Music is Life

I listen to probably 2-3 hours of music a day, minimum. My tastes vary pretty greatly, ranging from Nordic music to electronic music to Grunge to Progressive Metal. I grew up in a household that was constantly filled with music. We had VHS upon VHS of 80's rock and metal band concert videos that I used to watch all of the time. The one I remember the most was Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon. Add to that the huge multitude of CD's we had and it was a constant jam fest. My dad had a pair of speakers set up in the living room that were huge and he was proud of. Very proud of, and rightfully so. I probably loved those things just as much as he did, at least when I was home alone with my little brothers and I was picking the music.

I never really thought much about how much I listen to music or how much different music I listen to until my girlfriend and I were talking about it one day. Maybe she just doesn't listen to that much music. Probably not the case, though.

Alice In Chains, Metallica, Tesla, Queensryche, Megadeth; So many bands are embedded in my memory and will forever be a part of my life because they are tied to so many memories. Music helps me get into a desired state of mind, whether it was preparing for a football game or I was needing to feel some creativity. No matter what it is, music is a vital part of my life. So many different feelings and ideas can be expressed or created with and because of music.

Here is some of my recommendations for those that read this (band names):

TesseracT
TOOL
A Perfect Circle
Rage Against the Machine
Deadmau5
Nero
Chimp Spanner
Opeth
Scar Symmetry
Monuments

Apple Butter Makin' Days Year Dos

If you have read the previous posts about Cerberus Crafts then you have a little knowledge regarding our history with Apple Butter Makin' Days. A lot has changed since this time last year. Most of all "us" is now "I". One of my partners left for the Navy and the other now works for a utility company that involves lots of travels. This will prove to be quite interesting for me this year without the added hands.

I was uncertain that I was going to be able to have a booth at Apple Butter Makin' Days this year due to school, work, and the finances leading up to it. After much consideration and looking at what stock I had left, I determined it would be financially wise to go ahead and do it. Remember the award we won? That cut my booth cost in half this year! BOOM!

My product list this year still consists of wood burnings and Perler pieces, but I have some added Perler items that I think will get good receptions. I started making coaster sets (see picture) that are freaking awesome. Best of all, they actually work! I'm pretty excited to see what people think of them. I'm hoping that I will get some orders from people there to make and send after Apple Butter Makin' Days, something I failed at doing last go around. Not this year. I will have my handy dandy order book!

I know that I have a pretty decent stock, bigger than last year for sure, but to me it will never be enough. The uncertainty of want people will want and ask for is stressing, but its also very intriguing to see what people look at and how they react. I love the psychology of it all. Hopefully this year is as much and more of a success than last year.

The Weight of Being a Chiefs Fan

Tonight the chiefs played on Monday Night Football against the Green Bay Packers. The meet up itself held some nostalgia with it being the 50th year of the Super Bowl and these two teams were the contenders of Super Bowl I. However, the feeling of excited leading into this game was quickly extinguished as the Chiefs showed everyone just how hard it is to be a Chiefs fan.

We (I use the term "we" when talking about the Chiefs, because you know, weird things sports fans do.) have a ton of talent on both sides of the ball. We returned the exact same defense as last year while also gaining our 3 injured starters. The defense was one of the best in the league last year. They didn't allow a single 300 yard passer or a pass that went over 50 yards. That's pretty damn impressive. But just like everything else when it comes to the Chiefs and being a fan, we were swiftly torn down. Week 3 and we already give up BOTH of those categories in the same game.

It is unbelievable how frustrating it is to be a Chiefs fan. I'm no football genius by any means, but when I can observe the Chiefs offense and the design of the plays and see how simple they are, someone needs to not have a job there. The play calling is horrendous, the offensive line may be one of the worst if not the worst in Chiefs history, everything is just crap.

This is supposed to be our year, like every year, and just like every year we show everyone how seriously you don't have to take the Chiefs. This was one of the worst displays I've seen, and not necessarily because it was THAT bad, because we SHOULD be THAT good and we are nowhere close. Hey, we finally ended our NFL history long streak of having no wide receiver touchdowns though! Oh the joys of being a Chiefs fan!

Relaxation Station

My girlfriend and I bought a house together this past May. It’s a little three bedroom house in Monett. It was my grandmother’s house at one point in time. We painted before we moved all of our stuff in and let me tell you, that was an experience. We painted pretty much every room in the house over a three day period. We certainly learned a lot about how to paint. My brother got red paint on our kitchen ceiling. It’s still there. I haven’t painted over it yet. I need to. I look at it every time I’m in the living room. I just tilt my head up and chuckle a little bit to myself. How could he have done that? We also installed a water heater on our own and cabinets. The water heater was a bit of a challenge. We bought the house and it has a gas water heater, but neither of us really like gas. It makes her nervous, so we decided to go ahead a put in an electric one. We had internet at our house before we had hot water, but that was okay. Installing the cabinets was a lot easier than I expected it to be. I cut the counter tops myself. We still have to install our dish washer and the counter top over that, but I don’t think that’s going to be too hard. I want to finish the garage. I’ve purchased all of the insulation that I’ll need. Next step is dry walling, but I’m going to have to get help for that. My uncle has done a lot of construction so I’m going to see if he can give me some tips and pointer. I love that we bought a house that we can do a little bit of work on, but not too much. We didn’t want to overwhelm ourselves. 

Dark Tower Power

My girlfriend is a big fan of the Dark Tower by Stephen King. She’s been telling me that I need to read it for the entire five years that we’ve been together. I tell her all the time that I’ll get to it. I’ll eventually read it, I’ll pick it up, but I haven’t yet. I really do want to. She says that it’s the best series that she’s ever read. She has two tattoos dedicated to the story, so I think that it has to be pretty good. Sony is making a movie and tv series based on the books. I think that she told me it is going to be released in January of 2017. She is beyond excited. She called me while I was at work when she first saw it announced. I thought something terrible had happened, but it was just her excitement. She gets really excited anytime she gets to talk about it. It makes her face light up.  One of these days I really am going to read it. The story that she’s told me makes it sound like it’s going to be really interesting. I wonder want I’ll think of it. I don’t want her to ruin it for me though. Sometimes she starts to tell me something really important that happens in the series and she stops herself.  I know that she really wants me to read them. I want to too, but I have this sense of dread, I think. I’m not sure that’s the right word for it. I don’t want to be disappointed in it, because I think that would make her sad. I don’t want to ruin that for her.  I told her when she reads the Halo book series; I’ll read the Dark Tower books. I think that is a pretty fair trade in my opinion. 

Holidaze

It’s getting close to Halloween. I have never really cared much about the holidays. We never decorated. We didn’t really celebrate anything but Thanksgiving and that’s because everybody in my family, myself included, loves food. Anytime we get together, there is always a lot of food.  My girlfriend loves Halloween and Christmas. For the last few months she’s been picking up random withes and ghosts and pumpkins. Every time I get home from work, there’s another decoration up. It makes her so happy to have a house to decorate. It’s so different than what I grew up in. Her favorite holiday is Christmas. She starts her shopping in July. I always tell her not to get me anything, but she always does. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell her that I don’t want anything, that I don’t need anything. She loves getting gifts for everybody. She’ll put our tree up on December 1^st and it’ll be up until she feels like taking it down, usually in the middle of January. She keeps talking about getting decorations for outside. I have to put lights on the house this year. She told me that as soon as we bought the house.  I like seeing her happy, though, so I’m going to put up lights, and decorate the tree with her. I like starting these new traditions with her.  I know that it’s something that is going to get a little bit crazy when she and I have kids, but I’m looking forward to seeing that, too. She always talks about all the things she wants to do around Christmas. She wants to make advent calendars, hot chocolate, watch Christmas movies on Christmas Eve. I still am not a huge fan of the holidays, but they are certainly growing on me, the longer we’re together. She just has so much holiday spirit. 

Word Pictures

I used to really love to write. I don’t do it as much as I used to. I like to tell stories. I have a lot of stories that just kind of circulate around in my brain. Sometimes I write them down, sometimes I just tell people; anyone who will listen. This assignment has kind of kick started my brain a little bit. I’ve been writing more, and I think I’m starting to like it again. It was hard at first. I didn’t want to sit down every day and around about something. I could not think of anything to write about. I didn’t want to write about what I saw. I wanted to write something original, something that gave people a better sense of who I am as a person and as a writer. I hate busy work. If I’m writing something, I want it to be important or personal. I want it to be something that people want to read.  By blogging, I think that I’ve awakened a part of my brain that I didn’t realize was asleep. I think that by being out of school so long I have just been really out of practice. I don’t think that I have written since the last time I was in school. I’m getting a lot better about it though. I am enjoying it again and that’s such a big deal. It makes this assignment much easier. I’m glad I’ve been keeping up with it though, because I can feel myself getting better. I want to continue to write, maybe not every day or every night, but I want to write at least twice a week. I want to make this a habit. I really want to start putting all these ideas that I have floating around my head down on paper. It’ll make it easier to tell people about them.