My New Years Resolutions

I found last year's Resolution list. It's funny what I wrote on it too. last year's resolutions were:

• Try not to gain any more weight
• Practice my guitar more often
• Keep up on my e-mails & blogs
• Read any library books I get and finish them before first due date. try not to have to renew them.

Well, it looks like three of the resolutions will be going back on this years list. Only this time, they'll be slightly modified so I'm more likely to keep them. There will also be some new resolutions added. Here we go!

• Practice my guitar a lot more often. I usually mostly practiced during my guitar class, but I want to get better so I need to practice at home too. I should make it more fun by practicing my favorite songs, I also need a subscription to Guitar World magazine.
• Make eating healthier and excercise part of my lifestyle. I am going to get back on track with getting to a healthy weight, I know this resolution is a cliche' but this one's going to be more realistic.
• Adding to the second resolution, I need to drink water more often and more juice, and soda less often. I did good with this one earlier, but I've started drinking soda again.
• Make sure that my school assignments and work for my job is done before checking my blog and Myspace. What I should really be saying is to use time management wisely.
• Start reading books again. According to last years resolution, I did this a lot! but then after a while I stopped.
• Find a second job where I can get a steady paycheck so I can move out of my parents house before they retire. My young sister is already beating me at moving out first!
• Try to keep my room cleaner. I can find what I need, but it would be easier if everything were organized.

That's about it! Hopefully I can keep these, and one year from now, I'll check this list to see how I did. Anybody else have resolutions?

The Best and Worst of 2006

Alright! We're finally past the negative things in my life, and now on to the fun stuff! I have made up my own list of what I thought was the Best and Worst things of 2006, which is from music to news. Don't worry, no one's geting tagged here. Agree or disagree, these are just my opinions, So here we go!

Best Bands/New Albums:

• The Who-Endless Wire: nuff said!
• Audioslave-Revelations: They keep getting better and better!
• Korn-See You on the Otherside: They are way past nu-metal and are here to stay!
• Tool-10,000 Days: Seven minute songs and 3-D album art, they are unlike any other band!

Worst Bands/Musicians/Albums:

• Akon-Konvicted: He may have a good singing voice, but I can't stand it! and he reminds me of certain people I don't like, and he spelled convicted wrong!
• Beyonce': I apologize to anyone here who likes her, but I think she is so overrated! Plus, she's no Tina Turner!
• Hinder: I hate their song "Lips of an Angel" and they are so full of EGO!

Best Movies:

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: Johnny Depp!
• United 93: Reminded me of how I felt on 9/11, and at the same time felt good to see how a group of strangers came together to fight back.
• Snakes on a Plane: How awkward of me to list two plane movies together, luckily this one was only fiction. I list this movie because it's not a remake.
• The DaVinci Code: The Book was really good and controversial, and so was this movie.
• The Pursuit of Happyness: I just saw this on Christmas Day, very good movie! It's all about not giving up on following your dreams.

Worst movies:

• Nacho Libre: At first it looked liked it would be very funny, but it was a huge disappointment! Not one of Jack Black's best movies.
• Anything with Colin Farrell in it. I can't stand him! Also; any new movies with Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson in it. Tom Cruise is wacko and Mel Gibson has lost my respect.

Best TV Shows:

• Metalocalypse: Yeah! Metal finally has a cartoon of it's own! James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and King Diamond have lent their voices, I think it would be awesome if Roger Daltrey lent his voice too!
• House: Hugh Laurie's acting is so good, that at first I didn't know he was British! there's only a few parts I could'nt watch, but it's a great show!
• Dr. Who: I've only caught a few episodes, but so far I like what I've seen. I like the actor who plays the doctor in season two better than the one from season one.
• The Dog Whisperer: This is on the National Geographic Channel. A guy named Cesar Chavez retrains the owners on how to handle their dogs and rehabilitates dogs. I try to pick up on his tips to try and train my dog Sophie.
• Any nighttime shows on the Food Network.

Worst TV Shows:

• Flavor of Love 2: Flavor Flav was in the Rap group Public Enemy in the 80's, which was his highest peak in fame. If he really wants to find love, he shouldn't look for it on reality TV! I just hope there isn't going to be a Flavor of love 3!
• My Super Sweet Sixteen: Nothing but a bunch of spoiled rich daddy's girls! It's outragious how much is spent on these parties!
• All the shows on MTV that have nothing to do with music. Who cares about how teens in Orange County live!

Best Vacation:

• Morro Bay: it was a four hour drive from where I live, but the drive along the 1 highway was so nice! all that ocean scenery! Also, there was so much to do there, that you can't do it all in one trip.

Worst Vacation:

• Lake Havasu: the drive was five hours from where I live, but the drive was very boring! all that desert scenery! ugh! Also, there wasn't very much to do there, and it was more for old people.

Best Live Performance:

• The Attic Jam at the Hotel Cafe' which is the only show I've seen this year, so this one wins hands down!

That completes my list for this year. I wish I had done this last year, but at least I started one. I can't wait to see what will be on next years list!

Purging out the Bad Things From 2006

I originally titled this as "The year 2006 is coming to an end" but it has turned into a post about my ex-friend. As I promised earlier, you won't hear anymore about her after New Years. Writing about these things is a good way to purge them out. I want the new year to start out good. I now believe that the way an old year ends, determines how the new year will begin. 2004 ended badly, which is why the beginning of 2005 was bad. Then the end of 2005 ended better, so the beginning of 2006 was good. Here is how it all went...

This year was so much better than last year! The only bad times were during the times I spent with my friend and her loser boyfriend. At the end of last year, we were still friends, now at the end of this year, we're not friends anymore! but she still doesn't know that! I've been trying to figure out what to say whenever she does call me. Last week, I had a dream that she called me, and my mom picked up the phone and said "Lisa's on the phone." I asked her to hand it to me. Before the dream, I had thought of what to say to her which was something like this: "Lisa I don't want to be your friend anymore! and you better not call back after I hang up! or I will put a restraining order on you!" Anyways, in the dream I actually said that to her, then she yelled very loudly, but I didn't know what she was saying because I was holding the phone away from me, then I thought I heard her boyfriend yelling in the background. And that was the end of the dream. I wonder if that's a sign of what could happen, or if the dream happened because of my fear of what I think could happen. I don't think I have to go as far as putting a restraining order on Lisa, but I do know that she is capable of getting very angry. She will call over and over again if you either hang up on her after her first call, or if you ignore her calls. She usually doesn't leave messages, but if she's angry enough, she will leave one very very angry message. I'm hoping by 2007, I will be rid of my ex-friend for good. Hopefully she won't ruin my new year again. In 2004, she ruined New Years eve. She was still living with me, but my parents were kicking her out in January. Anyways, that day, all we did was fight. At some point she says "Oh Happy Fucking New Year! It sure started with a bang!" That was it, that whole day was ruined! I always loved celebrating New Years, but I spent that evening sleeping! After midnight, one of Lisa's friends called me to wish me and Lisa a happy new year, but me and Lisa were sleeping and I told him that. He couldn't believe that, but I was pissed that he was celebrating! I told him to leave me alone and I hung up. The fights carried on into 2005, Lisa would try to make me feel guilty about her being kicked out by saying things like "While you're in your warm bed, I'll be out in the cold streets!" Looking back at these incidents, I can't believe I didn't break off our friendship sooner! Although I did think about it a few times, as a matter of fact, deep down inside I was glad my parents were kicking her out! then I would have the freedom to do what I want! Freedom from spending the whole day and night in Lisa's room. I would make up excuses to leave her room just to have two minutes to myself! If I was leaving her room, she would be like, "where you going?" then another time, if I asked her "Can I leave?" then she would say "Of course! I'm not your hostage!" See where I'm going with this? there was no way of winning!
I've figured out why I didn't break off my friendship with Lisa sooner. 1. I'd remember all the good times, and think, it's not always so bad. 2. Lisa has told me that I am the only friend that hasn't screwed her over, so basically I felt that if I left her, I'd be betraying her, I wanted to be the good friend that was always there for her. 3. There were times when she would make me feel guilty about certain things. For example: The night she was kicked out of my house, I drove her around all night trying to find a place for her to stay because I wanted to be the friend who was real because I was there for her. 4. I felt trapped, like there was no way out of the friendship. She is the type of person who doesn't take the word "No" as an answer. I can almost understand why it's hard for a woman to leave an abusive boyfriend or husband. It was almost the same thing with my friendship with Lisa, you know that some of the things they're doing is wrong, but you feel like you don't have the power to leave, or you ignore all the negatives.

Everytime I've looked back in my life, it's always the same thing, "How could I be so stupid!" Every mistake I've made in the past, I say that same exact thing. I know that it's in our nature to make mistakes, even if it's the same one over and over again. I just wish I didn't have to learn the hard way. This time, I hope I never have another friendship like Lisa's ever again.

OK, that's enough of that now! I am ready to move on to 2007.

Here's to a new beginning!

Cheers!

Happy Birthday Lars Ulrich!

Metallica's drummer turns 43 today!

My Cat Ringo

This is my other kitty Ringo, earlier I had posted a picture of my cat Paulie sitting on a suitcase. Poor Ringo had hurt his toe a week ago, we thought he just broke off a claw, but his foot started getting worse. it started bleeding so we took him to the vet today. We should have brought him in a lot sooner! Now the vet has to amputate his toe, luckily the surgery doesn't cost too much, but we would have saved a lot more money if we had brought him in the first time we noticed something wrong. Hopefully we can bring Ringo home tomorrow.

Getting Rid of Toxic Friends

I've talked about this around a few places, I had a best friend that I've realized was not a good friend the whole time. Some of you remember when I did two posts about my best friends boyfriend? Here's the links to those two posts, I've left some updated comments on them:
Metalchick: The Difference Between Having and Not Having My Guitar
Metalchick: My Best Friend's Boyfriend
That is the friend I'm talking about, her name is Lisa (Not Nabonidus! the Lisa I'm going to be talking about is a different one) I'm using her name to make it easier to tell the story about her. She's not the only one, I've made other bad friends, most of them from McDonald's. My parents have tried to warn me, but I'd never listen until it's too late!

I did type up a story about my friendship with her, quite a story! Almost a book about it. I just deleted 95% of it. You are reading what would've been 5% right now up to this point. It felt good to type up all the things I've felt about our friendship though. I finally got it out! Hopefully now I can stop talking about all the I could've's, I should've's , and the I would've's about everything that had happened while I was friends with Lisa.

Here's a shortened summary about why Lisa wasn't a good friend:
Before Lisa; everything was fine, I was going to college, I wasn't getting the best grades, but at least I was going to school. I was responsible, even though there were times I didn't listen to my parents. I never had to worry about looking over my shoulder for cops or any shady people. I had a few issues, but who doesn't?
Then when Lisa became my friend (and lived with me); I thought she was cool because she was living, but it turns out that she was living in the fast lane. She never went to college, she had a few run ins with the law, and she said wanted to be a cop! yeah, a dirty cop! When I was hanging out with her, I thought I was finally living and having some fun, but it was all an illusion. Some of the things we first did was for fun, but later on I ended up waist deep. I was constantly looking over my shoulder, and on top of that, Lisa and I fought almost everyday. It got bad enough to where she was hitting me and I let her because I thought at the time it would make her feel better. I should also mention that I thought she was helping me come out of my shell, (I used to be shy) and I thought she was helping me stand up to people who were using me. All along, she was the one using me, and she was controlling me. she would tell me not to be afraid to say no to people, yet I felt powerless to say no to her. I did once before and it got really ugly!
Things improved and were at their highest when she lived with her mom, when her boyfriend was in prison, and when we no longer had things that caused drama around us. She also had a good job and finally was starting to pay me back by paying for everything, from restaurants to buying me stuff. Then her boyfriend got released from prison and she threw everything good she had away, from her mom's house to her good paying job, all so she could stay in the Sleazy 8 Motel with her boyfriend, then they move to Pacoima (A city almost as ghetto as South Central LA) After that, it was all downhill from there. (see the links above) Soon I was back to doing things I didn't want to do, such as taking them to a bunch of Wal-marts to shoplift.
I also had to put up with Lisa and her boyfriend's fights, and I had to bite my tongue a few times, especially when her boyfriend says something like "If I need a ride, she better be there!"
My friendship with Lisa was finally starting to unravel when I drove all the way down to her apartment to just hang out and watch a movie, but when I got there, Lisa and her boyfriend got in an argument, so I had to leave! At least they gave me gas money, in aluminum cans! I finally cursed out her boyfriend when I couldn't find a recycling center to get the money I needed. Later on they apologized for making me leave. Later on they called to invite me to come with them to the movies, I told Lisa No and when I was explaining how I felt short changed on gas money, she wasn't even listening to me! She was talking to her boyfriend! One morning when I was getting ready for school, she called me, I told her "I can't talk right now, I'm going to school." and I hung up. She kept calling over and over. I didn't pick up the phone, and it's a good thing I didn't because she was going to yell at me for not saying "Goodbye" She just wanted to give me her new number. I took it when she called back later, then I lost it. Then when she called me the very last time, I asked for her to give me her new number again because I lost it. My friendship was unraveling, but there was still a little thread holding on.
After Lisa; Everything was fine again, things completely returned to normal. I was back in school, but this time I had better grades. I became responsible again, I listen to my parents because now I know that they were right about what they have told me all along. I no longer have to look over my shoulder for cops and shady people. I still have issues, but not as many as before, who doesn't have issues? You just learn how to deal with them, even if you have to learn the hard way. Now that things are better, I realized how miserable I really was being friends with Lisa, so now I have let go of that single thread that was holding on to my friendship with Lisa. I purposely lost her number, she hasn't called me for a while, hopefully she has gotten the hint, or she thinks I'm still in school. When she does call, I will tell her I no longer want to be her friend and to never call again. I am now another friend that has left her, she will always be alone! She has pushed people away because of the way she is, and that is, she is not a people person! I feel sorry for the next person that becomes her friend.

I've been through so much hell, that now I think I can get through anything. I really hope I don't make the same mistakes again. My friendship with Lisa was the third time I made the wrong friend.

I've only met a few of you, but I know that a majority of you are very cool and for real. I haven't seen a blogger who was lying about who they are, except for the ones who do it on purpose to entertain us, you know who you are!

This post still got long, but at least it's shorter than the first rough draft I typed up earlier.

Two Tragic Losses in Music

Today is the anniversary of two tragic losses of two great musicians. 26 years ago, we lost John Lennon, and two years ago, we lost Dimebag Darrell. He was the guitarist of Pantera and Damageplan.
Both of these tragedies are similar, both were shot four times by crazed fans. John Lennon was killed by Mark Chapman, and Dimebag Darrell was killed by Nathan Gale. I don't know what motive Mark Chapman had to kill John Lennon, but whatever it was he is a fucked up person! No one is really sure what Nathan Gale's motive was, but some say that he was pissed off that Pantera broke up. Whatever his motive was, he was a very fucked up person too! Nathan Gale was shot by a police officer, because he not only shot Dimebag Darrell, but he also shot three others.
The music world may have lost two great musicians, but they both live on through their music.

For more info on John Lennon and Dimebag Darrell, click on these links.
Wikipedia-Dimebag Darrell
Wikipedia-John Lennon

For more John Lennon and/or Dimebag Darrell, head on over to my video blog to watch the videos in tribute to both musicians.

10 Things I'll Never Do

Vallyp may not have tagged me, but I'm going to have to do this list, so here's my list of 10 things I'll never do...
1. Skydiving and mountain climbing. I am afraid of heights. I even get scared when any vehicle I'm in is driving along the edge of a mountain road.
2. I'll never eat rabbit meat, lamb, or veal because I don't eat the cute animals. I use to have two hares for pets, then they had up to three litters of little bunnies. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against hunting when it's done right, but I don't want to see what I'm going to be eating when it's still alive. My parents got a pig, which was raised at my aunts place. They asked my sister and I if we wanted to see the pig. we both said "No way!"
3. I'll never shoot a gun. I really get nervous if I see one because I fear that if it gets dropped, it would go off. The only time I'm not scared is if it's in a safe place like a mount or a rack where their usually stored or displayed. I start getting nervous if it's in someone's hands, whether their showing it off, cleaning it, or if they look like they're going to use it. I do believe in the second amendment, the right to bear arms, if you're properly trained. my dad owns a handgun, but he always renews his license.
4. I'll never walk up to an open coffin at a funeral or ever go into a morgue. I have the fear of a dead body not being dead. Unfortunately I know that there are times when a person has to go to a morgue to identify a dead body. I just hope I never have to.
5. I'll never get plastic surgery, unless I see it necessary like if I got my nose broken. Other than that, it's not necessary, I'm happy with the way I look. I never have to get implants since I have double D's. plus, I hear so many horror stories of plastic surgeries gone wrong. Speaking of horror stories, I hope I never have to go into surgery for any medical condition. I'm afraid of either waking up in the middle of surgery, or having a tool left behind inside me.
6. I'll never eat at McDonald's ever again! Some of you who remember my Anti-McDonald's post knows why.
7. I'll never go on a reality show. It's not reality at all, and it is degrading too! However, if there were a documentary being made about Who fans talking about why they think The Who rock, I would love to be in it!
8. I'll never let anyone burn me! this had happened in the past and I hope it never happens ever again. Screw me once, shame on you! screw me twice, shame on me! If anyone burns me, I will burn back.
9. I'll never be a fan of A-list celebrities or pop stars. I think they are so overrated and very big headed. They seem to lose touch with their fans and they also spend an insane amount of money on unneccessary items. I prefer the Down-to-Earth celebrities and musicians, they stay true to their fans, and even if they spend money on a few things; they've earned it with their hard work and don't let it get to their head.
10. I'll never make the same mistake of having the wrong friends. Half the friends I made were either incompatible or used people. A friend I had in high school was always making up stories and we always argued, then at my job at McDonald's I made a friend that took advantage of generous people like me, and another friend whom I thought was my best friend. I could tell you guys so much about that friend, but this post would end up being five pages long. Anyways, I have now seen the light and I hope I never make the wrong friends again. Of course you guys are all cool, I've met some of you and you guys are for real and are great friends!

And there you have it! That's ten things I'll never do, or ever do again. OK now I have to tag some people, so now it's your turn... Cathy with a C, Colleen, Dan L. Dave from Pennsylvania, Gary, Green Eyes, Marymoo, Nabonidus, Stradasphere, and Ticharu