It's my birthday...

And I suppose it's gone well.

It's been over a week since I left home. I'm sitting in my dorm now. We're about 87% unpacked. I just got my computer today, and I spent the afternoon optimizing conditions for ProTools 7.4.2. Good stuff, kids.

I'm really excited to be here. I guess that's both vague and cliche' but it's true. I really enjoy living in this dorm. All our roomies are amazing. Musicians, recording artists, singers, songwriters. It's filled with people who share my interests, but are so very different. I'm amazed at how 'at-home' I feel here.

At the same time, though, I really do miss my home. I miss my bed, and my family, and my girlfriend. It really does get kind of lonely, even though I know so many people. The semi-forced friendships don't pull the way a life-long friend would. Hopefully that will get better with time.

I feel bad, because I've already missed a class. My first English class, even. Horrible. I realized that my brand-new alarm clock is not functioning as an alarm clock at all. It functions as a clock, a radio, an iPod dock, but not an alarm clock. It's supposed to, and it did.. until the first day I had an 8am class. Then it broke and I was late.

On the bright side.. I'm at college.

Today's my birthday. I already mentioned that. Funny thing is: It doesn't feel like it, because last night, I stayed awake until midnight. So it was my birthday then. I went to the local Circle-K, and bought some cigarettes and a cigar, because I could. I hung out with some friends for a while, then went to bed. It was cool, but now it's still my birthday. Kind of weird for my head. I guess it's awesome. My girlfriend sent me brownies. They are delicious. She has been so good to me- sending me postcards, letters, presents, and now brownies. I couldn't be more in love, I swear. Hahaha.

Anyways.. music.

"Daybreak" by This is the Hospital
"The Price of Existence" by All Shall Perish
"Summer EP" by Jon Foreman
"I, Lucifer" by Destroy the Runner

peace.

Leaving...

Is so hard.. I feel like I should say a few words to all of you: to express my love for you... but I'll do it later.

listen to:

"Count Your Blessings" by Bring Me the Horizon
"For Those Who Have a Heart" by A Day To Remember

Peace.

Curfews...

Are kind of dumb. I won't lie.

I can appreciate my parents wanting to know where I am.. but I just want to hang out with my girlfriend and their family. They're actually awake, and all that. My parents go to bed by ten. That, in my opinion is ridiculously early. If I come back at that time, it's not like they can hang out with me. I'd rather be with people- my girlfriend especially when I'm leaving in four days.

I guess some people can't let go.

Anyways.. I'm incredibly sunburned from Warped Tour, so I'm gonna go lick my wounds, pout, and write music.

Peace.

Tonight...

Was pretty much amazing. The day started with fast-paced room cleanage. My mother is finally home to help me throw things away, and we made progress actually packing things into suitcases. It's an insane thought- packing your whole life into five bags. Sheets, instruments, medicines, microphones, and all sorts of random crap. All in five bags. It's ridiculous.

Anyways.. after all that, I went with my lead lady, Avena, to take couple's shots together. It was a fun time, running around stagecoach park making faces at the camera. Avena's sister was our fantastic photographer, who put up with all my stupid comments and retarded posturing. I can't wait to see how the shots turned out.

After pictures, Avena and I went to dinner at CPK. The finest noms one can get, in many cases. I just enjoy that place- my family and I have been going there for years. It was nice to take my girlfriend there. We managed to max out our gift card for 50 dollars. It was definitely a fine accomplishment.

Following our food splurge, we went back to Avena's house and watched a bit of the ol' olympics with her family. It was all good times. I'm so happy that I can have such an open relationship with my lady, and still have a fantastic relationship with her family. I'm truly blessed. It's getting down to the last week in Encinitas. I am honestly brokenhearted. I don't know what I'll do when I get to Nashville. Maybe I'll shed a long-overdue tear. Having to move away from all of my friends, family, and amazing girlfriend leaves me with the prospect of growing: something I tend to do only when I'm forced to.

Time to go: time to grow.

I guess this will be good for me. Maybe I'll be inspired and actually write some meaningful music.

Speaking of which, here's the list:

"Dark Shades of Blue" by Xavier Rudd
"Another Hallelujah" by Campaign
"Winter EP" by Jon Foreman
"Vheissu" by Thrice
"Never Take Friendship Personal" by Anberlin

Peace, yall.

The Beach...

Is a beautiful place. I haven't been there in a while to actually... beach. I know that's not supposed to be a verb, but it should be.

beach [v]: the action which involves lying relatively horizontally for extended periods of time in the sun, while occasionally swimming in an ocean of close proximity.

Something like that. So that's what I did yesterday. I beached with my girlfriend and her family. It was all good times. There's something about the beach, though, that makes you feel every cut on your body. I realized that I had a lot.

Anyways... music:

"The Anti Mother" by Norma Jean
"Safety in the Sea" by Sever Your Ties
"In Rainbows" by Radiohead

Celebrate Recovery...

Tonight was kind of awesome. Terribly embarrassing at the same time, though. I usually play guitar with my youth pastor, Matt Carlson at our church's CR [Celebrate Recovery] meetings. Tonight, he was not here, so I recruited my more-than-capable girlfriend to sing and play with me in his stead.

She was amazing. I was not.

It was pretty bad. I started on the wrong chords, forgot songs, lyrics, and nearly collapsed on stage. I've spent the better part of the day cleaning my room.. like I have been for the past few days. The thing is- today I didn't really eat anything, and I was up nearly all night previous. Not a good mix. My warning to all you musicians: don't run your show without energy. Our body is like a working machine. We can't expect it to function at its best without its two primary fuel sources: food and sleep.

Lesson learned.

On the bright side, my room is definitely.. getting there.. whatever that means.

Peace

This will take...

Forever.

I have officially decided that there is simply no speedy, half-way, or corner-cutting method to cleaning my room. I've looked. There isn't any.

But at least I can say that I'm not really just cleaning my room. It's the whole "get-things-cleaned-and-organized-for-when-you-go-to-college" cleaning my room thing. Throwing stuff away is rather enjoyable, though. I'll admit to that. I found a huge pile of guitar tabs and chord sheets that I've been printing out for the pasts two years. Because I've learned or memorized the majority of them, I could just throw them away- *cough* I mean, recycle them.

I even tore out the screen to my window, so I could just chuck trash through the new opening in my wall to the trashcan that just sits expectantly outside. It's funny. When I leave the lid to the trash can open, it almost does look like a mouth. I'll be going through my stuff, and I can practically hear it calling to me: "Come on, Seiji. You don't need that, and I'm hungry." I think I'm just going crazy.

Anyways- here are some of the albums I've been listening to so far:

"Again, For The First Time" by Bleach
"The Price of Existence" by All Shall Perish
"Come Now, Sleep" by As Cities Burn
"No, Sir. Nihilism Is Not Practical" by Showbread
"Saosin" by Saosin
"From The Cradle" by Eric Clapton
"Southern Weather" by The Almost

I like to keep it eclectic. It drives my girlfriend crazy, I'm sure.
Peace.

My Room...

Is practically under construction. Not really, but it seems that way. I've spend the better part of the morning shoveling piles of dusty crap out of my closet. Keep in mind that it's only my closet and that the rest of the room is in an equal or worse state of disrepair.

I'm finding all kinds of goodies- like hats I haven't worn since I was 13, and sweaters that I got for Christmas in 2002 that I never put on. Just a second ago, I found a shirt that was completely eaten in half by a moth. I still haven't found the moth, but it must have been the size of my hand to consume that much material. Physics shouldn't allow that kind of thing to happen in nature.

I wonder if it can still fly?

Anyways, I'm taking a break, because the d.p.e.b. levels in my room [dust-per-even-breath] are so high, that if you yawn [which happens a lot to me], you immediately suffer an asthma attack. Kick back with a little blogging. You know. Write it off.

So far, the albums I have listened to during this process have been:

"They're Only Chasing Safety" by Underoath
"Define The Great Line" by Underoath
"Bloodlust" by Through The Eyes of the Dead
"Malice" by Through The Eyes of the Dead
"Icky Thump" by The White Stripes

Anways.. I'll keep going with my room, and continue this blog then.

[2 Hours Later...]

I guess I'll stop for now. The closet is pretty much done. Everything is hanging up nicely, and other things are in bags to be given away, or.. in the trash. I found an Amazon.com gift card, though.. so I think I'll use that. On what, I don't know- but you can buy everything on Amazon these days.

Anyways, that's it for now. Peace.

Alcohol Education...

Seems to be a requirement at my new college, Belmont university. Even though I see the need for a higher level of 'awareness' among older teens and young adults, I don't think it did very much for me. I took an initial test, and scored 88%. That is well above passing, according to the blue sheet that I was given at my college. At the end of the course, when I re-took the test, I scored 88%.

Nice. 4 hours of videos, essays, and interviews for a 0% increase in score.

Oh well. At least I passed.

So here I am...

The first blog of the new... blog.

I am currently at Zach O'Brien's house. We're tracking on his grand piano for the worship record. Exciting? Yes. Exhausting? Understatement, for sure. Reminds me of the night we spent trying to track lead guitars. About 3 hours spent on an 8-bar long solo. Ridiculous.

Such is the studio life. Gotta love it.

For you photography fanatics- this is the equivalent of spending hours and hours and hours shooting your photos, and then spending three times as long in photoshop, making them even more amazing. 

For those of you who don't do photos.. or music..

I guess you'll just never understand.

The Paige Aufhammer is sitting across from me. On her Apple notebook, as well. Maybe she's blogging about the drudgery of her fiancee's worship band, and their painstaking attempts at recording. Or maybe she's doing something important. Probably the latter. In any case, you all should check out her music on iTunes. It's fantastic.

The utensil of my blogging [this laptop] is running out of juice. I'm going to sign off now. This is blog 1, of an expected many. Peace.