The Cruxshadows may be getting some air play, here's how you can help them

From Facebook -

On The Radio- WE NEED YOUR HELP!

On Wednesday, September 30th, at 7:00 pm (Eastern Standard Time), a commercial radio station in Tallahassee, Florida, HOT 104.9, will do a short interview with me and play our new single Quicksilver. Getting commercial radio play, even in a market of only a few hundred thousand like Tallahassee, will really help the band and possibly lead to other stations "taking a chance" on CXS. It's taken us a long time and more than a few attempts to make this happen, and we really need our fans to help. They will play the song on their "Love it or Lose it" segment. If enough people like it they will play it in rotation, and if people dislike it, well... that's the end of it. What can you do? You can listen to the radio broadcast online, and vote with your mobile phone.

The address for the live radio broadcast is http://www.hot1049.com/Listen-Live/3009483. After the song plays all you have to do is text the phrase "lol" (without quotations) to the number 68255 on your mobile phone. They will send you a response with directions on how to text back your vote. This keeps people from voting multiple times- unless you have more than one mobilephone. You know you could probably vote with a family members phone too... just saying;-) There is no additional charge for the text, only your normal text messaging rate applies. Remember, this is for Wednesday evening. Mark your calendars, set your alarm... you get the picture.

I'm lacking a mobile phone so if anyone could put in a vote for me that would rock.

Back to school - First substitute teaching assignment this school year

Physics Honors today. And one course of Earth Science.

Cool.

The new school year has an added class period, but the day is just as short. 7:05am -1:50pm. Class periods are now 48 minutes long, they used to be an hour. I really felt an hour was too short as it was. It's difficult to effectively teach anything in that short of time to a group of 25-30 teenagers. When I was a freshman in high school, there were 7 period days like there are now, but the days were longer.

And how is that short time being spent today? Finishing tests and watching a movie. October Sky. Good movie, but I see an awful lot of movies in the classroom these days. WTF? I don't remember watching this many movies when I was in high school.

And I get to see the first half hour or so of it 7 times.

It's an easy day and the kids think I'm cool so why am I bitching?

It's what I do. I can't help it. I'm annoyed and disappointed. I think schools can be better than this.

I miss living on Long Island sometimes

You live in the shadow of the greatest city in the world,

But you almost never go there.


When you're away from Long Island , you love it

And when you're there, you don't.


You think if you're not from Long Island or NYC,

You're not really from New York


You know the exact point at which Queens

Turns into Nassau simply on intuition.


You don't go to Manhattan , you go to "The City".


You never realize you have an accent till you leave.


Everything north of the Bronx is "upstate." New Jersey sucks.


At some point in your life you've gone clamming.


Either your parents or your grandparents lived in the city.


You'd pay $11.50 for a movie.


You don't live in Long Island You live ON Long Island


Your distant future might involve the state of Florida


You can correctly pronounce places like
Ronkonkoma , Hauppauge, Wantagh, Mineola, Islandia, Massapequa


You know the location of 6 malls and a dozen McDonalds

And 36 7-11's.


You never, ever want to "change at Jamaica..."


You've tried to find the Amityville Horror house.


No, you don't want mustard on that burger!!


You can't understand why a diner would ever close.


You've had a seagull crap on your car.


You have or someone you know has fallen asleep on the LIRR

And ended up in one of these three places;

Babylon, Port Washington or Hicksville .

You know White Castle is terrible for you

And the food sucks but you periodically "Get the Crave".

You want the Yankees to stay in the Bronx,

But would probably go to more games if they moved to Manhattan

You think that somehow, the Jets and Giants still play in New York

You've missed that "Drunk Train", the 2:42 out of Penn

And had the dreaded wait until 5:30.

You or someone you know has owned an animal

That came from North Shore Animal League.

Quick! Who's your county Executive ? Don't know do you?!

You've never taken an MTA bus.

The Long Island Expressway isn't really as bad as everybody thinks.

You don't associate Fire Island with gay men.

You know which parts of the godfather were filmed on Long Island

You think Islip MacArthur airport is cute

And you enjoy watching it grow up.

Billy Joel said it best,

"either you date a rich girl from The North Shore,

Or a cool girl from the South Shore ".

You don't really see the big deal about the Hamptons,

Unless you got smashed at the Bordy Barn.

When people ask "where are you from?"

You answer Long Guy Land and automatically assume everyone in the world knows that answer means New York.



You've always liked Billy Joel and you own several of his "records."



The Belt Parkway sucks! You've been stuck in a traffic jam

For more than 2 hours (without moving).

Your parents took you to All American, Nathan's or Carvel

(on the way home from the beach).

Regular gas - $3.29 and you still pay it!!!

You hate paying tolls.

You don't have to go far to see your family.

You remember Grumman.

You know the color of the water at Jones Beach is not BLUE!

You were upset when all the Roy Rogers turned into Wendy's and Arby's closed for good.
You can spout off all the LIRR stops between

Penn Station and Huntington.

Paying $35 for a haircut doesn't sound so crazy.

You think the people from Brooklyn are

"DA wunz dat tawk wit a accent."

You went sledding in the sumps.


You knew of Massapequa before

The Amy Fisher-Joey Buttafuoco nightmare.

You think going to Queens is a hike.


The first time you heard the term "Long Island Iced Tea"

You were somewhere else and you laughed.

When you live somewhere else and are astounded

To see that people actually stop at yellow lights.

When you just sort of presume that wherever you live,

You'll be able to find good delis, good pizza, and good bagels.

You can name at least three bands that came from Long Island

When you walk in the city and you see two men holding hands...

It becomes normal to you.

No word ends in an ER, just an AH.

You actually get these jokes
And pass them on to other friends from Long Island

A Short Rant

I can't think of anything I find more creepy than someone I that just contacted me because they found my profile somewhere on the internet and they almost immediately want to know if I have a cam. It's not only annoying, it's really pervy. I don't have a cam, and if I did, I'm not so attention starved that I'm going to let anyone that contacts me online watch me on it. And what are they expecting to see? Most the pictures I have on my online profiles are not average everyday pictures of me. I think they would be pretty disappointed to see a quirky guy in a t-shirt.

And how desperate do you have to be to ask some random person you just met to cam with you? Go outside, get some fresh air. Go to a bar. Have a few drinks. MEET PEOPLE! Buy them drinks. You just might get laid!

Or go out and buy a hooker for all I care, just leave me alone.

If you want to talk, that's cool, but none of this cam bullshit, please.

Day labor was a bust.

Sat there waiting until noon. Then the lady working there said everyone had to leave because she was locking up and would be back at 2pm. I decided to just head home. This sucks, maybe tomorrow will be a better day. I need to earn me some money quick.

Free Wi-Fi at the bus terminal is cool, people that bother you are not

While I was typing the previous blogs, I was at the bus terminal waiting for the bus. There's a few unsecured wireless networks I can connect to, one is provided by the bus company. I have, in the past, sent complaints to them on their own network.

More often than not, when I pull out the laptop, someone bothers me. Sometimes more than one. One time I actually had a crowd form around me. I don't get it. I don't live in the most industrialized town, but it's not out in the woods either. My laptop gets me a lot of unwanted attention. I just want to type stuff and pass the time. I really wish people would leave me alone. And there's always some nitwit that has to ask "Are you on Myspace?" I don't know if they are asking me that to be funny, if they are serious, or if they need more random weirdos they met at the bus terminal in their friends list. I just answer "no" and get back to what ever I was doing. Nothing against myspace, just some of the people that use it.

But what's with these people that bother me? It would be one thing if they were asking me questions about the laptop itself, instead they ask stupid questions. Or they get all nosey about what I'm doing. Seriously, what the fuck is that? What business is it of anyone's what I am doing with my laptop? That's just annoying and pretty damn rude, more so if they are trying to look at the screen.

Maybe I should just keep the damned thing in my backpack.

Sometimes I think I really suck at life.

I just got paid and I'm broke right now. An oversight of mine caused me to overdraft my bank account. Not really a big deal, but my bank charging me per day that it is overdrafted is a big deal. That managed to consume the half of my paycheck that goes in there and still leave me in the red. I'm not happy about that and it's really putting the screws to me at the moment. I'll be OK eventually.

I'm going to the day labor place after I get off work in the morning. Yeah, doing back breaking work for minimum wage sucks, but it's quick money. Besides, I'm far too proud to ask for a handout. I can't even take money from my mother who is all too willing to give it to me. It's just the way I am. I'd rather see her buy herself something nice than bail me out.

I really feel awful for my girlfriend. I brought her down here with the nope of a better life. I don't think I'm giving her that. It makes me sad, really. I don't like seeing her all mopey and depressed. I want better for her. I love her so much. If I make enough money tomorrow, I'm going to bring her home soda and chips. It doesn't seem like much, but I know she wants it and I hope it will cheer her up at least a little.

It sounds bad, it probly looks bad, but it's nothing I don't have the will to overcome.

A quick something for anyone viewing this in Europe

If I lived in Europe, I'd go see them.

I can do damn near anything but heal the sick and raise the dead.

And be really afraid if I figure out how to do that.

So this morning after work I had to stop by my mom's house initially to fix my father's easy chair. When I got there, however, there were bigger issues to be contended with. The garage was flooded, one of the pipes had sprung a leak. Turned out to be the copper line that supplies cold water to the washing machine and utility sink. It was leaking just above where it comes up out of the concrete floor. I moved the washer out of the way for a closer look. The leak was coming from a rubber hose that connecting 2 pieces of copper line together. Seriously old and bad jury rigging on somebody's part, possibly my dad's, but at least they didn't use duct tape.

I removed the piece of hose and went up to the hardware store. To make a more proper repair and avoid having to solder (I can solder copper pipe, but old, used pipes are difficult to make a good joint) I picked up a Sharkbite coupler. Worked like a champ. Snapped together and no leaks. I did have to give the pipes a good cleaning and a fresh cut. Still a lot easier than soldering.

Just when I thought that was done, another leak. This time the valve where the washer connects. Easy fix, tightened the nut under the knob. Done.

That done, it was time to move on to why I was there to begin with. The chair. Last time my mom tried to move it to clean under it, it was hard to push. I flipped it over to find that the plastic bits on the bottom were worn off. Back to the hardware store. New Teflon discs on the bottom and it slides just fine.

What really sucked is that I ended up not getting back to my apartment until 15:30. Not happy about that. Nor am I happy about not being able to fall asleep soon enough. I'm only working on a few hours of sleep here and I'm on my way back to work at the time of writing this. This week has been quite busy since I got home from DragonCon. I'm not getting much in the way of “us time” with my girlfriend that has just moved in. Thankfully she's understanding, but still I feel awful. Just the way I am. I feel like a bad boyfriend/girlfriend because I'm not spending time with her like I feel I should.

A few new goals

For starters, this will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

It's not the Wood or the Keebler that I really want, but Yamaha electrics rock. And if they are good enough for the Crüxshadows, I don't think I'm in a position to argue.

In the meantime, I'm going to be practicing more on my current violin.

Here's why -

I want to take my stage performance a step further. As it is, the next time I go on stage, when ever that is, I will be singing from that point on. No more of this lip syncing bullshit. I never really did that anyway. I usually sang along with whatever I was performing to. It's time I take the mic. Time I do what I have been wanting to do for a long time. Time I show off the fact that I have talents.

The next step from that is going to have my violin accompany me on stage. Even if the song I'm playing is someone else's and did not originally include a violin. I'm going write a part. Or improvise one.

It's just the way I want to do things. To set myself apart. To stand out. To be something more. I think this could also open the door for me to cover music I really enjoy and may even make the audience more open to it. By no means do I plan on claiming anyone's work as my own, but I am hoping that they may warm up to it being played live rather than recorded. Ultimately, I'd like to walk out on stage, say something like "This is a tune by my good friends, The Crüxshadows!" then tear it up on stage with a cover of Deception or Marilyn, My Bitterness. Further down the line, I'd like to be playing something I wrote, but that will all come in time.

Want to help? Well I to have the tip jar on here on my blog (You are reading this on blogspot and not on facebook, right?) and on myspace. However, I am not one to look for a hand out. What would be a lot cooler is if every once and again you click the google ads on this blog. And get others to do the same. Something else that would be just totally rockin' is if I can have more people come see me when I am performing. Most of the shows I do are amateur shows where the winners are determined by the crowd. I need more people in the crowd.

So that's what's on my mind lately. Tell me what you think!

Post-DragonCon

First thing I want to say is that due to my camera being a piece of crap, there are no pictures. Sorry. :(

It was a crazy, wild weekend. A bit of a comedy of errors at some points, but some serious good times. Saw some old friends, made some new.

The fairy wings were a big hit, literally. I think I swatted most people at the con with them. The plan for next year is smaller wings. I did find this pic of the Cruxshadows Fairies in the parade.

That's me with the red hair, red wings and really tall boots. Those were one of the smaller wings and even at that they were still knocking people around.

Shoes that were slightly more comfortable would have been a good idea too. 5" Stilettos and 6" "slut boots"will destroy your feets after a while.

The Cruxshadows put on an awesome show. Being one of their fairies this year, I also spent a good portion of the Con hanging out with them and also go to have lunch with them on Sunday. If you ever get a chance to see them, go. DragonCon, BTW, it THE place to see them. In addition to being a great band, they are some of the nicest and most down to Earth people I have ever met. They also released a new single at DragonCon, Quicksilver. Great tune. I bought the single. You should too. You can get it on Amazon. Seriously, it rocks, get yourself a copy.

Ayria also put on a great show at DragonCon. This was her first DragonCon, but I think she's going to be back. She seemed pretty blown away by the whole event. I hope to see her there again.

As always, the costuming was just awesome. It never ceases to amaze me what some people can pull off.

I've got some plans for next year's Dragoncon. New wings, ones that colapse. I really like the designs found here. I think I can build something like that. I like the accessories found on that site too and I wants some cool stuffs to wear to the rave. The same stuffs I can also wear to the clubs.

I had a great time, another DragonCon down, another one to wait for.

for wednesday

The Fairy Agenda -

• Bleach my hair and dye it.
• Finish wings.
• Finish hair falls.
• Pack my stuffs.
• Stay awake day to knock myself off my regular schedule to I can drive to Atlanta Thursday morning.

Sounds like a full day actually.