Why does music touch the heart?

I just got finished watching the season premiere of Gray's Anatomy. I also watched the pre-show recap of the last season. At the end of the recap they had a video by The Fray "How to Save a Life". I have loved the song for a while but never seen any video by the band. The video was filled with clips of GA. The clips fit in perfectly with the song which leads me to wonder whether it was written for the show. It was used in the last seasons GA season finale so maybe it was.

However that is not my point. Songs like these seems to touch me in a weird way. When I hear them I feel like I am reconnecting with the world, or I am the only one left in the world, or I finally understand the true meaning of love. Music can make you feel so many strange emotions. It's not even genre specific or band specific. I love a song called Konstantine by a band called "Something Corporate". I do not know a single other song by them. However Konstatine will forever remind me of Keri. Songs become memories in a way. I remember a lot of my past almost like a movie, with its own soundtrack. I can actually pick certain songs and tell you what period of my life I was at. If you have ever seen "High Fidelity" with John Cusack, he organizes his records autobiographical. I have that same idea with music.

Something about music has that ability to just get into those level of your soul that sometimes are not open. It can fight its way through and touch you were you didn't think you needed it.

I have lost my music fascination over that last few year. I haven't owned a car in about 4 years. I don't have a cd player in my room. I have gone through numerous mp3 players overs the years but busted each of them within a few months. Now I have a phone that is Itunes capable, however I have not changed the songs in over a month.

I have gone through numerous fetious over a variety of music styles. The weird part is I still like them all. My current taste is always my favorite but once in a while I just love to relieve the past. I went into Jimmy Johns today before class and they were playing Tool. I am guessing its Tools new album, but they are a pretty unmistakable band. The voice is pretty hard to miss. I went to their concert back in Highschool during junior or senior year. The place was so packed that I actually was able to lift my feet off the floor because I was being crushed by the people in front and behind me. Also this was the concert(if you have heard the stories) where out of now where some guy started punching me in the back of the head. A fight never really broke out because when I turned around and talked to him he was laughing his ass off( I am also guessing he was pretty high on something by his look). I looked at him and knew he just hit me . I said what the fuck. His response was fuck you. At that point the whole crowd shifted and the guy fell away with the crowd. The rest of the concert I was a little on edge looking out for him but he was always far away. I still thought about walking over and just start punching him in the back of the head. I never did but still enjoyed the concert.

I got a little off topic. I would like for people to post songs that remind them of periods of time in their lives. I will post a few here:
Pour Some Sugar on Me- Def Leopard 3rd or 4th grade gym night
Any GNR or Motley Crue song - 8th grade
Nirvana-Smells Like Teen Spirit and NIN-Wish- Freshman year
Chloe Dancer/ Crown Of Thorns-Mother Love Bone-Sophmore Year
Fee-Phish and Least Complicated and Blood and Fire, and Closer to Fine-Indigo girls-Senior Year
Onslaught-Blues Traveler and Crucify-Tori Amos- Freshmen Year
After that I can just list songs. The list gets smaller but I still love to hear them.
Konstatine-Something Corporate
District Sleeps Tonight-Postal Service
I Will Follow You into the Dark-Death Cab for Cutie
How to save a life-The Fray

I know I could go through my cd or mp3 collection and find more. However these stand out in my mind at this point in time. Everyone of those songs have gotten me through a time in my life or kept me going on the right path or reminded me of something important in life that sometimes I forget. Either way music definitely effect me. I am not sure if it effects you in the same way. If it does please feel free to point some songs that hold meaning to you because I would love to hear them.

Beer Mapping. You know for kids!

Nice!

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/restaurants/060825/

I went to the Guinness and Oyster fest yesterday. We saw this band called Powder. They were insane. The music was pretty good but the show they put on was awesome. The lead singer is wearing these crazy outfits and she does a gymnastic routine.
The picture is from my cell phone from about 40 ft away so its not very good. However there are two ring suspended in the air and the lead singer and another girl up that doing routine. If you have a chance to see them I highly recommend it.

Check out one of their video's to see how bizarre they are.
http://www.atomfilms.com/landing/landingIndex.jsp?id=powder&mature=accept

Time to relax

I had some homework and a lab assignment due tonight at midnight. I had been working on it a little bit this week but really focused on it last night. I got to a point where there was only a few small problems that I have left. I got home from work and spent two hours trying to get my files off the ftp site so I could work on them. After that it took me only 45 minutes to update them and finish them. I called Fitz for a brief question since my class is geared towards what he does for a career. So now I am done for the night. I just ordered ton's of Chinese foods from Jia's(best chinese food in the city). I am going to pig out and watch crappy television.

On another note. I picked up the book "A Scanner Darkly" a week or so ago because I have wanted to see the movie. Its not a big book about 250 pages. Its really quite an interesting read. Half the time you don't have a clue whats going on but its kind of the point. The book is about a junkie. So you really get to understand how bouncy the mind can be in that state. Its also got a somewhat funny bit to it because the junkie is being monitored by the police. The cool part about the book is it talks alot about the mind and how it works. The book was written in 1982. It talks alot about how the mind has two independent hemispheres though the left one is dominant. What would happen if the connections between them begin to deteorate or close. Could your mind keep going? Would you have two totally different thought patterns?

BSG Fans

BSG fans. In case you have not been rewatching the second season as its been replayed on Sci-Fi on Friday nights then you might not be aware that starting this past Tuesday is 10 new webisodes airing on Tuesdays and Thursdays prior to the start of the new season. Who knew the web could make the tv even better.

Check them out at http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/.

Best thing in Denver

During a commercial for Sam Adam's I stumble across this little jewel in Denver Colorado. This years is the 28-30 of September. In the heart of the movie Beerfest, I believe this is the true beerfest. I already have plans for the 30th and since I just got back from a trip I doubt going to it this year. However next year is the year. Sign me up. Click on the picture to see what I am talking about.

When I grow up I want to be.....

Last night I went to the cubs game. With that I spent a lot of time afterwards talking to a friend about a lot of things going on in our lives. The one thing that came up that has been part of my mind for a while was that we are growing older. I know that may sound stupid. I am almost 30 which should mean that I should be an adult. However; I still feel like a kid at times. 3 of my ex girlfriends are married and with children. I am not saying I want that life., now I am very happy with the way my life is and I have made choices to bring to where I am. I still kind of feel like not an adult at times. I can not really explain it though. I look at the way my parents are and I think being an adult i should be at their point but I am not. However the one thing I have come to terms is that I am not their and I think I will get there on my own time. I have help but i believe she is already aware of how much help I need.

I must apologize for not blogging for almost a month. I kind of feel like Hutch. Though at least my last post was after his last post.

I have a lot to say but I won't say it all. The last few months of the summer were killing me. Work has gotten crazier and I have come to loathe my supervisor. It might be me but I really do not need supervision at work like some of my co-workers. I am constantly finding things that will improve the area that we support. Also I have a second responsibility of my job that started back in Nov after the outsourcing. In this role I am the only person that does it and I report directly to the second line manager of our department. I still usually keep my first line manager in the loop of most of the things so he has an idea of what I am doing.

My team-lead(supervisor) however seems to think that he needs to be involved in everything. Which recently has become a bigger problem for my job. I believe I have spoken on this before. I briefly spoke to my first line manager about possibly moving out from under my team-lead. Hopefully I can follow through in the next few weeks to figure out a plan. Its either that or move completly out from under my first line manager though I really get along well with him so I do not want to have to do that.

Another reason that I was so crazy was schoo. I know this is going to sound really strange coming from the guy who dropped out of college after his first year but I really want to do well in school. I was completely stressing about how I was doing in the last class I took this summer. It has a lot to do with the first homework assignment which I spent over ten hours on and still gave up and got an 84%. I know that 84% is a B and I should be happy. However; going back to school now for me means that I really waited until I was ready which means I should be able to get the best grades possible. In the past the worst grade I have gotten for a class was a B+ except for on class which I never quite finished. That class really F's up my GPA but the class was about how to plan your path in school in a program that I am not longer with. Also that class came during a interesting part of my life. So I basically pretend like that never happened and still consider my worst grade a B+. So based on that I get worried about not getting an A. Not an A- but an A. I need to in order to keep pulling my GPA up but also just because I want to do the best I can.

I am happy to say that after my first homework assignment of 84 I was able to pull off much better grades. It was a lot of work but I was able to pull off the A in the class. I know its sounds really stupid that I am worried about it but I figure that being almost 30 I should understand the importance of school know and getting good grades that most 18-21 years olds don't.

On a much better note. The last week I took Keri on a somewhat suprise vacation to Cozumel, MX. Picture will be posted once I get the camera developed and get photo's from Keri's digital camera. We went Scuba diving so we bought a disposable underwater camera. I am not sure how the picture will turn out but I am sure they will be crappy since my above water photo skills are not that good. It will be interesting. Otherwise there is a long drawn out travel story. Short version we ended up spending the first night of our vacation in beautiful Dallas,TX. We at least got to enjoy a Shiner Bock.

I will try to post the whole story plus the letter that I plan on writing.

Recommendation: If you plan on booking travel it defintly is helpful to book it through a travel agent/tour company. We booked through American Airlines Vacation's and they were a huge help when problems with the trip happened. Plus there was then someone at our destination to contact if we needed assistance.

Overall Keri and I had a great relaxing trip. I loved Cozumel though I really wished I had seen it before Hurricane Wilma hit last year. It will be a few years before they fully recover.