That would have meant I would have spent most of the day in jail. Luckily though, I was able to chill enough to go back to bed. I was awoken five hours later by a visit from one of the people to whom I sent a crazy, obscenity-laced email. Big ups to Linda for understanding that I was under a lot of pressure. I couldn’t quite articulate what I was feeling, but I think she understood. Later, I realized that a verse from the Green Day song “Having A Blast” came closest to expressing my feelings:

Do you ever think back to another time?
Does it bring you so down that you thought you lost your mind?
Do you ever want to lead a long trail of destruction and mow down
any bullshit that confronts you?
Do you ever build up all the small things in your head
To make one problem that adds up to nothing?

Anyway, I blew off most of my plans for the day to unwind and de-stress by playing miniature golf, visiting the batting cages and hitting the arcade at Adventure Landing in Raleigh. It was a lot of fun and worked wonders for my overall stress level, especially a game in the arcade called Silent Scope. In it, you shoot terrorists with a sniper rifle-shaped controller. Mmmm, fantasy violence… makes me think that I missed my calling in life. Best of all, it kept me out of trouble. 

Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to become acquainted with Rick Astley’s catalogue of hits. I almost forgot how much I liked his song “Cry For Help.” I used to have hair like he did in that video (tearfully, until a few days ago, that is). Anyway, with how I struggled today only to fail, I think this is the perfect way to chillax with a Schlitz 40 (or two) and man-cry myself to sleep.

You should really check out the video for “Cry For Help.” And no, that link’s not a rickroll of “Never Gonna Give You Up.” I’m super cereal about that…

H/T:  Coyote Blog

1. Cruel to Be Kind by Nick Lowe
2. Street of Dreams by Rainbow
3. Man on the Silver Mountain by Rainbow
4. This Side by Nickel Creek
5. Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck by Prong
6. Causing a Commotion by Madonna
7. Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush
8. I’d Really Love to See You Tonight by England Dan & John Ford Coley
9. Bitches Are Hustlers Too by D-Fyne
10. Cuts You Up by Peter Murphy
11. Ready to Fall by Rise Against
12. Death Comes Ripping by The Misfits
13. Breakout by Swing Out Sister
14. Everyone’s Gone to the Moon by Jonathan King
15. Bungle In the Jungle by Jethro Tull
16. 3 A.M. Eternal by The KLF
17. Hot Butter Popcorn
18. Year of the Cat by Al Stewart
19. Life Less Ordinary by Carbon Leaf
20. Groove Is In the Heart by Deee-Lite
21. Wait and Bleed by Slipknot
22. Push It by Static-X
23. Novacaine for the Soul by The Eels
24. I’d Love to Change the World by Ten Years After
25. Mystery by Dio

There you go, the twenty-five most listened to songs (out of about two thousand) on my iPod. Not sure if there’s a common theme among this list. Some are out there on YouTube; all should be available on iTunes. Hopefully you find something that sparks your interests. Enjoy!

Today’s portion of our health quest started at 6:30 am at the Lifetime Family Fitness in Cary, North Carolina. We met with one of the trainers there. Hope learned new ways to flatten her abs, while I concentrated primarily on nutrition and getting better control of my metabolism. I walked away with a sample meal plan that went between 500 to 1,000 calories higher than what I typically consume in a day, so I’m a bit skeptical, but willing to give it a try. However, I did get some good insight into my regular diet’s lack of protein.

So I was a good boy diet-wise and exercise-wise today. I rounded it all out by downloading some new workout music. Now-a-days I’m spending a large part of my day listening to hardcore militant rap — the kind of stuff you can hear on my new favorite podcast, the Ghosts of the Republic anti-NWO weekly podcast. It’s definitely the perfect soundtrack to get ready for war and a year of solid, vigorous workouts.

But trust me, I fought the idea, even buying some crutches. That is — buying crutches, falling constantly, cursing about falling, collecting lots of cuts and bruises. I’m kind of clumsy just walking around with two good feet, so I should’ve skipped the crutches idea. It was pointed out to me that you’re not supposed to look cool on crutches. Thus, I’m sitting at home, in pain, with my leg up, depressed because I’m missing this evening’s free Raleigh Downtown Live concert with Puddle of Mudd and Eve 6. Oh well, maybe next summer…

Anyway, I’ve been convinced that the world, in general, and politics, in specific, is nutty. After the petition drive that I’m working on now is over, I AM OUT!!! I’ve gotta take care of the anxiety and emotional instability that I’ve been feeling lately. Until then, Brien Barbour will be my shrink (since his song “Life’s Too Short To Be Sad” is the only thing that’s made sense today, and it’s been a while since I’ve made a post in support of Brien).

So this is me saying that I’m going to officially be taking leave, probably sometime in mid-July to concentrate on getting my head on straight. I’m talking forty days and forty nights. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Devil shows up to greet you after that amount of time, especially since he’s been working on me for awhile now… Hey, Devil, we’re on for mid-August, right?

Once there, I noticed there were no windows. Not really a problem with me, but I had a thought that I would open the door and see something that I’ve never seen going on in a public bar. But it turned out to be kind of like bars that I’d been to during undergrad, except the people here looked more decidedly bad-ass. I walked in triumphantly, gave a “Hey, what’s happening?” to the guys at the door, and looked for my party. I was meeting Stephanie, James, and Niall for a night of rock. Luckily for me they were at the very opposite end of the bar wondering why I was thirty minutes late. The band must have started about forty or fifty minutes late, so I was kewl.

The first band was a group from Delaware called Thunderbrew. I liked them, although I wasn’t quite drunk enough or used to the sound of actual live music at a bar to appreciate them the way they should have been. The second band was called Automag. They were from somewhere in North Carolina and were kind of into the hillbilly, Southern Rock-metal style. Definitely worth a listen.

The worst part of the evening was that I left home without bringing extra batteries for my camera. This was kind of good because all of my pictures that I was able to take had this really wild look to them.

Actually, now that I think about it, the worst part of the evening happened when I was leaving the bar. I was completely sober, mind you, but I fell completely on my ass. Or maybe it was my face. I didn’t really know since it was kind of late, and I was disoriented from all of the lights. I almost took two or three guys out in the fall. I was kind of embarrassed, but since no bar fight erupted I guess they were cool with it.

For a complete pictorial of last night’s hellraising, be sure to check out the rest of my photos on my Flickr profile.