Well, this is it… My last shift at work was this afternoon and we’ve been packing all evening and getting things ready for a very early departure tomorrow. I’m actually going to head to bed very shortly since I probably have to get up somewhere around 5:30 or 6 AM. Yikes. That’s only six hours or so from now… Anyway, we’ll be back on the 2nd, two days before college classes start.

I’ll still try to update Twitter and see if it works okay. I have two possible numbers I can send updates to, but I don’t know which one to use in the States or if one is exclusive to Canada. We’ll find out I guess. Either way, I’ll fill you in on the details later…

I’m just hoping the weather holds out though as it says there is a chance of thunderstorms all week. This is our first family vacation in fifteen years, so hopefully it won’t get rained out…

Anyway, I’m signing off for now. Twelve hours from now I will be flying in the air somewhere over the United States on my way to Florida. I can’t believe it’s here already… Time flies (no pun intended)…

Gosh, thank goodness for a day off. I have so much magazine work I need to catch up on today, plus I need to go to an orientation thing for college that runs from 10am to 2pm. First things first though: I need to prep some questions for an interview I’m doing with The Last Goodnight tomorrow. If you haven’t heard of them yet, don’t worry, they are brand new and their debut is releasing on Tuesday. You may have heard their first single, Pictures of You, on the radio though as it is doing quite well. The first time I heard the song a few weeks ago, I had the feeling these guys could really take off. There is just something about their sound… It’s a very infectious pop vibe that reminds me of Maroon 5 at times, without the incredibly high vocal range.

Speaking of The Last Goodnight, we’re actually running a contest on Renown Magazine right now where the grand prize is a digital camera and copy of the new CD. It’s open to residents of the United States and Canada, so boogie on over and enter! Click here for the link. Here’s a link to their MySpace profile too if you want to check out some songs…

It’s hard to believe the vacation has arrived so quickly. As I said before, it’s our first family vacation in about fifteen years (at least), so we’re all excited. It should be a lot of fun hanging out in the House of Mouse for a week. I’m just checking out some of the extra benefits Disney gives their resort guests and I sure am impressed. They really know how to treat their guests with incredible service. Three more days….

For those new to this blog (and there are a lot of you), don’t forget to check out my other profiles around the net too:

- My Tumblr account is where I link to various interesting news articles, links, photos, videos, and so on that I find throughout the net. It’s what they call a Tumblelog and it’s nice because it doesn’t clog up space here.

- My Twitter account is something that I absolutely love. I jumped on the site a couple of months before it exploded at SxSW early this year and now tons of people use it. The question is simply “What are you doing?” and you answer it in 140 characters or less. It’s like an up to date mini-blog that you can use to tell people, well, what you’re doing and other tidbits of information. You can send in entries via web browsers, e-mail, AIM, third party apps or, my favorite, via text messages on your phone from anywhere. Really cool. People have already heard big news through twitter long before on the TV or internet (such as a big earthquake that just happened). So sign up and add me as a friend!

- Flickr is another site that I couldn’t live without. For about thirty bucks a year, you can have unlimited storage and bandwidth to host all of the pictures your heart desires for the world to see. You can then link to them easily and efficiently anywhere, such as the little banner I have on the column to the right. You can bet lots of Disney photos will be coming up afterwards.

Those are just a few of profiles on the net. You can see more of them over at ClaimID. So if you’re on these sites, add me as a friend and make sure you say you found it from my blog…

Okay, off to this orientation thing, then I need to get going on that interview…

I love being able to say I’ve been a fan of something long before it became popular/mainstream. Perhaps it’s bragging rights or perhaps it’s to prove I’m not a bandwagon jumper, but regardless of the reason I can’t help but flaunt it. Consider this my flaunting post.

Long before the television show Heroes made its debut in the fall, I was following its production time line / notes and was greatly anticipating its arrival while hoping it would actually be good at the same time. I think it was at least half a year before its debut that I was heavily eying it. Of course, after a few episodes, the word start spreading and it went on to become one of the highest rated new television series on air last season. Obviously I am thrilled with this, but I can’t help but grin knowing I was a fan half a year before anyone had really heard of it. ha. Okay, I’m done with the flaunting…

So the second season of Heroes is beginning on September 24th and I’m pumped. They just released a teaser promo to start the hype already. The first season will be releasing on DVD and HD-DVD this Tuesday and I’ll definitely be picking it up the following week after I get back from vacation (four days to go!). Unless I pick it up down there at Downtown Disney if they have it and it is cheaper… Hmm…

If you haven’t seen the show yet, do yourself a favor and go buy the first season on Tuesday. Keep in mind it can be a little graphic at times for those easily offended by blood and bodies, but it really is a great show…

My copy of iWork ’08 came in last week. It’s a fantastic piece of software and is definitely worth the upgrade from the previous installment. The new word processing aspect of Pages removes the need for Microsoft Word, Keynote’s brilliant transitions and effects make it arguably the best slideshow presentation software out there and the new Numbers program allows you to create incredibly professional spreadsheets in minutes. The cost for the full version? $79. Much nicer than the hundreds of dollars a Microsoft Office suite will set you back… Now I need Leopard…

I just realized that I bought the greatest hits from Bon Jovi and The Police a month or so ago and they are still sitting on my shelf, sealed in their shrink wrap and begging to be played. I need to get on that this week…

So the reason why I haven’t updated in a while is because I’ve been insanely busy working full time at work. Insert your pity here. ha. Of course, I’ve had some deadlines pop up with music industry work on top of that, which didn’t help any. The good news? Only four more shifts of work left, then I’m off to sunny Florida come Sunday morning! Man, I can’t wait. Less than six days to go… Hanging out inside Disney World for a week will be a blast (we’re staying on property), but I’m also looking forward to the flying portion. It’s fun traveling down to the States. Of course, it gets boring quick, but it’s still fun nonetheless. You can expect lots of pictures from the trip…

So Canadian Idol update… Canada sure got Greg’s elimination wrong a couple of weeks ago. Sheesh. But at least they got last week right with Tara. That was long overdue (as is Jaydee)… Now, for those keeping score, my pick of Brian Melo winning the whole thing is still in play as they enter the Top 5. I always like to choose one (or sometimes two: a boy and a girl) at the auditions level for who could win the whole thing, then see how far they go. It’s usually easy enough to choose once you hit the Top 10, but the auditions level is always a challenge. Brian was my primary choice, then for the girls I chose Carley Rae. We’ll see how things turn out… The last time I went all of the way was with Carrie Underwood, though I’m usually in the top few. ha.

I’m loving my PS3… I think I’m going to play some for an hour to unwind before heading to bed. I work the early shift tomorrow (story of my life the past couple of weeks) and then only three more shifts to go until Florida! Hooray!

So I finally got around to watching yesterday’s Apple keynote. Man, I always walk away impressed after watching their presentations… I need to pick up iWork ‘08. I was wanting to pick up iWork ‘06 but I heard the rumor about a new version launching soon, so I held off. It definitely came a lot faster than I expected. Sneaky Apple.

I’m very tempted to jump the Windows ship altogether and buy a Mac desktop. I don’t play many games, so one of the new pretty iMacs would probably do me just fine. I just need to do my website work, photo editing and video editing mainly. A Mac Pro would be very nice, but too expensive for me.

I really dig the new look of the iMacs though, especially for the keyboard. But I’m going to fight the urge and wait until Leopard launches in October at the very least. Besides, I need to cut back on my spending. But oh how I sure would love one. I’ve decided that I can say the Mac can take care of my needs… Now I just need to wait until the bank account agrees with me. Besides, it’s not like my current Windows PC is terrible as it’s only just over two years old (and thankfully not running the garbage that is known as Vista). I’m just pretty confident now that when it is time to replace it, a Mac will be taking its spot on my desk to coincide with my MacBook Pro…

So I heard a new band the other day on the XM satellite radio at work and they grabbed my attention from the other side of the store. Their name is The Last Goodnight and their debut single is called Pictures of You. I’ll attach the video below. As a sucker for pop and music scout, I’m very intrigued with their sound. The few songs I’ve heard from their upcoming album leads me to believe that they are going to be huge, provided the label puts some marketing behind them so people can actually hear the music (which they seem to be doing). The songs are catchy and addictive, they have a good social awareness (something that could be considered as “in” right now) and they seem to be pretty down to earth guys. Great formula for success. You heard the prediction here first. ha. Anyway, you may be hearing more about them from me in the future… Take that as a hint…

Well, I’m heading to bed. It was a long day today and I have an early morning tomorrow…

Is this long weekend coming to an end already? Aw, how unfortunate. It was a great few days off… I relaxed, caught up on some video games, did much needed music industry work and got a little bit of exercise through biking and walking. Now I won’t have two consecutive days off in a row until my vacation on August 26th. Yikes. These next few weeks will be a fatiguing stint to be sure… But I can’t wait for that vacation. It’ll help me pull through. ha.

After my vacation, college starts on September 4th. Double yikes. It’s hard to think I’m headed back to the text books. I got very comfortable staying away from that setting. ha. But alas, a piece of paper is needed in this world today, so I’ll put up with it. Who knows, I may enjoy it. Registration is on the 23rd where, I’m assuming, I finalize my classes and then everything it is set in stone.

Oh, I posted two new interviews today over on Renown Magazine. One of which is my interview with Finger Eleven… Check them out…

Anyway, not much else to report on for now… Many thoughts going through the mind for various projects and endeavors I’d like to get into, but I’ve got to run for now…

Oops… Sorry, things have been crazy busy. If I’m not working my butt off, I’m in meetings or am out and about…

I did a couple of phone interviews since I last updated. The first one that will be going up is an interview I did last week with Finger Eleven. Their song just went to #1 in the USA, so we talked about that as well as a bunch of other things. It was actually a really good interview. The band member I spoke to was a good guy and liked to talk. It’ll be going online soon…

I bought a Canon 430EX Speedlite flash for my Digital Rebel XTi… I did my first “shoot” today for a new business venture my dad and partners/friends are starting up. They turned out not too bad considering the lack of lighting kits. The focus had issues at times though, which is the lens’ fault. Man, I wish I had some extra money kicking around to buy a nice lens…

Apparently I’m getting a three day weekend this week. Can’t wait! I have to go into work tomorrow and then that’s it…

Anyone following Canadian Idol? It seems Canada is doing not too bad for who they choose to send home… So far the ones who have gone home have been in my top two or three choices of who should go next. There are a couple who really need to get the boot though… Yikes…

I’m really digging this new Matchbox Twenty single… I’m looking forward to the “new” disc in October. It’s a greatest hits project with six new songs, including the single How Far We’ve Come. I’m most excited about the fact that they’ll be touring to support the disc. I’m definitely going to that show.

Alright, off to play some Resistance: Fall of Man…