Saturday, August 28, 2010

Such a Cliché

Kind of a fast paced silly song...

Verse 1:
Well all bets are off, I got an ace up my sleeve
I’m all ears, bare bones, as snug as a bug in a rug
I’m a cash cow by the skin of my teeth
I’ll clean your clock with ants in my pants.
A penny for your thoughts, I’ll make a quick buck
These pigs are flying just like lady luck

Verse 2:
I’ll yank your chain because I was born in a barn
I’ll beat a dead horse and get back in the saddle
I’m gonna hunker down, jump down your throat
Jump the gun, get the knockout blow
I cry over spilled milk, but I wasn’t born yesterday
If the shoe fits, wear it, and the rest is history

Chorus:
Hey hey, what do you say?
Maybe, life has a way
Of throwing gas on the fire, but that’s ok
Cuz this song is such a cliché

Verse 3:
Well welcome to the club when hell freezes over
You snooze you lose the whole enchilada
Have I rattled your cage? Pulled the wool over your eyes?
A fish out of water, you’ve got a long row to hoe
You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn at the drop of a hat
I think we got off on the wrong foot, but nice guys finish last

Verse 4:
Hold your horses, I wasn’t born yesterday
I don’t mean to air dirty laundry, but you lost me
Another nail in the coffin, back from the dead
I reinvented the wheel, now eat some lead
Last but not least, leaving no stone unturned
Play the hand you’re dealt, and remember these words

Chorus:
Hey hey, what do you say?
Maybe, life has a way
Of throwing gas on the fire, but that’s ok
Cuz this song is such a cliché

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Someone mentioned the show “The Wonder Years” the other day in conversation. Honestly it really took me back to my childhood. I absolutely LOVED that show. A lot of people in my generation grew up watching that show among others. There was something special about The Wonder Years. Almost everyone could relate to the awkwardness and different situations that the characters went through. I have felt like Kevin many times in my life. I can especially remember being in “Middle School” and going through a lot of the same things that Kevin went through in the show. While would love to reminisce more about the show, that’s not what this post is ultimately about.

As I remembered the show, I got to think about the classic Joe Cocker theme song… “With a Little Help From My Friends.” It got me thinking about my current life situation. I have had some circumstances in my life recently that many people would find difficult to deal with. I won’t get into any specifics about the situations, but for a time I was really struggling with them. That’s when my friends really stepped up and supported me. So this post is really about thanking my friends. I am blessed to have a great family and a lot of friends that love me and care about me. I have had old friends that I haven’t kept up with very much step up and call me. Some friendships are like that. Sometimes you can even go years without talking to certain people and just pick back up right where you left off. I am grateful to have those types of friendships in my life.

I have also made an effort to meet new people lately and develop new friendships. I am not a very social person to be honest, but I feel like I have at least been making an effort lately. I have to say that it has been fun. When you meet new people and develop new relationships you sometimes get a different perspective on things. It can also help you to stay out of getting in a rut in your life. I feel like I have been in a rut for a long time. It’s hard not to when you are out of college and in the working world. However, now I am trying my best to “shake things up.” Spending time getting to know good people is a good thing.

So to all my friends, old and new, thank you for everything. And if anyone has “The Wonder Years” on DVD let me borrow it.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

A Better Part of Me

Another song for you... whipped this one up real quick tonight...


Verse 1:
City lights turn into country skies
All alone on this midnight ride
Got my guitar riding shotgun
It’s gonna be a good night

Sometimes a man needs time alone
Time to set out on his own
So I filled my tank and hit the road
There’s no time to postpone

Pre-Chorus:
Maybe it’s time for me to change my ways
Or is it too late?

Chorus:
I wanna be a man that understands
Life and love and their demands
A dead end job and dead end plans
Is not what I need.
I wanna be a man that is finally free
A life filled with hopes and dreams
I think it’s time that I finally see
How to find a better part of me

Verse 2:
Country music playing on the radio
Down Highway 30 fast and slow
No destination on my mind
I’m just riding cuz I gotta go

Wondering about this life I’ve got
Another day closer to rot
It’s time for me to change it all
And love the things I’ve forgot

Pre-Chorus:
Maybe, It’s time for me to change my ways
Or is it too late?

Chorus:
I wanna be a man that understands
Life and love and their demands
A dead end job and dead end plans
Is not what I need.
I wanna be a man that is finally free
A life filled with hopes and dreams
I think it’s time that I finally see
How to find a better part of me

Outro:
A better part of me
A better part of me
It’s time to find
A better part of me

Monday, August 16, 2010

Years Pass Me By

Here's another song I've had in "the vault" for a while. I found it on a scratch sheet of paper the other day, and I tried to finish it up. Again, kind of a rough draft still. This one has music to it...it's very slow and mellow. Maybe I can get Josh or Daniel to sing it for me and record it. I'm going to soon write a blog on what kinds of things inspire songs for me. I think that could be interesting for some people. For instance, this song came to me after watching an episode of "House." =)


Remember the time that I
Watched as you waved goodbye?
So long another friend
Years pass me by.

Remember the winter cold
Playing out in the snow?
We had the time of our lives,
Years pass me by.

Chorus:
I wonder if I ever really
Learned how to be a man.
I wonder if I held you,
Would time reverse its plan?
Just one more minute, one more day
A chance to say goodbye
The moment elapsed
Years pass me by.

I remember days before
When time wasn’t such a chore
But now I realize
Years pass me by

It’s hard to understand
When nothing goes to plan
One less day before I die
Years pass me by

Chorus:
I wonder if I ever really
Learned how to be a man.
I wonder if I held you,
Would time reverse its plan?
Just one more minute, one more day
A chance to say goodbye
The moment elapsed
Years pass me by.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Making it Rain!

As you may or may not know, I work in retail…T-Mobile to be specific. You would not believe the people I come into contact with everyday. If you have never worked with “the public” you are probably a nicer person for it. I interact with a wide variety of people everyday. Some people are friendly and reasonable; others are flat out mean and ridiculous. Then there are the ones that can only be described as “crazy.” Let me give you two examples of crazy.

This day started like any other day. I was working the 12 – 8pm shift and everything was pretty much going as normal. That is until Tameka came into the store. She immediately waltzed up to my register and said she wanted to pay her bill. I told her the total (about $90), and she started pulling cash out of her purse. I kid you not; she pulled out 90 one-dollar bills! She piled them up on my desk one by one. I proceeded to say something to the extent of “That’s a lot of ones!” She then laughed out loud and said: “I’m about to make it rain up in here!” For those of you who don’t know what “make it rain” means, here is the Urban Dictionary definition: “When you're in da club with a stack, and you throw the money up in the air at the strippers. The effect is that it seems to be raining money.” The term has been popularized in several rap songs over the past several years. Anyway, so she picks up the stack of ones and throws them up into the air! We all started laughing pretty hard. She was jumping up and down and dancing all around the store. What she did next was what really shocked me. She picked up one of the one-dollar bills and reached across my desk and stuffed it down my pants!!! She then said something like: “YEAH!! WE PARTYING NOW!!” I have to say I was shocked. I completely froze up. I couldn’t move or say anything because I was in shock. She was laughing hysterically and so were my coworkers. I have to say that was the first time I have every been tipped for taking a bill payment.

The very next day I was again at the store. I had recovered from the previous day’s escapades, and was enjoying a fairly normal day. Around 2pm I received an email from one of the T-Mobile stores in Columbus. Apparently they had a man that was trying to fraudulently activate service with them with a stolen identity. An hour or so later, I got an email from another T-Mobile location saying that the same man tried to do the same at their store, and we should “be on the lookout for him.” Needless to say, about an hour later he walked through the front door. He was dressed in a ratty polo style shirt and black jeans. He of course came to my register. He told me that he wanted to sign up for service and get two Blackberry phones. He said he owned his own business and wanted to sign up under the business name. Since I already knew that he had stolen the identity of the business, I decided to have a little fun with him. I probed him with questions about his “business.” He told me that he owned his own recording studio in Columbus. He said that he just got done with shooting a video for Lil Wayne and P Diddy. I almost started laughing at him right then and there, but I was able to keep my composure. If that lie wasn’t enough… he kept going. “I also own my own construction company,” he said. I asked: “Oh yeah? What do you build?” “Boats” he said! At this point I had to cover my face and pretend to be scratching it to hide my laugh. I went on to say how cool it was that he had his own recording studio and boat construction company. But it gets even better folks. He then dropped the bombshell on me: “I’ll tell you where the money is at though… Storm Chasing! I chase Tornadoes and Hurricanes and make a killin doin that!” This time I laughed out loud right in front of him. I couldn’t help it! STORM CHASING!?!?!? Give me a break man! He didn’t catch the fact that I was amused by his ill-advised web of lies. Eventually I had enough fun with him, and I told him we couldn’t activate service for him without his tax papers. He was pretty discouraged by this and left for the Auburn T-Mobile.

So needless to say, everyday can be an adventure when working with the public. You meet some very colorful people to say the least. My trick for dealing with the bad ones is to enjoy the crazy ones!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Whale Wars

The funniest show on TV right now has got to be “Whale Wars.” This Animal Planet show is about a group of people called “The Sea Shepherds” who make an annual trek to the Antarctic to try to stop Japanese whalers. The Japanese claim that their whaling is legally accepted research, which Sea Shepherd and others contend is a cover for banned commercial whaling. Sea Shepherd has been both criticized and praised for tactics of direct action sabotage which include throwing stink bombs of butyric acid as well as ramming, boarding, and otherwise attempting to disable the Japanese vessels.

The funny part of the show is that the Sea Shepherds are completely incompetent. Every thing they try fails, and they are constantly making bone-headed decisions. Their “Captain” Paul Watson looks like he just came out of the local Chuck-E-Cheese. The rest of the crew is just as bad. They make comments like “I would give my life to save just one whale.” Saving whales is great and all, but personally I value human life over animal life any day. Especially MY own life.

Let me just say that I personally do not have a problem with the sentiments of The Sea Shepherds (to an extent), but their tactics are ridiculous. They basically travel down into the Southern Ocean and try to find the Japanese whaling fleet. If and when they find the fleet, they try to get alongside the whalers and they throw stink bombs at them. The idea is that if they throw stink bombs the whalers won’t be able to work due to the smell. Also the butyric acid in the stink bombs can contaminate the whale meat.

This notion is seemingly a noble way to fight the whalers, but it doesn’t work. The idea is that they Sea Shepherds don’t want to harm the Japanese whalers physically, but only want to deter them from being able to work. Often times the Sea Shepherds will release a smaller inflatable boat from their main vessel. The idea here is that the smaller boat is faster, and can catch the speedy Japanese boats. In one particularly comical episode, the Sea Shepherds tried to lower the inflatable into the water…with people in it...while going full speed. Needless to say, they ended up flipping the inflatable boat and spilling four crewmembers into the frigid Southern Ocean. On a different occasion, they again tried to launch the small inflatable vessel. This time they were “successful” in the launch, but the driver of the inflatable then proceeded to chase after the whalers…in the wrong direction. They raced about 5 miles in the opposite direction of the whalers until they realized what happened. Another time they were trying to throw stink bombs onto the whalers boat, one of their crewmembers accidentally dropped one of the glass bottles…thus stink bombing their own boat! It was quite humorous to see them all scurrying to get inside.

Again, I’m not here to say that killing whales is a good thing. I think that unnecessarily killing endangered animals is wrong. However, the stupidity of the Sea Shepherds is just too amusing to overlook. Every episode is a new chance for them to somehow screw it all up.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Inside of Me

I don't really have anything new to post just yet, so I'd thought I'd share a song I've been working on for quite some time. I've written many many songs over the years, so I may be posting some of them on here from time to time. Some are spiritual, some are not. This one is not. This one is called "Inside of Me"

This is incomplete in my view, so kind of a rough draft.



Inside of me

Clearly I never understood
How to replace the bad for good
I’m just man that found out he can’t
Love you anyway

Maybe one day you’ll understand
What’s it’s like to be a man
And have the one you love
Turn and walk away

Chorus:
But inside of me, inside of me
Behind these lonely eyes there’s a melody
Inside of me, Inside of me
A heart sewn back together by this remedy
Inside of me there’s a new song to sing
Inside of me there’s more love to bring
With distant eyes and fading smiles
Love may run, but pain can’t hide
Inside of me

Now I’m doing well on my own
Walking down this road alone
Never thought that I would feel
So good today

Looking back I can see my fear
Of being all alone down here
I never thought I’d see a time
When life felt this way

Chorus:
But inside of me, inside of me
Behind these lonely eyes there’s a melody
Inside of me, Inside of me
A heart sewn back together by this remedy
Inside of me there’s a new song to sing
Inside of me there’s more love to bring
With distant eyes and fading smiles
Love may run, but pain can’t hide
Inside of me