Wednesday, December 29, 2010

BootLeG's Year in Review

Well, it's been once again a helluva year.  Ups, downs, sideways, forwards, backwards, tos and fros...  Hell, why don't I just stop with all the anticipation and get this review going...  This is BootLeG sampler.., "wha-tha?!?"


Let's get this started on a sour note, I was like most people unemployed for the first part of the year.  It sucked royally, not much more I could say about that.  Thank goodness that it wasn't long that I found a job that suited my need for customer support and technical support, plus it also recognized me for the hard work that I've put within the company.  Unlike my previous employer where all they did was stole two and a half years of my life and did nothing but torment me with false promises of growth and success.  But that was a previous post.


The year was also about inconsistency.  In particular, my blog.  I try to make it work and function to what I want to be with regular posts and possibly different series, and that is still something that I want to do in the future.  But as far as the different redesigns and the way, way, too long of a hiatus, it hasn't gone to full fruition.  Rest assure, It's definitely scores better than what it was.


This year was also very productive away from the blog.  I was able to spend more time with my family and was able to help my friends in times of need.  They thought that I was there to help them, but in reality, it was them that were helping me.  In the duration of my unemployment I've became a little depressed and they were my gateway to help me out of my slump, even after me getting the job.  So to those who were there to put up with my shit, thank you.


In retrospect, outside of that it hasn't been much for the BootLeG sampler.., I haven't even written any new music.  One in part was because I sold my basses, the other is that I haven't had much inspiration to write (or time matter of fact), but with my library, I could spend a little bit of time off, and come up with some fresh and awesome material.  Lyrics could come and go, no biggie, and if it takes some time before I go back to that rhythm, it's all good.

There was one thing that I do plan to continue on.  I am currently learning on editing my own videos learning about the different cinematography techniques like lighting and all that jazz.  I figure it was a passion of mine for a while and I wanted to bring that into fruition along with my blog.  I'm recovering some old 'Jackass' style stuff that I've filmed from years ago and seeing if I could get that up here first before I look into start any kind of plans for production of a series of some sort.  Be sure to come back for big things to come.


Anyways, that was the year in review.  2010 was good, it was a tearjerker, it was... 'wha-tha?!?'  In a nutshell, it was what it was.  All I can say right now is 2011, bring it on...  BRING IT ON!!!  Seriously, just can't wait to see it has in store for us all.  Here's to a prosperous New Year everyone...


BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Monday, December 13, 2010

Tis the Season

Every year for as long as I could remember I would sing to myself one verse to the 12 Days of Christmas per day until it was Christmas Day.  So that meant on December 13th I would start singing the first verse, December 14, the second, and so on and so forth.  So I decided to make a twist on this and post my favorite Christmas themed things, one a day for 12 days.

So I'll be updating this post every day from the 13th until Jolly old St. Nick fills my stocking.  So keep on coming back each day and find what's new each day on this post.  Enjoy!

December 13, The First Day of Christmas :: The music.  I have to admit, I kinda like the jingling and the fa-la-la-la-la's when it plays on the radio.  I do have a special fondness to the Charlie Brown theme playing at least once a day (even though the theme isn't even all that Christmas-sy,) it's the only time of year I get to hear it regularly.  So here's to the artists who try to put a new spin to the same old Jingle Bell Rock, keep rockin' out those sleigh bells until Jack Frost nips you in the butt to stop 2 days into the new year...

December 14, The Second Day of Christmas :: The lights.  Call me a crow, sure I'm attracted to bright shiny objects; and twinkling lights around someone's house is the flame that keeps drawing this moth to it.  From anything simple such as a string of lights across the top of a railing from a patio to Chris F'n Griswold's epic house lighting, Christmas lights are just FRIGGIN' AWESOME!!! 

December 15, The Third Day of Christmas :: The weather.  As a kid, Christmas was a time for a week or two off of school, presents, and the occasional snow storm during break.  That was great having snowball fights with my brothers and kicking their butts stuffing their shirts with the white stuff.  But than again I lived in a place with that kind of weather (feelin' homesick for Philly now.)  Now adays, Christmas is warm, sunny, and full of cacti.  Good thing is that my family eat Christmas dinner on the patio, bad thing is that rocks hurt more when thrown than snowballs.  The weather element is what you can enjoy no matter where you are.

December 16, The Fourth Day of Christmas :: The television programs.  I'm a sucker for A Charlie Brown Christmas or those old school claymation storytellings of Rudolph and Frosty.  It was a special time for me that the TV producers and executives could remind us that "hey, were all kids inside so let all the worries of life go away for a while and marvel at poor animation and special meanings of all the good that is still in this world."

December 17, The Fifth Day of Christmas :: The mall.  Well, not the mall per say, but shopping.  I used to work retail and every year from the week before Black Friday to half way past January, the crowds of people fascinate me.  The lengths they go to complete their commercial need to find the right present or biggest gift.  It's just humorous what they do for that.  Although, the holiday season is not about gifts, it's about family, friends, and remembrance of our Lord.  I know that what I'm gonna do, how about you?!?  (There's your five golden rings for ya...)

December 18, The Sixth Day of Christmas :: The food.  I love the food.  It breaks the monotony of turkey, turkey, and turkey from the last month.  The wifie bakes cookies and other stuff non-stop while I ready myself for ham and football.  Plus, all of the Food Network shows show off their holiday flair.  And if you can't tell by this day, I do think with my stomach.  So here's to all the good food in preparation of family gathering and all that other stuff that it does for us all.


December 19, The Seventh Day of Christmas : The good will towards men.  It's a good warm and fuzzy feeling that can't be explained.  Well wishing towards our fellow man that should happen year round surrounds us all and that in among itself is a Christmas miracle.

December 20, The Eighth Day of Christmas :: The presents.  Yeah, that sounds pretty vain after what I added on for yesterday, but the presents are a good part of Christmas.  And it's not about receiving that big gift that you wanted, it's about seeing the look of someone's face as they open the presents.  As a parent, I finally can say that that joy of giving and seeing my boys faces light up brighter than the wifie's tree warms my heart.  It hurts my wallet, but it warms my heart... :p  It's a season of giving and seeing that you can give that and joy to others is a special part of the holiday.

December 21, The Ninth Day of Christmas :: The gathering.  It's always hard when a loved one or best friend is away.  Whether they're half way across the country or half way across the world.  But when Christmas time comes around, we find ways to connect with each other.  We visit those whom are fond to us, or at the very least call them on the phone if possible.  Heck, even simply emailing them or leaving them a message on your social network of choice just to say I miss ya and happy holidays is of good merit.  Just as long as we have a means of communication, we have means to gather around each other; even if you're not next to them roasting chestnuts in an open fire.

December 22, The Tenth Day of Christmas :: The days of yonder.  Just think back to the Christmases you had in the past.  How pleasant most if not all of them were.  And you sometimes catch yourself trying to relive that today.  Returning to how good that time of year was to you and what it brought to the table.  There is nothing wrong with reliving those good ol' days, and there's no better time than Christmas time to do such.

December 23, The Eleventh Day of Christmas :: The traditions.  Everyone has them, they follow though with it whether it's baking cookies or singing carols or even watching a gauntlet of Christmas themed programing, we all enjoy them and love to carry them out.  The singing the Twelve Days of Christmas one verse per day is one of mine.  The others include watching at least once A Charlie Brown Christmas and some football, I mean, who can't enjoy any of that?!?  I also try to carry out a gift for the kids to open the night before Christmas.  Usually new pajamas and we tell them they were left on our doorstep by the elves to give them a warning if they don't go to bed soon, Santa won't visit them for presents.  Whether they believe the wifie and I, who knows, but it's a tradition that we started with our boys and we'll continue to carry it out.

December 24, The Twelfth Day of Christmas :: The birth of Jesus Christ.  After all that is what the holiday is supposed to be about.  To celebrate the miraculous birth of our Lord and Savior, it is a true testament of what peace on earth, good will towards man, and miracles are all about.  Without the Lord, none of us would be where we are right now, and I am truly thankful for his birth and all that he given to us.  As Tiny Tim would end this in the most appropriate saying "God bless us, everyone"


BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

P.S. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and throw in all those other holidays in December as well, even Festivus... *lol*  Ok, maybe not that...

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

List O' Most Awesomest Cartoon Characters (An Alphabet Adventure)

I'm not gonna deny it.  I liked doing that Alphabet Adventure post from last time.  It challenged me as well as I hoped it challenged you to think outside the box of a top 10 or top whatever, and focus on one thing that is a constant all around; the alphabet.  Well, at least in my case the English alphabet.  I liked it so much (call me a glutton for punishment) that I decided to bring it back to another List O' whatever post.  This time; the most badass cartoon characters of all time (of course this is solely my opinion, but that's what you get when browsing into my blog.)  There's no time period restrictions or genre limitations in this list, just as long as they were animated.  No CGI phonies allowed here.  I want to see moving pictures of the cartoonish kind here.  So whether you're for kids or adults, serious or comedic, action or slapstick, it'll be on this list.

Just and FYI, I went a little link crazy trying to find links to support my decision on these choices.  Realistically just found the first good link that was represented each selected character that I could find off of Google.

So let me just shut up and get this list started... 

Aang (Avatar, The Last Airbender) : The most creative protagonist in recent cartoons.  If you're not a fan of the series, after the first few episodes will get you hooked.  He carries the show from beginning to the epic, and I mean EPIC finale.
Batman (Batman, The Animated Series) : The best cartoon in the 90's showcasing the most epic detective ever...  Need I say more...
Charlie Brown : He's the everyman, no doubt about it.  The epitome of Murphy's Law and yet because of his setbacks, he is well loved for the pure determination of the one lone chance of not failing...  I love ya Chuck, but you're a smuck...
Devestator (Transformers, Generation One) : A hodgepodge of transformers forming an ultimate distructive force, I felt like I found love again
Egon (The Real Ghostbusters) : I just love the movies and found that Harold Ramis' character was the most interesting of them all.  Figured that was the first E I could come up with... (onset is sinking in fast that this might be a harder task than I thought these alphabet things.)
Fred Flintstone (The Flintstones) : An icon in his own right, Fred and company were ahead of their time spawning new ground to what is now common place for cartoons; prime time television.  He was a mixture of cartoon slapstick and 60's era sitcom satire.  The Simpsons and Family Guy aren't that pioneering of cartoons now that you think about it.
Gohan (Dragonball Z) : He is actually the epicenter of the entire series.  He has the most power growth of them all and ideally, the series revolves around him, not Goku.  Take a good long look at it all and it'll make sense.  I'm sure of it.
He-Man (He-Man and The Masters of The Universe) : A protagonist that didn't need a story to be awesome.  In fact, I don't think it had a story, just a standard plot format for each episode.  Probably a good thing because if it did had an ongoing plot, that would've probably killed it.  Thankfully, we got the Dolph Lundgren movie to blame for that.
Iroh (Avatar, The Last Airbender) : Until recently I did not know that he was voiced by Mako before he passed away, which that in itself is awesome.  Plus the character is the wise sage of the series helping Zuko and giving consul for the heroes of the series.
Joker (Batman, The Animated Series) : Mark Hamill is insane, and this is just the perfect role for him.  The hell with Star Wars, this was his calling.
Kenny McCormick (South Park) : The early seasons were awesome, even though I heard the later ones are awesome too, I just haven't seen them.  Pretty much when they permakilled Kenny for like a season and then decided to not kill him after bringing him back, my interest faded from the series.  Plus the movie was sick too...
Lex Luthor (Superman: The Animated Series) : This guy was the epitome of what a diabolical genius is supposed to be.  Wealthy, smart, had a political grasp over Metropolis' day to day running of business and archetype as well as practically everyone there, this guy was seemingly untouchable.  Unless you're the son of Krypton.
Megatron (Transformers, Generation One) :Another prime badguy, so cocky yet he could back it up most of the time.  Plus I got to give him credit for putting up with such a whiny little snake that is Starscream.
Nelson Muntz (The Simpsons) : Trust me, I tried to think of someone for N but I couldn't, and I felt like the list was going 'ha ha' to me, so Nelson was the obvious choice.
Optimus Prime (Transformers, Generation One) : His voice alone presents leadership and respect from his comrades.  And until this day, I still tear up a little bit seeing him die in the Transformers movie (which brings me to the following statement; Michael Bay, you can suck it!)
Patty Mayonnaise (Doug) : We all had jones'd on someone hard as Doug Funnie did for her in our youth at that age at one point or another.  This is for that person that we all wanted but couldn't find the balls to approach them.
Q (You really think it's easy to try to find anyone with the letter Q, none the less remotely awesome?!?  I dare ya to try.)
Ra's al Ghul (Batman, The Animated Series) : Who wouldn't be a little freaked out buy a guy who is practically immortal.  He organized world wide crime syndicates and when he's near death, he just takes a dip in the Lazarus Pit and BAM, back in action to cause more hell.
Spawn (Todd McFarlane's Spawn) : Speaking of hell, he's all like been there, done that, got the t-shirt.  A former Marine turned special ops merc (I supposed, it's complicated even if you'd read the comics.) gets killed, goes to hell, exchanges his soul for another chance to be with his wife, and has came back as a hellspawn to complete a demon's needs.  And for a twist, he defies the demon and goes rouge.  The only bad thing is that the series ended before it's time (a shame if you knew what happens in issue 100, one of my favorite comic book issues ever.  But that's another list.)
Tick (The Tick) : It was so random, so bizarre, and yet, so brilliant.  This guy had a few to many screws loose and that he somehow manages to get the bad guy at the end of every episode (with the obvious collateral damage caused in chasing the poor bastard) makes me want to go back and see the blue oaf over and over again.
Unicron (The Transformers: The Movie) : A transformer that transforms into its own planet and is voiced by one of the most notable voices of all time Orson Welles.  Can't get much more epic than that.  Once again I like to add on that Michael Bay can suck it, just for good measure.
Venom (Spiderman) : Probably the best rendition of the villain to the comic book source.  They really tried to make it as close as the person inside filled with the rage to get even with Peter Parker as possible, even though it rarely followed the story arc.  Character-wise, Venom gets my vote.
Wolverine (X-men) : He is hands down the best mutant out there.  Period.  It would be an injustice to talk about Wolverine without missing out a thing or two.
X (Hey, just be glad that this time I was only unable to find things for Q and X in this list.  Be greatful why don't cha.)
Yakko Warner(Animaniacs) : Just one part of the trifecta of loony (the others obviously Wakko and Dot) Yakko makes it in that of all the others, he was easiest to find a letter for.  But seriously, him and his siblings started the degeneration of cartoons and pushing the censors to the limits.  And for that I salute you.  Plus I still can't get the song about the countries of the world out of my head.  United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama...
Zuko (Avatar, The Last Airbender) : The story of a tortured soul who is trying to find his destiny.  In the end he finds his place in life helping whom he thought was the enemy and striking back those whom lead him to his dark path of destruction.  Perfect way to end the list.

I hope once again that you appreciated this unique trip to cartoon awkwardness...


BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Thursday, December 2, 2010

A Trip down Memory Lane

This is an homage if you will about the recent happening of what was supposed to be my 10 year class reunion.  I still can't believe that it's been 10 years, and the Class of 2000, the Class of the Millennium, is a thing of the past, and a whole decade has flown by like a blink of an eye.  But this isn't the time or the place to try to recapture that, this is my immediate, yet collective, thoughts of what were to be my 10 year reunion.  Meeting up with colleagues and old friends that I haven't seen in years.  But the road to that is, well... complicated.


I suppose that the beginning is a fine place to start, so let's start there.  About a year ago I knew that my high school reunion was going to come up.  In fact, it was going to come up sooner than expected, at first.  It was supposed to be around June-ish, if memory serve me right, it was near the time of Fathers Day, but what do I know.  It was a a little close to what I thought would have enough time but I planned to go back east for it, save up some money and me and the fam would be there for a week.  But then there was the circumstance that left me in between jobs for a moment, and threw a wrench in the works from there.  I thought that would've been the end of that, and then I found out that the reunion was rescheduled.  Great I thought, but then I found out when it was rescheduled to...


BLACK FRIGGIN' FRIDAY!!!  That amongst itself should be it's own WTF PEOPLE?!? post, but it gets even better.  It was going to be at the local Dave and Busters.  How F'd up do my class has to be to have it at a Dave and Busters.  What are we supposed to do, toast our classmates over skeeball and Street Fighter 4?!?  I'm really trying to stop myself from making this into a WTF PEOPLE?!? post here people, but let's just stick to the story at hand.  Seriously, I thought that my high school had came up with the stupidest time for a reunion.  But nooooo, the wifie's class reunion was for the SAME DAMN DAY!!!  And to top it all off, it's on different sides of the state, mine and hers, so there was no way of trying to pull that off.  On top of that, the wifie hates, HATES, traveling during the holidays and refuses to come out of the house on Black Friday due to what she thinks are idiots who don't know how to drive (I agree.)  So I regretfully declined going to my reunion as well as she.  We spent Thanksgiving here with her family and we had a good time, and I made my merry old way to work for the week afterward.


And later on that day, or even the next day, I can't be certain I was just in a fetal position thanking God for a safe travel back home from work with the holiday traffic from hell.  I was on Facebook just to see if anyone of my friends went to the reunion to my shock.  The damn thing was cancelled at the last minute.  They're trying to reschedule it for spring/summer of 2011.  Yeah, that's right my Class of 2000's High School Reunion is going to be sometime in 2011.  If there was ever a time for failblog.org to be in existence, now is the time.  I just hope that it's going to be in a place that's a little more swankier than a Dave and Busters.  Hell, prom was at least held in a Holiday Inn, why the hell wasn't that available.  I just pretty much said that if I make it, I'll make it, I'm just pissed that I didn't go to the wifie's 10 year cause (even though it was held on Black Friday) it sounded pretty damn fun from what her friends said.


So, here's to making it back home in 2020 for our 20th 'mates, or in this rate, 2022.  I just don't friggin' know anymore...


BootLeG sampler.. signing out...


P.S.  The sarcasm within this post was not to poke fun at those whom tried to produce such a great get-together, but it was indeed meant to be there in it's truest of fashion.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

What I try to do during my spare time...

There's nothing wrong with having a little 'me time' now and again, it's just that me time is usually I don't get that much.  I'm not complaining of such, the me time I sacrifice goes directly to my family and I love every minute of it, it's just that the little me time I try to take on I can't get my mind wrapped up to all that I want to do.  One of those things is drawing, well, sketching is what I like to call it.  It's not the text book form of the word, but that's what I've been calling my visual art work for however long I've been doing it.  I love drawing in comic book style art and well, to get good at it no doubt takes time and to keep consistent at it after you're good takes longer if you want to crank out stuff on a regular basis.  That was well good and all as a younger version of me that had nothing but time to waste but now, time is such a precious commodity that what I can do I try to maximize on it.




I was working on this last sketch for the past 3 weeks, give or take.  On and off for about 20 minutes at a time.  Normally since I consider myself an amatur, I see as this should've took me about an hour and a half (well, probably another 45 more after adding in color) to present a finished product.  This being one of my signature characters that I've created back in 1996.  A character I named Marksman, is supposed to be like part Batman, part Iron Man, part a whole bunch of other elements, but that means going into the story line more.  








I was really into illustration back then prior to when I started playing bass and writing lyrics.  I wanted to try to get something started with story line and all.  The basic premise of it was that this guy was head of some type of weapons and arms manufacturer that was contracted by the government to make some kind of super armor for black ops solders in their missions.  When terrorists had wind of the super armor, they were plotting to use it for their own vendetta to cause chaos.  The owner of the arms manufacturer then used himself as a test guinea pig for the armor, the plans were destroyed and the only existing suit is what he and he alone can use because it was they were assigned to their users based off of their DNA.  Thus, he started wearing it and became a sentential for his company providing protection and being leased by the government for extreme missions and such.







All in all, I expanded the story line with lots of twists and turns and had planned about 75 issues for the hero and even 6 special double issues that were annuals and followed up the storyline for the next year.  It was pretty awesome, and the only bad thing about all this is I lost the storywork for all of those issues.  It was about a decade ago and I was devistated.  I still have all of the original art for the concepts of all the important characters involved in the 75 issues (which I'm lucky to have kept.)  I've even tried to recreate the story line but I know that it wouldn't have had the same intensity as when it was first penned.  But I do plan on resurecting the title and making some of it.  But as for now, I'll continue sketching and producing fine art like this...





Hope you enjoy the creative process and the fine work of it all.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...


Oh, and BTW, Happy Thanksgiving and have a safe and happy holiday season...  Just in case I fail to post prior to my Year in Review message...

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Death to Radio Disney (and others like it)

Just a heads up for those whom stumble upon this...

I started writing this post a little over a year or so ago (around September of '09) due to all of the bubblegum pop crap I was cursed to hear while babysitting a friend of mine's daughter. (Wow, September of '09, that was a long time passed.) She was an excellent play date companion for my two older boys, but since the kid moved on and my angst for aural injustice was quenched. But I started to think how come I never posted it until now. I still dislike it (the music not the kid.) And in fact since I began writing the bulk of the post; I've seem to have found more offenders to add on. I'll try not to amend most of my feelings but I do want to add on to my argument to us parents (yes, believe it or not as immature as I act, I do have parental duties to my boys) we shouldn't be dumbed down to subject ourselves to this. We should demand respect back to our ears and put on something more structured; like the sound of a live lobster squealing as you drop it into a vat of boiling water. Hell, that sounds a whole lot better that the stuff I'm going to report on. (Which reminds me, why did I put myself through all this torture?!?)

One more thing, I tried not to edit my original thoughts on this too much to keep to my emotions which I still stand on in this matter the same as when I first scripted it.

I like music, 'nuff said. Actually let me rephrase to say that I like GOOD MUSIC. The kind of stuff that either moves you to be with your girl (or guy depending on your preference), start a riot, or just vent over the BS that is well, anything. Music has to be in my opinion raw and to the grit of the subject matter that it's trying to impose. But there's some that fall so far from that bar that it's nowhere to be found. That music in my opinion is the bubblegum-pop tripe that is outfitted by Radio Disney and all other imitators of the sort. (More on the imitators later.)

Why do I hate on Radio Disney, why the hell not. It's crap. It's crap beyond crap. It's the type of crap that if dog crap was able to walk, that it would be the crap that dog crap would step on by accident. Oh yes, that bad; and it's not to say that I'm closed minded. I like all kinds of music from rock to country to rap (especially old school rap) to oldies to classical to even some bluegrass. But the vile act of ear rape that is Radio Disney is beyond help. It's that bad, and I would stand for it. I despise Radio Disney and it's clones with the fiery passion of a thousand George Foreman grills. It should be banished from all existence, and here are some reasons why.

I like to draw your attention to public radio menace number 1: Miley Cyrus. This, has to be the worst solo offender of aural carnage since Roseanne sang the National Anthem back in the 90's. This death siren which is the offspring of country star of the late 80's/early 90's Billy Ray Cyrus leads us to the belief that talent really does skip a generation. It's bland Mickey Mouse (no pun intended) messages of the trials of being a tween and being hip to the standards of a John Hughes movie of what cool kids are presented in an ear splitting yelp that we can only wish that dogs could hear. I rather put a Skil Saw to my inner ear than listen to the crap that is being sung by what could possibly be the fourth Chippette from Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Public radio menace number 2: The Jonas Brothers. They say that celebrity deaths always come in threes. Apparently this trio killed all of our perceptions of what good music and celebrity stardom can provide. It's like if they dressed a bunch of whiny little tarts in oxford dress shirts and pleated khakis, gave them a couple of Les Pauls and told them to pretend to play while the producer dubbed over their PA system with people that can actually play their instruments. Essentially it's this generations Milli Vanilli but crappier. And trust me, I tried to find something nice to say about them, but there's nothing and I mean nothing but pure unadulterated lame that is emitted from these prepubescent dorks.

Pubilc radio menace number 3: ANYTHING FROM THE KIDZ BOP KIDS!!! What in the record producers right mind would think that this was a good idea. Don't they know that just because they can attempt to sing already ear-splitting pop songs in an even more annoying vocal concession is just like putting the Chipmunks balls (if they had any) into a blender on frappe. And I know that this is the second Chipmunk reference in this post but they were the kids crap of the eighties and this is the kids crap of this decade. (Heck, while we're at it, outside of The Christmas Song from the 60's, we'll throw in the original old school Chipmunks as well.) Why must we suffer from this form of inhumane cruelty by having our kids blast this from their Hello Kitty boomboxes in their room and tyrade in what they call dancing is beyond my realm of understanding. Why is this being put up with, who the hell knows. But I know that I'm done with that.

And this is just the top three offenders. I haven't even cashed into the High School Musical songs or Kelly Clarkson music or any of that crap. I tread not to because I would like to keep my sanity after writing this post. And that's just Disney I'm talking about here. Hell, Nickelodeon is doing this now too since I started writing this post and forgotten about it about a year back. They have Miranda Cosgrove (who doesn't really sound that bad but it's the content matter that counts on this one), Big Time Rush (their N'Sync's to Disney's Jonas Bros. being their Backstreet Boys), and any other child actor they have in their arsenal that could remotely carry a melodic tune if I so dare would call it that. This is just the peak of the iceberg of buffalo dung that is Radio Disney (and others like it), and I want out. It's mind-numbing, brain-draining, sub par manufactured crap that is being forced fed to our youth because we use it as a babysitter instead of teaching them some good music, or hell, even spending time with our kids. Now there's a novel concept. Doubt that's gonna happen to our youth anytime soon, but hey, it's just a thought...

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

p.s. If you didn't realize it by now, my afterthoughts were written in this font style outside of the couple of sentences about Nickelodeon's bandwagon of a fail they could (and would) call vocalists. I kept those as is because that was indeed a continuation of my original thought.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

WTF PEOPLE!?! Tech support

I can't really complain about this, since I've been on both sides of the tech support chain. Trust me it's a fickle mistress for those that call and those who receive. And I would like to bring up the different genres of both the helper and the helped that makes up the majority of such. Wha, you thought that this was a going to be a serious post?!? Listen, just cause I've taken a little time off between posts and I've been on a serious kick for most of my recent posts, so I decided to just let this one rip. I've been long overdue for a WTF PEOPLE!?! for a good while now. So let's get'r dun and have some fun on this one...

Let me start with the funnier of the two. The people that call in for help or even worse brave enough to meet with the diabolical supernerds to help them with whatever. Oh how I can so poke fun at this. Recently a coworker had shown me this site, The Oatmeal, it opened my eyes to what I wanted to WTF about for a good while. And the sad thing is, most of this stuff is right on point. It's almost like it seems that to the tech support person on the receiving end's brain is imploding in front of their client with their queries. Most of which are reasonable because they either are 1) sincerely too daft to perform such tasks themselves without any help or 2) to lazy to RTFM!!! That's the good kind of customers. Need some help and can normally be coached to do the right thing or at least figure out where they can research where to do the right thing. Than they're the ones that wants you to not only wants you to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but out of my ass and their asses as well. The ones that think that we (the technical support help community) are magical techno-genies that within a blink of an eye not only fix their issue but make their computer faster, turn into a transformer, and cure cancer while making sure their email will never stop working; ever! The kind of people that knows that such and such are impossible but we try and tell them time and time again that no those files can not perform that action or no it does not double as a cup holder. And then there are also the ones that think they know everything (like me at times and yes I'm playing the humility card here) and totally get owned by the one that is helping them either by proving that it was something done that was their fault or using the prescribed methods of troubleshooting after they failed to RTFM and it worked. Those kind are a special breed...

I mean I could go on and on about the side on the phone needing help; but alas, we to as the tech supporters have our own idioms that makes us flawed. Oh and in case you haven't figured it out by now, I do tech support as a nine to five; but I don't let it try to drag me into the stereotypical realm of other technical support reps that I've experienced (or at least I try to rise above that for my own right.) They are the condescending ones that try to talk as if you're tree and a haff years old wishing that you just follow their script to do this, this, this, and not that to end as quickly as possible. Those guys are epic wastes of space and they can kiss my Sasquatch-hairy ass for all I care. (Seriously I could go for a mani-pedi-glutious maxi if there was such a thing. But that's probably TMI.) Than they're those who just read off of a friggin' script, and I mean it's so bad that my seven-year-old did a better job at our church's Christmas concert last year making it more believable than these tools did over the phones. Also the outsourcing, dear Lord the outsourcing. Hence why people (like me) try to fix it ourselves most of the time unless we know we have no choice and it needs to be done on their end, my ISP for example when they were experiencing droppage of connection. I'm so friggin' done with calling Abu-Dabi that I'm ready to go out to the junction box and clear the issue my own damn self the next time it happens. But then there are those that honest, earnestly do care about their client's issues (like me, not really tooting my own horn but I do at my nine to five.) They go the extra mile to make sure that the clients truly understood what happened and even help them to be more proactive on the whatever it was about. And it's sad to say that in the industry in a whole, that's a minority. Not to say that it doesn't happen, but it doesn't happen enough. Oh, and I almost forgot about bot-techs. They're the worst. I don't want some stupid bot telling me what's wrong even after I'd RTFM and it's still not working. The bot isn't going to fix the problem. I rather have all bots eliminated and replaced by a pop-up to the help article that I'm at that will answer my question. Or at least make the bots more human like and type out snarky comments like 'is your son/daughter here to help you' or 'it seems to me that it's a PIBKAC error.' That'll at least give me a chuckle or something rather than a "WTF is that BS?!?"

If we improve our techs supporting our clients, than we won't have as many people knowing that their computer is not a Deloran and trying to find the flux capacitor and suping up their power source to 1.21 gigawatts will fix the issue. But then again, the flip side of things is that those clients that can't seem to find the Any Key will keep nerds like me employed for a long, long time. What can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I'm an O.G.

I like to consider myself as an O.G., an Old-school Gamer. I like the feel of the game play. Minimal buttons, simple control, and that subtle nostalgic feeling that I get reliving my childhood over and over again. Such a great feeling versus the same old polished pieces of crap that seems to be put out in the industry. And by that I mean for you to just think real hard and find a game within the past 18 months (hell, the past 36 months even) an original title that was good. I bet you that it will be less than 10 or so out of the 100's that are being cranked out for the herd that buys them out of the pure aspect of the title that it's trying to carry.

Now don't get me wrong, I like the new stuff, some of it at least. I give credit where credit's due. Little Big Planet and Wii Sports for example are great original titles (well, original title and technical demo on how to use a controller) and the fundamentals of it are phenomenal. But when I see a rehash of Metal of Honor or yet another Madden title, the ball falls short in my book. They seem so uninspired, so safe, closed to the cuff, and they know that it will play to those who don't want to stray from their precious safety bubble. I at least try to get out of that and look for stuff off the beaten path.

But I guess early video games have traveled the then unclaimed frontier and yet my bias towards that is where my allegiance will lie. Of course after the video game crash of 1983 what bold new outlook came into the picture? An 8-bit sprite of a plumber that ate mushrooms and stomped on killer turtle looking creatures to defeat a fire-breathing, badly drawn dragon to save a princess and her kingdom of toadstools; and it was good. And that brought forth a gauntlet of other games to peoples homes to play and kick butt in. And it brought forth competition from other manufacturers to overtake it's throne and the rest is history, video game history, and I'm proud to have had a part in it as well as being a product of it.

That resurgence of such brought back life to the culture that is what it is today. But we have lost track of such. Now it seems that creativity has taken a backseat to greed and demand for more of the same old lame old. Very little forward motion is happening and I fear that video games are not in the foreseeable future but will decline to a crashing halt.

We need to get back to our roots. Just the other day I went and bought out my old NES to play Wizard and Warriors for a couple of reasons. One was nostalgia and the fact that it was not available for download on the Wii Channel. Two was because I needed something other than the majority of the crap that is out in the market today. Three, well it didn't occur to me but after the fact it was the motivation of making this post trying to find my video game identity again. I was really in it, working on the game for about an hour and a half, on the last stage, and then my kids were playing in the living room as well and bumped into my console (probably a good time to mention that my NES was a top loader model) and glitched my game. Those types of games did not have save spots because it relied on a simple concept of replayability. It brought you back again and again even if you've beaten it to try and do it again. Of course I was mad that my work was lost and I had to start over again, but the fact of the matter is that I would happily start over again because of that factor. Games nowadays don't have that. They're practically disposable and you sell them or trade them in for other pieces of crap.

The fact of the matter is that we need games. Good games. Original games that us O.G.'s can pick up and cherish for a long time. Until next time, I'm gonna play me some Ocarina of Time that I just downloaded on my Wii.

(How funny, I just caught the irony of an old-school gamer playing Ocarina of time.)

BootLeG sampler.. siging out...

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Tag, I'm it.

I was going to call this post "Becoming a Victim of a Chain Blog" but I don't think the wifie would've liked me so much putting that there. So I'm going along with her and calling this one"Tag, I'm it." She has a friend of hers that put on her blog 7 questions that she tagged 7 people (one of which was the wifie) and then asked those 7 bloggers to pass it on faster than the common cold. So in an effort to appease the wifie, I'm following suite. I'll try to act as serious as I can but then again this is me of course (and that couch is so comfy when I'm playing the Wii at night as I anticipate sleeping there after I post this and she reads it.)

So without further ado, let me post her questions and my answers. Eh, maybe it'll be fun... :P

1. What one talent do you not have, that you very much wish you did?

That's a tough question (good one to start with babe.) I suppose that I wish that I could have the talent to play the piano. I've started to learn when I was six way back when I went to Catholic school (that's another topic that I might touch on, I dunno, back to the question.) The piano sounds so great, it's in my opinion the best classical instrument ever invented. I loved it, except for the fact that when I got something wrong, the nuns would slap my hands with a ruler; yeah, they did that kind of crap, it wasn't folklore. I tried learning on my own, and I'm decent, not church choir decent, but decent enough to read, and comprehend. I just really wish that I could've continued with that.

2. What is the one thing people do that bothers you most?

Well, it's two things actually. One is smoking; I FRIGGIN' HATE SMOKING! PERIOD! END OF FRIGGIN' SENTENCE! The second is when people talk like they're ghetto. I don't care if you're from the projects or not, it's just not kosher in my book. Especially if you've never left the comforts of a suburban cul-de-sac ever in your life and you start talking like some hoodrat just cause you saw Friday or New Jack City. That ticks me off.

3. Where is the one place you'd like most to visit before you leave this earth behind, and what about that place most draws you to it?

I really don't know. I guess main land Japan if anything. Tokyo to be precise, but Japan all around. I love the culture there and the history of the island nation. I loved it when I was in Okinawa way back when, and I wish that I could go back there for pleasure instead of business some time soon.

4. What flaw do you most dislike in yourself?

I guess my ability to try to appease everyone. I should try to just please myself instead of anyone else. (And as I was typing that I just realized how out of context that could've went, oui.) But most importantly I should not try to seek approval or acceptance from everyone, just to those that are important to me and myself as well.

5. What career did you most want as a child, and if you are not doing that now, what changed your mind?

I wanted to be a mathematician when I grew up as a kid. I loved math. I was borrowing books on Calculus and Trigonometry from the library when I was in 6th grade trying to understand and learn from them. I still have a strong love of mathematics, but as I grew older, my appetite changed and reality set in to the tune that my family couldn't afford college for me. So that ship had sailed, but the passion lives on. Either that or the guy who invented spellcheck, cause honestly if it wasn't for that I'd be doomed. I can't spell worth a damn. :P

6. Why do you blog, what purpose to you hope to achieve by blogging?

I originally wanted to blog to put my voice and spin on things that interested me. In that it was music, videogames, entertainment, technology, and my day to day live. I still do want to continue doing such, and I try to make a conscious effort to attempt to blog about something on those subjects every time I step in and also try to make an effort to blog as frequently as possible to not make this a moot effort.

7. What one modern invention would you mind giving up the most, and why did you choose that one?

I wouldn't know. It's kind of hard to think of such. I suppose the best answer would be the snuggie. It's so friggin' stupid. The people that have them are brainwashed idiots that should just surcome to the inventor's twisted marketing of it, drink the Kool-Aid, and end the insanity so the rest of us could live in peace. That or WMD's, they're just not kosher.


And since I'm abiding by the rules governing this shenanigan, let me introduce you to my own list of questions. Oh, and wifie, quip pro quo on this one...

1: Coke or Pepsi, and why one is better than the other?

2: What is your stance on the capital punishment?

3: If you were stranded in a deserted island what modern convenience would you miss the most and why?

4: What fictional work (book, tv show, movie, etc.) would you say your life most resembles?

5: What goal do you want to accomplish most on your bucket list?

6: What feedback can you give me to improve this blog?

7: And the most important question of all in my list of seven; cake or bacon? Explain.

Please repost/reply, follow suite if you follow and I would love to see what you have to say.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

p.s. I had to use spellcheck like 20 gabillion times typing that, told ya I'm a math nut not a word guy...

Thursday, October 14, 2010

All of Live's Best Laid Plans

I sometime don't know what stuff I try to get myself into at times. I try to start up something (this blog for instance,) and when other things in life takes priority or if there is a sudden change of lifestyle, crap starts to hit the fan.

During the past few months I've been trying to do other things on the side. And when I mean on the side, I mean other stuff outside of my family, work, and this blog. One of which was another project with a friend of mine to review all things that makes us tick. We were going to put on a weekly commentary on weird shit from the Generation-X one off made for TV movie to the correlation of all the different gameshows that are on air or previously were. Needless to say, it's still haven't made the light of day and I still want to try it sometime. The thing is I have no time. Literally the way we have our schedules are so out of wack it's not even funny. It sucks, because I really thought that it would take off on the shear originality and randomnisity of it all. But alas, I suppose it was just never meant to be.

Another thing that came to my attention in recent weeks is that I was 'invited' to be part of a band that some of my co-workers wanted my talents for. They found out I've played bass (albeit I no longer have them) and they were in need of a bassist. I know, I know, that would've been sweet, but how are you gonna play without a bass. Two kickers here people. Number one, they had a bass for me to play and were willing to let me use it while playing. Number two, we have the same days off and the lieu of a schedule mishap was throw out of the window. The only problem is, there's no communication on when the practice is so for the past three weeks, there hasn't been jack on any practice time so yet another thing thrown out the window.

I mean, c'mon man... I just don't get it. It's hard enough to try to keep up with this (and trust me I am going to try to keep up on this more,) but to add on more crap to the picture?!? It's just insanity in my picture.

So this is my rant on some of the things (not all of them) that what I've been trying to do beyond all the other things I'm already doing, and the lack of time and/or communication on trying to get it done. The burden of trying to spread myself too thin. Don't get me wrong I'm great at multitasking, but when it requires a near act of God to try to get things moving... It's pretty damn hard. Yeah, why couldn't I've just said that in the beginning and it would've saved me some time and headache: 'it's pretty damn hard.'

Simplicity is bliss...


BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Thursday, September 30, 2010

The next step

In his most intriguing campy 50's superhero announcer voice...

"When we last left our hero in the previous blog post, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place having to sell his precious bass guitars for some quick cash. But little did he know the true task at hand that was awaiting him. THE ATTACK OF THE TWELVE STRING ACOUSTIC GUITAR!!! The skillmanship, the hours among hours of learning this new craft, and of course, having to tune the damn thing."

(insert high-pitched woman's scream)

"Will our hero prevail or will the next song that the BootLeG sampler.. will play be 'Taps.'"

Well, it's been hard trying to learn how to play a new instrument, but that should go without saying. Also factor in that I try to find time from between work, family, and other life distractions, it's just been going slow for me to try and pick it up. It's not like how I were learning how to play cause I had nothing to tie me down like in high school, I wouldn't be talking about it now. Of course I could use this time to practice as well, but I figure 'why if I already didn't have time and I was already on the computer, blog about it...'

So about a week or so ago the wifie decided to try to help me out in my guitar learning venture and picked up a copy of Guitar for Dummies. Not to say that I felt a little belittled because it's a Dummies book, but being a musician needing a Dummies book. So regardless of that, I used it, and to my great pleasure I was learning from it. It was good. After tuning the 12 string properly I was getting down and dirty with learning some of the basic essential chords.

Although Guitar for Dummies is designed for a six-string, I was arrogant enough to think that why not, I got 12, it should sound even more harmonic. But when I finally got to try to put some things together and play "Kumbayah," it left some things to be desired. Maybe it was the tuning of the guitar; (I did only tune low E and did everything else by ear which might have bit me in the ass more so than I thought) maybe it was the fact that I couldn't change up chords fast enough to keep to the rhythm; who knows. All I know is that it sucked at first. But than again, so did my bass playing why back when.

So I leave you with this. I will eventually conquer the guitar. I will make my twelve-string sing like a fat lady in an opera house, and it will be epic. Either that or wait until I have enough money to get a new bass and get back to the old habits.

Either way, it will be epic.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Friday, August 20, 2010

Full Circle

Guess all things do come to an end. This blog, at least for the time being is not what I'm talking about. What I'm referencing is the fact that I had to do probably one of the hardest things in my musical life. I sold my bass guitars. My babies that I acquired from the many, many years of playing and mastering, I had to sell.

There is reasoning for all this. One is the fact that I try to find time to play with them all but I just can't. Secondly is that I don't have that much space here so I need to get some stuff cleared out. Third; I kinda need the money, and I offer to sell them in other times of crisis but the wifie wouldn't let me until I manned up and said 'I gotta provide whichever way necessary,' or something to that effect.

It's just that I went through so much with those guys. They were my first true outlet to most of the music I learned to enjoy and love. I've been playing bass since I was 15. I started learning piano at 6 but never really took interest in that or any other instrument until high school. I can still play a couple of keys on a piano but I craved and loved the bass. Jazz, rock, soul, rap, gospel, country, Mexican-hat-dance,\; you name it, I played it. And now it's the end of an era.

The first one this week was my Ibanez four-string guitar. That's the one that got the most play since that was when I was in a real great and talented band that was local to when I was stationed in Camp LeJeune. I bought it when I was in Okinawa, took it back here and had a blast. That was a hard one to sell (as well as all of them I sold this week.)

The second one was my Ernie Ball five-string. It was my first five-string bass guitar and I felt like king of the world with that thing. I tuned it down to play slap bass like Fieldy from KoRn and P-Nut from 311; to just about any jazz set that I could get going. A lot of my later songs were composed for a five-string so that was good in that respect. It was hard to see that one leave right in front of me too (the other 2 basses this week the wifie sold while I was at work after I gave her a high-low price on them to sell at.)

And finally yesterday (well, earlier today depending if you read the post as soon as I posted it), I had my very first bass leave me. I was a student and just learning how to play it way back when. The wifie sold it to a mom and her fifth grade son. That was a sobering moment knowing that I gave my first bass to a kid as his first bass. I hope that he treats her right (yes, I refer to my basses as hers, it's just like cars or any other male possessive tangible property, it's how we're wired.) And I'm not afraid to admit; I cried a little, but it was a well deserved cry. This was a moment of mourning of something I had cherished go away. But I'm feeling better now that I've expressed such.

It's not that I'm lost without an instrument to play. I do still have my acoustic twelve-string guitar that I'm learning how to play. It's like the next step of my musical evolution and I look forward to making the plunge. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of bass guitar memories I will play on mastering the art of the guitar. Besides the wifie said that the next chance I get when there's a little extra cash that I'll shop for a new bass (insert gitty-school-girl wheeeeee here.)

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Thursday, July 29, 2010

The incredible dissappearing sampler..

Instead of drugging through a long drown out story on what's happening, and the fact that it's kinda late as I'm writing this post, I'm just gonna stick to the important stuff. The reason why the title the way it is is because I'm going on a diet. My fat ass has gone long enough with processed food and little exercise, that it's becoming more apparent that if I don't go and do something, I'm gonna end up a pile of ash on a mantle (and I don't even own a fireplace.)

I'm 230+, 5'9", and practically in the worst shape of my life. I just don't know how I could've went from lean, mean, United States Marine to Fat Albert in my opinion. Anyways, I'm on this program to lose weight and you can track it I think as well. The whole thing that got me started on this is the wifie and her endevour on losing weight as well. I first was doing it as moral support, than I went though a fitness assessment and shocked on how far I'd let myself go. "F that" I thought and now I'm on a hellbent vendetta on getting back in shape.

So c'mon world, I'm not gonna surcome to your high caloric, high salt, low nutrition crap that you try to force down my gullet. I'm standing tall and taking numbers. Time to get back to being fit.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

p.s. You can find my progress
here.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

List O' Music to Rock Out With (An Alphabet Adventure)

I said that I would come back with a list. Sure I could've done a "list o' stuff" on what I've been up to this past few months or maybe something else more meaningful. But I said, the hell with it and make up a list of what I wanted to go and do for a while. Something of a challenge but it's a good fight. It's not a list of the best in any order, but it's a list of alphabetic proportions. Not to say that I couldn't come up with a list of top 26, but the fact of finding something that could list alphabetically is awesome enough. It can be good.

So here's the rules for hopefully an ongoing tag that I can continue with: all bands should start with the corresponding letter and if I can't think of one, well, it'll be excused; and all bands is the top of that letter at the time of posting in my opinion and just that, an opinion. If you don't like it, I'm comfortable with you not liking my opinion, it's still my blog and my list. So without further ado, here it comes...

  • A: Authority Zero; because they're a kick ass punk band in my opinion (and that was before I moved to Mesa.)
  • B: Barenaked Ladies; because they're the first B-band that I could think of at the time. No, really, that's the only reason.
  • C: Charlie Daniels; do I really need a friggin' reason?!?
  • D: doubleDrive; if you know me and my past rants on my blog, you know that I friggin' love this band. Too bad that they're broken up. :(
  • E: Everclear; and surprisingly, they got better the more sober they became. But I still think that Santa Monica is the best song they ever made (note, they weren't sober during that time.)
  • F: Foo Fighters; so much range of talent there that it oozes epicness.
  • G: Guano Apes; they're foreign, they're ballzy, and they can even flex a soft side. Talk about range.
  • H: HELLYEAH!; because I already got something lined up for M and I can't incorporate Mudvayne. Besides, they got Vinnie Paul from Pantera on there (one more thing that I can't put on an upcoming letter due to it being predesignated), and it's bleeds EPIC WIN!!!
  • I: I Against I; this band is so underrated as a punk band that if you don't know them, you're friggin' lame!
  • J: James Brown; The Godfather of Soul, the Hardest Working Man in the Business, in other words, he's just that damn good.
  • K: KoRn; well, basically before former band members started dropping off the band like flies.
  • L: Linkin Park; even though they're pop-ish, they're still kool to listen to.
  • M: Metallica; I would be a damn fool if I didn't put them on the list.
  • N: Nirvana; what can I say, I like old school grunge.
  • O: OK Go!; surprisingly, they're not that bad of a band, and their viral videos are friggin' awesome to boot.
  • P: Paw; if you're a fan of the original Road Rash game from back in the 90's, youtube them.
  • Q: Queen, only because I needed a Q, and out of all that is out there, that's the best Q there is.
  • R: Rage Against The Machine; BALLS!!! And that's all I'm gonna say.
  • S: Stone Temple Pilots; they are perpetually stuck in the 90's and I like it.
  • T: Tsunami Bomb; I am a sucker for female singers and punk music. This is it's wet dream.
  • U: Unwritten Law; to go from punk, to pop-punk, to alternative, to who knows what and still rock it, kudos on my book.
  • V: Velvet Revolver; once again, I needed a V, and they're decent for a supergroup, I'm not gonna lie.
  • W: Stevie Wonder; who can deny the man his props. He's the Billy Dee Williams of Motown; it's like if Ray Charles had a love child with a can of Colt 45 Malt Liquor (breaking out in dance to Very Superstitious)
  • X: yeah, I got nothin' for X, big surprise, huh?!?
  • Y: I got nothin' for Y either, dunno why I'm drawing a blank... but,
  • Z: ... (after 5 minutes of thinking of something and not putting on Zebrahead because I haven't heard much of them to rate if I like them or not) ... nothin'. Damn.

And that's my list. Hope you like it, if not, oh well, blame the English Language for having only 26 letters. And trust me, I tried to fight off the urge of adding on honorable mentions as much as I could, and this is what I got (outside of the Mudvayne namedropping for HELLYEAH!, I think I did pretty darn well.)

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Thursday, July 22, 2010

It's been a while...

Yup, it sure has been a long while since I've been to my blog to start posting what I wanted to post. It's not that I've haven't had things to say and all, it's just that I've been busy with live and all that. Which trying to find time from the fam; my job; and other commitments; it's been very stressful to find some time. I wish that I could recap, but that would be like telling a novel and man I'm long winded enough.

But just to let you know, I'm working on some new stuff to present to the picture. Hopefully something new to the BootLeG sampler, I dunno. But I do know this, I am sticking to this for a while longer. I'm trying new things to get my blog a little more noticed and a lot less blogger-ish (not that I got anything against blogger, it's just that I crave to do more.) But for the foreseeable future I do want to post something music related personal to what possessed to what the BootLeG sampler to be whom he's become, as well as enter in some more WTF PEOPLE?!?'s about some of the most random crap that there is. And trust me, there's a lot of crap out there. So I do what you to know to just stay tuned and find out what's new to ramble about. Hell, I might even bring up some old crap that I tried to do from before. (Crap, I'm rambling on and on and not showing any sign of stopping. Better just shut up and get on with it...)

Until next time, and not as long as from last time,

BootLeG sampler.. signing off...

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Finally, the Dry Spell is Broken...

For the past six weeks, I've been on a mission searching for something. Something that could complete me. Something that would bring a sense of normalcy to my life as well as others close to me. That thing is; a job. And thank goodness now that I've found one, because it's not a moment too soon. This is my chronicles of live on the unemployed side and the triumphant feeling of awe of being employed again.

It started with me hitting the ground running, doing the job network thing (Monster, Career Builder, Dice (because I'm a techie kinda guy), etc.) and applied for anything and everything in my field and job skill. I had a method, every other day I would check for new jobs that would suite me. Some of those searches landed me into a few interviews with a couple of staffing agencies that would try to fit me into a job as well as other interviews for direct hires in my profession. This also included applying for unemployment, which I totally am against doing but taking pride out of the equation, it was a necessity that certainly helped. Included with applying for unemployment was the long friggin' approval wait for it, as well as attending job fairs that the state had setup and reemployment classes. Reemployment classes that were mandatory for me to be eligible for unemployment and if I happened to missed one of those classes, I would be disqualified for unemployment and my funding would be stopped. Once again, I had to swallow my pride, but pride don't mean shit if I can't provide for my family by any means necessary.

On the days that I didn't search, I did moderate housework. That's where things start to go sour. I do my chores like dishes and laundry just like as if I did prior to getting let go, but then there was the realm of taking care of the ENTIRE FRIGGIN' HOUSE... Holy crap that's a huge endeavor. I don't know how the wifie does it. I was on her like white on rice trying to learn from my housewife sensei about trying to keep up. And what I've learned from that experience, don't piss off the sensei, because it will bite you in the ass... HARD! I couldn't do half the work to par that she normally does, and the only thing that I did was get in her way on most things. It was getting to the point to that if I don't get a job soon..., let's just say that it wouldn't end well for me.

Thankfully, at that point in time, a job offer arose. Two interviews later and I was hired. That was this past Monday. I went to orientation filling in jobbie type stuff only to realize that at that time, my out-of-state licence was expired recently and it was not a valid form of ID. That was Wednesday. Needless to say, the wifie was mad and was on the suspicion that we (meaning I) won't get the job and dire straits would be near if something didn't happen. So the next day we went to the DMV to get my licence changed over; why didn't I do that earlier, I don't know; but there's a snafu in that plan. My licence is suspended for some strange reason and I have to get in contact with them for a reason why. So until then, they just gave me a regular state issued ID card. So I can't drive (well drive legally) but at least it's a legitimate ID card that means three things: 1) I start my job on Monday!!! 2) I get out of my wife's hair because I start my job on Monday!!! And 3) I still can by beer to celebrate points 1 and 2.

It's been quite an adventure and I'm just glad that it's over and a new one just begun. No doubt that I'll do my damndest to thrive in this venture. I'm just glad that my drought of unemployment is over and things will go as close to normal as things can get.

I would also like to thank those whom helped me in any way, shape, or form towards me getting a job. Whether it was as a reference, a lead to put my foot in, prayer, whatever the case was. Thanks, I truly mean it.

Off to the rat race once again...

BootLeG sampler.. signing off...

Thursday, January 28, 2010

The State of the Union is...

As many of us in the US watched as of when I'm posting this yesterday (as in a few hours ago) with the President's State of The Union Address, we had our stands on what to expect, what to make of how the shape of our nation is, and a plan of what state the nation will be in Pres. Obama's standpoint. It was a time of analyzing and critiquing of just about every aspect to it's nooks and crannies. And this post isn't any different. This is just my reaction to it, as well as speaking about possibly some collateral damage that might have stirred up from my thoughts. I tried to gather my thoughts as logically as I could while the address was being broadcast, so if I seem to scatterbrain around too much; remember these two things: 1) I am not a political analyst in any way shape for fashion, and 2) It's just my reaction to it all, my opinions, my reasoning of it. Don't get so bent outta shape over it.

So one of the first things he try to tackle is the economy. Sure, seems like a reasonable start since we're a capitalistic nation trying to dig our way out of a recession that that green-eyed topic should be first, right?!? In my opinion, it's in the crapper, floating, mixed in with a couple of corn kernels that haven't been digested properly and a peanut from 3 days ago. Currently that's where it is, and his solution, spending freeze in federal spending that's not associated with the military (which won't start until 2011 which is BS, it should start immediately.) Another was taxes... ooh, such a nasty word. But taxes is how the government operates. He wanting to tax the living crap out of those big businesses and banks that had received bailout money and using it for bonuses. For that I have to agree, because if they can afford bonuses, they can afford the higher taxes. I wasn't for the bailout anyways. Also in relation to the economy is the unemployment. He kinda tip-toed on that since when he first took office, it was high; but since then it's in the double digits. It's hard, I should know (mainly because I'm still in job limbo here.)

Another heated topic was health care. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall anything in his campaign promises about dealing with health care. So why mess with it?!? Because it's a left winged agenda that has been in the back burner and now (as in the past few months) is it really heated up. But there was something that was in his campaign that was promoted but never followed though. Military troops in Afghanistan to be pulled by 2010. Well, it's 2010 and guess what?!? WHERE WAS THE STAND YOU WERE PROMOTING BACK IN '08. I just don't see it

But in the spirit of military, and the protection of our great nation, there were a few things that were good to hear. Such as the US and 44 other countries securing nuclear weapons over the next four years and pretty much blackballing those that don't comply (North Korea.) As well as addressing the faults within our own homeland security such as borders, kudos for that one. Although, I could have gone all night without him doing as what I dreaded he might have done, pulling out a play from the lefty playbook that we haven't seen since Slick Willie was in office, he's trying to repeal the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. Sorry, but I feel very ill about that as well as other rights they deem to want. But that's another post...

And yes, he even talks about humanitarian efforts abroad. That's right, Haiti and the earthquake that hit it, as well as building up other countries from their state. I'm all for humanity, but OUR GOVERNMENT should be imposing in that, or at least shouldn't be investing so much money and manpower to them. We have our own to take care of. We have impoverished people living within our city streets and countrysides. It's a crying shame that we can send so much to someplace that probably wasn't all that different that when whatever event that led us to go there and help, while IN THE MIST OF A F'N RECESSION; we have citizens going cold and hungry that is being totally ignored. Leave the humanitarian aid to the humanitarians such as missionaries and the Red Cross; and do what government is supposed to do, help and protect those homebound first.

So that's my rant on the 2010 State of The Union Address. As you might have figured out, I had very conservative values on what was happening during the address. But in fact, I'm can bend on some things. And all I want from this is to breathe a little fresh air on the matter and see if maybe any of those commitments might happen. Well, the good and moral commitments that is...

And as I said, I'm not a political analyst in any means, just a passerby observing that had happened and what to make of it. And now that I got that off of my chest...

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

P.S. I promise my next post will me a lot less serious, but this took precedence if you think about it...

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

WTF People!?! Muzak

I like music. Most kinds actually, my palette is really broad. But there’s just something about this genre that just rubs me the wrong way; muzak. Ok, in my opinion it’s the poor-man’s excuse of music sampling, and it’s really not just a genre than it’s a company, but let’s use the generic urban dictionary version of it for right now. In two words: it’s crap. In more than two words: well that’s why you’re still reading I hope…

It’s like it was only an epidemic in doctors offices and waiting rooms, but it’s everywhere now. I was shopping at Albertson’s with the wifie a while back and it hit me. This muzak isn’t like the others. It’s actual music (good news), but it was crappy music (bad news). I don’t do that top 40 stuff because honestly I hear that Sarah McLachlan “Angel” song way too much with that ASPCA commercial on Animal Planet and my father-in-law’s fandemonium over Celine Dion (not to say that I don’t respect the man, I do, but Celine Dion?!? (I don’t question it for good reason ;P )) It’s just not my cup of tea. As a kid I grew up with rap, funk, and oldies, as an adolescent I listened to rock, and now that I’m more mature (and thanks to the wifie) I do country and gospel music. Nowhere does that take into account of the B101 tripe that there is.

And it’s not just in the grocery stores, but it’s EVERY-FRIGGIN-WHERE!!! K-Mart (cause I’m black), fast food eateries where you dine in, and the unholy ground of hold music. Oh Lord, please help me, why hold music. Isn’t torture that I had to call the damn number, I have to listen to Rod friggin’ Stewart?!? It’s nails on the chalkboard; NAILS ON THE CHALKBOARD!!!

And I don’t know about you, but I think Toby Keith said it best: I ain’t as good as I once was // but I’m as good once, as I ever was. And man is that how I felt after my most recent trip to the mall. Which sucks because back in my day (I can see my hairs going gray as I’m writing) I used to be a mallrat. Every Friday I go to the mall and drop my paycheck in all sorts of crap that I probably didn’t need or could find for less. Nowadays, the mall is Greek to me. I feel like I’m the outsider looking in. Once something that was a part of me as the back of my hand is now like a wart that has been surgically lanced off. Ok, sorry about the disturbing picture there, but as always, I shoot from the hip.

Mainly what I’m ranting about is my recent experience in the food court. When the hell did they put music in the mall common areas, especially the food court. It’s supposed to be a quiet little nook where you can just eat and talk, and maybe eavesdrop at someone else’s conversation. Now, I couldn’t even here myself think. With their Disney-techno-teenybobber-bullshit they call music blaring out in the PA system over the eating area. (SARCASM WARNING me trying to speak about 4 octaves higher than normal): ”OMG, it’s like I couldn’t even keep my food in my mouth… like WTF!?!” Is that’s clear enough for your Jonas lovin’, overplayed payola song lovin’, brainwashed, tasteless emo bastards!!! At that point, I’m practically begging for some muzac to play… Seriously, I think that’s the reason why Apple made the iPod; because they foreseen this crap a-comin’.

So, that’s my rant; and I think a well deserved first WTF People!?! for the year. It’s been a long time coming for a WTF, and I hope that I can crank more of them in 2010 knockin’ them outta the park. So, I leave you with this… Keep a good song in your head, because you never know when some crappy song gonna replace what you already have playing. Unless it’s this…

BootLeG sampler.. signing out…