God Is An Astronaut!

Hello!

First up, the stuff i've been listening to for the past few days, which i HIGHLY recommend for anyone slightly into post-rock or ambient sort of stuff.

God Is An Astronaut - All Is Violent, All Is Bright; Far From Refuge and their self titled album.





These are pretty much the only three i have so far, but boy are they awesome. No really heavy stuff, just light melodies interweaved and backed by strong bass and drum tracks.

Caspian - Tertia. Pretty similar to GIAA, but both lighter and heavier at the same time.



As far as events go, the last week was pretty much dedicated to recording and editing Chris "Bubbles" Au's encore composition. A Sennheiser 401 up close on the hammers (he has this amazing kawai rx grand) and a Shure SM57 slightly off axis behind the stick as more of an overall mic. Both mics into an ART usb dual preamp, and recorded with adobe Audition 3.

Video was recorded was my mediocre sony video camera, but it did the trick.

The audio turned out to be pretty good, nice, clear and crisp but slightly harsh due to the nature of his pianos. Nothing a quick EQ couldn't fix.

So on Thursday, we went through the videos and tried to sync the audio and the video with the *cough*pieceofshit*cough*adobe premiere (or maybe it's just my old version). But we pretty much wasted a day because the audio just didn't want to sync AT ALL; the first few seconds would be fine, but then it'd die afterwards. AP also decided to turn the video a nasty shade of blue, so he looked like a bloody smurf.

At 5, we started to get pissed, so i just decided to try sony vegas instead. And lo and behold, managed to finish it in about 40 minutes.

Are pizzas meant to be 18 bucks delivered!!?, cause we wanted a few for lunch, but it was too hot outside to walk. Looked online and holycrap they're 18 bucks each. So, we opted to pick up, and whaddaya know, 5 bucks each for a custom 70s lot and godfather. Saved 26 bucks just by walking a little in the heat.

During editing, Mr Au made quite an intelligent comment: "Hey! That's me!".

Also saw a handful of ruse people at the UNSW interviews today; i actually have no idea how well i went, and neither do most of the people i talked to afterwards. One of my interviewers also had this lazy eye, so i had no idea if he was looking at me or not. Haha, ended up being really distracting and kind of strange because i didn't know if the eye contact was there or not.

Aaaaaaand, many packages have been arriving this last week and a bit...

I wonder what they all are!



Stay tuned...

Buddha's Shopping Spree!

God it feels so good to get rid of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL my school crap. My room will be entirely empty after this, but not to worry, it'll be much nicer as a small home studio setup. Muahaha.

As for the shopping spree:

Thanks to the Department of Defence and the Reserve Bank, i am now 500 bucks richer (name and address blurred just in case):




Which will go towards my amp/effects fund!, currently sitting at about 2000.YEAH BABY. Hopefully, i'll get the following setup (skip of you don't care):

Running in front:
MXR Dynacomp for compression, into
BB preamp for slight boost/dirt on clean and low drive channels,
Vox Satchurator for Satriani style drive,

FX loop:
MXR 10 band EQ, for precise frequency shaping and emulation of voicings,
My current ME70 for delay/modulation/volume controls.

Shure SM57 dynamic instrument mic, and a analogue to usb adaptor of some sort.

As for amps, i'll be going around to different shops over the next few weeks, trying out as many as possible and posting up mini reviews for you UG people. Pwahahaha, it will be incredibly awesome. Once i get everything set up, i'll start recording heaps, so stay tuned!

Oh, some cool wallpapers i found to spice up your desktops:






Also, dad's going to Europe on a business trip in January, so i may tag along and go explore Europe when he finishes his jobs there. Hopefully visit Rome, Paris + Normandy, Berlin and possibly London if i go.

Dear god i'll be spending so much money, hahahah. However, that's soon to be fixed.

Well, enjoy your well earned break everyone, and safe and happy trips!

The Classics

Well, high school is pretty much over.

Awesome thing is, i don't regret one thing i did, only the things i didn't get to do. Ruse has really been an awesome environment, and it all feels like it's leading up to something big in the future.

So, all that soppy stuff aside.







No wait, hahahah, here are some classic (possibly love) songs that i've recently been getting into.





BUT, I remember my first exposure to music was this:



Then after that, i went through the mainstream phase, where i only listened to stuff from the uh, what do you call it, charts? After that, it kind took a turn to the heavier side, i.e. bands like Evanescance, which i still listen to a decent amount.

As i explored more, i started to get an interest in guitar, which seemed to be the basis of the majority of songs, and sounded oh so cool. Again, my taste got heavier, going more towards metal and its subgenres. That lasted a while.

Thankfully, i discovered blues and jazz, through Eric Clapton and Norah Jones, as well as piano and acoustic based stuff. Then came progressive rock and post rock.

Haha, seems like the theory for kids who play guitar is true; they start off with rock and metal, and slowly mature towards much lighter and more articulate styles.

Balmoral was pretty fun, couple of interesting bus trips and some time just to chill out on the beach is nice way to end the year; but i guess the most interesting thing was getting attacked by seagulls, (who? what word should be used here!?!?) have advanced from crowding around people with chips to swooping in and snatching them from their hands, haha.

Oh, i've also hopped on the Facebook wagon. I hope that it won't become too much of a distraction for the next few weeks.

Well, all the best everyone.

Happy studying, and stay safe :)

Home Recordings

SO,

Trials are finally over, and marks are coming back. Yadda yadda, i really don't want to think about marks more than i have to, haha.

Anyway, for the past couple of days i've been fiddling around with some recording gear, and ended up with this. <- It's the one called "tone test".

It's pretty much just a little test of my gear. The first half is a little original thing with a mostly impro'd lead line, then some random songs that just came to my head. Mistakes, of course, are there - please ignore them, haha. Any criticism would be good, keeping in mind it's a first attempt - everything else before was done with the help of some very experienced friends :D

For the quality of the gear i've got, i'd say it's a decent recording. Pretty much guitar into the preamp of a Boss ME70, using the onboard effects(compression, reverb, delay, EQ, slight gain boost), straight into computer's soundcard (soundblaster or something) and into Adobe Audition, with ASIO drivers.

Moving on,

Just finished speech for 2u english, which means, NO MORE RUSE ASSESSMENTS. Woooooooo

Anyway, that also means that our time at Ruse is drawing to a close. Ah well, nostalgia's never been my thing.

On a completely different note: District 9. Whoa, completely different to what i expected (i.e. independence day esque alien thing), but in a very good way. The documentary style was really well done, and didn't take the focus away from the plot. For a new director in the scene, it was pretty badass, though the violence could have been toned down just a little.

Kinda hard to describe it without any spoilers, so i won't try. Definitely a must see if you're into sci-fi sort of stuff, with [subtle] political undertones.

Dear god my upload speed is shocking.

ON ANOTHER TANGENT:

Back to ye olde dreams, i've had some pretty damn strange ones, but this one stood out the most.

So, i'm walking along a really dimly lit passageway of some sort, seems to be a sewerage treatment plant at first glance (never really thought of this, but you can't dream smells, can you?), and come to a table where two guys are busy cutting up stuffed toys. Assorted parts lie all over the table.

So, i find that really strange and ask one of the dudes, who looks up. His eyes seemed really glassy, but then i realised that his eyes were the same plastic ones you find on toys. I step back in fear, and fall into the water.

The water isn't very dense, and i sink straight to the bottom. It also flowed REALLY quickly, so i get dragged along with it, bumping along pipe corners and seeing the odd solid bit float past (not sure if you can feel pain in dreams either, physical i mean).

Eventually, i get spurted out into a stone courtyard, and i realize it's some sort of ancient Aztec place. It's dusk, and the sky is a weird reddish colour.

So i hear a shout, and these army guys come running out of a forest, shouting and panting. Curious, i tried to glimpse what they were running from, and their officer tells me the get the hell out of here.

Just as i was about to turn and run with them, i see a group of stuffed toys come out of the forest, running really damn fast for their size. They catch up to the last soldier, and drag him kicking and screaming back into the forest.

The other guys stare in horror, and almost stop. One of them yells out "He's gone boys, there's no getting him back". At that point, i go "what, they're only toys for pete's sake". They all turn to stare at me, and point to various points around the courtyard.

Human body parts are nailed to various posts and walls, along with some bits of stuffing here and there.

So their officer decides they've slowed down enough, and calls out to keep going. Without anything better to do, i tag along.

As we're going along, we see more body parts are nailed to trees. But, there's no heads anywhere. Then, a ferris wheel comes out of nowhere, covered in soft toys.

We come to a ravine, and the ferris wheel gets jammed in it, forming a sort of bridge. The guys start shooting at the toys, but there's so many of them, so they resort to bashing them out of the way as they ran across.

Me being last, got grabbed by one of the toys. With a crazy amount of strength, they drag me back into the forest and start bashing the crap out of me - a hit to the head later and i'm out cold.

I wake up a while later (i actually thought i woke up), and everything seemed really blurry to me. My eyes also seemed kind of dry and itchy, so i rubbed them with the back of my hand, only to realize that they were plastic.

At this point, i hear a radio song playing, which is when i ACTUALLY woke up - my radio alarm clock went off.

Weird eh. I wonder what dream interpretation will yield. Probably some inexplicable fear of stuffed toys or something, or fear of going blind, haha.

Anyway, that's it from me.

Enjoy our last few weeks of school!

Tip of the day: Surgical spirits are very good at keeping guitar strings in good nick, but keep away from fretboard at all costs, or you'll end up with dry, cracked fretboards.

LAME JOKE OF THE DAY: What the purpose of a Will? I'll give you a hint: it's a dead giveaway.

Lyrics game!

Before we start, take a look at this:

"
I warn you, if you are a fundamentalist christian, or are in some way closed-minded about christianity or God, I recommend you don't read what I'm about to say, as you will be very offended.

I was having a discussion at work today with a friend of mine, who is one of those Christians who seems to not let his religion interfere with having fun and being open minded. The kind I can keep a civilized discussion with. During our conversation of religion, the subject of free will came up.

I asked him: "Why do you think most christians we know equate free will with the devil?"
He replied something to the extent of: "Because the devil tempted man to eat from the tree; God didn't want us to, but Satan did."

After this, I brought up the following point: How is it that a docile, closed-minded person who does what he is told without question can gain access to heaven, but the man who becomes proactive, seeks truth for himself, is doomed to eternal hell?

He was quiet for a moment. Then he, yes the Christian, said "What if God and Satan are actually reversed?"

Needless to say, we were pretty dumbfounded at the thought, and in Pit language; brix were shat.

What if God is the one who wanted man to eat the fruit, to take a step out from the blind obedience and find truth for himself? What if Satan is the one who actually created us, who wants us to remain ignorant?
"

Yes, i realise that's a pretty shallow view of Christianity; it still gives you something to think about though.

Retarded images for the day:






SO, onto the lyrics. Simple, name the song these lyrics are from, and the artist.
If anyone gets 3 or more of these, i will be EXTREMELY impressed. Heh. All lyrics are very easily discerned in the songs.

1)
I can feel the cold air flow into my lungs,
Brave another winter, and pray for the sun.

2)
Oh how i wish, for soothing rain,
all i wish is to dream again,
my loving heart, lost in the dark,
for hope i'd give my everything.

3)
All that has changed, 'cause it's all down the drain.

4)
But i can't spell it out for you,
no it's never gonna be that simple.

5)
Maybe tonight, we'll fly so far away,
we'll be lost before the dawn.

6)
Why does Saigon never sleep at night?
Why does this girl smell of orange trees?

7)
Yesterday i died,
tomorrow's bleeding,
fall into your sunlight.

8)
There's a lit cigarette,
in the hand of my new angel,
she's blowing smoke like halos.

9)
There's a train leaving town,
if you hurry up, i think you just might make it.
Damnit i hope you make it.

10)
Dark, no you can't come soon enough, for me.

11)
The chapel and the saint,
The soldiers in the wine,
The fables and the tales,
All handed down through time

12)
Help me out, said the eagle to the dove,
I've fallen from above my nest so high above.
Help me fly, i am too afraid to try.

13)
I listened in, yes i'm guilty of this, you should know this.
I broke down and wrote you back before you had a chance to.

14)
Finding myself, in a place i've never been,
where i don't know myself, or anyone else.

15)
Follow me down, to the valley below,
moonlight is bleeding, from out of your soul.

16)
What did you say?
I know i saw you singing,
but my ears won't stop ringing.

17)
On a different day, if i was safe in my own skin.

18)
So you're leavin', in the mornin',
on the early train.
Well i could say everything's alright,
and i could pretend to say goodbye.

19)
There's a harvest,
each Saturday night,
at the bars filled with, perfume and hitchin' a ride.

20)
When somethin' like a soul becomes initialized,
and folded up like paper dolls and little notes,

21)
I find the map and draw a straight line,
Over rivers, farms and state lines

22)
It's just like him,
to wander off in the evergreen park,
slowly searching

23)
Somewhere in a private place,
she packs her bags for outer space,
and now she's waiting for the right kinda pilot to come.

24)
And now my heaven's gone away,
and i'm out in the cold.
Cause you had me believing,
you had me believing in a lie.

25)
So many nights trying to hide it,
but now i stay awake just pleading for more.

Muahahaha, no google allowed!

Why are chefs cruel?
Because they whip cream and beat eggs!

For Those Hard To Reach Itches.

Other cool pictures/art for your entertainment:
















Meh, not really in the mood to type much.

Be true to your teeth, or they will be false to you.

22:22:22!

Bahahah,

I just checked my watch, and it said 2222:22. Speaking of which, i've always had kind of and OCD with stuff like that, i.e. when microwaving stuff, i do it for 1 minute 11 seconds or 2 minutes 22 seconds. I just have to, haha.

Also, just found these on my computer:





So, onto my latest dream.

The only reason i can remember them so damn well is because i ALWAYS wake up right after they finish. Pretty much everyone dreams at least once a night during the REM stage, but, they continue sleeping after that stage is done - disallowing the "memory" to be burnt into the medium-long term section. Heh.

Waking up right after helps a lot with the recollection.

Anyway, i start by walking towards a really weird house that's kind of hanging off a cliff. There's a really dense forest on all sides, and the house looks like it's only made of rotting timber.

I look at my hand and read the note in there - apparently i'm here for a job interview.

So i walk up to the door and knock, an old lady opens the door and lets me in. As i walk through the door, a beep sounds. So kinda like the airport security things, i have to hand over stuff.

I hand over a phone, a knife (Smith and Wesson HRT tanto - don't ask me how i know, i just do :P) aaaand a phone book. Somehow i just pull it out of my back pocket.

With all that stuff in a basket by the door, which is moved to a laundry of sorts, i walk in to the waiting room.

There's a few retarded chairs, and some other guys are already seated. In one corner of the room, there's a really friggin scary mannequin, and the other corner - what looked like a torture bed. It had chains, blood, nails and a rusty iron thing where the person lay.

So at this point i'm thinking... whaaaaat the hell.

The other guys waiting don't seem to notice anything, like the bed and mannequin aren't there.

My vision flickers for a sec, i see a really nice white room with pot plants and stuff, then it goes back to this horrific place that only i can see.

I turn to leave, but decide to get my knife and phone first. So i walk back to the laundry place, and there's this guy in the corner of the room, all huddled up and scared. Bloody wounds and ripped clothes.

The mouldy wood gives way, and the dude just falls out of the house, down the cliff. I hear screaming, but no splat.

At this point i'm scared out of my mind. I gran my knife and drew it, only to see the blade chewed away. It was literally a stump.

I start to run out of the house, just as the whole place just topples off the cliff.

Aaaaand once again, i wake up with that darned falling sensation. Garh, i hate it.

Aaaanyway, on a lighter note, i dug out my little bottle of that dettol hand sanitizer stuff. It's so useful :D

Oooh, almost forgot. New pedal!

Introducing, the Boss ME70


Pretty nifty little guitar effects unit; ain't hard to get some nice tones out of it. The compressor is decent, the drives are nice and pretty sensitive to pick attack and guitar vol. other effects are cool as well, but i won't bore you with my tech talk :P

Money well spent.

Ah well, back to 3u then.

Adios.

I'm A Goofy Goober!

Who remembers that? Dahahaahaha.

Guitarists - check out the solo. (harder than it sounds).

So, albums to check out if you're bored or on the hunt for some new stuff:

First off, The Reign of Kindo's album Rhythm, Chord and Melody.

These guys are a Jazz/Rock band from Buffalo, NY - no overdriven guitars or hard vocals here. It's a really nice middle ground between the heavier and lighter stuff; they use Gibson hollowbodies and Fender Twin Reverbs as their main guitar gear and have a strong piano backing for most songs. Add that to really nice vocals and slightly cheesy lyrics and you've got an awesome album that's really good to chill out to.

Porcupine Tree - In Absentia (also the namesake for this place).

These guys are a slightly heavier Progressive Rock outfit (i.e. they don't stick to the normal intro-verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus etc).
Cool thing about this album, is that it tells a story. It is said to be an investigation of the causes of insanity and serial killing told through the story of man from childhood through marriage, as many of the songs can demonstrate (as well as the album cover).
May seem a little daunting at first, but it's brilliantly done. The tracks flow seamlessly into each other. However, the meanings of the songs as Steven Wilson meant them are intentionally left open and are fair game for speculation. They are meant to have different meanings and significance to each listener, so an absolute statement about the origin or meaning of one song would be impossible to make.

Last but not least, The Gladiator Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard

Pretty much my all time favourite soundtrack (with the LOTR ones a close second). As epic as the movie, i needn't say more.

Soooo, onto my latest dream.

I was slightly disappointed this one wasn't as violent as the other ones, but ah well.

Anyway, i'm in this really big depression in the ground, which is totally black with the exception of a bob in the middle and a weird black sort of mesh over the top. There's someone else on the other side of the cone (which seems friggin huge).

So i start walking towards the other person, and the ground suddenly starts going *doof doof* and i lose my balance, slipping towards the center.

It's at this point i go "what...". Turns out i was on the inside of a speaker cone. (which means either that was really big, or i was reaaaaly small. INB4 - short jokes). I also realized after i woke up that the song playing was Two Weeks by All That Remains (warning: only look up the song if you don't mind melodic death metal).

This huge bass note rings through (probably a bass drum beat) and the other dude goes flying up and gets his head stuck in the grill.

So from almost on the other side, i hear this huge "BUGGER". He/She - no idea cause the voice was pretty muffled - is stuck there for a while, arms and legs flailing around like a cockroach on its back.

I bounce around for a while on the speaker cone, enjoying the trampoline-like experience when the song stops. Another song comes up and the cone just goes SHHHHHHHHCCCEEEEEEEE and a huge tear appears. Naturally, i fall straight through the tear into blackness.

Staggering around after i hit the ground, i see 4 sets of orange glows (seems like it was a tube driven amp, kinda like the filament in a light bulb at low power). For some reason, one of the tubes explodes and the glowing filament flies straight at me. Just before it hits me, i wake up.

Anyone believe in the whole dreams-mean-something cause it's your subconscious?

I honestly have no idea, and if it were true, well...

Weird dream part 2.

SO,

This is really weird. Anyway, the previous vivid dream i had, which i remembered really well, had a SEQUEL, which was presented to me last night.

Yep, that's right, a GODDAMN SEQUEL TO A DREAM.

It continued on where the last one left off, i.e. standing on the shore of a blood red lake/sea.

OK, here's what happened.

So i'm standing there looking out over the waves of red water (probably not blood, since it was thinner, maybe dilute blood? iono) and a seaplane lands in front of me, with a dude inside telling me to get on.

So naturally i do, trying to get away from the goddamn mansion. I hear the clock start chiming that's it's time, but interestingly nothing happens to me.

I then hear a horrible high pitched squeal and my chest feels like it was being crushed by one of those big scrap metal things.

So the dude takes off, and this giant storm just appears before us. We fly into it and i black out.

At this point i'm wondering if i actually died, but then we "reappear" flying over some really peaceful and serene tropical island, with no idea how we got there. The squealing and chest pains have since disappeared.

All seems good, the pilot dude is awake too (i think he looked a LOT like Matt Damon, don't ask why), and we happily fly along, looking out over the island. Pink Floyd's "Marooned" is playing in the background.

At that point, i hear a lot of turboprop engines, and i turn around to see what the hell they were, and it turns out like 20 squadrons of World War 2 Japanese planes were flying behind us, and the first of them goes NEEEEAAAAAWWWW past us. As i look down, i see a huge fleet with 3 carriers in the middle.

Then things get strange, the pilot goes "bye bye" and jumps out the door, without a parachute or anything, and somehow lands on a carrier with a huge "splat", spraying red crap all over the flight deck.

So my plane decides to stall and do a nose dive, and i wake up just before it crashes.

Hahahahaha, weird eh.



Marooned, by Pink Floyd and played by David Gilmour. The backing track to that dream.


Anyway, i went to see the school musical last night (The Merry Widow) with medium expectations. Eh, it was pretty entertaining i guess, but the vocalists, with the exception of Frances, were, well (no offense) weak. None of them could project or even hit the notes properly. Without Bias, i say our grade last year was much better.

EDIT: I realise the above sounded kind of harsh. Yes, it was a thoroughly entertaining musical, haha, only slightly let down by the singing. Still, good work year 11.

Till next dream,

Hayley Westenra!

Hayley Westenra and Andrea Bocelli, quite amazing if you ask me (the ice skaters are cool too).

And just for lols:

Damnit, I'm Mad

Can anyone guess what the above is? heh. I must say, it is very very awesome.
Aaaand, the LOLCANO! Don't you just love this pic?

Anyway, i had this really weird dream a while ago, and i still can't get it out of my head.

There was this group of people, including me, in a big mansion of sorts by the seaside. In this mansion, was a very very old grandfather clock, and me, being the genius i am, decided to start it up again by swinging the pendulum.

So, it starts off pretty normal, just exploring the mansion. But then the clock (which doesn't have any numbers on it), strikes, and brings up a name of a person in the group, and then starts ticking backwards.

So, naturally, everyone is scared shitless and tries to stay in one big group. But, as we're finding somewhere to hide, we notice that that person (Shane? forgot name) was gone. So then we go and try to find him, and the clock strikes again. Shane turns up hanging from the big chandelier with multiple stab wounds and bleeding like crazy onto the floor, his eyes were gouged out.

So then, the clock starts again. Everyone tries to get out of the mansion, but to no avail. All the doors seem to have disappeared.

The process repeats again, with each death more brutal than the last, with the final one being a girl being dropped hard onto a bed of extremely sharp nails and assorted saws, body parts were everywhere, including the roof.

So near the end, the mansion is full of dead bodies, no matter how hard we try to keep our eyes on the "next" person, they always disappear and end up dead somewhere.

So then, there's only three of us left. The clock strikes, and my name comes up. So i panic for about a half hour or so (or maybe longer? time always gets warped in dreams), and manage to get out and run down to the beach. I notice the water is blood red.

It's at the moment just before the clock strikes that i wake up, scared out of my mind.

That day ended up feeling so damn weird, and i do, of course, have many more dreams to share. They're either incredibly scary, or incredibly weird.

Anyway, happy dreams!

Scary shat.

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Creepypasta

Wanna go WTF? Don't plan on sleeping anytime soon?

Then creepypasta is the site for you.

Enjoy...

*evil cackling*

Andrew White - Wild Eagle

Awesome little acoustic/vocal based arrangement by Andrew White.

Aaaanyway, reminder to self: get that adobe editing thing for music. Cannot remember name. AND GET HOLD OF 2 CONDENSER MICS.

Hehe, muchos music stuff will be coming soon.

Story of a pizza delivery guy

I just read this off the UG forums, and whoa, it was pretty interesting.

Hi everyone,
I work for Domino's pizza. I plan on quitting tomorrow for reasons which you will hear about soon.

The pay as a pizza guy is great. I get $11.80 per hour, plus $2 per delivery, plus tips. On a good night, that can average at easily more than $20 per hour. Plus, for a university student such as myself, the fact that it's a night-time job is great. But things happen when you're a pizza guy that don't happen when you're in public. People are different when they have only themselves to answer to. I've seen things...
Here goes...

When I first started working for Domino's, I learnt the area and the good places and the bad places. I got to understand that on a public holiday, people will throw all their money at you, and that on a Friday night, nobody will sympathise when their pizza is 10 minutes late because you had to take 6 deliveries in one go.
People don't understand that it takes me 5 minutes to get to any house. The reason why it takes 40 minutes to get to your door is because 3 orders other than yours have to be made, put through the oven, cut, bagged and signed out before I am allowed to take it as a delivery.

My first delivery was to a house about 500 meters from the store. I went there, got the money, gave them the change, and said "have a great night!" and began to walk away.... Before i gave her her pizzas.

My store had the unfortunate disposition of delivering to the commission houses. People there were frequently drugged up past the point of comprehension. 85% of the time, it was fine, but I felt unsafe walking through the blocks 100% of the time.

After working for about 2 months, I was signed to a delivery which was again, not very far away from the store. Upon knocking on the door, I was greeted by a very gay naked man with an erection. He was amazingly nice, but that didn't help the awkwardness. Particularly when 3 or 4 voices inside his house called out "Ask him to come in!". You never get used to this sort of thing.

Other things of note which happened in the next 6 months included (in chronological order):

Delivered to a 16/17 year old red-head girl wearing nothing but a wet white T-shirt

Delivered to a giant who was very unhappy with his pizzas because, although they were on time, he thought that it took too long (why didn't he say something when we quoted him the time?)

Delivered to a paraplegic who fell out of his wheelchair when I told him that nobody at the store had told me that he needed change for a $50 note (I had the change, I just didn't know that I would need it. It was irrelevant).

Delivered to a deaf man (couldnt hear me knocking)

Delivered to some twins, both of whom were very retarded and couldn't comprehend the idea that they hadn't given me quite enough money.

Delivered to a man who was asleep and couldnt be woken (I rang his phone and everything). Hours later, he rang and asked where his pizzas were. We re-made them and sent them out. When I got there for the second time, he had fallen asleep again. I practically bashed his door down and was able to wake him this time.

Delivered to a 'stripper themed' party. i.e. everyone was pretending to be strippers, and they were very into it.

Delivered to an orgy at the commission houses. I couldn't even ask for money because they were playing 'girls just wanna have fun' too loudly, so they just gave me a hand-full of notes and closed the door. Everyone was naked.

Had countless girls try to get into my car, offering me everything from 20 cents right up to sex for a ride to wherever i was going.

Had my car smashed up and $1500 worth of damages and theft occur.

=========

Cut to three weeks ago.

I delivered to two guys who were unhappy with their pizzas being 5 minutes late (yes, honestly. 5 minutes) and they wanted them free. I told them that that was fine, and asked them to please call the store so that I dont get in trouble for not having their money.

They didnt like it, and i was pushed to the ground and screamed at.

This was my first real taste of physical abuse where i was genuinely afraid.

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Thursday night.

We accidentally made a man's pizza on the wrong crust. We told him that the right pizza was already in the oven, and would be about three minutes away. Alternatively, we could give him the one on the wrong crust at a discount, or give him the wrong crusted pizza along with another pizza for free. He chose to take the free pizza along with the wrong crusted one.

His friends weren't happy about this and came and bashed on the glass of the store after we had closed. After much argument, we agreed to turn the oven back on and give them their whole order again.

One of the friends said that he was going to "bash the **** out of me, next time he saw me"
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Last night

Took an order for 5 meat lovers pizzas to a place in a bad area. The person I delivered to inspected each of the pizzas very slowly, and then walked away. I assumed that he had called the store and that he had arranged to take the pizzas for free.

He walked about 5 meters away from me, then turned around and said "Aren't you going to tackle me from behind, or something?"
To which i replied "No, that's okay, have a good night".

I turned around to get in my car, only to be met with the fist of a man who's face was covered in a towel. He grabbed me and punched me repeatedly.

While struggling to get away from the two guys, I screamed as loud as I could, remembering learning that if I ever found myself in that situation, make as much noise as possible. "Quick, kill him" the man with the pizzas screamed to the attacker.

I eventually got away. Clothes ripped, face smashed and pulse racing, I called the police and ambulance. They arrived in 2 minutes.

Some nice people took me in and gave me water and ice. Blood was pouring from my face all over my clothes and shoes. I looked in the mirror, and shouldnt have. I was a mess.

The paramedics cleaned me up as best as they could before taking me to the emergency room.

They released me from hospital at 5am this morning (less than 12 hours ago).

The police said that they had found a fence paling with nails in it. The people who took me in said that they had seen between 6 and 8 other men about to hit me with the plank until they came out, the police arrived, and the men ran away.

They said it was a miracle that I was able to stay conscious. I'm giving a statement on Monday.



And that is the story of my time as a pizza delivery guy.


Moral of the story: PIZZAS ARE AWESOME, delivering is not.

Btw: The guy was from Newcastle, NSW. I.e. many hours north of Syd.

On a side note:

^ Above is my “guitar room”, which was originally going to be the “music” room, with a few mics, computer, piano set up, but there just wasn’t enough space.

SO, rundown of the gear I currently and sometimes use:

Guitars:
First and foremost, Fender American Highway1 Stratocaster (the one hanging up on the left):
2007 model, with the greasebucket circuitry, satin nitro finish (which, according to a certain person with an EJ strat, is not “real” nitrocellulose, haha) and custom pickguard, straplocks, knobs etc.
My main guitar, VERY nice feel and sound, though my home amp really doesn’t do it justice. The higher output single coils kinda lose that strat sparkle, but does help with the higher gain stuff I play.
The trem is set up to float, and hence kills a bit of the sustain. However, it still does everything I want it to, and more :).
Future upgrades: a proper shielding job (no factory EVER does it) and either Dimarzio Hot Rails in the bridge position, OR, if I somehow run into a lot of money, a set of EMG DG p/ups.

Next, Vester SFT-70A (hanging up on the right):
Interesting history to this one. I picked it up in this random second hand shop in the city for, uh, forgot the exact amount, but it was 2 digits. Brought it home, didn’t work at all. So, replaced wiring, pots (melted a few on account of my uncontrollable high temp soldering iron, also screwed up a few other things, hahaha. BUT, good learning experience) and sanded down the horrific green finish and varnished it slightly.
HSH config, which will be changed to just HH config later on. Er, not a great instrument, but for that little cost, pretty damn good to me, haha.
The floyd, god knows where it came from, but it’s as old as hell (I think it was made in the early 1990s. not old compared to other things, I know, but it’s as old as me :p), doesn’t really float properly, but it’s useable.
Mainly use it for the higher gain stuff that my strat doesn’t handle that well, quite a fun guitar to play around with.

Ibanez Artwood, 35ECE (or something of the sort). 2006? Model. Sitting in its case on the bottom left.
Acoustic/electric guitar, used many many times for shows etc. due to its XLR output. VERY convenient. Nice feeling neck, but cheap binding. Decent fretwork.
Thing about this dude, is its huge damn mood swings, haha. Very prone to changes in weather/temperature/humidity. So one day it’s nice a boomy, and the next, after a bit of rainfall, it suddenly decides to sound trebly.
Also, dunno if it’s the case or the guitar, but it smells good. That’s right, no typo. It SMELLS good. Heh.

Not pictured:
Starsun classical acoustic: very very first guitar. Very cool to play on sometimes due to its mellowness + twang.
Ashton AG131: very very first electric. It’s pretty much my experimental guitar now, took it apart a long time ago to see how stuff fits and works. Some parts siphoned off it.
Amps:
Roland Cube 15x: got this because of the power squeezer function, which can reduce the 15 watts down to 2 watts, nifty for home volume levels. Has acceptable, if very sterile, cleans. I run a Zoomgfx1 through it at home for the effects. Overall good practice rig.

When playing with friends (I have rich friends…):
Mesa Dual Recto: AWESOME high gain sounds. Any guitarist would know about the recto series.
Aaaaaand…

A Fender ’65 Reissue Twin Reverb. Ok, ok ok ok, this amp, has the most god-like clean tones I have ever heard (in person of course). Brilliant, amazing. Also damn expensive.
So, that’s the gear I normally use.

This blog will probably get a name change, since most of my blogs from now on will be music/guitar related.



Anyway, holidays are almost finished. I’m happy a did a fair amount of work as well as relaxation, so it’s all good. However, there is still quite a bit of work left…
School. Will be terrible. Stupid year 12.


As always, take care.

Introductions.

Well, the first full day at home in the holidays has left me with ALMOST absolutely nothing to do, normally i'd sleep till almost noon, but noooo, the neighbours stupid baby started bawling her eyes out in the wee hours of the morning, and still going strong.

Adding to that, one of my neighbours - 2 houses down and on the other side of the road - recently got THREE dogs. It's like someone recorded a full half hour of barking, put the cd player on loop and went "heh... muahaaha MUAHAH mUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH".

Eh, that's what i get for keeping my windows open. The dogs do eventually get tired and shut the hell up at about 1 or 2.

Anyway, time for introductions -

ISAAC (My dog):


6 years old now, German shepherd cross labrador. Tends to get very very hyperactive whenever something interesting happens i.e. going out for a walk or car trip. HA, everytime we open the car door now, she'll jump in and refuse to get out, in the hope we go on some road trip. So then we have to push and shove until she finally gets off the car and trots away with an annoyed grunt or two, pretty much the dogs' equal of flipping the bird as you walk away.

INTERESTING history to her name. When we first got her, we honestly thought she was a male cause she was going around barging into the rest of her litter and seemed to be the "strongest", so, we named her isaac (no idea why, just an impulse thing).

TWO MONTHS LATER, after more than doubling in size, i saw her, uh, pee. THen i thought, don't male dogs lift a leg or something?... T'was then we realized it was a female. Since she wouldn't respond to any other name, we had to stay with Isaac. Now i have to go around explaining this to people that meet her, haha.

ME (well my hand at least) Supercloseup of Isaac:


My Computer Screen:


Er, rather not disclose too much, this being able to be read by anyone on the net and all.

My music listening habits: http://www.last.fm/user/ratfish09 <- started using this not too long ago, pretty cool for looking at the stats some of the apps give.

OVERFRIEDSPAM - came from my recent like of fried spam, if you haven't tried it, TRY IT. It's so much better than plain spam out of the can.

Honestly, this blog is more for various rantings and/or as some sort of stress relief. So, if you do happen to read this (and any later blogs), don't come asking what the hell i'm going on about.

I'm off to go stalk other blogspots (which are pretty interesting to read, heh. Some people just have that flair for informal storytelling).