movin' out

mama, if that's movin' up then i'm...movin' out

at this time next week i will be inhabiting a new space of this great wide world of ours. far, far away? if only it were true. more like 14 blocks away. not as exciting, yes, but still exciting nonetheless.

i've kind of become a big fan of moving. maybe i'm a bigger fan of just rearranging my things. or of finding new ways to arrange them. at any rate, this will be the 3rd time in 3-1/2 years that i've moved. under most conditions, i guess i would be considered fairly mobile. in most other cases i would probably just be considered discontent.

i'm just stepping up my tolerance to living on my own. first i moved in with some friends, next i'm moving into my own apartment. after that, i suppose i'll begin to consider buying a house.

however, nearly everyone has made it a point to inform me that "now is the best time to buy a house". i'm sure that it is. i'm just not convinced it's the best time for me to buy a house. i seriously considered buying one about a year and a half ago. back then, it was also "a great time to buy". it was so good that if i would have bought in back then i would have taken a bath to the tune of several thousand dollars. a little something called the "housing market downturn" happened. you'll note that a "downturn" is really just a nice euphemism for "circling the drain".

i've found that many of the people who are so keen on persuading me to buy a house are usually all home "owners" themselves. maybe they think that if they sway their circle of influence into believing that their particular home-buying decision was a brilliant one they'll feel better about it in these uncertain times. it's kind of like Amway, except the only real kickback is getting all your friends and family into as much debt as you are.

but hey, it's "good" debt right?

i'm not so convinced (deceived?) just yet. if this economic crisis has taught us anything, it's that we have put too much stock into owning real estate. it's just not as foolproof as it once was (or at least as everyone thought it was). and to be honest, i'm perfectly happy living in an apartment. i suppose i'll know it's time to buy a house when i can't stand paying a pesky landlord to fix my leaky faucet and instead decide it's time to start giving my hard earned money to a greedy loan officer for the next 30 years so that i can mow my own lawn.

wait, what?

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faux editor's note: upon rereading this post a day after i published it, i realize that it probably comes off rather biting to someone who doesn't know me well. please understand this was intended to be a sarcasticly winsome entry (if there is such a thing?). so if i sounded angry when you first read this, go back and have another go at it. only this time, imagine me chuckling after every zinger.

post haste

i decided to censor myself and unpublish my previous entry. judging by the glut of comments and influx of traffic i received in response to it, i'm sure it's removal will widely go unnoticed.

i decided to delete it mainly because of it's bearing on my professional career. unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately) this site pops up when you google my name. future (or current) employers could just as easily do the same thing. i'm hearing many more are doing just that these days. i'd rather them hear my thoughts on their workplace in person and not from some remote corner of the interweb.

in other news, i did google myself tonight (c'mon, you haven't?) and found out that i have my name attached to several patents from said job. i knew that we had a lawyer applying my boss and i for a patent but wasn't aware that it was far enough along that it would show up online. i'm not sure if it's officially official, but heck, it must be if it's available on google. only wikipedia is more reliable. they let anyone write on there, so you know you're getting the best possible information.

so, why in the world is my name on a patent? about 3 years ago i helped design & develop a storm door with retractable screens for my company. it's a pretty neat concept, actually (it wasn't my idea, i just donated a few little bits of knowledge here and there), and as a result, it's selling very well. now, of course, i saw no extra zero's on the end of my paycheck because of this little invention but i now have the joy of knowing that my name is on a piece of paper safely tucked away in the confines of a U.S. Patent Office filing cabinet.

hooray.

two-thousand great

p[re].s. - many apologies for the increasing lengths of time between blog posts. in my defense, i had a blog nearly typed up a few weeks ago but somehow it vanished into the digital ooze.

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so i finally saw bruce springsteen.

it's been a dream of mine for about a year. yes, a full year. i'm not one of those long-time boss fans, mind you, but i've liked him pretty strongly for about a year and a half. pretty lame as far as fanatics go, i know. but have you seen him in concert? that's what i thought. (note: if you have, you've laid down some major coin.)

let me just say: he's the real deal. oh, and don't forget the e-street band. i feel like they've been given a raw deal throughout their storied partnership. they were phenomenal live and supremely talented. troy and i said afterwards that such talented people finding each other and making fantastic music that reaches the world is truly proof that God indeed exists. i don't think fate and/or fortune is up to that task.

so, the boss = arguably the greatest concert at which i have attended. i was fortunate (ha!) to have attended several other great shows this year so far. i just decided that 2008 was going to be the year i got out and experienced some great music. in most cases i just bought tickets and then recruited some of my closest friends to encompany me.

my comments pertaining to each concert are henceforth submitted for your perusal.

• wilco - february 22nd, 2008 - lakewood civic auditorium, lakewood, ohio - partner in crime: aaron kotasek - i went through a pretty severe wilco phase with the release of their latest album, "sky blue sky", the year previous. i feel like this show was the culmination of that phase and it was pretty much everthing i hoped it would be. it's probably a little early to call wilco legends, but just know that one day they will be.
  

• the swell season (glen hansard and marketa irglova) - may 11th, 2008 - the allen theater, cleveland, ohio - partner in crime: emily heist - i spent a lil more on tickets than i wanted to but we got ourselves some pretty good seats. i was swept away with the hype surrounding the little irish movie this duo starred in, "once", and was practically in tears on oscar night when they won for best song. so seeing them live was pretty much a must. they didn't disappoint and emily and i would come to describe the concert with one word: magical.
  

• iron & wine - june 15th, 2008 - newport music hall, columbus, ohio - partner in crime: ben roth - i may be one of the only people who enjoyed sam beam's latest effort, "the shepherd's dog", more than it's predecessors. that's indie music suicide right there, just so ya know. i just lost all my street cred, but it's the truth. the album must have just hit me at the right time, cuz i fell in love with it. one fun fact from the show was that this band that played with state bird when we toured through oklahoma called "the uglysuit" opened up the. they weren't really that good then and they still aren't good now. ben and i still aren't sure how they cajoled the powers that be to let them play on the bill. iron and wine was pretty superb, however, launching into several jam sessions throughout the evening. top-notch.
  

• radiohead w/ grizzly bear - august 4th, 2008 - blossom music hall, cuyahoga falls, ohio - partners in crime: aaron kotasek, ben roth, dut hershberger - if seeing wilco was the culmination of a phase covering the last couple years then seeing radiohead live was the culmination of my entire college career. radiohead singlehandled defined a shift in my musical tastes to more of what they are today. "ok computer" will forever be one of my top 5 favorite albums, so seeing them in person was mind-blowing. it doesn't hurt that "in rainbows" was one of the best albums of 2007 either. from the lights to the energy to thom yorke's manic dancing, it just doesn't get any better than radiohead, my friends.
  

• bruce springsteen & the e-street band - august 24th, 2008 - sprint center, kansas city, missouri - partner in crime: troy hamilton - it doesn't get any better than radiohead, unless of course you're dealing with a living legend. but then you're dealing with a whole other level. and that is exactly what bruce springsteen is. my biggest dream for this past year was to stand up and sing "born to run" at the top of my lungs. and it happened. how cool. also cool was that i went with my good buddy troy, probably my only friend who was just as excited to see the boss as i was. and also my only friend who could afford it.

if the year ended today i think i could officially brand it as a success. and we still have all of fall, most of football and the festival left to go.

the push/pull of give/take

so, i've been reevaluating. reevaluating alot of things. it's something new i've been trying, ya know. something that i guess i was pseudo-taught to never do. "only accept the things you've been told", they say. i suppose that was never a phrase that was actually stated to me (thus the use of the prefix "pseudo") but it was more or less inferred.

i say, however, challenge the things you've been told. the things you've just come to accept (this is a theme that you may see quite a bit on this blog). then, if they stand up to the test, they truly are worth holding on to. and God forbid you should ever let them go.

[dismounts soapbox]

ok where was i? reevaluation, that's right. i'm reevaluating things. a few posts ago i talked about rediscovering what it means to truly love God. a post and a half ago i discussed this thing of church/christianity and what i feel God intended it to be.

more recently i've been thinking alot about this thing of friendships and how funny they are if you sit back and think about them. we let these random people (that we're in no way related to) into our sick little lives and give them varying degrees of exposure to our truest selves. it's frightening, actually. and probably why i'm so reticent to reveal too much of my inner workings on this here interweb (verdict's still out on whether you all are friend or foe just yet, sorry).

i had an epiphany a few weekends ago when it comes to friends. that being: i try too hard. well, that wasn't my first thought. the original epiphany came in the form of a wave of bitterness and anger accompanied by many a curse word muttered into my pillow. it wasn't set off by one particular person, mind you, but at a few. they were people i once had close ties with, people who's steady non-actions had piled up in the back of my head over the past several weeks, months and yes, years. slowly and lazily piling up. like a logjam. see, when i put a good bit of effort into a relationship, it really bums me out when i get a pretty dismal return on that investment. wall street would call that a poor business decision.

i call it a raw effin' deal.

after i calmed down a little bit, i came to the conclusion that i was trying harder than i should be. shouldn't a decent relationship be sometimes push and sometimes pull? how about that whole giving and receiving bit we've heard our whole lives? shouldn't there be some level of reciprocation? i was pulling on the rope and only feeling slack. one-way relationships go nowhere fast, i've begun to find.

so i looked at what a true, healthy friendship should look like. "iron sharpening iron" was as good a place to start as any. it's pretty elemental, really. see, for iron to sharpen iron it has to be just as hard as the piece that needs sharpening. they need to have equal strength; there has to be something there to push back on. there's a time for one side to sharpen the other but also a time for it to receive sharpening as well.

i have a select few friendships that i actually feel sharpened by when we part company. this whole revelation of sorts has brought to light more clearly who those friends are and has given me a new level of respect and love for them. so, rather than putting so much effort into salvaging lopsided relationships, i'm focusing now on making sure i don't become a lousy friend to those who deserve to get something back.

and that my friends, is something worth holding on to.

"And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

seattle and back

a bigger blog will be shortly coming. i've got to at least get one a month to justify having this site. you may be thinking: that doesn't justify you having this site. and you'd also be correct. but still, i continue to humor myself.

this past weekend i humored myself by flying out to the pacific northwest to visit a few good old friends. it was short but most infinitely sweet. i had a blast and a half to say the least and a full two blasts to say the most.

instead of recounting my entire trip via words and clever phrases i am uploading a gaggle of photos that i snapped with my camera-equipped phone. most of them didn't turn out half-bad. the rest turned out full on bad, but again, i continue to humor myself by posting them anyways. these pics can be found safely tucked within the cleverly titled "photos" page.

lastly, i cheated once again and did not design the layout to this site. but it looks darn cool doesn't it?