The Catch-Up
In the time since I last wrote in this so much has happened. I'm going to take a moment to go through some of the larger points, but I'm sure I'll leave something out.
-I completed my second and final year at MTSU, in which I realized that the music industry as we "know" it is a dying entity and that it might be prudent to move closer to home and pursue something a degree in something a bit more sensible - THAT didn't happen, as I am currently a History major. Everything would have been completely different had I actually gone with Plan C which was enlisting in the Air Force, something that didn't work out because my vision is freaking terrible without contacts. This disqualified me from the positions within the USAF that I interested in. In hindsight I am completely thankful that I didn't go through with this plan. While the military is respectable, it isn't for me and I would never have finished so much that I had started by that point (namely Beyond Earth). Throughout college I roomed with Holden, a guy who is a damn solid guitar player and someone who I feel is really going to go places in the music industry. He's become one of my better friends and someone I'll be glad to know later in life. Speaking of which, yesterday was his 21st - Happy Z-Day Holden's Liver.
-After the realization that majoring in Music Production wasn't going to do me much good (because honestly I can learn all of this on my own over time for much less money) I moved back to Virginia in May of 2010, setting up shop in Lynchburg this time. It was in March of 2010 that I adopted Isis from the Amherst Humane Society. She is some form of Australian Cattle Dog mix and getting her is one of the best decisions I've ever made. She'd been staying with Britney between March and May while I finished the year in TN- something I am grateful for, because it was at Britney's house that she got out all of her crazy pup aggression. That dog chewed on freaking WALLS, destroyed a couch, and even ate the bed. She was a completely different animal then- it is incredible how far she has come. "Anywhoo" (yep, I hate it as much as you probably do), after a small stint at 6626 Peaks Rd and 1,000 Goodwill purchases later I moved into a townhouse off Timberlake Rd in Lynchburg. There is so much that could be said about this move and what followed, but I'm going to cut down to the things that stand out. It was great to have my own place officially, though I did have a roommate. The location was awesome- I got a job at the J.Crew call center which was about 10 minutes away in heavy traffic. Looking back on the entire situation I think that the proximity of work to home was the best part of living there. All the while I was recording constantly, working out the kinks and writing more songs for the second Jupiter's Incense album "Beyond Earth". I also enrolled in CVCC and had a 12 hour courseload for three semesters before I gratuated with an Associates Degree in Education and a Certificate in General Education - two things that might look nice on a resume but are essentially useless on their own. I went with the Education degree simply because after 3.5 years of college I had enough credits to get it easily. The original plan was computer programming, but to be honest that has to be the most typical (and boring) choice I could have made. NO REGRETZ.
-Things fell apart with my living situation, starting largely around December of 2010. More on that at another time, perhaps. My grandmother had died in May of 2010 and her house sat virtually untouched and entered only a handful of times for nearly a year. My uncle now owns the house and he lives in Florida. Seeing an opportunity in this (and after many conversations later) I became a sort of proprietor of the house and some of the property. Beginning in late March I started spending weekends at the house. I cleaned, painted, rearranged, scoured, dusted, was terrified by enormous bugs, battled said bugs, gardened, pruned... you name it, I probably did it. We're talking several feet of dust on everything. Though my lease was due to expire at the end of June I moved into the farmhouse in a fury sometime in mid-May. I still live there now- it is amazing to have this much space, though I wish the house was closer to Lynchburg so I didn't have to spend so much on gas every week. Getting back on track, I now had a much better home, albeit with a rocky start due to over-dramatic family members- but what's new?
-I finished Beyond Earth. Jody (now the other guitarist in the band) contributed some vocals and helped arrange Corsair, track 10 on the album. Holden had helped by providing his opinion on a few songs earlier in 2010. I realize I might talk a lot about this album, but it is one of my proudest achievements and I am really happy with how it turned out, especially considering I am self-taught in nearly everything and had no idea how you are "supposed" to record or mix tunes. The album dropped on June 14th, 2011 on Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, and Rhapsody. After settling into the farmhouse I became close friends with Michael, who immediately joined the band on bass. He knew Todd through Todd's sister, whom he worked with, and so one thing led to another and Todd finally made it out one Saturday to see how things felt. Clearly he liked us well enough, and now here we are. As of the writing of this post we have 9 songs show-ready and are working on writing the third JI record; our first album together. We'll start playing out in May, if all goes according to plan. Our biggest barrier is local venues (and the lack thereof).
-I enrolled in Lynchburg College. Apart from being OBNOXIOUSLY EXPENSIVE and still managing to nickle and dime me with random fees, things have gone pretty well. The staff is very helpful and the classes are challenging, but I feel like I'll be OK. I'm slated to finish college for good after I complete the Fall '13 semester. I'm itching to be done with it- while my classes are interesting and I am learning quite a bit, college is a huge time-suck and I've got things I want to do.
-After dating for 6 years and finding myself ready, I got engaged to Britney on November 20th 2011. To many's surprise I married her on January 20th 2012 in a courtroom in Bedford, VA. We were married by a retired county Sheriff in the presence of our friend Tyler, Britney's Mom and Dad, sister, my Mom, and a friend of Mom's. Originally we intended to only bring Tyler as a witness, but the word got out and it was hard to say no to family that close on an occasion such as that. We had planned on getting married August 31st, 2013 (our 8th anniversary of dating) with a "proper" wedding ceremony but looking at our financial situation we decided just to do it quietly on our own time. We didn't publicize it because we didn't think it should be a big deal, and privacy is nice. She lives with me now in aforementioned farmhouse with our two dogs and various other critters.
Other menial things that don't matter:
-I re-read The Lord of the Rings
-I'm way too fond of multiplayer Minecraft with my friends from Tennessee. Judge away, people.
-I turned 21 and lost my somewhat obnoxious stigma regarding alcohol. I quite enjoy it now, particularly rum (The Kraken, Cpt. Morgan's, etc) and beer of various kinds (Yuengling, Sam Adams, Shock Top, etc).
-I bought a Fender Blacktop Jaguar- this guitar is sexy for anything in E/Eb standard or dropped (seriously love the neck) but anything lower is a no-go with the current setup.
-Bought various other audio equipment for recording or for live music. New amp, cab, Boss GT-10, POD UX2 Studio (used for Beyond Earth), Superior Drummer 2.0, studio monitors, the list goes on...
-Got a better position at work that isn't completely clownshoes.
-Started appreciating earthy things like a well-groomed lawn. Thing is, this takes a bunch of money and time- two things I am short on most days.
As stated before, there is so much that I have left out, but that is what I can think of right now... It's been nearly three years since I last wrote in this.
-I completed my second and final year at MTSU, in which I realized that the music industry as we "know" it is a dying entity and that it might be prudent to move closer to home and pursue something a degree in something a bit more sensible - THAT didn't happen, as I am currently a History major. Everything would have been completely different had I actually gone with Plan C which was enlisting in the Air Force, something that didn't work out because my vision is freaking terrible without contacts. This disqualified me from the positions within the USAF that I interested in. In hindsight I am completely thankful that I didn't go through with this plan. While the military is respectable, it isn't for me and I would never have finished so much that I had started by that point (namely Beyond Earth). Throughout college I roomed with Holden, a guy who is a damn solid guitar player and someone who I feel is really going to go places in the music industry. He's become one of my better friends and someone I'll be glad to know later in life. Speaking of which, yesterday was his 21st - Happy Z-Day Holden's Liver.
-After the realization that majoring in Music Production wasn't going to do me much good (because honestly I can learn all of this on my own over time for much less money) I moved back to Virginia in May of 2010, setting up shop in Lynchburg this time. It was in March of 2010 that I adopted Isis from the Amherst Humane Society. She is some form of Australian Cattle Dog mix and getting her is one of the best decisions I've ever made. She'd been staying with Britney between March and May while I finished the year in TN- something I am grateful for, because it was at Britney's house that she got out all of her crazy pup aggression. That dog chewed on freaking WALLS, destroyed a couch, and even ate the bed. She was a completely different animal then- it is incredible how far she has come. "Anywhoo" (yep, I hate it as much as you probably do), after a small stint at 6626 Peaks Rd and 1,000 Goodwill purchases later I moved into a townhouse off Timberlake Rd in Lynchburg. There is so much that could be said about this move and what followed, but I'm going to cut down to the things that stand out. It was great to have my own place officially, though I did have a roommate. The location was awesome- I got a job at the J.Crew call center which was about 10 minutes away in heavy traffic. Looking back on the entire situation I think that the proximity of work to home was the best part of living there. All the while I was recording constantly, working out the kinks and writing more songs for the second Jupiter's Incense album "Beyond Earth". I also enrolled in CVCC and had a 12 hour courseload for three semesters before I gratuated with an Associates Degree in Education and a Certificate in General Education - two things that might look nice on a resume but are essentially useless on their own. I went with the Education degree simply because after 3.5 years of college I had enough credits to get it easily. The original plan was computer programming, but to be honest that has to be the most typical (and boring) choice I could have made. NO REGRETZ.
-Things fell apart with my living situation, starting largely around December of 2010. More on that at another time, perhaps. My grandmother had died in May of 2010 and her house sat virtually untouched and entered only a handful of times for nearly a year. My uncle now owns the house and he lives in Florida. Seeing an opportunity in this (and after many conversations later) I became a sort of proprietor of the house and some of the property. Beginning in late March I started spending weekends at the house. I cleaned, painted, rearranged, scoured, dusted, was terrified by enormous bugs, battled said bugs, gardened, pruned... you name it, I probably did it. We're talking several feet of dust on everything. Though my lease was due to expire at the end of June I moved into the farmhouse in a fury sometime in mid-May. I still live there now- it is amazing to have this much space, though I wish the house was closer to Lynchburg so I didn't have to spend so much on gas every week. Getting back on track, I now had a much better home, albeit with a rocky start due to over-dramatic family members- but what's new?
-I finished Beyond Earth. Jody (now the other guitarist in the band) contributed some vocals and helped arrange Corsair, track 10 on the album. Holden had helped by providing his opinion on a few songs earlier in 2010. I realize I might talk a lot about this album, but it is one of my proudest achievements and I am really happy with how it turned out, especially considering I am self-taught in nearly everything and had no idea how you are "supposed" to record or mix tunes. The album dropped on June 14th, 2011 on Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, and Rhapsody. After settling into the farmhouse I became close friends with Michael, who immediately joined the band on bass. He knew Todd through Todd's sister, whom he worked with, and so one thing led to another and Todd finally made it out one Saturday to see how things felt. Clearly he liked us well enough, and now here we are. As of the writing of this post we have 9 songs show-ready and are working on writing the third JI record; our first album together. We'll start playing out in May, if all goes according to plan. Our biggest barrier is local venues (and the lack thereof).
-I enrolled in Lynchburg College. Apart from being OBNOXIOUSLY EXPENSIVE and still managing to nickle and dime me with random fees, things have gone pretty well. The staff is very helpful and the classes are challenging, but I feel like I'll be OK. I'm slated to finish college for good after I complete the Fall '13 semester. I'm itching to be done with it- while my classes are interesting and I am learning quite a bit, college is a huge time-suck and I've got things I want to do.
-After dating for 6 years and finding myself ready, I got engaged to Britney on November 20th 2011. To many's surprise I married her on January 20th 2012 in a courtroom in Bedford, VA. We were married by a retired county Sheriff in the presence of our friend Tyler, Britney's Mom and Dad, sister, my Mom, and a friend of Mom's. Originally we intended to only bring Tyler as a witness, but the word got out and it was hard to say no to family that close on an occasion such as that. We had planned on getting married August 31st, 2013 (our 8th anniversary of dating) with a "proper" wedding ceremony but looking at our financial situation we decided just to do it quietly on our own time. We didn't publicize it because we didn't think it should be a big deal, and privacy is nice. She lives with me now in aforementioned farmhouse with our two dogs and various other critters.
Other menial things that don't matter:
-I re-read The Lord of the Rings
-I'm way too fond of multiplayer Minecraft with my friends from Tennessee. Judge away, people.
-I turned 21 and lost my somewhat obnoxious stigma regarding alcohol. I quite enjoy it now, particularly rum (The Kraken, Cpt. Morgan's, etc) and beer of various kinds (Yuengling, Sam Adams, Shock Top, etc).
-I bought a Fender Blacktop Jaguar- this guitar is sexy for anything in E/Eb standard or dropped (seriously love the neck) but anything lower is a no-go with the current setup.
-Bought various other audio equipment for recording or for live music. New amp, cab, Boss GT-10, POD UX2 Studio (used for Beyond Earth), Superior Drummer 2.0, studio monitors, the list goes on...
-Got a better position at work that isn't completely clownshoes.
-Started appreciating earthy things like a well-groomed lawn. Thing is, this takes a bunch of money and time- two things I am short on most days.
As stated before, there is so much that I have left out, but that is what I can think of right now... It's been nearly three years since I last wrote in this.