So yesterday Val and I headed to Abq. at 2 for the Relient K and Anberlin concert. We got up there in record time and met up with my brother to get our tickets. Time was beginning to run short, but Val wanted to go to the mall. We headed down there and she went into a clothing store, so I went over to Electronics Boutique. I didn't really want anything, but I forced myself to look. I felt like they were watching me closely to see if I was going to steal something. I'm standing near the front of the store when this kid runs by me with his hand covering his mouth. As he rounds the corner the floodgates open. The puke starts spewing from between his fingers. He finally makes it out into the mall and removes his hand. The puke goes all over the floor, chunky bits and all. It was great watching all the people's reactions. I went to the clerk to inform him a kid just blew chunks in his store. Obviously, he wasn't very happy to hear that, but proceeded to clean up what was in his store. Some great snide comments continued from there, but I don't remember them. Time was really running short, so I went over to stand in front of the store Val was in. She finally got done, and we met up with my brother again over at Fuddruckers. I had never eaten there, so I just said I'd have what he was having. Never again, that was way too much. I wasn't too impressed; I wouldn't care if I never ate there again. So we spent quite a bit of time there talking about how Christian music has evolved since the days of Petra and Carmen. We got out of there at 7. The time on the tickets said 7. We weren't too worried, the first band we didn't much care for, we had never heard of them before (Don't Look Down). So we get down there and see this huge line wrapping around the building going down the block. We look for a parking spot, and there is a nice parking lot right across the street from the concert. I drove around and of course it was paid parking. For the more security of my truck (lighted parking), I think I can pony up 5 bucks. So I park as close to the building as possible and we watch the people for a while. We figured we'd wait until we saw people going in, but it was 7:15 by now and the doors werenÕt opening, so we thought weÕd go check things out. Once we get over there, we kind of look around like weÕre trying to find somebody we know. We just kind of stood around with the other people near the front like we knew what weÕre doing. Val then sees the photographer of the event, a girl she graduated with, come out from inside. We go over there and talk for a minute. Then "Ultimate Security" comes out (I have more to talk about those aholes later). They make everybody step back and split into guys and girl lines. Val and I just kind of merged in about 5th in line. I got frisked, but Val didn't, I guess they trust the girls more. We walked in like we knew what we were doing, and stopped at the Relient K merch table. Val bought the homestar shirt and two CDs. We proceeded to go into the "concert area" and there were just enough people to fill the first row, leaning up against the stage. When we got up to the front, we were pretty stoked at how well we had done. We found out the people in front of us had been waiting in line since 3:30 that afternoon! We had just got there like 10 minutes ago. So the concert finally started. The kids there felt that it was appropriate to mosh to pop punk. OK, that's not right. Being at the front, I was in the middle of it. I was getting pushed, and finally I started to push back. Several times I got pushed into this girl, and apparently she didn't know what she was getting herself into. She freaking punched me! I was like, what the crap?! Then later I get pushed into her once again and she elbows me in the kidney. Dang yo, you donÕt like it, leave! The worst part about it was people continued to push after the band was done. It was getting hot and IÕm still kind of stick, so it wasnÕt a lot of fun. I stuck around for Anberlin, they were awesome. During the set, Val yelled out to the lead singer that she needed water, and he handed her his water bottle. I was really thirsty, so I finished off what those two didn't drink. Once they were done, I slipped out and went to the back to buy overpriced water. It was $2 for a bottle, and I bought two. It was worth every bit of the 4 bucks. I went back down to the front but stood up against the wall, much more relaxing. I finished out the Relient K concert just chilling on the side. It was really a great concert. After the concert was over, Val and I met back in the middle of the floor. "Ultimate Security" promptly escorted us off the concert floor. We met back up with Val's friend and helped her clean up a little bit. I look down to the floor and see the lead singer, Matt, from Relient K signing autographs. We start to head down, and this little Mexican punk from "Ultimate Security" blocks our way. Clearly, he wasn't a match for me, but I wasn't going to start anything. I told him, "look, the guy is right there signing autographs." Him, "I know." Me, "So let us go talk to him." Him, "No." Me, "Why wonÕt you let us go?" Him, "Because I said so." Asshole. So I see Matt heading up the other side, and run over to catch him. HeÕs a pretty cool guy, and I got him to sign my CD. We head out into the foyer. Two of the guys from Anberlin are there, so I have them sign their CD. We head back to the Relient K merch table and I buy their vinyl and Val some buttons. We're forced out again by "Ultimate Security" and we wait outside for the other band members. Val noticed that she got gypped on her buttons, there was a duplicate, so she went back in. While in there, they told her the band members were on the side of the building. We headed over there and met up with several of the other guys. We got to talk with the lead singer of Anberlin for a bit. HeÕs an older guy, and he has a piercing in his nose. It looks very out of place. HeÕs very cool though, and it was nice talking with him. We were still three band members short of completing our Relient K sigs, so we went out searching for them. Val likes to talk, let me tell you. She talked with the drummer from Relient K for a good 10 minutes. That's OK, I had fun just listening. The bands were getting ready to head to Phoenix, so we headed out. We went back to my brother's house to get ready for our trip home. We finally left his house at 2am! Then we went out hunting for a gas station to fill up. The first one we stopped at shuts their pumps off at night, but not before accepting my credit card twice to sell me $0.00 worth of gas. This whole time, Val and I are debating whether to go home or stay at my brother's for the night and head home in the morning. We decide that if the Texaco station we go to next is closed, then that is God telling us we need to stay for the night. We got there and I put in my card, DECLINED. I try again, DECLINED. Uh oh, is this a sign? Apparently this appeared at fraudulant activity to my credit card company, so they put a stop on it. I try my DEBIT card and it works. So we fill up and head home. We pray out loud on our way out of town and felt good about going home. Val was our DJ as she looked through my iPod and selected songs to listen to. She picked great music, of course she did, the only music she had to choose from was my music! While on the road, we met no fewer than 300 semis, either driving, or on the side of the road. It was crazy. We stopped at the truck stop in Santa Rosa, and she fell in love with a mini fridge you plug into your car. She wouldn't leave until she got a price check. It was $70, that was enough for her to stop wanting it. I picked up a Yoohoo and we were back on our way home. We finally made it back to town at 5:45. I slept until 3:30 and thatÕs where I am now.

So all this writing, and no use of the word crap. Am I losing it?

OK, so I've been sick the past few days with a frikkin' cold. I tried out some medicine called Zicam. One day later, and IÕm a lot better. This stuff is the best. My ear seems to be acting up a little, but I'm more stubborn than any bacteria, so I'll get the best of it. Val and I are heading up to Abq. in a few hours for the Relient K and Anberlin concert! This concert is going to rock. Hopefully she'll want to stay around so we can meet the guys of both bands. This is going to be a long day, 10hrs+ of driving. Oh, and I have a new favorite CD. Anybody that is anybody knows that it's A Perfect Circle's new album ŌThirteenth Step.Ķ It's on a continuous loop in the CD player in my truck. I just hope thereÕs no satanic message in the CD to keep me listening to it. lol. So a lot has happened since I last updated this page. However, nothing of too much concern has really happened. Not enough for me to really update this. I think IÕve done a decent job of keeping the people I know updated.

So people have complained that I haven't updated my blog. Well look, it's updated. You got to look once again into my daily craptasticÉstuff.

So it looks like I won't be getting that job at the TV station. I got up today and went to talk to the guy about working there. When he tried to put me on payroll, he found out that I had not yet filled out a SPAN form. He sent me to Career Services to get that form. When I gave them my ID, and they put it in the computer, it came back saying I was not eligible. Found out, I needed to fill out a FAFSA form before I could even get a copy of the SPAN form. The lady there sent me down to Financial Aid to fill get this next form. Once I got there, I picked up the form and went to the counter to ask what I needed to do to get it submitted. She told me that if I wanted to submit it online, I would first need a PIN number. By this time, things were just getting too convoluted. I went ahead and signed up online for a PIN number, but I won't get that for up to 5 days. Then after I get it, and am able to submit the FAFSA form, it will be a minimum of 72 more hours before Eastern will get the information to approve me, so I can get the SPAN form to fill out, so I can get on payroll. Following me? Looking over the FAFSA form, there is no way that I will qualify for financial aid. If I submitted the form, the government would just look at it and laugh at me for trying to qualify. That's okay, IÕve got more options open.

I headed over to get my hair cut (finally), after I left campus. My barber is the coolest; we talk politics. Good thing our opinions jive, or else I'd have to apply sunscreen to my head to avoid the burn. So I get done and head over to Yucca (my ISP) where my friend Brandon works. We always show off our new gadgets to one another. It seems as if weÕre always trying to outdo one another. I got to show him my iQue, he liked it a lot, especially when it started talking to him. For now, I'm ahead, but I think he has the overall lead. Anyways, he's the system administrator now, and they need somebody to take his old spot. He's got some weight down there, and he wants me to work there, so my chances of working there are looking fairly good. If we can get through the bureaucracy, I should be working there in a month or so.

When I got done with Brandon, I headed up to Clovis to check out some CD's at Master's. I picked up Lucerin Blue and Brave Saint Saturn. Both are great, but I haven't found a defining song on the LB CD.

There you have it, quite short, I realize that, not much to say today. So, as always, stay tuned for the always exciting, craptastic adventures of MDC!

I got up today at noon to make my 1 o'clock appointment for a possible video job. As I was getting ready, I got a call from the TV station, they want me to work there, doing graphics work for the station. I've got to go in the morning, and take them my schedule so we can see if I can work there. So, back to the video interview. A family is traveling around doing some kind of theatrical skit for churches, and only catholic churches at that. It's weird to see white cathoics around here because 99% of the catholics here are Mexican. Then again, 99% of our townÕs population is Mexican. We have a summer church softball league every year here, and this year the catholic church had 13 teams, there were 20 teams total. They had more people play for their softball teams than they have go to their church. Back on topic, the family ganged up on me in the interview, 5 on 1. It was kind of weird, because they didn't just sit in front of me like a regular interview, but rather they sat on all sides around me. They showed me a portion of their skit, and it was quite hard not to laugh at them. It's not easy to explain, you just had to see it to know what I'm talking about. But if you can imagine a 52 year old, balding, heavy set guy running around the stage with his arms waving above his head, you can start to get the picture. They were easily impressed with what I did, even though I didn't really do or say much. It's hard to try to explain video stuff to people that know nothing about it. You have to use simple terms that everyone understands. I always feel dumb when I talk that way, but hey, if it gets me jobs, I'll keep on doing it. They've seen my previous work, so they know what they are getting themselves into. I quoted them my price, and they didnÕt even flinch. Makes me wish I had gone higher. Grr, oh well, it's all a learning experience I suppose.

I came home from the interview, and proceeded to wait for my iQue. While I was waiting, I read about several new bands. They turned out to be really good, I can't wait to get a chance to hear their CDs. While reading about the bands, I came across an article that showed how many Christian bands are making it into the mainstream market. It's so cool to see how they are breaking into the massive secular market, getting their message out to a much larger listener base. The article even made mention of Mercy Me being played on the same radio station that plays rap artists like 50 cent. If you've ever heard Mercy Me, you know that they are quite a departure from any sort of rap. It's nice to see articles like this after being bombarded with the crap thatÕs going on in our country. I read today that the University of Michigan is starting a course called ŌHow to be gay.Ķ Why are we all bombarded with this stuff everyday? It just seems to be getting worse and worse. What can we really do except pray about it, because if we make our concerns vocal, we're all of a sudden hateful homophobes.

OK, let's move on, back to the cool stuff. It finally came about 4:30, and I started getting it set up right away. I loaded 100MB worth of maps onto the thing. The maps I loaded were detailed maps of all of Texas and New Mexico. I doubt I'll be going anywhere besides those two states for a while, so itÕs all good. Dinner tonight consisted of Subway, so I had to go out to get it. Before I headed home, I set my destination on the iQue for home, and it plotted the course for me. It talked to me the whole way, telling me when to turn, and what direction to turn. The voice is fairly monotone, but I sensed anger in her voice when I went off course and it had to recalculate how to get home. She got over it, and it got me home alright; obviously, as Im typing this. It figured all of the two miles it was to get me home. I can't wait to try this thing out in Albuquerque. I can get around fairly well up there for not going there much, but it will be nice to be able to find places of interest, since when I'm there, I usually don't have internet access. So as long as I take this with me, and IÕm in either Texas or New Mexico, I should always be able to get where I need to go.

Today was actually a good day, not boring, or frustrating. So, as always, stay tuned for the always exciting, craptastic adventures of MDC!

So I got up today at 1 to get down to the church by 2 to prepare for the wedding. I couldn't get Trey to go with me, so I set out on my own. I got there at 2, nobody was there, that's fine, the wedding is supposed to start at 3, I'm sure people will start showing up soon. 3:30 rolls around, still nobody there. I'm getting pretty frustrated now; I originally thought this thing was starting at 3:30. Finally, at 4, the people involved in the wedding show up. Turns out, the wedding wasn't supposed to start until 4:30. So I've been sitting down at the church for 2 hours waiting, once again, iPod came to the rescue.

One thing about the Mexican culture, it's good manners to be late. Of course, the one family that decided to show up early had a little kid that refused to shut up. Out of the blue, he started screaming. Nobody tried to get him to shut up, and of course they couldn't take him out of the sanctuary. Let's just let him sit there and throw a frickin' tantrum. What he needed was to have a hard object make his posterior a slightly brighter hue. People not involved in the wedding didnÕt show up until 4:30, some coming 15 minutes after the ceremony started. The mariachi band turned out to be pretty good. A lot better than what I had expected. Not something I'd listen to all the time, but it wasn't bad. Overall, the wedding was uneventful; everything went fine, people rushed to get out to go eat. They were pushing to get out of there faster. Good thing I was back in the corner out of the way, or else I would have been ran over. One thing different about Mexican Baptist weddings versus Mexican Catholic weddings is that the Coronas aren't opened and distributed right as the bride and groom say "I do." Boy do those Catholics love their Coronas. No alcohol at this event today. The Baptists frown upon drinking and dancing. Dancing?! What the crap! There's some things I just don't understand. I locked up once everybody left (which didn't take long), and came back home. Once I got home, I realized I didnÕt want to be there. I haven't been in the mood to be around family the past two days. I just want to be in the quiet, and be left alone. IÕm ready for everyone to go back to bed again so the house will be quiet once again.

Something something something craptastic something MDC!

Today was beyond boredom for the most part, so if you have something better to do, don't worry about reading this.

I didn't get to bed until 4:30 this morning, and I won't mention any names to why I got to bed so late. You know who you are. So I got up at 9 to go help down at the church get the sound booth finished for tonight's wedding rehearsal. I got up very tired, but got ready nonetheless, and headed down to the church, iPod in hand. When I got there, things were already done; I had gotten up for nothing. Frustrated, I kind of sped home. It was just after 10 when I got back to my house. Nobody was home, so I decided to just go back to bed. 2 o'clock rolled around, and I got back up. I got online and proceeded to read a novel's worth of blog entries. By the time I was done reading, it was time for me to grab something to eat, and get ready to go down for the wedding rehearsal.

I got to the church about an hour early. That was fine, I had brought my iPod with me. I hooked it into the soundboard, and cranked up the music in the sanctuary. It's cool being able to do stuff like that, but I'm sure the old people of the church would frown upon me doing that. What they can't hear won't hurt them right? The families of the bride and groom showed up about a half hour late, which was no biggy. I now know what it feels like to be a minority, I was the only whitey there. It felt really awkward, especially with all of them speaking Spanish. I had no clue what was going on. I just looked at the soundboard and had conversations with myself. The bride's brother graduated with me, so it was kind of cool to see him, even though we really weren't friends in High School. We talked until the bride yelled at him to get down to the front so everything could start. They gave me two tapes and a CD to play for the wedding. Tapes? Tapes?! Who uses tapes anymore? Just give me a mix CD with everything you want on it, and everybody will be happier. Good thing our tape decks cue up the song without me having to search for the beginning. So the rehearsal started, and it was pretty uneventful. With them talking in Spanish, I'm lost, and no matter how hard I listen, I'm not going to understand them. This is coming from someone that has taken two years of Spanish. That was 4-5yrs ago, I don't remember much, I'm just able to pick up a few words.

So now I'm home, back to boredom, everybody is either set to "Away" or they aren't online. This gives me a chance to type this out. My brother and his family left at 8, so they should be hear about 11:30. Hmm, maybe I can drag Trey with me to the wedding tomorrow so IÕll have somebody to talk to.

That was my day, not as much as a bummer as yesterday, but it was boring. So, as always, stay tuned for the always exciting, craptastic adventures of MDC!

So this is my first blog. If you're reading this, I'm under the assumption you already know most of the people I refer to by name. If you don't, just use your imagination.

Just another exciting day in the late summer days of P-ville. I got up today only to be bugged by my pastor, checking on the status of his computer. The mobo he wanted me to put in his computer is fried, and I don't want to deal with it anymore. I've already fixed his computer once, but the parts in his computer are cheap, so they keep breaking. These types of problems are the reasons I loathe PCs. There are just too many little things that go wrong with them. I'm tired of working on people's crappy computers for free, and then they complain when I donÕt get them done as fast as they want it done. This is the last one IÕll be working on, except for family and close friends, period. The day just kept getting better when I got a call to do a video for a family acquaintance. I'm figuring they want me to do this for free (do you see a trend around here?). I've got to hire at least two other people for me to complete this job, so free is out of the question. Not only that, but my sound guy is going to be out of town for at least a month. Earlier this summer, his wife was diagnosed with cancer. She got it removed and they thought everything was okay. However, when they tested the cancer, they found out it was a type that required chemotherapy. Please keep the family in your prayers. Continuing this great day, just yesterday, we found out a long time family friend was killed in a bike accident. He was a community leader, and known around here for his biking. He was down in Dallas riding, when he was struck by an 18-wheeler. Please keep this family in your prayers also. So with all this going on, you can see how things around here can get pretty depressing. I just want to see my friends, or get out of this town.

There are some positive things happening though. I got my SD Card for my iQue today. Now I'm just waiting for the iQue, which won't be in until Monday, so I can be an organized geek that always knows where he is. Tomorrow I get to go down to the church to finish getting the cabling tidied up for the soundboard, and then we get to play on it a little more. Tomorrow evening, I have to head back down to the church to run the soundboard for a wedding rehearsal; the wedding will be Saturday afternoon. This is the first time I've ever run sound for a paying gig, plus IÕll be using this brand new board, so things should be interesting. Late tomorrow night, my brother and his family (Petey, and Tigger included) are heading down for the weekend. It'll be kind of bittersweet because it may be one of the last times they get to come and spend the weekend with us. Kim is getting her business together, and theyÕll be busy running it on the weekends.

So this was my crappy day, things can surely only get better, right? Stay tuned for the always exciting, craptastic adventures of Matt!