Cold Peppermint Salem

As of today, I'm no longer keeping this blog for anyone else but myself. Originally, I signed up to be able to check out and comment on Gracie's blog. After some prodding, I finally posted a bit myself, but with other readers in mind. The truth is, no one cares and no one wants to read everybody else's blog! Every major dude and his dog has a blog. Truth is, I don't enjoy reading them. I'm always bored to tears within the first five sentences. In fact, I'd be bored with this one by now if I wasn't entertained by the mere fact that I'm writing it; And if you've gotten this far, you are duller than I am. haha.
In any case, I'm now keeping this journal for myself. I want to remember things, and I've forgotten fortunes of too much.

It's been cold the last three days here in Channel Islands Harbor, and the wind often howls from sunset to the wee hours. I love it. I hate the heat in Winter and Fall. If I wasn't in Automatic Hotel, my band, I'd move East. I'd pick up and take my family to where the colors turn and the seasons reign. For now, I'm stuck in California; but at least it's cold now and really feels like a December should.

I couldn't sleep last night and got up at 6:30 without the alarm. Had a cup of 'Chock full O' Nuts' coffee with 'Peppermint-Mocha' non-dairy creamer. lol, it's the season. For the first time in years I actually wore my wollen half-finger gloves that I bought at an Army-Navy surplus store in Salem, Massachusettes. I was there in October of 2001 and boyo was it cold! (just the way I like it.) Always makes me think of the Witch Trials in 1692.

Took the kids to the bus stop, then during the writing of this blog got a call from the school and had to run over there with Peanut's glasses. I was going to just let it go, because she's far-sighted and can do fine without them for a day, but the teacher put her on the phone and she was so cute ...how could I refuse? Besides she enjoys the reassurance of me showing up during class. I cleaned her glasses for her, gave her a ginormous hug and now she's happy for the rest of the day. Small price to pay for her happiness. Good times.

While driving this morning I wished I had a job to go to. Not because I enjoy working for other people, on the contrary; I just want to do music! ...But for the money. We're in a difficult financial position right now. Time to sell the motorhome, look for a 9 to 5, and pray for a hit song in the meanwhiles. DeeDee is working now and it's a great job but for low pay. I have been Mr. Mom now since September. I've made a ton of bag lunches, cooked dinner every night and become a taxi service. It's cool though. I'm having a posititive affect on the girl's lives. I don't just do it; I try to do everything in an extra loving way, like a real dad.

I baked bread for the first time yesterday. We had it last night with dinner. I wouldn't say it was great, but pretty good for my first time. The girls loved it. I've been creating a lot of my own recipes over the last few months. I really should start writing them down. I hate following other recipes and would rather make things up or do things my own way. So far, it's working out.

I have a show this Saturday night at Billy O's in Ventura. Currently playing the Bass. I'm so busy with family stuff that I'm behind on band business. That is life.

Really Good Music Discovered!

I don't think anybody really reads this blog, as I've only created it so I could comment on a friend's blog, but just in case anyone happens by, I'd like to promote my very excellent band "Automatic Hotel"

We've got a new album out entitled "When Your Door Stands Open" and we've got our previous album for sale entitled "Firefly". I'd like to urge you to purchase these albums :) why? Because they're really good! I don't think anyone has ever been disappointed and some people become quite hooked. In any case, we're just scratching by, barely paying the bills at the moment so if you feel like supporting something worthwhile, buy my album! A million thanks. :D

Here are the links to the album:

When Your Door Stands Open
Firefly

Stock Market Picks and New Rock Album

Well, I guess I'm feeling a lot more positive than when writing my previous post about the world ending. And hey, maybe it will all end in tears and fallout, but I might as well have an optimistic outlook as much as I can stomach. We've finally taken the plunge and invested in stocks. Of course we had to gird ourselves up for the probability that our stocks would fall as soon as we invested in them. Yes, we were ready for the rollercoaster ride, firmly entrenched with the thought that if our stocks tank, we won't panic. We'll just focus on other distractions and hang in for the long haul. This is, after all, a long term investment. Oddly enough, most our stocks have been up almost everyday and we've consistently been at a profit. Amazing! Hopefully this trend will continue and what with the miracle of compounding interest I'll be able to sleep at night in 20 years.

Just in case you're interested, we own stock in the following companies :

Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM) - Leading ethanol and bio-diesel producer, along with many other great products made from agricultural products such as soy. Wasn't it nice of President Bush to announce his disdain for our addiction to foreign oil and laud ethanol as the gas of the future? And hey, it's not too late. It's still a good time to get in.

Pacific Ethanol (PEIX) - Another major producer of Ethanol and so far my most profitable stock.

3Com Corporation (COMS) - These guys are in all the important places in the tech world and are bound to come back strong. Currently trading at under $5! This sucker has got to go up!

Corning (GLW) - Good company, great products. I think this is going to be a long term winner.

Coca-Cola (KO) - Yes COKE! Trading at around $42. I've alread made a profit since buying this stock which I kind of didn't expect. I'm just planning on re-investing the divedends and eventually owning a lot of valuable shares. Also, Coke is planning expansion into foreign markets which may drive the stock up. That would be cool.

I'm going to be soon putting some money into an index fund, or possibly investing in a certain combination of index stocks that have been consistently bringing in 20-25% returns for years! I'll blog the details of how to do this in my next post. I've got some details to iron out.

Lastly, and my ultimate hedge on optimism; My new album will be finished by next weekend! I spent two days at the studio this weekend and was on fire. Sometimes you're just on and your best stuff happens in one or two takes. Very very nice when that happens. We will put the finishing touches on next weekend and then it goes to mixing and mastering. My band is going to be playing a lot of incognito shows under a fake band name over the next couple of months to prepare for our big record release party and subsequent tour. Please buy my album! I promise you will not be disappointed. The label says we've got at least 4 strong singles with another 3 or 4 contenders! Let's hope they're right. If you're wondering, we don't sound like anyone else out there and we don't even sound like our previous album but our "Rock Intensity Level" is on the Beatles to Foo Fighters scale. "Emotion Intensity Level" is on the Weezer to Coldplay scale.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Your comments are welcome!

"In no way let it be misconstrued that I do not disagree"

I'm bored, therefore I blog.

I think it might be the end of the world. I mean ya, they told me in church everyday while I was a small exitentialist sprout that the world would end at any moment. This caused me to go marginally insane and I became a kick ass musician with night terrors. (I use blogs occasionally to dispel minor bits of rage in the form of blunt sarcasm so please don't confuse my bloviations with egotistical self-absorbtion.) But aside from the fact that I think every religious doomsdayer I had the misfortune of listening to as a child was entirely full of shit, I think it's obvious that we have "progressed" to a technological level of total self destructive capability.

One example - Iran is going to eventually have the nuclear bomb and they're going to use it. I shouldn't have to explain this. If you read the news, you can understand how the hate machine of radical islam is charging headlong into be the undoing of the world; Especially since they tend to view us all as infidels and killing us off is a favor to Allah and the reward is a piefull of virgins. We're such an incredibly stupid race of sentient beings that we're going to destroy ourselves unless we are very very... well, lucky. If we ever survive our primitive notions of religious and political unreason, let us hope we do not meet our end in some other way such as gene leakage, due to genetic experiments gone awry, biological warfare, global warming, etc.

Anywho, I have an album coming out very soon. There are a few radio stations already committed to spinning it. I hope I will experience some success in music before the end comes. So please buy my album when it comes out. You will have the satisfaction of having contributed to local music and you'll love the album. I promise!