sleep and stay up late working on a paper.

I would rather not do as well due to rushing this paper. I enjoy that.

I don't particularly enjoy pacing myself, as I can always just work a little harder tomorrow.

I enjoy missing out on social events because IT'S CRUNCH TIME and I need to begin thinking about thinking about thinking about doing my paper.

This week, I've put the 'pro' in procrastination. But WHYYYYYYY? Why do I enjoy this suffering?

Spicy Song Of The Week is from a band that I look forward to seeing on Friday, when all this hell is done and over with. On the other side of this rainbow. I really recommend this pot of gold:

Mendoza Line (Woah Caroline)

The Dudes

Brain Heart Guitar

But seriously, listen to the whole album. Thank me later. Thank me now, too.


See you next week for Post #100... !

So, C's DO get degrees, right?

This whole "I'm gonna go to every single one of my classes and NOT procrastinate and take lotsa notes and NOT sleep in" thing isn't all it's cracked up to be.  

DON'T LET THEM FOOL YOU!!!

But just for once, I'd like to do really well, you know?

Define: Studying

Define: Studying.

Studying is the theoretical concept of forcing useful information into your brain for your test (usually the night before a test). Often used as an excuse not to hang out, go out, or spend money. It's probably the activity you're SUPPOSED to be doing right now. Consists of equal parts:

1.facebooking

2. eating

3.drawing stickman animations on the pages of your textbook so that you can flip it really fast and watch the action. And at the end of it, you realise that stickman just had more fun than you are having, so you decide to hang out/go out/spend money.

Traditional and successful studying was first developed by nerds who weren't capable of having coherent conversations about anything other than Pokemon and binary code. However, as a love for Pokemon became grounds for setting people on fire, they looked for a safer way to express their social deficiency. 'Group Study Sessions' is the ironic result of nerds feeling the need for acceptance in numbers, though they cannot talk with each other, so they just read.

Certain demographics of people including 'cool', 'lazy', and 'genius' people have not developed this 'skill', and are perceived by studiers as defective or bothersome.

See: 'Procrastinating', 'Wasting Time', and 'Blogging' for further understanding.

conclusions I've drawn about my study habits:

1. I better make studying fun, because it's definitely not going to be beneficial in any other way

2. It's bad news when someone asks why my book is upside down and I haven't noticed.

3. If I listen to slow music, I get bored. Hard music distracts. And not having music makes me twitch.

4. Twitching is a really messed up concept. Like...whoa body. why did you just do that? Talk to me. what caused my hand or my leg or my eye to just jump. There's nothing scary here. Holy. It's kinda gross if you think about it. ew.

and:

5. My trains of thought are pulled by the Little Engine Who Couldn't.

chugga chugga.....chug...ga.....ch-

I could study...but I could also ..not.

First Day of School

So what am I, 21 years old now? Gosh, Josh, that's getting up there.

As we jump back into the 'real world', I've made a few observations.

First of all, I sincerely think the TA is getting extra close with the prof. They have these moments where the prof asks the TA to answer a question (since no one in the class speaks up on the first day), and after he does, they just gaze at each other for a slightly extended period of time, smiling. She may have bitten her lip.


awkwarrrdd.

Also, you're destined to run into people you haven't seen in a long time. Some of them you know fairly well, others might be friends you made from last years classes...either way, you'll be walking North, they'll be walking South, and you'll suddenly catch their eye. There are now two options. Some of you might squeal with glee at seeing them and run into their arms flinging books and bags to the ground in a passionate embrace.

If you're normal, however, you will probably be like.. oh..crap. did they see me? and did they see me see them? yeah...i think they did. now i can't pretend i didn't see them too. hoookay, here we go. You'll both carefully look at each other and smile at the same time, and walk towards each other. But here's where it gets tricky, right? Do you stop? Or do you just high five them/wave/say hi in passing? So the strategy is to slow down to a very casual walking pace, and read their body language.

If they also slow down, then they understand that there is the possibility that they might have to stop too (and they're open to the idea of it). This is a good sign, because it means they aren't totally unhappy to have ran into you. And then just as you are about 3 feet away from them, you'll no doubt make this move that I've seen countless times today. You'll actually half pass them, but then look behind you/to the side. If they've reciprocated this action, then you'll both turn fully towards each other and stop.

Once it's progressed this far, you're on your own. Good luck with that.

Other advice: It's so totally uncool to have to turn around. If you're walking down the hall, and suddenly realise you can't go on without a coffee, or you forgot your bag, or your going to the wrong class....I'd reccomend plotting a route that allows you to turn around without actually backtracking. I don't know...this is just what seems to be the norm. I'm just the messenger. Because every time someone turns around as if to finally admit their lost, they ALWAYS curse under their breath and look around nervously to see who noticed.


Don't sit in the front row. i know, i know, it's cliche. But seriously, no one in the front row makes friends, and they don't get privelleged information for being close. They probably just get spit on by the frothing prof.

oh and don't stress. It's all gonna be okay. On the first day of grade one, my mom forgot to pick me up after school. I waited out front until the principal was on his way home. he noticed me and called my mom.

"Hi Karen, your son is still here."

"Where? Who is this?"


Yeah I was a touch bitter when she finally showed up. So, relax. If this doesn't happen, then you're in good shape.

Ok, good chat.

It's Been A While. I've Missed You.

Okay, so this post will quickly summarize my last week. why? Because if I just skipped over the seemingly meaningless events of the last seven days of my life and then next week i wrote a post all about this crazy gorgeous girl who came up to me and said "hey, that is one sweet jacket! You wanna hang out tonight?" you'd all be like "hold on Josh...what jacket is this? why weren't we informed?" and i would feel bad because the artistic measure of this blog would fall based on my inability to properly foreshadow my conversation with said gorgeous girl. so. are we on the same page?


First of all, i'm still sick. friiiick. Last time I was sick was May. The WHOLE month of May, too. I can't do that again. I have now taken:

Echinacea
NeoCitran
Advil
Nyquil
Vitamin C
Halls
and the aforementioned unmarked pills.

Quade has more medicine than one person should ever need. Ever.

But my slow death is not keeping me at home. Last week, I went shopping for new clothes. Hold on....that needs to be emphasize a little more.

LAST WEEK, I, JOSHUA MANERIKAR, BOUGHT NEW CLOTHES!

I never do this. I never go 'shopping' for 'clothes.' I may wander the mall, enter stores, pick out different shirts, pants, shoes, and the like, but I'll never try it on, and unless its a red t-shirt, I won't buy it. It's depressing. I used to shop with my mom. She'd pick out all this stuff and I'd be like 'mooooommm...seriously.' And then I'd try it on and 93.4% of the time, I'd love it.

Then I would go shopping with Leslie. Which means I paid for it. So I would never buy as much. But Leslie would pick stuff out and I'd be like "Okay." No argument. If she liked it that was good enough, since I didn't much care. It's not that I didn't want to look good. I just never knew what DID look good on me. I never see anyone out there in the world that reminds me of me, so I never have a fashion role model.

Enter Brynn from stage left, Jon from stage right. That's right. They surrounded me. Bombarded me. FORCED me to go shopping. (that's not really true). We went to the supposedly fantastic new mall north of Calgary, and the battle began.

Interruption: I will be paying for school this month, I was hoping to have a second job downtown by now, and bills are due. Hmm? Oh, no reason.....totally irrelevant information...continue.

"Hey Josh. So here's how this is gonna work. I'm going to hand something to you," said Brynn, "and you are going to put it on. Okay?"

"Aight." She has no idea how hopeless this mission is, I thought.


They gave me things like pink t shirts, and v neck sweaters.

Hold on, I'm Josh, and I don't do V-neck. Why? Because I'm not this guy

This guy sports the V-neck and skinny Jeans. He listens to screamo and has a girlfriend who threatens to run away from home because her dad won't let her get her tongue pierced. This guy's room is always a mess and he writes sad lyrics on tiny scraps of paper. He probably likes his mini-wheats soggy, too.

I'm not that guy.

Hold on said brynn. We aren't done.
And she handed me a white button up shirt and then I was this guy:


Well--besides the whiteness and the jockiness, and the "I'm probably an ass in real life-ness"

But Frick, I thought. I don't know what guy I am. And if awesomely cool people like Brynn and Jon think this looks good, then I suppose other awesomely cool people I'm sure to meet will also like this. So, screw it. I'll try something new.

Then I bought another t-shirt, and Jon picked out a long sleeve shirt and jacket. Everybody loved it. It was probably about $200 all together. That part, I loved not so much.

That night, we went out to a show at a coffee house, and I saw this girl. She worked there. (I know right? ANOTHER coffee girl.) I was wearing my new jacket, and so I was pretty hot. Not "good looking hot", necessarily, but it was toasty in the coffee shop. And I caught her eye, and she smiled (very pretty smile) and walked towards me......Oh I'm not even going to finish this story. It's as anti-climactic now as it would be at the end of the story.

Whatever.

FST:

Free Spaghetti Thursday was a mini-success. Mini because there weren't a lot of people here. Success because that's what I wanted, and the people were 100% quality. A few randoms from a previous show (so we played them some tunes that night), and friends of friends. Good times, top notch noodles. There's now a facebook group, so it's freakin official. Search :Free Spaghetti Thursdays.


Guys. It's Sunday. School is on Tuesday. Who will run away to Mexico with me and forget all the troubles we know we are up against this semester? Like...Who's going to shovel my sidewalk when it snows. And all the money I can't afford to spend on hot London Fogs and Chai Teas once I bike to school in the cold early morning.

PS. Side note. We emailed Pilot Speed asking if we could open for them for their calgary show on October 3rd. Todd personally replied! He said no, there's too many bands that night to add another, and that he'd check out our songs! AMAZING. Could that have gone any better?

.......

*Star struck*