Shaulie

October 9th, 2011

2011-09-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

Howdy:

I just wanted to take the time to let everyone know that Julie and I made a blog for our wedding. The blog includes information, pictures, links, etc, so that everyone knows what to expect. The blog will also be used as a place to update info during the wedding, so you can see photos and video from our "I do's" as well as after the wedding, so you can follow our honeymoon adventure.

http://www.october9th2011.blogspot.com/

The link is above.

That is all for now.

Another Year Older... for both of us

2011-04-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

So quite a bit has happened since our last post.

Here are a few highlights.

Julie and I both had a birthday, separately of course. Her day was back on February 20th and my day was yesterday, April 29th.
Over the past "End of Winter/Beginning of Spring" months, we made snow forts when it was cold, and BBQ'ed when it was nice.
I deleted my Facebook.
Julie made a sock monkey and cool bracelets out of buttons.
We hung our TV on the wall.
We drank and smoked and played games.
I worked on new music with the band I'm in [Songs from the moon], started a new electronic/beat based music project [Dr. Morris Leifer], and started writing new songs for my solo folk/noise music project too [Matilda].
Julie cleaned the house in lingerie, which just completely solidified the fact that I'm head over heels in love with her and can't wait to marry her.

Here's proof.

And a whole lot more has happened, but I'm a bit too hung over to keep using my brain, so I'm just going to post pictures. You'll get the gist.

Looksie! Pictures! Photos!

2011-01-23T07:16:00.001-08:00

Hello Bloggers.
Julie and I are still alive, still in love, and still getting hitched come October.
I've decided to upload a few photos of things that have happened over the past few months.
I didn't have time to upload the NYE stuff, but here are some X-mas and move-in pixxx.

Xmas-ish photos!

L-R:
Penny [at rest], Julie [on Facebook] and me [playing guitar].
Tree [bottom right].

Julie looking very pretty by our tree.

Julie and Penny [blurry] by the tree.

Penny in the jacket Julie made for her out of an old winter coat we had.

-------------------------------------

Back in November, Julie and I moved into a new house.
Because we've been busy, I haven't really posted anything about it yet, so here's our move-in photos...

Only a few months late.

Unlike the last house, a basement you don't think you'll die in.
Laundry corner.

Long backyard for growing pups.

Julie in the living room with boxes.

"Possible 3rd basement bedroom" = Shaun's music room.

Now an office, then a storage room.
2nd bedroom.

Basement, rec area... Where the Sega and dartboard are now.
So fresh and so clean.

Our bedroom, pre-bed set up.

First item in fridge...
and was the only item in fridge for the first few days.
That and a few hot-n-ready pizzas.

Clean, clean, clean basement. Very nice.
Storage area.

Hardwood floors all up in dis bitch.
Hall-ah.

Corner toilet.
Seriously, the best toilet placement, ever.

New Stove, Microwave - Old table.

Julie in the kitchen. New Fridge, corner sink.
Someone really loved corners.

How we ended move-in day.

Save the Date

2010-12-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

Attention Internet:

I, Shaun P Wisniewski, will be marrying Julie V Koziara in the fall of 2011.
There's a chance you'll be invited, and a chance you won't.
Our budget is only going to allow us about 80 guests, and after family, that leaves about 20 open seats for friends...
So if you're family, you're probably going to receive your "save the date" soon.
If you're a friend, cross your fingers, or start sending bribes my way.

That is all for now.

Life is good.

I'll elaborate more later.

--Shaun

October, September, August, July... and the future

2010-10-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I blogged... So what's going on?

Well I got a new job. I work at Plum Market in Bloomfield MI. I ring up groceries and bag them up. I mingle with the rich all day. It's fairly nice. My co-workers are great for the most part. The clientele spend more on groceries in one trip than I make in 2 weeks, but they're mostly kind and cheerful. Every job in customer service has downsides, has assholes and such, but overall I like the job a lot.

Julie is still grooming pups. She gets raises all the time. It's almost comical the amount of times she comes home and says, "I make this much now." I feel like the minute I announce her hourly raise it'll change, so we'll just say she makes much more than me, and will continue to make more than me until I hit the lotto.

Julie was sick for a few weeks. Really sick. Bad G.I. issues, and she lost a bunch of weight... She had a stay in the hospital for a week or so. The docs couldn't say for sure what the heck was wrong, but they discharged her with a bunch of different drugs and they seem to help. She's been feeling better, which is wonderful.

We are moving soon. November 1st we get the keys to our new place. We're both very excited. The new house we're renting is very nice, and we signed the lease for 2 years, so we'll be there for a bit. The move will probably be the easiest move I've ever done. The new house is right around the block from our current house. It's a 2 bedroom ranch with all new appliances, hardwood floors, nice big basement, etc. The address is 851 Silman if anyone wants to visit in the near future... Maybe we'll have a house warming party. We'll see.

Here are some pictures of when we moved into our current house. Trip down memory lane on 675 Jewell.

Our bedroom.

Danny's weird room. 2 doors.

Matt in the upstairs kitchenette.

Boxes and shits, looking through dining room to living room.

Music/Art room.

We had a nice stay here, aside from the strange land lord issues... and the occasional roommate disagreement. Like, "Matt, I'm still waiting on the money from 5 months ago..." - or - "Danny, please stop throwing things like chairs and entertainment centers off the balcony and leaving them in the backyard, broken for weeks..."

But no big deal. we all survived. It's time to move on... To nicer, smaller pastures.

Those are the big changes as of recent.
Everything else is still going along normally.
I'm writing new songs, and Julie is make new art.
Penny is still spoiled and the cats still hate her.

I'll try and update more.

Just seems like I have little time to do things like this now.

Oh well.

Thanks for checking in.

--Shaun

Shows and tell.

2010-07-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

Hello reader.

It's your friendly neighborhood internet neighbor here: Shaun "the wiz" Wisniewski.

A few things:

We [meaning me and Danny K.] played a show last Friday with "The Dead People" [Jason Edgil and Chops] and Jason did some dance/karaoke type things to close out the night.

It was a house party, which is always fun. Half of the people there are there for the bands and the other are there to get wasted and try to bump into members of the opposite sex. It's kind of like a bar, except you usually know everyone there and wish you didn't by the end of the night.

Here are some pics from the event.

Julie on the porch

Jason rapping with porn on TV

Brian's arm, Katie, and Danny pre-show on the porch

Jason and Chops play as "The Dead People" while Brian glares at them shirtlessly

Me and Danny playing songs.

All in all, it was a good time. Some video and audio were taken of some of the performances which I may post once it is all sorted out...

If you're at all interested, I have a blog dedicated to the music project Danny and I are birthing, and you can find it here: http://matildaandfriends.blogspot.com/

In related news, my friend Chelsea is coming into town this week, and we're planning on doing a quiet acoustic show in my backyard on Friday. Not sure yet who all is playing... Me and Danny will do a coffee house type show with minimal amplification, brushes instead of drum sticks, etc. Chelsea will for sure play. Some other musical things will happen too. I'm trying to leave it more open ended in hopes that people just want to initiate song sharing and the like.

And in other, different, yet related news, check this out: http://theblackbottomcollective.blogspot.com/

But if you don't want to click that link and just read, look below this line:

A few friends and I are going to start renting a building in the area for rehearsal, recording, playing shows, making art, having art shows, etc.

The idea is to start a collective of like minded creative people and have them all chip in to make a sweet space to do what they love. And on top of that each person can help the other out...

Say I'm recording an album, and need a drum track, I can ask someone in the collective to help. Then I'm done recording, and I'd like some art for the cover. Ask someone in the collective. And I want to sell the CD, or make vinyl, I could throw a show, ask some of the other musicians to fill out the bill, ask an artist for a T-shirt design to sell, charge 5 bucks at the door, etc.

And this is just one scenario.

So hopefully, in the coming months, me and some close friends will be hard at work inside a big building in Ferndale and being much more productive in what we all love to do.

This is all for now.

Excitement seeps from my pores now-a-days.

Always looking for a brighter future.

Farewell B.B.C. [again]

2010-06-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

The return makes one love the farewell.
--Alfred de Musset

Saturday and Sunday night came and left with Big Black Cloud creating a trail of smoke behind them. Both shows were top notch; the first being at the Shack by Woodbridge Pub and the second at Cass Cafe. The sound at Cass was a bit better, but not by much. Both shows had their strengths. Saturday's show was just an all out party. Everyone got much too drunk, but had a great time. Sunday was more down-tempo drinking wise because everyone was hung over. The atmosphere was pretty chilled out, until the end of the night when everyone got to the point of super drunk, and we made our exit when some drunk guy kept bumping our car with his car trying to parallel park.

Here are some pictures.

Sometimes my shutter doesn't open all the way.
Still a neat picture from Saturday.

Saturday Shack playing.

Tommy and Jason.
People kept asking, "Are they twins?"

Not sure what's happening...
Julie, Jeremy, and Jennifer [Triple J] on Saturday.

The garden, and the seance orb at the Shack

The only picture of me from either night.
Pictured here with Fred. [He drove.]

The crowd outside of the shack after BBC.

Rainy Sunday afternoon. Penn and Julie.

Lots o' Drops.

Cat and dogs.

Cass Cafe. Sunday night.

Trombone-ing on Sunday

The crowd at the Cafe after BBC

Blood and guts. Epic.

Another live shot from Sunday.

All and all it was a wonderful weekend. It was very nice seeing Josh and his band mates again. It had been about 2 years. 2 years ago, we all figured it was the last time we'd see Big Black Cloud, and it was sad, but sweet. And these 2 shows were no different, sad but sweet. 'Sweet' like the taste... and 'sweet' like "awesome, rock n' rollin' good time, dude."
And sad, like, sad.

Like puppies getting hit by cars and the cars are being driven by dying babies with grandma passing away in the backseat.

But still sweet, too.

We're posting less because we're doing more... Not the other way around.

2010-06-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

Hello Shaulie blog. It's been a while.
How are you? Is everything alright? They treating you okay around here?

Me?

I've been... busy. It's hard to come by this way and see you now-a-days. I try and just check my electronic mails and get off this thing. Maybe occasionally I look around at Facebook, but you're better baby. You're my blog. Don't ever forget that. Facebook don't mean a thing to me. I'm only keepin' her around to stay connected with family and such.

In all honesty, I've been working a lot at my job. Long stretches too, like, 8 or 9 or 10 days in a row with no day off...
Working a lot on the yard, and on the house.
Working on writing new songs, and new pieces of creative writing [I've got this this one idea: Stand-up comedy bit told by a hardcore Christian... I don't want to give anything away yet, but let's just say right off the bat that this guy hates gay people. And by hate, I mean hate...]
I've also been working a bit on my beer gut, and this game called Super Mario Galaxy 2. The game isn't even mine, Fred brought it over and just left it for me to get sucked into. Thanks Fred for making me abandon my blog for Mario-Awesomeness (for real, thanks).

Julie has been just as busy with nearly all of the same things. Except, when you go back through the aforementioned list replace writing songs and creative writing with Frontierville and researching/changing her diet to help acid reflux.

Aside from that it's just about the exact same.

Another big slice of our time pie has been devoted to our new neighbors. They moved in about a month ago and they are both totally rad. It's another couple, named Jeremy and Jennifer and we get along just swimmingly. Anytime we're outside and the neighbors are also outside it ends with us all on one porch talking for hours. Then we'll play games on the Wii, or break out a board game, or just start drinking and telling stories, and before you know it, it's 1:40am and you have to be up in 6 hours to go to work...

Anyway, those are the reasons I haven't been around much, Shaulie Blog.

Tonight is the Big Black Cloud show! First one in a while. Couple years? I'm very excited.

Check out B.B.C. here for free streaming and free download. While your at it, check out the other stuff "God Sags His Pants" has to offer. I'm in love with almost all of it but I'm bias because I've known Josh for a while and like him very much...

But if you're interested in coming, it's tonight at the Shack.
And tomorrow they are playing Cass Collective.

I'll bring my camera back out of hiding soon and maybe post some pixx of the happenings, the neighbors, our yard we work so hard on, etc.

Thanks for understanding my situation blog. You're my favorite thing on the internet.

(not really)

2010-06-09T20:20:00.001-07:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

hold on

2010-06-09T20:17:00.001-07:00

Goodbye Old Empire

2010-05-22T06:25:00.000-07:00

This week I broke up with the rock band I was playing with.
[Goodbye Old Empire!]
There were many factors that lead to this.
I guess it's easiest to say that I was unhappy with some of the decisions that were being made with out me. Upset that I was fed some lines of shit in hopes that I would bite and keep on keeping on. Unsure if these decisions meant that I would be next on the chopping block.

Long story short, I just wanted a clean healthy break and figured that now would be better than later considering the band was already spinning into transition. And the good news is that I've been received well post-break by the rest of the band. They all have sent me well wishes and seem to understand my want to split.

More good news is that I can focus my musical energy on my own projects now. Since I joined Old Empire almost a year ago, I've put my own solo music on hiatus, and any other project for that matter. I'm excited to dive back into my own musical realm and play shows now that I got my stage legs back in business. That's why I joined the Old E in the first place. To meet people in the local scene, play out live, play with some excellent musicians, and just gain insight and experience to how it all works. I definitely got that over the last year, and much more.

So I can't remember if I've shared this on this blog yet, but here:
http://matildaandfriends.blogspot.com/

This is what I've been doing in my spare time with Danny, soon to be my full time musical venture. We're playing and re-writing some older 'Matilda' songs, writing brand new ones, and having a blast.

Let me know if you're interested in this.
If you like it, or think it needs polishing, or don't care at all...
You can even come over and play with us if you wish! [But we'll probably kick you out of the band, just because we've been hurt and wish to do the hurting now.]

I'll leave you with a trip down memory lane.

Paychecks

Hamtown blowout. Julie, Danny, Dan Clark, Sara[h?]

Tempermill. Me and Dave [you know, from Blanche]

Pure 11. This was in a magazine somewhere I heard.

Hamtramck alley. My second show with the band.

Cheers.

26 and pissed.

2010-05-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

Hello blog:
I'm 26 [read: old, washed up, wanna-be man], and this isn't Julie typing.

How did you all let me get this old?
I'm still smoking, and drinking, and working a shit job.
I'm close to having my degree, but close isn't good enough.

But enough negativity...
I just like to bitch sometimes.

So birf-day happened on the 29th of April. Came and went with no real black eyes or feathers in my cap.

I was on a week [read: 9 days] vacation. Just went back to work last Monday.
Over my little stay-home-from-work stint we made lots of fires in my new fire pit. Cooked food in/on my new BBQ grill. Played a whole lot of NBA Jam in the shed. Good times.

Friends and family thought it would be nice to have a party for my b-day, and I agreed after some thought. So Julie and I spent a lot of time making our yard and house look nice, invited a bunch of folk over, and the rest was history.

Blurry L to R : Fred, Conner, Tracey, Shannon, Carl, Kalli, Sophia

Line of chairs.

Fred Man-ing the grill.

Julie + Me.

Another baby Sophia and her mommy Stash.

It was my goal to record some new 'Matilda' [read: solo music project] stuff but it just wasn't in the cards. I had to download a new recording program, and it wasn't jiving with my computer.
So then I wen to Radio Shack and spent 45 dollars on different cables and cords and connectors to try and rig it all up, and instead of working I just spent money on shit I didn't really need.
But it wasn't all bad.
In preparation of recording I got a bunch of new musical ideas bouncing around in my head.
Put those down on cassette tape and stored some in my loop pedal for a later date.

To wrap up my vacation, me and Julie and Danny played Clue a bunch of times. I lost every time, and Julie almost won every time.

Set-up action!

By the way:
She's on my shit list for being so damn good at Clue.

That is all.

k9

2010-04-18T06:12:00.000-07:00

Friday night was an odd night.

Old Empire had a short show at the International Pop Overthrow Fest.
Got the the bar around 8:15. Went on stage to set up around 8:45. At about 9 o' clock we played for 20 minutes. Left around 9:35, and got home before 10 to meet up with some friends who were coming over.

Julie had invited Katie and Brian over for calm and cool evening of wine, and maybe a movie, or something.
So I asked Fred and Andrew if they wanted to come by also... You know, to make things more interesting.
Then my roommate Danny gets home from the show and brings with him all of Old Empire, and some other friends/girlfriends of band members.
This was good though, because before this the "calm get together" had turned into a race to get drunk so that no one is as awkward as them sober selves.

So now, it's a party. There are about 15 people here just drinking and laughing and carrying on. And I start to get in the groove. I'm feeling good. I'm on my fourth beer, and just going with the flow of things.

Then Andrew asks me to try his "Frank Wine." [Frank is his girlfriend's father who makes his own wine] - I do. It tastes pretty good, a little too sweet because I think it was a Merlot, but still good none the less. So then Andrew pours me a glass of it, and he drinks from the bottle. I'm still trying to drink beer, so I'm chasing this wine with beer, because I don't want to be rude, I mean, Andrew just took the energy to pour me a glass, and even though I don't want the drink I drink it. On top of that, I don't want him to think that I don't like the wine, because I did, I was just already 4 beers into my night, and I don't know about you, but when I mix, I pay for it.

So I start to mix beer and wine [not in the same glass, but might as well have been.]
I had the above mentioned beers,
then Frank Wine,
then another beer,
then someone wanted to make me a mimosa so they did,
then Julie got tired and asked me to finish her drink,
then someone asked me to try their mix drink [melon vodka and something something],
another mimosa,
then another beer,
then we were out of orange juice, so someone was mixing up wine and sprite, and made me one of those...

It all went down so quick. Things really get moving when you're drinking.

Finally it was pretty late. Everyone gone but Fred and Andrew. There was something going on, or tha just went on, a fight or argument, with Brian and Katie that I was too drunk to understand or know with a right mind what to say or do in the situation. So I told Fred I was going to bed, and to make sure the house gets closed up when he left, and to call me tomorrow. . .

But I actually, probably said, "Frdd. I cnann't stod up ennemor. Ihghatta goto bed now.[mumble] Whellya luck up dudde, and cull meh, and[mumble] habe agud might tomight [mumble mumble]"

I go in my bedroom, take off my clothes and get in bed. Fall asleep for about 10 minutes and something wakes me up. I feel a little gurgle in my belly, so I put my jeans on backwards and go to the bathroom to try and puke.

I lay on the floor for a few, drink some water from the sink, throw up finally, clean up myself as well as the bathroom, put my pants on correctly and go back to the bedroom. I undress again and go to bed.

I fall asleep a second time. This time I'm sleeping for about an hour. 45 minutes or so. I wake up at 4:15 in the morning puking. So I'm trying to hold it in my mouth while I'm getting out of bed, but I can't so I'm trying to hold it in my hands as I'm running to the bathroom but that fails too. It's very dark, but I'm sure I just barfed all over my bedroom, probably on my clothes and bed. And now I'm in the bathroom really just puking my guts out. Nude, and freezing cold on the bathroom tile with a trail of puke that leads from my side of the bed to the bathroom, I'm in there throwing up for almost a half hour straight.

Julie comes to the door.
"Shaun"
"[grgleee]yeah?"
"You need anything?"
"I need clothes!"
"You puked all over the dog"

I open the door, all the puke is gone because Julie cleaned it up. The dog is outside and won't come back in because she's really scared and confused at how her pep-pep can wake up and start making growling noises and cover her in warm stinky slime. I'm wrapped in a bath towel because I was shivering, nude, in a pile of my own cold puke on the bathroom floor.

"Thanks for cleaning."

I go to the bedroom, get some old clothes on, go back in the bathroom and sleep a while.

I woke up yesterday, and got dressed to go to a wake. And that's what I did yesterday. Mourned the dead with family I don't see often and pretended like I didn't spend the night before covering my dog in puke from drinking too much.

All in all pretty solid weekend.

Today I work.

And tomorrow I call about a job interview... again.

But this one seems promising, so, I don't want to jinx it, so if something good happens, I'll post it here.

And here are some random picture of things that went on the past couple days since my last post. Bubbles and show and cleaning and wake and etc.

Sonic the Shed Hog!!
Turning our shed into an old school game room, or maybe just a general hang out area. We have a TV and couch and old stereo in there. Need a mini-fridge and some decoration.

Bubbles.

Bubbles.

Bubbles.

Blurry Bubbles.

Bubble movie...

[Done with bubbles now]

Cousin Stefan with his baby boy Eddie [Post Wake]

Stone.

Short Show at IPO.

In a car. Think we were on our way to Subway. I mean Taco Bell.

Art Room finally slightly more organized, but coming along.

This is all for now.

Good day.

Cocktails

2010-04-06T20:12:00.001-07:00

Christ was resurrected... But not before a number of my friends got hammered at my house. All in all a good time was had. It was a DIY Cocktail fest. I bought a large amount of party supplies and made a list of cocktails you could make with everything. Though it was a good idea in theory, in practice, it was not.

Everyone was pretty much sloshed after 2 drinks. But, aside from a few messes and some big bumping egos, no real issues came of a house full of wasted arty types.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and dressed up.

Pen and Julie

Blurred kitchen folk

Alexis and Shaun picking a play list

Cheers from Alexis and Fred

Brian and Julie early in the night

Fred and Julie posing.

Cheese! from Katie and Carl

"Take a picture wiff me!" She said.

Then started dancing like a fool.

The only non-issue issue that transpired.

Aside from that, not much has been going on. Julie and I have been working a bunch since vacation. Paying bills and spring cleaning. Trying to make our outside [front yard and back] more livable. I've been riding my bike a lot. Normal end of March/ early April stuff.

Oh yeah... I played a solo show a few weeks back. That was really cool.

Motion

Yelping

Speaking of solo stuff...
Danny and I have been working on our little music project. We've decided to play some old Matilda songs and re-work them in a band setting, as well as the new stuff we've been writing.

Hopefully we can get that project more polished and maybe play some shows. Maybe record the new stuff. Not really that concerned about it. I'm having a great time playing music and that's all that counts.

And, of course, Old Empire is still playing shows all the time and it's always fun, even if sometimes we fuck up an entire song and just quit in the middle.
If you're interested, this Saturday at the Majestic Cafe.

Come on down.

AIM

2010-03-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

So, I went on AIM today.
You remember AIM?
That instant messenger service everyone was so obsessed with, pre-social networking explosion days? And even now, people are getting sick of Facebook and Myspace and just tweeting all the time now, and using chatroulette. Almost like we're going backwards.
Now we're back in chat rooms like AOL 3.0, and instant messaging through twitter to no one really.

I went on AIM to see if anything would happen.
Nothing did, so I left.
Still saw people on my buddy list signed on. I wondered if those people just have their old computer from 2001 stuck in a warp somewhere, and because of that they're still on AIM. Their screen name still sits on buddy lists being unnoticed and unused.

Anyway.

Just felt weird about AIM, and needed somewhere to blow off steam about it.

In other news, recently found out about this site called BandCamp and it's the Cat's Ass. It's a music streaming site, but it is so clean and has so many nice features. You have to check it out to see what I mean. And if you're a musician, then you'll love it even more. The site caters to the bands as well as the fans. It's just really, really neat. Here's their home page so you can watch the little explain-er video.
www.bandcamp.com

I uploaded the entire "Matilda" (my solo music) catalog to it over the last couple days. Here's the link to that. All 10 albums are free and available at the highest quality.
http://matilda.bandcamp.com/

And here's a nifty little player.

<a href="http://matilda.bandcamp.com/album/people-only-listen-to-recycled-music">Dream Catchers and Well Drinks by Matilda</a>

Other music news: Matilda will most likely be playing a show next Friday. I'm not sure of the details just yet. All I really know is that it's a house party and Chelsea Schirmer invited me to play it with her [as well as some other acoustic-ish performers], for it'll be her last show in the Detroit area.

Old Empire has a show this Saturday at the Lager House. And we picked up another show next Sunday, but I don't remember where.

Spring has sprung and so has my creativity!

Aside from that, we sold the cougar the day after we put it on Craigslist. 500 bucks. Felt really good about that when it happened.
I'm still slightly sick, and it's been over a week. It'll be 2 weeks of not being 100% on Sunday of this week. It's been really weird. I haven't been sick like this in quite some time.

This is all for now... I'll leave you with some strange Matilda related pictures.

My twin brother Fred Durst Wisniewski

Easter 2008 basement show.

Recording the cover album "Blankets and Quilts" with Fred and Ryan.

Random guitar track picture.

Enjoy the music!

Sick Day...

2010-03-09T11:52:00.001-08:00

Today I took a sick day. Called into work.
Still feel under the weather.
Though the weather is wonderful today [low 50's and sunny], I'm freezing.

In other news, does anyone want to buy a slightly used Mercury Cougar?

Aside from the above pictured, it's in very nice shape. I'll take any offer over 200 dollars.

As talked about in a previous blog, here are a few blowout pictures.

Our terrible write up in the Metro Times.

Danny being Danny.

Julie learning how to slow dance. Dude, that's my girl, dog.

The band getting ready.

Gabe [probably] giving us all a pep talk mid-show.

Like I said before, we had a wonderful time playing that night. Everything felt good/nice/right. People seemed to be happy/impressed while we were on stage. Maybe they were all just drunk because we didn't go on until 1:15AM, but they liked us none the less.

I have to make a craigslist posting now to try and sell this car.
Wish me luck.

I'll take the gun.

2010-03-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon blogosphere.
[Always feel weird about that word]

Today I'm dying from the inside out. My head is cloudy. My throat is closed. When I stand I feel like falling over. My body buzzes with bad feelings all over. Like all of my parts were in a blender for a while. Blah.

I spent my morning looking for jobs and going through my old hard drive. Found some neat stuff in there. Lot of pictures from 2004-2006. Weird times, and even more weird pictures.

Probably singing Dashboard Confessional

Julie! Circa 2004

My first solo concert at Xhedos.

Ryan, Kyle, Rachel at the Xhedos show.

"Grand Caminos" Photo Shoot [fake band from Green House Holmes Hamtramck era]

Found some videos from when I was recording "People Only Listen to Recorded Music" Found all of my old albums [from when I had a CD collection] I haven't heard in a long time. Found a bunch of music from the old days that I had some sort of part in. Tom Kelly's first album that I played drums on. Some of Jason Edgil's old music that I helped record. Tin Can Phone album [Folk duet project between me and Jason] Me and Laura Shortt covering Forest Porridge songs... And on, and on, and on.
All in all it was a nice trip down memory lane.

I used to think that I had the most extensive collection of Hazel Park music. Now I think I just have the most obscure and random collection.

Julie got another raise today. She now makes more than me [more than I've ever made at any job], which I like. Just solidifies in my mind that I need another job ASAP. I'm very happy she's doing things she likes and gets paid for it.

And I'm off to work now to make all my co-workers wish they didn't have to work with someone so sick and pissy.

Suckers.

Sleep is for the weak and intelligent

2010-03-06T02:48:00.000-08:00

At this point, I've been awake for 22 hours. I have to report for work in 45 minutes. I'll be there from 6:45am to 2pm.

Then sleep.

Tonight was Old Empire's Metro Times Blowout gig. Everything went fairly well. It felt good playing. Had a nice response from the crowd [during and after]. We got lucky and a lot of nice people stumbled in on our show, and though most of them only stayed for 3 or so songs, all seemed to be having a good time. We were headliners at Skippers [or "Skipper's" - there were two signs with two different spellings. One of which had me picturing 1950's children skipping along, the other had me thinking about Gilligan]. Our scheduled play time was 1am to last call.

All in all, a decent night for Old E.

Julie and I killed time before bands by drawing penises on pictures in the Metro Times. I know it's childish, but sometimes it's the best and funniest way to make the clock hands move around a little quicker.

I think Julie took pictures of us tonight. I know I took a few before we went on. If there are any worth seeing, I'll post them.

Sadly, none of the bands I saw tonight really stuck out. A couple bands had a couple decent songs, but I kept feeling bored. Maybe it was me. Maybe I was just not feeling like seeing a show tonight... who knows.

My coffee pot is beeping. Time to down pot of java number two before I drive to hell, I mean... Hell [It's a place. A terrible, awful, no good, life sucking place. It should be capitalized.]

Cheers!

Here's to sleeplessness. Here's to no one covering your shift even when you need it off.

Here's to you.

Back in the mitten...

2010-03-04T08:53:00.000-08:00

Back in the mitten again. Back to normalcy, whatever that means.

Back to work, and Penny, and band practice/shows.
[Speaking of which, Old Empire @ Skippers in Hamtramck on Friday. Metro Times Blowout gig]

On Tuesday, Julie got a new car. A big black '02 Blazer to own the road in. Very nice automobile. Picked it up for just under 4 grand. She took out a small loan to pay for it, and is making payments to the bank with a decent rate. I'm very happy to have that whole car fiasco out of the way.

Had to update my Windows 7 because I was using an evaluation copy. Somehow I lost a lot of the programs I had installed on my laptop over the last 6 months. Well, they're not lost, but I'll have to reinstall all of them soon. It's been quite the pain in the ass. But it's nice to have a clean start. I can now figure out what things I liked/needed and what things I didn't/don't need at all.

I made this as our new desktop background.

I also submitted some more writing to different online sources. Crossing my fingers about that but not holding my breath.

For anyone who is interested, I post pieces of creative writing here:
http://shaun-w.blogspot.com/

I miss the warmth of FL.

A few more pictures from our trip:

Normal picture hot spot at the Fort.

Tourists in Orlando.

Unsure of something [most likely our sobriety] in Ybor.

Feeding birds was a bad idea near Gulf of Mexico.

I'm excited for spring. I heard some bird doing it in the back yard today. I stood in the sun for quite a while, just taking it in. Penny ate some poop, and I yelled at her and threw her Frisbee across the yard/

That is all for now.

Almost forgot. A few Pictures from Sunday

2010-02-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

As promised, a few Pictures from Sunday.

Beach day.

More to come later.

Too tired.

Hello Kentucky. . . Ya'll

2010-02-22T20:29:00.000-08:00

Julie and I made it to Williamsburg KY from Tampa FL in just about 11 hours today. We left my Dad's at around 9:30am and drove until 11:30pm. Stopped in at the top of Florida for lunch. Then took an hour break at a strip mall right outside of Atlanta for fear of hitting rush hour. Went through 2 rain storms, and 2 traffic jams. For dinner, we went to an Applebee's somewhere near the top of Tennessee. Had a strange exchange with the waitress.

Her: What'll ya'll have?
Me: Coffee, water. To eat I'll have the quesadilla burger.
Her: Alright then. Cream and sugar?
Me: No.
Her: Some french fries then?
Me: Sure.
Her: Pink or not pink?
Me: Ummm. I'm sorry, what?
Her: You want pink or no?
Me: I don't know what that means.
Her: How's it cooked?
Me: ...How's wha--
Her: The burger... Pink on the inside, or not?
Me: Oh. Pink.

Am I strange for never having heard of this? What happened to rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, and well done? When did they all get lumped into two categories, one being "pink", and one being "not pink"?

God damn confederates.

Anyhow. With luck Julie and I will be home tomorrow [Tuesday] before 5pm.

When I got in the rental this morning it was 72 and sunny. Going to bed, it's 43 and foggy. Tomorrow's forecast is pavement.

Saturday/Sunday

2010-02-21T17:29:00.000-08:00

Castle at night.

Fire Works

Spectro-something or another parade.

Mosaic.

God Damn Disney! [Magic Kingdom entrance]

Saturday was Julie's birthday [Happy Birthday!] and we went to Magic Kingdom. Wonderful day, weather wise. Beautiful outside. 70's and sunny out.

Ton of fun.

Rode rides. Ate below average food for outrageous prices. Ran around like we were 7 years old again. Saw a bunch of iconic stuff. Took pictures. Played Tourist and loved it.

All in all great day Saturday, all day.

Happy Birthday hat.

Tea cups.

Cindy's house.

Holy crap.

Here's a video of the tea cup ride.

So... Today, [Sunday] was a more lazy day. After getting home from Disney last night, Julie and I were both exhausted.

Woke up later than normal. Had coffee. Dad made breakfast. Spent some time on the back porch soaking up sun.

Went to the ocean. Well, Gulf of Mexico, but it's ocean to me. Dug in the sand. Walked the shore. Collected shells. Just had a nice easy day.
Also saw this sweet fort built in the early 1900's. Got pictures of all that too, but I figured I'd wait for those.

We leave tomorrow.

Kind of bummed.

Been having a great time though.

Awesome vacation.

58 - cool and windless

2010-02-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

Captions/explanations later.
Magic Kingdom tomorrow.

Fixes

2010-02-19T06:02:00.000-08:00

Good morning.
Yesterday was our first full day in FL. We woke up at the hotel Thursday, hit the road by 9am, and made it to my [Shaun's] Dad's house by noon.

Dad took Julie and I [and his two dogs] to a nice little hidden beach area by a big bridge. Met some bums who lived there, as well as some dead fish. There was a whole week where the temperatures in Tampa were so cold it killed a ton a fish and they all washed up when the tide was high. It was strange to walk along the water and see all kinds of fish just dead on the beach. It was a really neat little area. My Dad's always been good about finding secluded, cool areas.

After that we dropped the dogs off, and went to this Pier park a few blocks from his house. Walked around the park and up and down the pier. We could see downtown Tampa across the bay. Really cool. Really terrible graffiti on the pier. Just random cuss words written everywhere. Very funny. "FUCK SHIT BITCH WHORE FUCKER" ... I mean, c'mon kids. Let's get creative.

After that we drove around Dad's neighborhood, looked at the town a bit. Came back to his house and sat in the sun room talking. Had a few beers, and watched Law and Order out in the sun. We waited for Sherry to come home so we could go out to dinner.

We went down to Michell's Fish Market where my step-sister manages the bar, and had a very nice dinner. Very, very nice restaurant. Great service. Wonderful fish. Live piano. The works. Talked with my step-sister for a while. She was working, so she couldn't sit with us the entire time, but we got some info back and forth.

Came back to the house, and took it easy for the rest of the night. All in all, a good first day.

Today is going to be more of the same...
Sun, fun, and relaxation.
Tentative plans for the day:

Shopping
See the ocean/manatee
Ybor City
maybe going to the Animal Shelter

We'll see.

Sunshine State

2010-02-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

Back yard. Dad's house - FL

Next to the pier, few blocks from Dad's house. FL

By the water/Gandy Bridge - Tampa FL

Inside. Dad's house - FL.

Back yard by the pool. Dad's house - FL

On the road - final hours. FL

Paying attention to the road. FL

Distance left. FL

Getting ready for bed @ hotel. FL

Rental ride taking a rest after 1100 miles. FL

Couple of pictures from the last leg of our journey. Sorry about the strange order. Don't feel like figuring out how to put them in a chronological order right now.

More to come later. Off to dinner.

Uploading from FL Hotel

2010-02-17T16:44:00.000-08:00

New Shades. GA.

Fire Works below Christmas Inn. KY.

The front of Shoney's menu. Brilliant. TN.

Sleep. KY.

Ice Mountain. KY.

God's Work in God country. KY.

Big Hills. KY.

Driving. Sleep Deprived. TN.

GEORIGA!

2010-02-17T16:16:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, it's Julie. It's 48 here in Georgia and really sunny :-D We drove through the mountains this morning, it was amazing, sooo beautiful. So far we have taken a nap in Kentucky, ate at a Shoney's in Tennessee for breakfast, I got a new pair of sun glasses when we got to Georgia.... they're alright... there wasn't a big selection at the gas station and we just ate at Arby's. We left last night at 10:30 after Lost, I love Lost <3 I'm glad we waited . Penny is at Shaun's grandma's house for the week, I miss her a lot :'-( I hope she doesn't think we abandoned her... Shaun says she will be fine.... I hope so. Well, I'm going to get off of here now, only about 6 more hours to go until we are in Florida!!!!!

Here we come.

2010-02-16T16:54:00.000-08:00

7:55pm

Julie is packing the last of her things up. I'm blogging and watching a public access Soul Train type show... Now Julie's dancing like the people on TV.

Soon Lost will be on. I'll pack up the rented car while the re-run airs at 8.

Fred and Ryan are supposed to be here for the party. I'm waiting on them.

Ready to go. Florida: Here we come.

Happy Day After

2010-02-15T05:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday [Sunday] was Valentines Day. We didn't really celebrate. Instead, we went to Subway, visited Julie's parents, cleaned up messes after Penny, Chatrouletted, and watched Arrested Development.

We did our Valentines stuff the night before. I [Shaun] took Julie out to the mall to buy her a new bathing suit for our Florida trip, then to Cirilla's for her to pick out anything she wanted. Ended up that all that shopping was worth it. Although I have a hard time dealing with the public in large quantities, I had a lot of fun. Mostly because I was with Julie and we usually have fun together.

Today is Monday, and we leave tomorrow night. Today will be a day of packing and figuring out car renting and so on. Last I checked it was mid to high 60's in Tampa all this week, which will be perfect. Not too hot, but not cold by any means and perfect weather for exploring Tampa.

It's going to be like this.

Chatroulette [Dear God Save Us All]

2010-02-13T04:50:00.000-08:00

You: hi
Stranger: Hola

[If you can understand the layout presented above, I'll see you later on, cam to cam.]

Last night Julie and Andrew and I [Shaun] went out to dinner at the Red Coat Tavern and had really good food, and even better beer, and had gotten there just in time. As we ate we watched the line at the door grow longer and longer. We were seated fairly close to the door, so by the time we were getting the bill we were surrounded by people on all sides. Julie had sent me a text message about her "nips being hard" because the door kept on opening and closing right behind her.

Waiting on the bill, this conversation happened.

Andrew: Have you guys know about Chatroulette?
Shaun: What?
Andrew: Chat roulette.
Shaun: Never heard of it, partly because I still don't know what you're saying.
Julie (to Shaun) : What did he say?
Shaun: [Shrugs]
Julie (to Andrew) : What is it...
Andrew: OhMyGawd. It's an old school chat room where you randomly get connected to someone else via web cam. Anyone on the site. At random. It's so weird. You're looking at them while they're looking at you. And you can interact with these people. Type in a chat box, or just talk through your computer mic.
Shaun: It sounds weird.
Andrew: It's awesome. So much fun...
Julie: Sounds fun.
Andrew: This is what you get. Like, every 5th cam is a guy jerking it, or like a 12 year old kid flipping the bird, or a close up of fat girl cleavage. A lot of Asians giving peace signs. A ton of college dudes looking for girls to show boobs, and most girls will show boobs, like you don't even have to ask nice, you just type BOOBS and whoop, off goes the top.
Shaun & Julie : HAHAHHAHA!
Andrew: But you can find cool people on there, and just talk about whatever. I met a young couple from Chicago the other day and we talked about urban exploration of abandoned buildings for like 25 minutes. . . . .

Sooooo, Chatroulette happened when we got home.
Julie and I got cams of dicks, and boobs, and 12 yr old kids flipping the bird, and frat boys and people from around the world. Older 30 something guys, a grandmother, room full of teenagers, some Indian looking dude, a gay couple with a guitar but neither of them would sing or play, then 3 guys with guitars covering "1,2,3,4" by Feist. And more dick than I could count in between there, but you win some, you lose some. All the while, all of these people got cams of me and Julie while we held up our cats, put on digital costumes and talked with people.

Very odd experience, but fun, and neat.

2010-02-10T20:20:00.000-08:00

Good Evening.

This will be the site for all things Shaulie (Shaun+Julie) for the time being. We'll be uploading little trinkets of our life for anyone to spy upon. In case you're wondering, this is Shaun posting this maiden post.

So far this week, Julie was in a car accident because we got about 10 inches of snow. Her car is pretty wrecked, but she is fine. We're weighing out our options now. Leaning toward buying a new car before we leave for our first vacation together. [I'm pushing for a LeBaron]

Sunny Florida in less than a week.

Excitement!

Here's a theory to chew on until we meet again.