Top 5 Nostalgia Songs

We all have songs that bring up good memories when we hear them, as though they were written just for that moment in our life. This blog is a tribute to the songs that shape my memory and define a specific time and stage in my life.

5. Blind, Korn-I can't say I am a huge Korn fan, but I do like this song. It always makes me think of the time I was helping my buddy Dan move into or out of a tiny little apartment that he shared with Bram and two girls. It was only for a summer so when I helped move them in I knew I would be helping move them out in three months. Dan popped this song in and we put down the boxes we were holding and just started to get nuts. We didn't care who could see or hear us we just jumped around and yelled as though we were Jonathan Davis himself (I think we have better voices though). When the song's beginning climaxes with "it's on!!!", What a release. We finished sweaty and fired up...But with nothing better to do but move boxes.

4. One, Metallica- Believe it or not, I didn't hear this song for the first time until I was a sophomore in highschool, in '94. I remember Metallica was coming to Wings Stadium and I didn't really care too much. Then I heard 'One' and my life changed. The song was so intense, so fast, so different then the crap they played on 103.3. I wanted to hear all of their music, all the stuff I had been missing out on since 'Kill 'Em All' in the early 80's. I remember standing in the living room of Jon Jankord's house watching MTV. Jon and Evar making fun of me about never hearing that song before when it came on. Everything stopped for the 8 minutes it took for the song to play and it was one of the most intense 8 minutes of my life. (cue the dramatic music)

3. Only the Strong Survive, Flaw- Many of you out there may not know who Flaw is, take my advice, look into it, they rock. The first time I heard this song it was on a CD that a girl named Kasey let me borrow. I had never heard of Flaw up until this point. I loved the song so I quickly ran out and bought the Flaw album, ofcourse it made me think of this really hot Kasey girl everytime I listened to it. I gave her a copy and she loved it too.... so I married her.

2. Welcome to the Jungle, Guns 'n' Roses- I was in fourth grade the first time I heard this song and I remember thinking "This song is evil, I shouldn't be listening to this". I was at Evar's, my best friend's house. I listed to a lot of music at his house but this one really has meaning for me now. When I was a kid I didn't really realize that Evar's mom was an alcoholic or that Evar lived in poverty and deserved better. It is ironic now because the song was literally welcoming me to the jungle of Evar's life, it just so happened that I was too naive to understand. I was a G 'n' R fan in highschool, that is when I finally realized the literal meaning of that song and the irony of where and when I first heard it. I also think of the movie "Lean on Me" when the teacher gets his head bashed by one of the students. Really freaky when you are a middle school kid that is afraid of most of your teachers. One more, my car broke down to this song on the way back from the beach with Dan and Bram, man, what a day.

1. Landslide, Smashing Pumpkins version- Man, what a great and ageless song. I could listen to this song over and over and it would never get old. There is no one specific memory I have linked to this song. It just reminds me of any good time in highschool and college really. I share a common bond with this song with my buddy Dan. We would pop this song in at any random time and it would both make us mellow and philosophical or something. This is the song that can make even the most macho man turn into a melodramatic fool. This song also reminds me about taking a good long metaphoric look in the mirror, get my life straight. I think if I listened to this song long enough I could figure out, war, peace, and world hunger in a matter of hours. That is the power of Landslide.

there you have it, bring on the feedback.

Can't Con a Con Man

I have a very interesting serendipity type story to share. Years ago, about 7 to be exact. Episode I of Star Wars came out in theatres and Star Wars geeks around the globe united in joyous glee. There glee consisted of camping in front of every movie theater in the nation for 3 nights to get tickets for opening day. I like Star Wars but there was no way I was going to wait in line for 3 days to see anyone or anything. So did the next best thing. I took a video camera and set up fake interview with the many geeks camped out the day before tickets went on sale. I met all kinds of people but there was one particular person that stuck out, and he is still sticking out. His name is Skyler Stone. I remember this particular interview, for one, because he has the same name as my nephew and two because he had a great story for my mock interviews. I was telling people I was doing a college study on the impact of media in today's society. These SW geeks ate that up like Cantina steak. Skyler had a huge moving promotional sign infront of his camp. The sign showed little Adikin Skywalker running and eventually turning into Darth Vadar, really cool. I asked, "where did you get this sign" he said "Well, I let me tell you. This is a promotional sign right? You can't buy this an in any store. The sign was sitting at Meijer infront of a bunch of Star Wars merchandise. I really wanted the sign so I went to the poster section took the bar code off a SW poster and put it on the promotional item and went through the scan-it-yourself line and bought this puppy for $3.99!" Great story.

Here is where it gets good. I thought I was really doing a great con on all these people. Tricking them into answering ridiculous questions for a mock interview. Questions like "do you think Brittany Spears will do the soundtrack for the new SW?" oh man, that really made some die hard geeks mad. Anyway, I saw the same Skyler Stone on TV the other day getting interviewed by news 3. I guess he is a host on a Comedy Central show that cons models into thinking they are getting a serious interview and then he asks them ridiculous questions. This guy is now famous! I couldn't place the face at first but I eventually realized where I knew this guy from and that he is now doing the same thing I did to him 7 years prior, but on a much larger scale. Skyler, if you are reading this, way to go man and I hope you still have the SW promotional sign.

"I Want a Fake Face" An MTV series

I was watching TV last night and I stumbled on a show called, "I want a famous face" I am sure you have heard of it. It is an MTV series the documents people ridiculous obsessions with famous people's looks.

What has this world come to? Seriously? The episode last night was especially disturbing. A 26 year single, divorced mother of two children, wanted to look like Jennifer Aniston. She was very pretty as is, but she said "since my kids were born I haven't been able to wear cute things, I have been ugly." It sounded as though she resented her kids for making her have stretch marks and gaining some weight. This woman's appearance became the center of her life. The show was a half hour long and it may have showed her kids (about 4 and 2 years old) for 5 seconds. She had a boyfriend that thought she looked fine, all her friends thought she was very pretty, but she could not please her toughest critic, herself. People like that could have all the plastic surgery in the world and they will not be happy because they did not take care of the psychological part of it. Self image has almost nothing to do with looks, it has to do with confidence and self esteem. She should be able to take a look at her beautiful kids and loving boyfriend and say, "It doesn't matter how I look because I have a beautiful family". Granted, everyone wants to look nice, but looks are all relative. This was an above average looking woman, very cute, yet she thought she was ugly. Her problem is not her looks.

The surgery cost her $23,500. Are you trying to tell me she couldn't use that money to better her kid's lives at all? She couldn't use that money to see a psychiatrist? I truly feel that people like this are mentally ill. They may not have dementia or psychosis but they are suffering from severely distorted self image. I hope this woman and others like her find help that doesn't involve a knife and bandages.

Friends In Mirror Are Further Than They Appear

It is really strange how a person can go from talking to their roommate everyday for years in college and then not talk to them for years afterward. It is really sad what happens to our lives and our relationships when we become "grown ups". I know I can't be the best friend to everyone that I have shared a laugh with along the way, but it is sad to think I don't have time to reach out to people that were really important in my life at one time. I only talk to two of the five guys that stood up for me in my wedding (on a regular basis) for heaven's sake, one of them is my brother. Is this my fault? Is it theirs? How does this happen? If I were to call them would we have anything to say more than "yeah, I worked this week, same old stuff".

When my life became fuller due to an addition of a wife, son, house, and job, did everything else become empty? Do I multiply my love when new things come into my life or do I divide it? Is there a finite amount of love a person can feel, if one person takes more of your love does someone else get less? I want to say no,.... But it feels as though I divide sometimes.

I have/had a friend named Webby in college that I lived with and hung out with everyday. I spent thanksgiving with him, he stood up for me in my wedding. We were two peas in a pod. Great guy, I have never had a bad thing to say about him. So, why after moving 5 hours away and starting life after college, have I only called him about once every six months? Would it matter if I lived five minutes away? Is distance the only thing separating us or is it something bigger. It is not just Webby, it is all the people that have meant something to me in my life. My old soccer buddies, my old college teammates, my high school friends, the list goes on for all of us.

I am sorry if this blog has left you with more questions than answers, that wasn't what I was getting at. If you have any answers, let me know.

Motorcycle Miracle

I have an uplifting story that is worth sharing with the masses. It all started last fall when I sold my prized possession, and ESP Kirk Hammet (lead guitarist for Metallica) signature electric guitar. I bought it for $900 about 4 years ago and I was hoping to get atleast that out of it on eBay. I have plenty of guitars but my wife did not have a piano, so to even the score I wanted to sell a guitar and buy her a nice digital piano. Well the guitar sold for $1900 to my surprise. I bought her a really nice piano and used the left over to buy an old fixer upper motorcycle for $400. I had all winter to work on it so I thought I may be able to sell it for a profit this spring.
After many hours in the garage I had the bike running well. True to my word I put a for sale sign on the bike the day I took it out of the garage for spring riding. I started the price at $1500; that is a win/win price. If it doesn't sell because the price is too high than I get to ride all summer. If it does sell than I make more than I ever thought I would on the bike. That is the motorcycle part of the story, now for the miracle part.

I have been riding the bike for about two weeks now, not long. As the bike was sitting in my front lawn a man pulled up in a big blue truck and wanted to take a look at my 82 Honda CB750K ( are you impressed with my motorcycle lingo?) He said, "I really don't want a bike like this but I am batting it around in my head." he left with very little more said. I went inside and didn't think much of it. The man returned about two hours later and asked to take a test ride. I said sure and handed him a helmet. He was gone for about 15 minutes and when he returned he said he liked it and wanted me to hold it for him. He gave me a deposit of $100 to hold the bike. I told him I was planning to put about another 200 miles on the bike for a weekend trip up north. He said that was fine and he would have the money on Monday when I returned.

I was excited to tell my wife that we made a huge profit on the bike. She quickly grounded me by saying she didn't think I should take the bike up north. She said "Quentin, what if you wreck the bike, what if you get hurt, what if the bike breaks down and you can't sell it. I have a bad feeling about this." I said "Honey, I have been planning this for weeks and I would really like to have a 'last hooray' on the bike". Basically, I was going to take this bike come Hell or high water. Whenever Kasey and I don't agree on big topics like this I suggest a prayer and ask for guidance from the ultimate advisor, God. That night I prayed for some type of answer on the trip, if I should ride the bike or just drive. I figured the ride was less than 24 hours away, anything barring a miracle, I was going to ride it. I fell asleep and woke up at 6:30 in the morning for work. I have to be at work at 7:00am so I have about 15 minutes to get ready. When I went in the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal a big blue truck pulled into the driveway. The sun wasn't even out yet. The man came to my door, he said "I was hoping you would be home, how about I go to the bank and get $1500 in cash and we take care of this thing at lunch today?" I said, "I don't know I have to move some things around". When I paused to think an overwhelming feeling of "the sign" came over me and the words "please give me an answer" rang in my head. I quickly stopped the man from leaving and said, "you get the money, noon will be fine". Never have I received such a blunt sign as that. I am at my house for no more than 15 minutes in the morning. He was simply driving by and saw me in the window, two minutes more in bed and he would have missed me and I would have road up north.

I sought after the Lords counsel and he replied when he knew he had to, at the perfect time.
who knows what would have happened if I took the bike, I could have made it fine, incident free. I guess I will have to trade finding out for $1500, a happy wife, and my safety.

The Lord my not care about motorcycles and the cost, but he does care about families and keeping them together.

My New Membership, For My Old Club

Conversion is a powerful and strange thing. Whether it is conversion to college or conversion to satellite TV instead of cable, or conversion to a new religion. The latter of the three is the most serious and important.

I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints my entire life, born in and baptized at age 8. I went to all the classes, I went to church with my family every Sunday. Reluctantly kept the Sabbath day holy by not playing bball or going out with my friends on Sunday. I was under my parents roof, I had to obey their rules. Why did they make me do all of those things that I didn't personally believe in? That was the question I asked myself then, and this is the answer I give myself now. Because they loved me. Because they knew any traveler in a strange land is lost without a guide or map. Why is it that the more future you have to plan for the more nearsighted you are? Why, when I was young, couldn't I fathom the idea that my parents gave me rules because they loved me? I suppose because I knew it all, I could take care of myself. right?

The saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink, never rang so true after I started to educate myself. All my parents rules were a mystery to me because I wasn't educated, I didn't understand what I truly believed. The basis of my faith was education. I don't mean school book education. I mean listening to people older and wiser than you, not just hearing them, truly listening. Reading books they don't let you read in school; Bible, Book of Mormon, History of the Prophets, Jesus the Christ, Gospel Doctrine, etc. Through this religious education was the only way I could know how I got where I was and where I would go from there. I read night and day, I asked questions of who ever seemed to understand more than me. I was a spiritual sponge hoping to absorb anything good, pure, and true. Even though I lived my whole life as a Mormon, I was not a true member until I educated myself and truly understood what I believed. That is the only way to true faith; knowing what you believe in and why. It took me nearly 24 years of my life to see what was right in front of my face the whole time. I guess the spiritually blind only see what they want to see. I am not perfect by any means, but now I know I am not and can work to eventually get there. No one is perfect (except my brother Todd)but everyone has the potential to be.

If you don't know what you believe or lack purpose or meaning, pick up a religious book and educate yourself about where you came from and where you hope to end up and why.

Free advice from a person that used to not take any.

My Top 5

If you have seen Hi fidelity then you know what I am talking about. Basically anything in life can be broken down into a top five. Movies, dates, friends, books, schools, teams, etc.
I would like to post my top fives and see how they differ from anybody who may stumble upon my blog. I will add more periodically

Top 5 Unattainable crushes:
1. The Spice Girls- for some reason I could not get these girls out of my head in 1997 and 1998. I didn't even like their music, I just loved their accents. It was hard not to love them, they were everywhere. I think I liked them more when the everyone else started to like them less.
2. Brittney Spears- Come on, everyone had a crush on this girl when she hit the scene in 98. It was kind of like a guilty pleasure, like Desperate Housewives...oops, did I just admit to watching the DH? Just think, all the time I could have had her if I were a washed up wanna-be, that has two kids, and really really bad facial hair, like Federline. How did I not think of that?!?
3. Shannon Miller- that's right, Shannon Miller from the 92 Olympics, she was hot. She made me a gymnastics fan. I was really close to trading in my basketball for a pommel horse just to impress her.
4. Carmen Electra- The weird thing about Carmen is she became hotter after she was taken by Dave Navaro. That guy rocks and the fact that she has good enough taste to go after a rocker is really hot. She made the list for her good taste ofcourse, not for any of her physical features.
5. Marcia Gross- For those of you who don't know, she is the red head in desperate Housewives. This one is funny just because my wife knows I had a thing for red heads so she always gives me a hard time when we watch the show. My wife is blonde by the way.

Top 5 Movies:
The Matrix- I will never forget the first time I saw this movie in theaters, it blew me away! I literally had a shortness of breath during the action scenes. I don't know if I will ever feel the same way about another movie. I saw it 3 more times in the following 3 days.
Back to the Future- This was the first time travel movie I had ever seen. It really made me think, the space time continuum is a heavy concept. Great story, great acting, I could watch it a million times over.
RAD- This movie was not just another cheesy extreme sports movie. This movie is revolutionary. Cru Jones races Hell Track, what could be better than that? Nothing else was like it at the time. Nothing else has been like it since.
True Lies- I just think this movie has a great blend of humor and action. The plot was great and Jamie Lee Curtis is classic. I just like the flow and storyline.
Sixth Sense- I really liked this movie, but it isn't the kind of movie you are going to watch over and over like the others. I just really liked it the first time I saw it.
Extra Credit- I would put irobot on the list but it hasn't stood the test of time yet.

Talking 'bout My Resolution

For those of you that have not read "Getting Plowed by the State of Michigan" go to the bottom of the page and read that first.

It has been almost 6 months now and the State has still not sent me a check for the damages. I claimed minimun damages of about $950 total. Nothing big, just enough to take care of what they wronged. What they did do, was send me a letter saying they will eventually send me a check. So by the time I get the money it may be in the form of a social security check!
Also, I found out, by the help of a law student, it is a state law that you can't sue the state! what kind of communistic move is that?!?!? Talk about being a bully. This isn't over yet, I am still fighting for all the little people that the widow maker (snow plow) has left in it's wake.

Reality Check; Don't believe the hype

I have been playing basketball all my life and have played at a few different levels: middle school, Highschool, AAU, Camps, 3 on 3's, DII college. Three years ago I graduated college and no longer had an opportunity to play competitive team basketball. So I was exiled to the realms of local pick up bball. A funny things happens to your self-image when you go from playing competitive bball in college everyday to playing local pickup once or twice a week. As my old roommate would say "even glass looks like a diamond in a pile of poo". Basically what he was saying was I thought I was getting better and better while playing against lower level players. It was fun, I didn't have to hustle if I didn't want to, I didn't play defense very long, all the things that can be a drag when playing with a coach. It was really fun because I was not just another 6'6", 215lbs college guy, I was the "big man". I had people telling me how great I was every time I went out to play, instead of "Dang it Q, you aren't working hard enough" yelled by my coach on the sideline. Which leads me to the whole point of this story. I tried out for a semi-pro team. The first day I tried out I thought I was going to die. My lungs have never burned like that in my life, and I hope they never do again. I felt out of shape, (in actuallity, I was) I felt small, I felt slow, inadequate, and all of the other things a freshman feels like at his first day of high school. I seriously felt as though I was in fourth grade again and I was having trouble dribbling the ball. Did I get that bad that quickly, did I eat something that day that made me slow or tired? NO, the bottom line, I am just not that good. Basketball ability, or any ability for that matter, is relative. It is a tough pill to swallow, but the proof is in the pudding. I think every man, at some stage in their life, realizes that there are somethings that are out of his control. As hard as he may have tried to manipulate or perfect that elusive thing or ability, ultimately, it is out of his control and the way he deals with that is what defines that man's character.

Personally I had to realize this a few times. When I realized I am not a good enough guitar player to be a rock star, I am not a good singer, I am not good enough to be payed to play bball, I am not cool enough to date the most popular girl in high school (the elusive Kelly Carls, that one was really tough, but I tried over and over). But through all that "realizing", I came to the conclusion that I would much rather not be the best at those things than be bad at the things that matter. I am a good dad, I am a good husband and I am a good son, brother, grandson. I am a good churchmember. Best of all, it doesn't take an NBA scout or a record contract to prove I am a good person.