Sunday, August 31, 2008

Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd in CONCERT at PNC



Sweet Home Alabama

Spontaneous Concert Attendance

Michelle (Booth's mom) called me yesterday and said she wanted to go to a concert, to see Kid Rock, and wondered -- did I want to go too?

At first I wasn't sure. I go to a few concerts, not a lot, usually Pearl Jam related... at least that's the way it seems! I wasn't so sure I even liked Kid Rock. I looked up the concert on the internet, and Lynyrd Skynyrd was playing too. It was being held at the PNC Garden State Arts Center, which is an indoor/outdoor concert, and lawn seats were available. And it's the holiday weekend, and I've been jonesing about Burning Man all week -- but that's a whole nother post. I'll try to talk about that tomorrow. But anyway, an outdoor concert seemed like the perfect thing. Frank was up for it too.

So imagine... I got to see Freebird in concert. I never imagined I would see Freebird live in concert by Lynyrd Skynyrd - especially since it was popular when I was a kid, and many of the original band members had died years ago. But it was a great show.




And Kid Rock was AMAZING. I had no idea how much I liked by him. He is almost like a split personality... he goes back and forth between some serious rap music and southern rock. I don't know how he makes it work, but it does.

And his most recent hit samples "Sweet Home Alabama" from Lynyrd Skynyrd, which was cool because from the beginning of this summer, I've been liking that song. (I mean the Kid Rock version.) I'll post that video, too. Which means it will be the first post, so if you haven't watched it you can go back.

So he went from rap, to rock, to gospel, to country, and back to rap. I won't post the rap, but I loved "Bawitaba." And he had a special guest, Rev Run, who is a rapper -- I guess the guy who played in the old Aerosmith song that was remade into a rap song. Because they did that one too.




Other interesting aspects of the concert... I have never smelled so much weed in AGES, possibly ever. I was afraid I was exposed to so much second hand smoke that I was going to be... contaminated or something. Interesting.

And then randomly, towards the end of the concert, some guy dressed in a gorilla suit walks through our row. I have no idea why.

Watch it!

This wasn't one of the rap songs, so if you don't like rap, you should still watch it. This was the gospel type song. LOVE IT! Watch it!

Friday, August 29, 2008

I WIN~ :D

Cool! ANg had a contest on her blog, and I entered and I won! I get one of her artist trading cards (also known as an ATC) and a kit to help me get started making some of my own!

Thanks ANg!!!

Long time, no see...

Sorry, I've been slacking again. I haven't been doing much blogging lately because... I'm not sure why. I haven't had much to say, but I have had a lot to do. Work is crazy lately. School starts soon. I've cleaned my house (a little bit) and done a bit of shopping... What else have I been doing?

I've been watching the Democratic National Convention. This is turning out to be some horserace, huh? Very interesting. I wish I was less cynical. Everytime any politician says anything, I have to admit, I immediately assume it's a lie.

I've been playing video games with my kids. Well, not actually with them all the time; we can't play at the same time, because it's a one player game. I mentioned it before -- Animal Crossing. It's a cute little game. We hadn't played for a while, and we restarted everything. We take turns. It's a real time waster, which I love to do.

I've been getting back into Scouts... a meeting here and there, planning, eagle stuff, whatever....

Anyway. What have you been up to?

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Mom sent me this picture


This is the same house!

Frank and I took a drive.

Can you guess where we went?
 

Here is your first clue... does this look familiar? It looks the same as I remember it from about 30 years ago.
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Driving down the street...

 

This hasn't changed too much... it's your second clue...
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Does this look familiar?

 

This is right next door. It used to be falling apart, but someone who appreciates Victorian style must have bought this one.
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Gram Rodger's Old House!

 


I took a scenic tour of Elizabeth to get these shots! Frank drove, and I hung out the window of the passenger seat snapping the photos. It doesn't look the same, does it?
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For Sale. Hmmm.

 

It's a rather sad looking house now, in my opinion, because all of the old fashioned trim and style was taken away from it. It is still for sale... that is the same sign that was on it last time I drove past, maybe 6 months ago. But now I have the number, so I'll see how much! (Not that I'm buying, mind you. But it would be cool to look!)
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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Reading in the evening

 

We spent the entire day cleaning cleaning cleaning, and here we are this evening relaxing. The three of us read.

Frank is reading a book called "The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design," by Leonard Susskind. He was reading about the theory that at every given moment, there actually exist an infinite number of alternate realities, with different variables. But they all exist at this exact moment.

And I was reading "The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightment," by Eckhart Tolle. I am reading about the fact that the past and the future are only constructs of the ego. The only reality is the now, and what is exactly happening at this point in time.

(Nick, of course, is reading "Flush" by Carl Hiassen, about some kids trying to help their dad who got in trouble for trying to expose someone who was polluting the environment.)
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Friday, August 22, 2008

Good Morning

 

Isn't this pretty? Usually I don't get up early to take photos, but yesterday I decided to take pictures of the glory of morning glories in the morning. But I never got around to posting yesterday.

Let's just leave it at that, shall we?
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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

This was harder than it looks

 

because I don't have the feature where I can just automatically hold the shutter open; the camera decides when the photo has enough light to be a picture.
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Irie

1. irie
to be at total peace with your current state of being. The way you feel when you have no worries.
Everyting is irie mon

2. irie
I-rie \I ' -ree\ adj Rasta/Jamaican patois 1: powerful and pleasing
2: excellent, highest n 3: the state of feeling great.
RESPECT man live life irie and you will lead a happy life.

3. irie
Feeling good, Everything is alright
Steel Pulse: How you feelin' out there?
Crowd: Irie!

From
The Urban Dictionary

It's a beautiful night. Not peak leaf day, but just beautiful. I'm listening to Sirius Radio -- the jam band channel -- and a Dave Matthew band song came on. It's sad, but the sax player died. He was a great musician, and I never really listened to him as clearly before. His music lives on.

The music is irie, and I've had some lovely malbec wine, and I'll be taking a walk in a minute or two.

So, irie mon.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The last pictures of Chadwick Island, I swear.

I couldn't post these pictures before, because even though I took them, I took them on someone else's camera. I had to wait until I got the memory card to download to my computer. And of course, they are my favorite photos of any of the ones I took.

So here is an amazing sunset, just as an actual black swan swims by.
 


I used to listen to really loud music and still hear later. Now, I listen to my ipod and can't hear as well as I used to. I also used to be able to look at the sunset without dots swimming before my eyes. Now, I can't even read for long before my eyes hurt and everything gets really fuzzy.

So I went to Sears and got my eyes checked, and sure enough, I'm getting old eyes. I need reading glasses. I didn't order bifocals, because I'll probably wear them over my contacs. But I ended up with new glasses AND reading glasses AND contac lenses.

The reason I mention this is because the swan pictures, which are below, remind me of getting my eyes checked. I purposely blurred one, because I liked the effect. It doesn't look as cool here on the blog because it's too small. But I liked it on my own screen.

It's beautiful out, and fall is beginning to begin.
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This one?

 
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Or this one?

 
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Monday, August 18, 2008

It's music video night, I guess.

I've spent the entire night on you tube, surfing the music videos. I didn't intend to, but there ya go.

So I posted tons of them. Of course, I don't expect anyone to actually WATCH them all. But you should. They are all really good.

Of course, they are posted in a backwards progression. I started at the bottom. I'm not sure how it flows.

Later.

This one is for Nick.

The Saw Doctors

In honor of the fact that they're playing at the Surf Club this week. And we're not going. This is what we're missing. :(

The Avett Brothers. My new favorites.

Arc



I haven't posted an Eddy Vedder video in at least a week. So here ya go. WATCH IT, I'm tellin' ya! Well, you might not like it. It's very tribal, chanting. He samples his voice and keeps looping it back.

When we went to the NJ PAC last week ... was it just last week? Or two weeks ago? Anyway, he did Arc then. It was way better than this one. It was a total goosebumps experience. But this is good too.

I don't know why noone is allowed to post videos for that show.

Anyway, I'm in a music mood.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

addiction

 

I seem to have become addicted to walking. I can't understand why I've never done this before. I've started NEEDING to go for a walk everyday. I grab my ipod and head down the street, along the creek. Today, I took Thor for a walk, but his back was hurting, so we turned back halfway through the normal trek. Plus, we weren't going too fast. I didn't feel like I'd had my walk. After dinner, I had to go again.

I don't know about those endorphins, or the hormone issues, or any of that stuff. But I find I need to leave and to sweat and to breathe hard. And I used to walk with friends all the time, to be social. But I never got the same rush out of it that I do now. I just got home, and I'd like to go walk again. I have other things I need to do

I've had other "addictions". Most notably, an addiction to the internet. It's morphed over the years. I'm still addicted. I check sites, email, pages, compulsively. Addiction to reading. I can't get enough. I can't put the book down once I've started. Addictions to people. I'm working on that one. Addiction to sugar. I start eating sweets, and I eat every single one until they are gone from the house. I've toned down my wine/Jack consumption, because I didn't want that to become an addiction. And because I hate hangovers.

I'm not trying to make light of other people's addictions to harmful substances. I'm just saying that I'm noticing this tendency in myself to get so consumed by the need for... _____ (internet/wine/books/sugar/whathaveyou) that I don't stop, until way past the time has come to stop.

At least the sugar addiction is being balanced out by the walking addiction. Of course, the sugar addiction has had the upper hand for many years now. I've got a ways to go to catch up.
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ChaCha.com

CHACHA

Frankie goes on the message boards for Pearl Jam all the time, and he heard about this new thing called ChaCha over there, and he's been having a great time playing with it ever since. It's a text messaging thing. If you have a question -- any question -- and you text it to ChaCha, the people at ChaCha will do their best to get you an answer.

When I say "do their best," I mean that assuming there IS an answer, they do the research on the web and send it back. Of course, some of his questions didn't really have answers. His first question was "What is my name?" which of COURSE they couldn't answer. But so far they have given him answers to sports trivia, random questions like when a store opens, and they have even texted him jokes and things. It's getting to the point where any question that comes up becomes a text to ChaCha.

Which is fine with me, because he has unlimited text messaging and they are free except for text message costs.


It's a whole new world out there, isn't it? I feel so old sometimes.

Click here if you want more info about it, or you can text message your question to 242242.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

A reason, a season, or a lifetime

Did you get that email that goes around periodically about a person being in your life for a reason, or a season, or a lifetime? It's about the nature of friendships?

I hate that one. :P

Well, I hate it today, anyway. I'm sure the first time I got it I read it and appreciated it, maybe even the second or third time. But today when I think about it, I get queasy. How are you supposed to know? If it is a reason or a season or a lifetime friend? And how are you supposed to decide that a friendship is worth holding onto? Or not? Or that it should be allowed to die a nice natural death from no contact? Or what if you think it's a lifetime friendship, but for the other person it's only a friendship for a reason, and maybe that reason has expired? What if you have to be hit over the head by someone before you get the idea that your friendship is unwelcome? I'm very conflicted about some things right now.

And it's all just too confusing.

The good thing about blogging is being able to write about these deep thoughts and express your feelings. I like to vent. I like to talk out issues that bother me until I can get a handle on them, and understand how I'm feeling and what I should do. The bad thing about a public blog is that since people you know read it, you can't really say EVERYTHING you'd like to about things.

So. That is all.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Rub-a-dub-dub...

 


...three men in a tub, and a kid on a surf board (with no surf to speak of.)

There is a lot going on here. Everyone has a lot of energy and their own priority. In a very confined space.

This picture totally cracks me up.
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Somewhere... under the rainbow

 

Isn't this so cute of Tara and her daddy?
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The House on Chadwick Island

 


Most of the photos I took in Chadwick were from "our house" (rental) looking outward... I had to walk over to the next block so I could get one of the correct perspective. This is what it should really look like. This is where we stayed, and where half my family still is. A bit tight, but lovely none the less.
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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Wow! An Award! :)

Hi all!
I just got back from the beach, did ya miss me? And when I got back, I had a surprise in my in box. Roller Coaster Teacher at A Teaching Life let me know that she had honored me with an award on her blog. I am so excited!




So now, in return, I am to bestow the same award on blogs that I read and enjoy. And, in turn, they are to go forth and award other blogs. Share the love!

It's actually quite difficult to decide who to award. It's taken me all night. These are my awardees... I have even more blogs that I love as well, but these are Brilliant in their own way, for many reasons.

Vincent's blog, THIS WONDER-FUL LIFE is always interesting, inspiring, and uplifting.

Beth at Just About Us is my BFF, and the fact she manages to blog at all with everything she's got going on is amazing, and she deserves an award for it!

ANg has an artistic blog that makes me feel creative just reading it. "Art on, sistah!"

Wandering Mind is a wonderful blog by Pink Dogwood. She writes about a lot of things that really matter.

Dreamz Forever is beautiful and creative...

The Caffeinated Librarian-- I always find cool stuff on her blog. I check in regularly.

Encore Seraphine is a comic blog. I don't know how Seraphine comes up with such incredible new stuff every day... she's very smart, and I usually read her blog the first thing when I log on every day.

And finally,
PS is "just a mother of two" but she's actually a lot more... for one thing, she's one of my first blogging friends. And she's very popular all over the world now, from her blog. But she is definitely BRILLIANT!

Congratulations to all, and like I said before... spread the love!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

GONE FISHIN'

 

I'm heading back to Chadwick for a day or two... see ya when I get back, and take care of Frankie for me - he's stayin' home!
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Saturday, August 09, 2008

What else we've done this week...

I wasn't able to update much this week because it's been so crazy. Below is the college update, for those who care. I did that first. But of course that means you read it last. I hate that, it always feels out of order unless I try to plan it out better.

Anyway, this is the list of recent activities taking over my life:

1. I should be preparing for the shore house right now. I'm not ready. I won't be there long anyway, and Frankie is staying home, so I'm not in a rush to leave. Maybe I'll go tomorrow. I'm not too motivated to work too hard right now because I'm still tired (although not hung over) from

2. Last night -- Michelle and Matt's wedding. BEAUTIFUL! I cried when the Bride and Groom danced with her 17 year old son... it was so sweet, I felt so happy for them all, to have found each other. Perfect and romantic. And then, the music was quite cool -- the usual standards, and a few (very few) updates, and then a whole latin dancing part which I enjoyed. Plus great food. And Michelle looked AWESOME. I missed the church part, because I was...

3. ... still shopping for something to wear, as she was probably walking down the aisle. That was yesterday afternoon, I shopped for two and a half hours trying to find ANYTHING I could wear and look decent in -- I didn't do that well, I ended up with a blouse, but what are you going to do? I would have shopped sooner but Thursday Night was,

4. THE EDDIE VEDDER CONCERT!!! :) <3 (less than three symbol means "heart":)
It was so AMAZING. Pearl Jam concerts are great; part of what I love about them is the sing-along aspect. They rock out, but you can hear the audience just totally singing from the soul, giving it right back. It's like we are all one organism... but Eddie, who is Pearl Jam's lead singer, did a solo tour as well, and it was vastly different. It was at a smaller venue, for one thing; it was in the heart of Newark, NJ (not somewhere we venture for many reasons) at the opera house - like NJPAC theater. Very posh, and excellent acoustics. The stage was sparse, with only his own equipment, practically an acoustic set -- a combination of "VH1's Storyteller's" and "Unplugged." I would love to post a you tube video from the concert, but they keep taking them down for copyright claims. But anyway - It was an amazing concert, and unlike Pearl Jam concerts, the audience sat quietly -- there was a hush over the crowd, mostly, and Eddie told stories and talked as well as singing. It was like you were hanging out with him. Very cool. And the songs were done on acoustic guitar, ukelele, and mandolin; and one song, "Arc", had Ed just playing his own voice on a loop of tape, then playing it back and layering it with his voice again, and then playing it back and layering, over and over until he had the whole song. It was amazing.

That was the same day as
5. The Rowan College Tour -- which I wrote about below. Which is why I haven't had time to write. I've packed a lot of stuff in, in a short amount of time. And don't forget that on Tuesday, after work, I had

6. Andrew S.'s Eagle Court of Honor, from Venturing. I think it went well.

So... that's about it. Now it's time to do something else. I have a book I want to finish reading. And Eddie Vedder's concert made me feel very artistic, I ought to paint something. And the house is a wreck, I ought to clean. And I've pulling the lilac out of the back yard because I need a patch of ground to plant beans and things, we need to grow more veggies. And, like I said, I've gotta pack, which means I've gotta finish the laundry. And I have a salsa I want to prepare to bring with me.

I'll post again soon...

Ok. Now I can update you. Finally.

Sorry about that. I meant to get right back on the blog and update, but time has been slipping away. Now Thor and Nick have taken off to the beach again, and the computer is working again, I have the time to write.

Well, Rowan was really nice. I took Frankie and Nick and Kyle, Nick's friend, just for the company. Frankie was suitably impressed. He seemed less stressed than he was on other college visits, so that's a good sign. I think the two other boys being there really helped.

Rowan is a college in Glassboro, NJ. It used to be called Glassboro State, because it is a NJ State college in Glassboro, NJ. Get it? Well, then Mr. Rowan (and I guess Mrs. Rowan too) decided that they wanted more emphasis on engineering opportunities in southern NJ. So they decided to donate a 100 million dollars to Glassboro. So they changed the college's name -- and put tons of money into the engineering department! So their engineering department, overall, is ranked like
16th in the country.

It looked like your average college campus, under construction. It was pretty big. Kyle was not overly impressed, but he's looking into computers, and he's already fallen in love with Rochester College in NY. Rowan isn't as big into computers, which is fine with Frankie. Nick liked it too -- but he still has trouble figuring out any idea of what he wants to do with his life.

It took quite a while to get there -- it was a whole day out, between the long drive to the end of the NJ Turnpike, and then the tour, and then the drive back.

Frankie will probably apply there.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

College Visiting

Today, we go to visit a college that's in our state and yet far enough away for Frankie to be a resident. The head of the science department at the high school recommended that we take a look at this college because she thought it might be a great fit for Frankie, our future engineer.

Keep your fingers crossed that he likes it! I'll try to post more later.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Communication keeps changing at the speed of light.

Another bizarre thing I've discovered about the way kids are using the texting thing, and how it's changing our language.

I texted several of the kids in the Venturing Crew (kinda like a Boy Scout Troop) to find out if they were coming to a ceremony tomorrow.

They all replied very promptly, which was a positive thing.

Do you remember giving speeches when you were in school, and your teacher told you that saying "Ummm" was something to be avoided? It was a filler, a bad habit?

In the replies I got from the kids, two of them actually wrote out the word "ummm."

So it's actually a word now. In the context of their messages, it seemed to imply hesitation. As in, "Ummm I might be there but I might be busy."

Friday, August 01, 2008

The moon is 0% full tonight.

 


There is no moon tonight. It's 0% full according to my little Google widget on my home page. Obviously, I haven't taken this picture tonight, I took it a while ago.

But I was thinking about it, and the moon isn't really moved, it's just dark, right? Which means it's still out there somewhere. I'd like to find the spot it still is, sitting there, dark in the shadow of the earth. You would think you would be able to see SOME of it. But I guess not.

But at least it's still there.
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