Tuesday, May 31, 2011

May 2011 Reading List

Books Read in May 2011

So after failing to finish any books the last few months (Feb, March, April), I somewhat got my act together and accomplished something!

1) Fort Wayne is 7th on Hitler's List: Indiana Stories by Michael Martone (1990)

This is a collection of short stories about people/events/places associated with Indiana. While all of the stories have some truth in there, they are complete works of fiction as the author explains in his preface. The book gave me mixed feelings, some of the stories were really well written and others fell flat, I think this is due to the writers style of writing... it really only works for short stories but when he can focus in on certain emotions/expressions it really works.

2) The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kiplng (1894)

The Classic Childrens story that Disney made a movie of as well. To be honest I had only seen the Disney adaptation and enjoyed the additional depth of the book, though to be honest Disney didn't change too much on this tale. The second half of the book was a variety of other animal central stories that I won't go in detail here with. Overall its a collection of childrens stories, but a classic that stands the test of time.

May Music - Day 31

*Ok so this May Music Challenge list came from a facebook thing called "30 Day Song Challenge" well I don't like having the one extra day left over so I searched through some other similar song challenge things and stole this last one to finish out the month.

Day 31 - A song from the last band you saw live



Jars - Chevelle

The Last Concert I was at was in Feburary of 2010 at the Egyptain Room in the Murat Theatre in Indianapolis. Janus opened, Sick Puppies played next and the headliner was Chevelle.

Monday, May 30, 2011

May Music - Day 30

Day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year



Beat the Devil's Tattoo by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Well my favorite song last year was still Hotel California which I posted as my favorite song for day 1 of this challenge. So in the interest of picking a different song for each day I'm going for this song which I also really like. I first heard it a year ago last spring so it had just become one of my favorite song this time last year.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

May Music - Day 29

Day 29 - a song from your childhood




A Pirate Looks at 40 - Jimmy Buffet


My Dad is a Jimmy Buffet fan, and when I was little and riding around with him in his truck he had this ratty old carboard box sitting on the seat filled with Jimmy Buffet cassette tapes. He'd have one in the radio and we'd sing along with it as we drove along the road. I remember liking "Jolly Mon" , "Maragritaville", "Fins", "Son of a Sailor",  "Last Mango in Paris", "Gypsies in the Palace" and many others. I went with "A Pirate looks at 40" since it is his favorite Jmmy Buffet song.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

May Music - Day 28

Day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty



College Kids - Relient K


So I had to think a long time for this one as I don't think there is any song that really does make me feel guilty. I settled on College Kids because sometimes i feel like I wasted my time at Purdue by being a History major... don't get me wrong I like history and love it that I now have a job that relates to the degree. But it isn't rare for someone to tell me I should have went into some other field (usually involving math/accounting). This would pay a lot more as well so a lot of times I feel that they are/were right.

Friday, May 27, 2011

May Music - Day 27

Day 27 - a song that you can play



Scales

If you are following along with the list of song and see that this day is what yesterdays was supossed to be its because I got confused and thought both of these days were the same. I did take band in 5th and 6th grade and was a percussionist but I never really liked it so I quit band in 7th grade when I got to Jr. High. So I really don't know how to play much. That said I am confident I could still break out the C major scale on the set I have.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Graves and Storms on 5-25

So yesterday my family (Grandma, Aunt Pam, Dad) and I went to do a Memorial Day tradition of putting flowers on the gravestones of Dad's side of the family. (Grandpa usually comes but couldn't make it this year as he had to do something with one of his horses at the last minute notice)

We traveled to Harrison, Ohio and saw my Great Grandma Zeumer's grave (she recently passed away in April at the age of 98) as well as the rest of her and my grandmas family. Then we went to Brookville and saw my Great Grandma White's gravestone and her families plots. We also met up with my Great Aunt and Uncle Don and Kath.

After their we went to one final graveyard to see some more of my Grandma's family plots at a small Methodist church north near the Brookville Reservoir. When the Unslers and Monroe's are buried.

After seeing all of those sites we headed to the Hearthstone restaurant in Metamora and ate dinner with Kath and Don who met us there. A debate was had amongst our family as how it was strange their lunch buffet did not include the salad bar and how they had never heard of that.

After we got home I headed into work for a bit and then went to the gym to work out, I had head their was going to be a storm coming in but I don't get worried about storms at all so hadn't paid attention to it. Well about 5:15 pm everyone there has stopped exercising as in gathered near the glass windows facing the street as the storm hits... for awhile you could not see anything in the parking lot as the rain and debris stopped us from seeing anything. The picture I took here with my camera phone you can sort of make out a car in the background, but this was about 3-4 minutes after the worst part of the storm had whipped through.

Photobucket

Of course everyone was on their cell phones and checking with their families, one guy had heard the roof of his house was in the street and that the garage door was no where to be found. Charlie, one of the trainers, had called his sister who worked across the street at Arby's and they had found the Gentle Dental sign in their parking lot (about a quarter of a mile and across St. Rd. 3 from where it originated). I later confirmed this sign report.

* I had gotten a text from Steve saying he didn't want to die at walmart :P granted he couldn't see outside and people always exaggerate reports to make it seem more extreme so I have no idea what he was hearing was happening. Luckily for him walmart has backup power.

The wouldn't let us work out with no lights, so Scott and I took these pictures out the backdoor of Anytime Fitness.

Photobucket
Piles of hail were around most buildings and in the parking lot

Photobucket
The hail was all different sizes

After waiting around 10-15 minutes and finding out neither my parents nor Erin's grandparents had electric I decided to head out. Erin's grandparents asked me to pick up dinner, and I gave Scott a ride home so he wouldn't get stuck in another storm is one came in quick (we had no idea when the next would hit). Then I went to find food, first I tried Arby's but soon found all of Lincoln St. was without power, so I went to Wendy's and picked up dinner.

Photobucket
While taking Scott home

After grabbing the food I headed to Erin's where traffic was stopped on 3 for a bit, where it looked like a semi-truck had been overturned into a ditch and they had just got it back on the road. (It looked like someone had twisted its trailer).

Ate dinner with Erin's parents and listened to the radio while playing cards by candlelight. I was regretting working out since I never had a chance to shower. When reports of a second storm were coming in we went to the basement and sat for about an hour. Erin and I watched an episode of law and order on her laptop before the battery gave out, while her grandparents listened to WTRE.

After that Erin and I went for a walk, and then it was decided I should try to make it home before the last wave of bad storm hit. I could have stayed the night on the floor but I knew my Dad had his generator running so I could take a cold shower and see the news (he runs the TV and water pump on the generator.. the essentials as he would say).

*During the walk Megan reported to me that her house in Bloomington had taken a lot of damage, but that she was ok! The storm did end up covering a large area with its multiple tornado alerts.

But before I left Erin and I drove to Sandusky to see if it was damaged like the reports on the radio had been saying.... the verdict... nope it was perfectly fine! They all even had electric.

On my way home I was hit by really heavy rain and a little hail, but it wasn't too bad of a drive home and I made it safe.

Overall I'd say the storm is going to go down as being over hyped, I'm not saying that there wasn't a lot of damage... just I think it will be blown out of proportion in a few weeks when people look back at it. I feel like I'm helping to over hype it now that I have made this whole blog post. But I like storms and there are some good pictures of the damage that I have grabbed to post here.

Greensburg Daily News Photos:

Photobucket
Courthouse

Photobucket
Enniking Auto Repair, along 421 what I would say was the hardest hit area in Greensburg. To bad I didn't find many pictures of the surrounding area. most were taken near the park which was also hit hard.

Photobucket
Airport hangers

Photobucket
park basketball courts

Taken from Facebook (most from Kris Jones)

Photobucket
Park shelter view 1

Photobucket
park shelter view 2

Photobucket
park shelter view 3

Photobucket
park

Photobucket
2 of the largest pieces of hail to hit the area

May Music - Day 26

Day 26 - a song that you wish you could play


Wednesday, May 25, 2011

May Music - Day 25

Day 25 - a song that makes you laugh



Pirates who don't do anything - Veggie Tales

I have always found this song to be humorous :)

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Dreaming... a frustrating hotel

So last night I had a weird dream, and amazingly I still remember most of the details. (As I've said before I usually forget my dreams within 10 minutes of waking up) So I figured I would write it down here as I have done with a few other past dreams. (I believe if you hit the Dream label at the bottom of the post it will pull those up)


So the dream takes place in a strangely laid out hotel... think the standard mid-level hotel meets a Frank Lloyd Wright house (lots of glass and weird angles, yet has a normal looking lobby/hallways) Anyway Erin is there as well and we walk into this huge hotel room and the room is a total mess... sheets thrown about the room, the dresser drawers thrown open, phone on the floor, lampshade on the TV, broken glass... oh and there is blood everywhere, yet we aren't concerned about the violence that obviously occurred there... just really upset about how long it would take to clean up. (note: the blood isn't that weird/out of place... it matched up with this crime show Erin and I were watching last night before she went home). Erin starts to clean up the room and I head downstairs to the front desk to tell someone about the room.

I get down to the lobby and there is some sort of kitchen right behind the front desk and this guy is there saying he was glad someone finally showed up to help and told me to start cooking and gave me an order list to cook up. So I'm confused but start trying to cook some sort of sauteed asparagus and broccoli dish. But things in the kitchen are all in confusing places and I have to keep asking the guy where things are and I can tell he is getting frustrated.

Finally a few minutes later, I look behind me and 3 families are waiting to check into the hotel and the guy yells at me to stop cooking, he'd take over and for me to check in the first family. So I hurry and turn around and turn on the computer. Now I have worked at several hotels after first getting out of college so I am confident I can work my way around a PMS (property management system) but this thing is really difficult to navigate.... after a few minutes and I can tell the Dad of the family is getting irritated I get them into the system... but then the real problem comes up... making them keys to get in the room.

Now this strange hotel doesn't have a normal key card maker... it has this like coded program on the computer... it looks like a tumbler lock with missing numbers that I have to type in... I fiddle with it for awhile and the next thing I know I hear a noise in back room (not the kitchen, it is just behind the desk in full view) and the guy hands me these 8 packages that apparently where spit out of this copier that is magically in view. now I know I only told it to print 4 keys... I open up one of the packages and there is this strange wooden disc about the same size as a pog that has an elobrate carving on the outside... in I guess an Aztec totem motif. (think an eagle with turqouise gems for eyes). I have no clue as to what these are... so I just hand the open packet and 3 others (keeping 4 packs behind the desk as he only needed 4 keys) to them to the Dad checking in and hope he won't ask any questions...

Of course he did... he wanted to know how he could ensure each key would open his room and no others would open the room... He sounded like he knew more about the keys than I did so I started pounding away on my keyboard like I knew what I was doing even though I had no clue. The guy in the back wasn't any help and right before I woke up I was standing there staring at the numeric code/lock thing that I guess was programming door keys...

So yes... that was my strange dream last night... no clue what it means.

May Music - Day 24

Day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral




Up from the Grave He Arose

My Dad and I both have this as our song of choice, its my favorite church hymn and it adds a little bit of humor as well.

Monday, May 23, 2011

May Music - Day 23

Day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding




Disneyland - Five for Fighting


I wanted to use my first choice on a song that will be mentioned in a few more days, but even so that one would just be a song I'd want to be played before the wedding starts. So I decided to get more serious and go with this song. I've always said I don't really care too much about the song choices for a wedding but this seems like it would be a good wedding dance song.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

May Music - Day 22

Day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad



Times like These - Seven Mary Three

So as I mentioned before, I don't get that emotional with songs like a lot of people do, however I like this song and I feel its a good choice for this days catagory.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

May Music - Day 21

Day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy



Ole - Bouncing Souls

No Idea how I stumbled upon this song a few years ago, but its upbeat catchy and fun.

Friday, May 20, 2011

May Music - Day 20

Day 20 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry




Empty Walls by Serj Tarkian

Hmm I went through several songs trying to decide what one I wanted to post, and I decided to go with this one by Serj Tarkian from System of a Down. To be honest I don't really change my listening habits when I'm angry.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

May Music - Day 19

Day 19 - a song from your favorite album



Fell in love with a girl - White Stripes

I don't own many albums, and I wouldn't count a greatest hits collection as fitting the critera so this limited my choices. However, I do really like the White Stripes - White Blood Cells album. It is soild and was what got me into this intersting band. I picked this song off of the album because it has such a cool music video.


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

May Music - Day 18

Day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio




Spread your love like a fever - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

I like the unique sound this song has, and while I've heard it on atleast once commerical... I've never heard it get any radio play. At least not on any radio station I have listened too.


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

May Music - Day 17

Day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio



New Low - Middle Class Rut

I don't listen to the radio too much and a lot of time when I do its still talk radio... When I worked at Check into Cash we had the radio on all day though and this song was really popular then and I still hear it on the radio sometimes if I'm flipping through stations. I like the song and its on my zune now actually.

Monday, May 16, 2011

May Music - Day 16

Day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate




Lips of an Angel - Hinder


Took me a while to come up with one for today, but after looking through my music collection I came up with Lips of an Angel by Hinder. When this song came out I really liked it, along with Hinders other hit Get Stoned it seemed like they were off to a good start. But this song got played all the time... and they pretty much wore themseleves out... I haven't heard from them in a long time and I don't really like any of their songs anymore.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

May Music - Day 15

Day 15 - a song that describes you

I've got an Idea for a Movie - The Vandels

Saturday, May 14, 2011

May Music - Day 14

Day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love



Jar of Hearts - Christina Perri

Erin got me listening to this song when we first started dating and I really like it.


Friday, May 13, 2011

May Music - Day 13

Day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure



Tik Tok  by Ke$ha

Nothing says gulity pleasure more than a bad pop song right?


Thursday, May 12, 2011

May Music - Day 12

Day 12 - a song from a band you hate



Eyesore by Janus


I saw these guys live in Feb 2010 when they opened for the Sick Puppies and Chevelle... they didn't win very many fans that night. Though they got a lot of play from the local radio station that was promoting the show.




 
 

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

May Music - Day 11

Day 11 - a song from your favorite band



My Doorbell - The White Stripes

Picking my favorite band is the hardest part of this one. Currently when someone ask me that question the answer they typically get is threefold;  If I had to listen to only one band - The Eagles as they have a great and extensive collection , Band to see in concert - The White Stripes and band I'd like to see in concert that actually still tours Black Rebel Motorcycle Club....  Yeah so I just made this simple post a lot harder than it had to be... I'm picked a White Stripes song because I'm not sure where else I'll fit one of their songs into the list.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

May Music - Day 10

Day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep



Moonlight Sonata - Ludwig Van Bethoven

Well I like it as quiet as possible when I go to bed, so I never am listening to anything if I'm trying to go to sleep. I guessed I should just pick something smooth and peaceful then, in which case I went with the most calm song I have loaded into my Zune currently, and well it is appropriately named as well as being a beautiful song.

Monday, May 9, 2011

May Music - Day 9

Day 09 - a song that you can dance to



The Hokey Pokey

Some people will tell you I can dance to anything... just not very well and they would be right. However I can dance to this song just perfectly... I mean it tells you how to do it right in the song, just follow the instructions.


Sunday, May 8, 2011

May Music - Day 8

Day 08 - a song that you know all the words to



Amish Paradise by Weird Al

Ha so I had a decent number to choose from here, but in an effort to be intersting I'm picking this song. It actually could have filled day 7's slot as well since I remember learning all the words to this song becasue I was over at my friend Steve's playing Golden Eye on the N64 and listening to this song on an infinite loop for hours on end.., and strangely I can still sing right along with it over a decade later. (I know because it came on my zune the other day)

Saturday, May 7, 2011

May Music - Day 7

Day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event



James Dean by the Eagles

The event involves being mischievious with a couple good friends one night in high school.

Mainstreet Greensburg Clean-up 2011

Helped out at the downtown clean up for Mainstreet greensburg this morning.

Photobucket

Friday, May 6, 2011

May Music - Day 6

Day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere



"Carry on my Wayward Son" by Kansas

This song reminds me of my high school gym watching basketball games with my family when I was little. Pretty much from the time I was born my parents would take me to the high school basketball games as they are one of the major places to socialize in a small town. This song was played by the pep band at basically every single game so I always associate it with basketball now days.


Thursday, May 5, 2011

May Music - Day 5

Day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone




What the Hell by Avril Lavigne

This one is for Erin, its by one of her favorite artist, she likes it, and I remember it used to come on the radio the first couple times I left her house after we started dating.


Jude's 3rd Birthday

Erin invited me to her dog Jude's 3rd Birthday today!

Here are some pictures:


Photobucket
Going to Taco Bell for dinner

Photobucket
Taco time for Jude and Juno

Photobucket
Juno and me while Jude is opening presents

Photobucket
Erin cutting the cake

Photobucket
Cake time!

Photobucket
Greta gets in on the action

Photobucket
Jude got 100 balls to play with

Photobucket
Though some of them pop

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

May Music - Day 4

Day 04 - a song that makes you sad





The Christmas Shoes...
A really sad song, and its even a Christmas song. I hate it when it comes on when I'm listening to Christmas music!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

May Music - Day 3

Day 03 - a song that makes you happy



Lots to choose from, but I heard this one today while waiting to give Erin her lunch :) Also I just found out that this song wasn't a Tom Petty song so I learned something as well.

Monday, May 2, 2011

May Music - Day 2

Day 02 - your least favorite song


"Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?" by Alan Jackson
 

 
I just always found this song annoying and not even good in a patrotic sense... good thing I haven't been listening to country music on the radio right now given what just happened or I'd probably be hearing it now. I wonder how much money this song made him cashing in on their emotions. I will give him props for figuring out how to profit from 9/11


*Note* 5/4/11 - Somehow I forgot that Imagine by John Lennon is my all time least favorite song! I really do hate that song!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

May Music - Day 1

Day 01 - your favorite song

Hotel California by the Eagles




This song reminds me of one of the greatest periods in my life, the spring of my Sr. year of high school. I had bought an Eagles Greatest hit album and Steve, Ferrell, Bruce and I listened to this song pretty much every day that spring while riding around in my Monte Carlo. We even had a rule that everyone had to sing along whenever it came on.


"May Music" a new blog series

This is another one that I have seen done on facebook, I normally wouldn't have done this one but Erin is doing it as well so I thought I'd join in. The reason I would normally shy away from this topic is that while I listen to a little bit of everything... music isn't that big of a deal to me. Many people talk about how music affects their soul and describes who they are.... well I just like it for the sound and rarely dig deep into it. So oh well I'll give it a shot!