LOFI Highway Rock

My guitar...

nobody@vox.com(ruben) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:35:39 -0400

has gotten a lot of love lately. About 7 years ago I was trying to get gigs and play open mics. I had tons of energy to do so, but this kept me away from home. This wasn't a good thing, so I slowly figured out my guitar playing and song writing needed to be scaled back.

I took piano lessons at 4 years old and my father would force me to practice to reinforce these lessons. I remember feeling very bitter about music and the last thing I wanted to do was practice. Fast forward to college and the previous years I had tried staying away from music made me reconsider my stance. I joined the choir and learned how to play the guitar. As time went on, I felt as though my increase exposure to music brought me closer to finding new aspects of music to renew my love for listening and playing music.

Now I play guitar for a children's program at my church and singing for them and practicing has proved to be a remarkably rewarding experience.

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My wife...

nobody@vox.com(ruben) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:23:55 -0400

Alyssa_month_5

Lately I've been struggling with her parents and their insistence on wanting to live separately. It started when their youngest left the house and has continued. Their implied divorce has brought back feelings I had as a kid when my parents divorced and unfortunately no amount of music, wine, or video games can drown out the feeling their marriage leaves me with.

The times where life events, like a visit or a car accident, would highlight the reason they were initially put together now sting like bumping into a table edge and finding an unwanted bruise. Accept with this situation it is much worse. It's like bumping into an invisible object that strikes in such a way remain and distract until several several days later enough other things have happened to numb the situation a bit.

This is the opposite of where my marriage is now. Now everything Alyssa and I do together makes the marriage more memorable. Having a child together, taking a landscaping class... all these things make me love Alyssa. Coming home from work everyday and hearing tales about work can get boring, but seeing her in different in a different light really makes me appreciate the girl I too often take for granted.

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Hey

nobody@vox.com(ruben) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:12:41 -0400

It has been a while since I've posted here and a lot has happened. I moved out to an area of Massachusetts that reminds me of Vermont (the state I love). And that along with getting a house, and being on the verge of having my first son has given me enough to begin writing again. Not to mention that this year I got a job, and have played more music + taken more photography than I have before. Hopefully this post will be a hint of things to come and not a tease.

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QotD: World Series 2007

nobody@vox.com(ruben) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:09:04 -0400

What are your predictions for the World Series?

It's going to be close. I don't follow baseball, but I know enough to say that the Red Sox will barely win like 11-2 or 22-1 or something like that. It will be a disapointment compared to their typical performances. I hear they train using Wii baseball.

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QotD: My Current Top 10

nobody@vox.com(ruben) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 06:10:37 -0400

What are your top 10 most-played songs currently?

Ben Kweller - Sha Sha
Azure Ray - Hold on love
Loney, Dear - Ignorant
Loney, Dear - Saturday Waits

that's all I got!

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QotD: Think Global, Buy Local

nobody@vox.com(ruben) — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 10:53:13 -0500

Do you buy products made locally? Is there anything made in your area that you love?

I try to buy local. I'm really really into coffee and I used to stick with the Espresso and African Coffees from Starbucks. That is until I found out about Jim's Organic Coffee (West Wareham, MA). Coffee flavors are very regional so saying Jim's is better than SBUX isn't saying much, but I feel 1000 times better knowing that I'm supporting a high quality local business that's 70 miles south east of where I live. You can get Jim's Organic Coffee from Whole foods and other locations they list on their site.

I love bold coffees so I recommend the Vienna Roast and the Ethiopian Coffee.

Starbucks does employ locally so I'll recommend some of their coffees too. I love any African coffee they make (Ethiopian Sidamo, Kenyan, Arabian Mocha Sanani). I also enjoy Cafe Estima and Cafe Espresso. A lot of people in the Mass area that believe Starbucks (or Charbucks as they say) burns their coffee, has most likely tried the House blend and not the ones I've recommended.

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Henna Hand

nobody@vox.com(ruben) — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 23:20:43 -0500

Henna Hand

This is a digital alteration of a photo with henna on my hand.

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return

nobody@vox.com(ruben) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 18:21:56 -0500

I was offline for a bit there due to a clumsy trip on my iBook G4 power chord.

IMG_8884

I checked everywhere (eBay, Amazon, apple.com, other mac stores) and most people were selling the whole adapter for 80 bucks with a month wait. I was forced to get reacquainted with my PC and dig out some old mp3's + set it up to receive pictures.

I eventually found a post on Craiglist where a girl was selling her adapter for $60 bucks. I just had to travel to south boston to get it. Well I did and it works like a charm!! With all the time I had on my pc I was able to find old old pics and music and now I can access my media from the past 6 years with a little ethernet cable. Here are some old and new pics I've tucked away on the pc.

Lamp

Big strip

PICT0008

WACHUSETT_HIKING_CLUB_1028

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For the man I met at the helicopter.

nobody@vox.com(ruben) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 13:37:01 -0500

Kids_with_heli

If you click on the image you should get to the full size (3 mb) version, which is a little bigger than 11x6. Enjoy!

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On a more abusive note....

nobody@vox.com(ruben) — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 16:36:27 -0500

Picture 3

I saw this portion of a banner ad while I was browsing myspace. I really felt bad about the girl being punched into the other side of my screen, so I decided to beat the dude up.

Picture 2

After beating the crap out the boxer, I was taken to a window of shameless ringtone ads. It's a small price to pay for saving the girl.

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