Somehow I just haven’t found the time to sit down and write here lately. I suppose nothing all that interesting has gone on anyway, but surely some stories have fallen through the cracks. How sad. So what’s new? Let’s see here… I’ve been a father for about 9 weeks now, and I hardly even know what to say about that. Darwin is truly amazing. Considering the complete wreck that my life is, his ability to fix it all with a simple smile or laugh is astonishing. Of course it’s a very temporary fix, but still, not bad. The added stress related to the baby has surely taken a toll on my home life, which is pretty sad. I’d love to say that his existence has been nothing but a bundle of joy, but that isn’t the case. I wish everyone could just focus on what is really important rather than get bogged down in the minutia of half-important selfish “problems”.

The band. We’re doing ok. Not great, but ok. Rehearsals could sound better, but that’s really our own doing. We need to seriously practice these songs in the exact way that they should be played, and we need to do it often. Shows officially start on October 19 when we play the Silo in Reading, PA. Ahead of that we’re gonna sneak out to an open-mic night at a very nice venue just to go through the motions in public, and we might also do a planned invite-only show. I say “might” because apparently that is up in the air now, after we thought it was locked in. We’ll see.

Blah.

What a shitty day. Darwin is all kinds of sick, and it kills me.

EDIT: Ok, I posted that on Friday? I think. As I was in the middle of writing it my computer died. I mean, it really friggin’ died and I have no idea why. So here I am a couple days or so later, picking up where I left off.

Since then I have spent a bunch of hours at the hospital with my infant son, who has some kind of mystery illness. It doesn’t seem too serious I guess, but it’s so friggin’ sad to see the little guy feel so shitty. He had to get stabbed at least 6 times with needles when we first got him in there, since the staff at Crozer Hospital is made up of interns with poor eyesight. He’s been on an IV much of the time, and he’s been coughing up a storm. The saddest thing was his voice for sure. All day yesterday he couldn’t even get out a proper cry. It was this pitiful little whimper that sounded like a broken baby bird. Heartbreaking. His demeanor was much better today though, so hopefully his recovery will be quick. We’ll learn more later this morning, and with any luck he’ll be able to come home. I sure hope so.

Oh, and I think i got the computer fixed up. Yay.

It’s not very often these days that I feel compelled to totally call someone out in a public way. And it’s far more rare that I feel the need to call any one person out more than once. Well there’s a girl named Srp (Serp) who gets that honor today. She’s been tagged on at least one prior version of this site for some ultra-retarded behavior, and as per her usual behavior, she doesn’t learn. So here we are.

First, let me make it clear that I do consider Srp a “friend”. In the way that I would say something like “I have this friend, Srp”. What goes into her being a friend? Well let’s see. We share some common interests, we’re comfortable speaking to one another in an open way, and on various levels we’ve supported one another and/or helped one another out. I don’t take any of that for granted, and I appreciate any help that I get from anyone. But one of my major beefs with Srp is that she’s one of those people that feels bitter about doing a good deed. Like “God, I donated $1 to some fucking cancer organization. What assholes!”. Know what I mean? So basically, it gets really hard to express appreciation or thankfulness to someone, when they do things with such obvious negativity surrounding it. Do a good deed and be happy about it, or don’t fucking do it. Certainly don’t spend the next 5 years reminding me about how great you are for doing me a favor.

A big part of what contributes to that behavior is her sense of entitlement, which absolutely comes from the fact that she is completely spoiled rotten. She’s well into her twenties, lives at home with Mommy, has a college degree, a Jeep, cellphone, MacBook Pro, a drinking problem, and a job that can’t support even 1/10 of her life’s expenses. She regularly takes trips to Florida, Atlantic City, and occasionally other countries (most recently Mexico). This is an issue that comes up occasionally among people in my life, and I almost always blame the parents. I know Srps mom in a very casual way, and she is a pretty normal, nice, and generous woman. But in this case, her generosity has gone too far and has created a spoiled monster. What parents fail to realize is that by coddling their offspring for such a huge portion of their life, they aren’t allowing the child to develop the tools to succeed in life as an independent adult, which is a good thing to be. She gets pretty pissed when any of this comes up, and its to the point where she will intentionally become “closer” with “friends” that don’t mention this kind of stuff, even if they aren’t truly friends to her at all. Basically, her goal is to carve out the easiest possible path through all of life. Frankly, I find that to be shitty and weak, but that’s just my opinion.

This may be slightly off topic, but not really. Today I got into a conversation with her, and it got slightly heated for some dumb reason. Conversations getting heated with Srp is a regular occurrence these days, because she’s mentally ill (like, in an honest to goodness diagnosed by doctors kind of way) and she’s been off her meds for some reason. So basically she’s off her rocker more than she normally would be. Anyway, her defense in these situations is try and drop some intentionally hurtful, personal insults to deflect the attention away from her shortcomings. Today, in the middle of the discussion, she said “You know, I know people at Origivation Magazine. I was aaking them what they think of your new music, and I’m not hearing good things”. First of all, it had NOTHING at all to do with the conversation we were having. And second, I couldn’t give a shit. Origivation is a free magazine that generally kisses the ass of unoriginal semi-cover bands that play the local Frat-friendly clubs. Having said that, the original owner/editor of the magazine has always been very cool to my band, and has written flattering words about us. The original guy is now gone, being replaced by people I have publicly criticized. I can only imagine what the next review will be like. Meanwhile, Srp doesn’t have a fraction of the balls it takes to even create something and send it out into the world to be criticized in the first place. Anyway, she said it in hopes that it would bother me, and that’s what counts.

I’m busy dealing with my son here, so I’m kind of losing my train of though as I write all this. But basically, more than any other time in my life, I could really use a group of friends who are cool and understanding. Right now Srp is failing miserably at that. For her sake, I hope she grows up.

Darwin saw the doctor today. He was due for his shots, including the ever-important DIP-TET! Since the day I found out I was going to have a son, all I could think of was his friggin’ DIP-TET, “a cuss word from shinola”, and all the other ways that my life would become one big constant replay of Raising Arizona. At least I can finally rest assured that my son won’t suffer from Lockjaw Nightvision. Whew.

Meanwhile, the kid is thriving. His weight gain is a bit above average (11lbs, 13.2oz), and his height is surely above average (24″). He’s generally pretty happy, in good health, and super cute. All I could ask for.

Oh yeah, I’ve totally developed a gambling problem. Just a little one. I’ve been going to the Casino Games section of Bodog, and playing Roulette and Blackjack with real money. So far, I’m up. Oh my.

In closing… There’s what’s right, and there’s what’s right, and never the twain shall meet.

For the second UFC event in a row, I placed bets on four fights. I bet $8.75 on each of the fights, a total of $35.

I bet on:
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to win over Dan Henderson. I won.
Matt Hamill to win over Michael Bisping. I lost a totally bullshit decision.
Cheick Kongo to win over Mirko Cro Cop. I won.
Houston Alexander to win over Alessio Sakara. I won.

In the end, I turned my $35 into $61.53.