Family Party!

last night i gathered all the family and gave each a turn here are the photos:
(left to right) we have 62, who is just neat to look at, but not so fun to play because the bridge moves around if you rock too hard and messes up the whole intonation, plus only a neck pickup...its jazzy.
one to the right is Walter, he's got flat wound strings on and is really the cheapest, crappiest one I have but the most fun to play, go figure.  Next is Tele, totally rockin, i love you Tele and so do my best Brad Paisley licks. Then we arrive at Whitey, who in her current form is not really good sounding, she has the best intonation and looks beautiful but i think i need to mod her out some more, she is a relic of my buckethead/hardcore metal phase....active pickups sound terrible unless you are detuned to drop Q. To the right of Whitey is Steven Palaska, the only remaining savemewalter family member, he has a lot of stickers, notice the picture of Patria and Doyle...h-a-l-a-r-i-o-u-s.  Then their is 65, the world traveler, been to Greece and China and is the best acoustic I ever played, thanks 65.  last but not least is Hummingbird, my grandpa's church guitar, he gave it to me for graduating college, I was the first to do so in my family, cool huh? any way that was last night, and it was a grand gathering, i should do it more often. i just need an electronic drum set and a bass and i can record the album I have in my head...

thanks and santa

thanks for giving.  seeing family is always nice.  I ate a lot of sweet potatoes too.  here is a picture of good olde Bangs Lake in Wauconda, Illinois:


I have been too busy to complain recently, which
is nice.  So let me start complaining by telling you why I hate the Belmont L stop.  They always f-ing trick me into getting on the wrong train.  last time it was the purple line, this time it was santa's express.
the whole train smelled of peppermint and santa was there so I'm thinking, oh yes this is nice, ill get on this train...wrong. an hour later I'm home after going all the way to Howard.  Fool me once, I'm a fool, fool me twice, its not nice, but Fool me thrice...well that just sucks. damn you santa, and your wonderfully smelling train express line.

November 22

Happy Birthday Patria! I can't believe you're 24 today, it's been a long time since 15.  I think the rain cleared up too so there you go, best birthday wishes and hope you get everything you want and lots of love.
love always,
Derek

will or shall

good morning,
winter is on its way. today is the best day ever.  I want a bass, a (der) rickenbacher, a banjo, and a drum set in my apt.  just throwing that out there.  It shall happen. (imperative voice....side note: I always thought that "will" and "shall" were confused often.  I understand it this way: you use "shall" for the first person, i.e. I shall..., we shall..., when using the future tense, and "will" for the 2nd and 3rd person for the future tense. However when will is used in the first person, and shall in the 2nd or 3rd person then they have the force of the imperative voice, e.g. the boy shall go to school today! (imperative)...I will do it! (imperative...if there was such a thing as first person imperative...).ANYWAY, besides that grammar tangent, monday's aren't all that bad, I usually get a good night sleep sunday night and cause i only work till 6 monday..and get to sleep in on Tuesday,...unless some stroke comes in at 5:59 and bothers me. I just want to say that I love Khan Academy, I've been a huge fan of that site for over two years now.  If you need to work on calculus or get basic chem, physics, or bio it's really the model of education that will make higher institutions of learning obsolete someday.  Sal is so clear in his explanations too.  I'm itchin to go somewhere new. I want to go to the art institute, maybe Thursday or Friday. I recorded a song last night too, but here is my Music playlist from yesterday:
Wings - band on the run
Avett Bros - I and you and love
Harry Nilsson - Pussy Cats
Trampled by Turtles -  ?
Bon Iver - ?
Ambulance LTD - ?
John Mayer - Continuum
Emily Cole - Lyon demos and christmas sheet music
Tom waits - Real Gone
Ravel - Bolero
Portugal. The man - Waiter: "you Vultures!"

solutions

ok, that last post was over the top, but rather than take it down like the one before the last one, let's do another that focuses on solutions.  I'm only focused on solutions from now on.  what's good with the world? cacao. yes i said it. cacao is the food of the gods. it literally is theobromine.  it opens your heart chakra, that for that reason some people can't do it.  it's just too powerful. cacao is heart medicine.  Gold is on the same octave that cacao is on, and a couple octaves up is the sun, they all are the same energy.  that's why you should eat it.  cacao pairs up with the ormus elements is a magical way.  these would include all the mushrooms, i.e. reishi, chaga, cordyceps, agaricus blazei, and all the other polysaccharide rich herbs and bee products, especially goji, noni, royal jelly and aloe vera.   vanilla is another thing that's part of the solution because the vanilla orchid and cacao tree can grow in symbiosis.  beside these things i think we need to think about government in general.  it has been clear to me for quite awhile that career politicians and the conception of having "representatives" is absolete in the 21st century and if we want to get serious about the future of our species on our planet and hopefully other planets and solar systems is to rethink what a government is in the computer age. i want to create wiki-open source models of power sharing to have a sort of virtual government.  im ranting now though.  another solution: bring back recess time and gym in school, best times ever.  gotta play. what about climate change, you say? i don't know but i bet if we grew algae and ate nothing but that we'd be fine.  bam, we need a moon base.  bad. gotta have it. a moon lab. we should work less and relax more too.  productivity is so high that we could all work less and still enjoy a high standard of living.  there no such thing as debt, where does it exist? there is really only abundance.  Look at how many different types of cereal choices you have at the grocery store.  you can get bananas in Chicago. miracle. we live in times where you can have anything you want in ways that kings could not have imagined.  we live in such prosperity, and yet we still have to go to war, for what? so we can have more? we have everything.  ok down the list are epiphone guitars, they are out.  except for the 65 casino (want one) they are stupid and not gibsons.  another solution involves me not losing my monthly L pass for a third time.  no clue about that second time, totally baffled where it is; the first time i was drunk.  next solution is to get the keys BEFORE showing someone a car because it takes WAY to long to get keys because they are lazy and hate to work and i don't blame them.  call chris luxem.  yes, do it.  see a good movie soon, finish a book for Christ's sake, learn that john mayer song's solo, you can do it; buy All Things Must Pass reissue and the Pinkerton reissue.  solutions: get a camera to take sweeeet pictures with.  buy that fucking banjo already! don't miss concerts ever again.  get more than 6 hours of sleep, pet Homer the cat, check the weather before going out for the day, buy more celery, apply for some jobs for the hell of it, go out on friday...or saturday night. record a song.  continue to eat massive amounts of chaga and cacao in every smoothie.  and last is go to bed, right now, ok.

absolutely

i had the best night i have had in YEARS, and slept two hours but i'm too happy to be tired right now.  Spicy Cacao-cayenne pepper smoothie to wake up.  Yes, derek this is the best weekend ever. 

if you love something give it away

Well, well, well.  I've used this blog basically as my therapist, my arm chair, and my solace, and thus far its been really good to me.  I mean I'm the only one that reads it, but I'm fine with that.  That said, I have been on a strange roller coaster lately.  New moods awake in me each day and you never know what you are going to get.  Today, for example, was a great day at work as far as making money goes, but I feel so empty on the inside.  It usually happens like that. I need someone consistent in my life. My friends I've grown up with will always be the most special people to me but I see them very seldom. I'm quite introverted and can go seriously months without seeing anyone I know. I should make a stronger attempt to meet new people I think.  But it's annoying and exhausting to do the whole biography thing and learn about someone and then have to learn all their inside jokes and explain myself and what I "do" and whatever ect. ect. I am going to another concert tonight, maybe I'll meet someone interesting there. I may or may not see an old and most dear friend tomorrow, I'm pretty sure I will but I don't know what to expect. I have thought about this person for a very long time and I'm very excited to have an opportunity to meet up but it's only for maybe an hour or so and then it's back to Chicago.  As I mentioned in my last post I hit my head really hard last weekend and got a concussion and I try not to let it show but I've been really disoriented and not myself this week, not to mention terrible headaches.  It's really the perfect metaphor of my emotional state the last three years or so, sort of woozy and not standing straight on two feet.  maybe all of these feelings are just part of getting older and reaching an age of responsibility, blah blah yadda yadda, i don't want to grow up.  I know I'll find my niche later than sooner but it's just a shame that I can't be happy and satisfied right now.  It's difficult because I don't know how I measure up in the world of worlds.  I pray for the skills, never the opportunity, because I know the opportunities always come and really are infinite, I just ask for the skills to know how to take advantage of the opportunities when they are available. If I try hard enough and long enough I know I'll find someone and something that fits me in line with my mission on this blue planet.  See I'm feeling better just getting this off my hands. I want to experience passion and desire again, and create something beautiful, and I'm not being fulfilled at the moment, but if it is to be it is up to me so let's get going.  Worrying about things can't add one minute to my life, or put money in my pocket, or love on my lips.  yet, what if dreams are more real than reality, I mean the fabric of reality, is really vision and imagination.  I have to dream it before it becomes real...I'll end on that good note because I have lofty dreams, full of creation and laughter and passion and much happiness ergo I'm going to do it now, or soon, or someday, or never, but at least I'll be a dreamer.

fuck my head

i need a dump truck to unload my head.  Bob Dylan was sweet but i was out of control and whacked my head somehow and got a concussion and have felt like a idiot for two days, sore neck and bruises and such.  I totally skipped Halloween for the first time in my life.  I feel old. November has a certain smell, me thinks.  time to get to it.  could this be the best week ever? we shall find out.  Trampled by turtles on Thursday and Friday, oh boy, who knows, no expectations, right? right.  left. up. down. sigh.



p.s. I probably won't vote, whoops.