So much for trying to keep this updated… ha. It’s been a while and you know what that means: a fragmented entry to try to bring you up to speed quickly! I can smell the excitement.

- College is going well… It’s a fairly big workload with my other various jobs, but that comes with the territory. The first semester is over in two months and then I am a quarter of the way through the program. Booyah. So what would I like to do afterwards? I’m not sure yet… Eventually I wouldn’t mind ending up in California…

- I finally got around to seeing Across The Universe. Really cool movie. It was one of those movies where you aren’t quite sure what to think immediately following the movie, but as you think back more and more you realize it was really good. It is a bit of a ‘rougher’ movie though, so I wouldn’t recommend it for a young audience or the easily offended. But for the most part it should be an entertaining watch for the majority of Beatles and music fans alike. I’m considering seeing it again, actually…

- I’m going to see KT Tunstall in concert on November 22nd with my friend Krystle. Looking forward to that a lot… She’s supposed to be awesome live and I’m a pretty big fan of her music. You can bet I’ll be talking about it more as the date approaches. My ticket arrived today actually…

- I ordered a new 80GB iPod Classic and it arrived. The only thing that sucks is there is a stuck pixel on the screen. Grr. That’s what I hate about LCD screens. So I’m going to see if it goes away, otherwise I may call Apple and see what they say. I don’t know if it’s going to be more of a problem to fix if there is a custom engraving on the back or not…

- Aside from Xbox 360’s Halo 3, I think the next four to six months are the PS3’s season for new games. There are so many I want to pick up that are coming out… One of which is the new Ratchet and Clank (releasing October 30th). The free demo went online yesterday and it’s awesome. Then there is Uncharted, Simpsons (though its on the 360 too), Little Big Planet, Haze (not 100% sure on that one yet), Killzone 2, Unreal Tournament and more. I may not play games as much as I used to, but I definitely love my PS3 to play when I get the chance…

- The new seasons of Heroes and The Office are both awesome so far… Not a bad episode yet. I love Mondays and Thursdays…

- So the Canadian dollar is currently three cents higher than the American dollar. What a weird situation. It’s too bad we’re being charged more up here now for goods and services than in the States. They need to adjust that so we’re not being ripped off… Rumor has it they will early next year (after the holiday, of course).

- Speaking of rumors… Rumor is OS X.5 Leopard will be releasing on October 26th or 27th. Can’t wait!

- To the industry personnel who have asked: yes, I’m aware my bio is over a year old. Ha. But unfortunately it isn’t that high on my list of priorities right now. So unless someone would like write one for me (ha), it’ll have to be put off for longer. I should try to quickly re-do the links section though, since I barely read any of the current list anymore…

Well, I think that’s enough for now… I’ll try to update more frequently from here on out…

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve updated this. I suppose I should bring you up to speed with what is new.

Florida was a blast. It was very hot, but I enjoyed it. And for some reason my allergies didn’t bother me at all down there, which was awesome. As soon as I got back to Ontario they started right back up again though. Sheesh…

I wish I was still there… The ability to breathe was nice, plus the Disney World environment is just really cool to be in. It’s not Mickey Mouse in your face 24/7 as you might think, it’s just a well developed and thought out place. The staff everywhere are incredible and consistent for one thing, then Disney just thinks of everything throughout their property from its decor to how to make the guests more comfortable in essentially every category. I was impressed.

I did take a lot of pictures (and I mean a lot), so that’s why I haven’t uploaded any yet. There are so many to filter through that I need to set some time aside to do that. I’ll try to do that maybe later this week tenatively, so stay tuned for that…

We came back on the 2nd, but then on the 4th I jumped right into college classes. Ugh. I’m on my second week now and it isn’t too bad, but gosh they hand out a lot of homework from the get-go. It can be difficult for those of us who are working while attending college full time (at least 75% of the students in the program). That’s my biggest complaint right now. I don’t mind the in class stuff and some homework, but when you need to spend most of your time away from class doing homework it gets annoying. Then one teacher is a little iffy and incredibly by the books it seems, but we’ll see how she/he turns out. It’s still early on so they may change…

Then on top of school and music industry work (which I’ve been loaded with too as of late), I’m still working 22 hours a week at Future Shop. I think I may have to eventually drop a few hours though as it can be a bit much with everything else going on. We’ll see. Maybe insanity isn’t so bad after all…

On a completely different note, Canadian Idol has come to a close. And who picked the winner from way back at the auditions round? I’m pretty sure it was me. ha. I’m glad to see Brian Melo win though as I always always impressed with him. I love his rendition of Radiohead’s Karma Police, as do the judges evidently.

I bought The Office: Season Three on DVD when it released on the 4th. I’ve been trying to catch up on the show so I can actually watch it week by week on TV this season. I only have three episodes to go in the entire set, one of which is the hour-long finale. So it’s pretty safe to assume I’ll be caught up before Season Four starts on the 27th…

Well, I think that’s it for now. I need to grab something to eat and then head to class. Hooray. Can you tell I’m excited?

Well, my two days off have approached and officially begin tomorrow. Once again, I’ll be working on stuff for the magazine… I’m most likely going to book my flight to Nashville in the morning and then maybe look into getting more business cards printed in the afternoon. We’ll see what the day brings.

I bought my first two country CDs on Friday. ha. I’m generally not a big fan of country music, but I broke down and picked up Carrie Underwood’s debut and Rascal Flatt’s re-release of Me And My Gang (which now includes the bonus track, Life Is A Highway). I like them… It’s too bad Carrie didn’t write more on her CD though (she only co-wrote one track). Plus she didn’t even get a section in her CD jacket for lyrics or thank-yous. Poor girl. What a way to cheap out on a multi-platinum selling CD… It’s still good though.

I officially registered for school in the fall. Eek. I don’t really want to go to school, but since it is right here in town I figure I might as well do it since a lot of expenses are out of the picture. Plus I can keep working, not lose ground in the music industry, and have something to fall back on down the road…

Now for some interesting tidbits of music news from the past week or so (the majority from Billboard)…

- Linkin Park’s new CD is finally releasing in May, with the new single hitting airwaves in the first week of April… It’s supposed to be quite different. I’m intrigued and looking forward to hearing it.

- P!ink is teaming up with TrekStor to create an MP3 player based on her name, likeness, and music. Yeah, I don’t know who the heck TrekStor is either…

- Starbucks and Concord are forming a record label… Rumor has it Paul McCartney is close to signing a deal. Want a grande vanilla creme with that Sgt. Peppers?

- Wal-mart will begin to carry HD radio receivers in nearly 2,000 stores in the USA. If you’re not American and don’t know what HD radio is, hop over here. I think they are trying to compete with satellite radio a bit, even though they are two very different things… A station I sometimes listen to from L.A. broadcasts in HD, but I obviously listen to it over the internet so it doesn’t apply to me.

- High School Musical is hitting the ice. No, not hockey… Now that would just be silly. They are figure skating, of course. Tickets go on sale April 2nd.

- Microsoft wants unsigned bands to create music inspired by the Xbox 360 and its video games. Pretty cool concept… Winners will get to record with Universial Music Group.

- Kelly Clarkson finished recording her new album last month and is currently in the process of doing the promo work for it (promo shoots, videos, and so on). It will be called “My December” and is hopefully releasing in Mid-spring or summer. Clarkson describes it in her latest journal entry as “intimate, raw, personal, [and] rock (although some are very sweet and soft).” Looking forward to hearing it…

I think that’s all for now. You are dismissed…

Rock on.

So around the first or second week of February I had to take an assessment test of sorts for college since I was applying for the fall. Things went okay, though I probably could have done better with my algebra. I hate algebra…

Anyway, I ended up getting my results back and accepted into that college within ten days of writing the tests. Crazy. It was actually about seven or eight, if I remember correctly… So I now have the option of being one of the very first students to attend the new college being built right here in my town. I didn’t expect to hear back so quickly, let alone get accepted in the same timeframe. I have until the end of April to decide officially. I think I’ll probably do it though… I don’t really want to go to school in the first place, but I figure I should have something to fall back on before diving head first into a career. This way I can still live at home, work at Future Shop (it’s only eighteen hours a week, not including homework), and save a lot of cash… If I have to do school, I might as well do it this way.

Then after a two year diploma in business management/marketing (I still haven’t decided which one), I think I’d get a one year graduate certificate in journalism or broadcasting so I have some education in that field too. It keeps my options open. We’ll see though… I’d prefer to do as little of school as possible.

Well, so there is the big news… I’ve known for a little while now, but I didn’t want to just lump it on the bottom of another entry. We’ll see how the story ends in just over a month.

On a completely different note: a parody of The Fray’s How To Save A Life surfaced online last week. It is actually an anti-Playstation 3 song and an amusing one at that. Someone then put some graphics to the song shortly after and uploaded it on YouTube. I’ve embedded it at the bottom with the lyrics… If you are a video gamer, check it out. Funny stuff.

I forgot to mention something in my Barenaked Ladies concert recap… One song that blew me away was their live version of Maybe You’re Right. It’s already awesome enough on their album, but it was amazing live… Very epic. I should have grabbed a video of it, but I was too entranced. ha.

Gosh, I really should write these earlier in the day and not immediately before I go to bed… All motivation fades fasts…

Rock on.

“How to Kill a Brand” by Doc Adams

Phil Quote.