New years resolutions

Rather than make a resolution to better myself, last New Years I made a resolution to buy all the Cake albums in 2005. Everyone said this was a bad idea, but I disagree.

Not only am I bettering myself by obtaining quality music, I am also setting goals for myself. I'm not going to simply go out and buy all the albums right away, that's just sillyness. I bought 3 in the first 3 months, and kind of forgot about it, until just now. I only need 2 more, and I think that is very obtainable since there are like 3 months left. Cake is a very good band and I am happy to respect and support them.
For those who care I have: Pressure Chief, Comfort Eagle, and Fashion Nugget.

Good times no?

Best Regards,
Jaron W

P.s, does it hurt to comment?

My life is Boring

My life stopped being cheeky and interesting somehow. I just do schooling, works and sometimes drinking. Sometimes drinking leads to music, which is pretty awesome, as music is the glue that keeps our world together. How many times do I have to say that before it becomes cliche?

I saw the actual version of "The Son of Godzilla" (I made a really bad version of it for my film class last year), and I must say that I was pretty close to some of the themes of the actual movie. In the film, the son of Godzilla is a new born, so he doesn't know how to be a bad ass monster like his pop. He just dicks around and learns from example. Blowing little smoke rings of radioactive fire instead of vicious beams of super death fire like his dad. It's pretty sweet, I'm not going to lie.

I also got "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla", which is not to be confused with "Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla", completely different.

I'll watch it and report on how awesome it is to all of you.

Regards,
BananaJaronBoiTreeW

Bloggin' is a hard life

Blogging really isn't hard, who am I kidding. Those jerks who somehow make money doing this are riding a very dangerous wave of financial water, and if the wave breaks, or he gets bitten by a shark, they are pretty fucked. Something always has to break.

What do you guys think? Are you all my friends and you just think I am ridiculous, or do you casually read blogs like I do? Are you random bloggers that I don't know? Or are you random internet surfers I don't know?

I find the internet to be a pretty insane concept to wrap your head around if you can break it down. A very interesting concept is that of economic revolution. In around 10 years, the internet has gone from a free collective of information exchange that was basically anarchy, to a bloated metropolis of commerce and sex.

Not that commerce or sex in inheiritly a bad thing, but it only took 10 years. 10 years is extremely short if you look at how we as humans have developed with our "real world" economies in the past 100 years. Modeling a economy after one of the world's strongest economies, without the need for government, taxes or bills (other than internet hosting, internet access). The internet has become a farmer's market with flashy signs, low prices and porn by the bushel.

Anyways, that is my little run down of my thoughts on the internet and why I think it is so crazy to think about.

Best Regards,
Jaron Whittingham

Week = Crazy

With all the concert going I've been doing, times have been pretty crazy. Commuting between Calgary and Lethbridge for concerts is kind of hectic, however completely worth it. Music is totally worth the money, effort and time. You know it, I know, music is the glue that keeps the world together.

Speaking of Music, my music class is very interesting, and kind of hard. Nothing that I don't think that I cannot handle, but some concepts can be a trip to wrap your head around. The terms are kind of hard to memorize and apply to the theory, however I did take Grade 7 and 8 band, so I think that'll help me a little... if I can remember a single thing about it. That was a good 5 years ago, and I mostly DID just dick around on a trombone, so I guess that won't help all that much.

I haven't posted a real good post in awhile, so I promise I will post one pretty soon, for now this is just a taste of what is to come.

Good Times

So, good times were had, some classes were missed, but all in all, the Mars Volta tore some shit up. Sadly they only played for one hour, then were followed by a huge wait, and then that was followed by the lackluster act called "System of A Down".

If you know me, my favourite band is probably The Mars Volta, and I was a little disappointed such a good band could be opening for such a boring one. The lead singer of SOAD was boring, unenergetic and generally a drag. While some high points of SOAD's set was the fact that even though most of their songs are exactly the same, they did a good job interluding their songs, covering "Sultans of Swing" and changing the lyrics a bit, and doing the same with "My My, Hey Hey" by Neil Young. I would've appreciated some more pep from their older track, but it seemed like everyone around me was getting excited about the "Mezmorize" album, which did nothing for me at all.

What really got me excited was the Mars Volta. TMV, played (from what I remember) only 3 songs. They started out with "L' via L' viaquez", which we caught while just grabbing our seats. It was a very good rendition, with all the instrumentals sound spot on. This track went on for a while until decompressing, and turning into "The Widow". The jam sessions in between the tracks were kept very upbeat, as some of the mostly braindead SOAD fans were growing restless without thrashing guitars and double kick bass drums.

This upbeat nature kept the set very short and sweet, which was nice, because of how far away I was, and the general negative attitude towards TMV around me, it was hard to stay focused on the slower parts of jams. That being said, there were some amazing jams and I am upset that I couldn't get more in to it. One thing I particularity liked was Ikey's excellent keyboard/organ playing.

Ikey had more energy than SOAD's Bass player and lead singer combined, which was extremely entertaining to watch, since it resonated into his playing. While I can't really remember what song included this, but I really a solo Ikey had, where he played on all the counter beats, for atleast 3 measures. This was one of the coolest parts of the whole TMV set, as it really showed TMV's musical diversity, however it set a standard for the rest of the show. I was extremely unimpressed by almost everything SOAD did, and I think Ikey was a main reason for this.

As far as I can remember, or atleast from what I actually saw, the tracks went:
"L' via L' viaquez", "The Widow", "Drunkship Laterns". I have read that they also played "cygnus, vismund cygnus" before hand, but I may've missed it. All the songs were finely tuned to sound enough like the albums where they should, and something completely new exactly where they are needed.

I had a really good time, and TMV didn't disapoint, I was a little sad about how much the T-shirts were. 35 canadians dollars is crazy.

Best Regards,
Bananatree.

Shit

Shit, I wrote a pretty long post about how the next two days of my life is going to rock, now it is gone into the internet.

I'm seeing "The Mars Volta", "System of a Down", "Underoath", "The Used" and "Alexisonfire". This is going to be really sweet, as two concerts in a row is a trip.

I'll post a little bit more later.

Revo-fucking-lutionary

(only read this if you give a shit about videogames)

I have seen videos and pictures of Nintendo's new controller, and I am excited to say that I have never been more impressed.

For those who can't google try here "Joystiq", and for those who are too lazy to follow that link, then I'll give you a run down. Essentially, the controller is a television remote control. Instead of just using beams of light to control simple functions of the television, the controller can be used to manipulate an on-screen action in full 360 degree space. Full use of the X, Y and Z axis, giving the player complete "tactile" control.

(the next portion will mostly be intelligent ranting)
Where once a directional Pad and a few buttons ruled the gaming world, a new way to play games has been invented. While companies like Microsoft and Sony jerking off over whose processors can do more gigaflops, Nintendo just really wants to make videogames people can play. People like your little sister, who didn't start gaming until Dance Dance Revolution started showing up in your local arcades. People like your girlfriend, who feels a little neglected when you invite her over to play videogames, when she just doesn't really get it. People who want to goof around with a video game, rather than spend 40 hours obsessively building up their character's skill points.

Gaming really has not come all that far. In the past, Nintendo, Sony and Sega were just adding buttons and adding more powerful chips into their systems. The race was for polygons, and crisp 2D sprites. However, Nintendo put a little joystick on their N64 controller, mimmicking the arcade systems that are endlessly popular in gaming. Everyone else followed, and now an analog stick on a controller is a standard thing. Sega put a modem in it's Dreamcast, and now all of the "next-generation" machines are going to have built in networking.

There are some nay-sayers to the revolution, even Lenin had some problems. People that think such a radical shift is foolish, no doubt the same people who thought 2 gameboy screens would be foolish. The same people that thought, "Who would want to play a dancing game?". The same people who think the Nintendo is only for kids.

There is some value to the argument "Nintendo products (gamecube, gameboy) are only for kids". After all, titles like Pokemon (in all it's forms) and Mario are geared towards children with their simple game mechanics and cartoon-esque graphics. However, is being childish not why we play most video games? To distant one's self from the real world of school, your job and simply take yourself to a time when all you did was play? When you ran around in circles pretending you were a race car or a plane? When you accidentally kicked your brother/sister beacause you thought you were a ninja? That is what Nintendo is doing, but they are taking it one step further.

Nintendo realizes a lot of people are alienated by videogames. There is enough fury in the media for almost everyone to realize that some people are a little pissed about mature games like "Grand Theft Auto". Hell, I won't even add more examples, since GTA is the shining-fucking-star of why old people hate video games. Rockstar, like companies like ID software before them, added to the stigma that video games are all about walking around and killing people. This can scare people away from gaming, either they hate the idea of so much ultra-violence, or they are just uninterested in gunning people down for hours, only strung together by a weak story line.

I personally find this, a long with the possibly confusing aspect of the controller to be hindering video games from being a more widespread medium. The controller's role in alienating new gamers is really easy to see if you can look back on where gaming has been. Look at the first PCs, they had games, although they were very expensive, and hardly anyone knew how to use them. Installing and running files, then playing the game on your keyboard. This actually sounds great to some gamers, however this can easily scare off a lot of new people into gaming. Computer compatibility, the endless combination of keyboard buttons.

This alienates people as some new gamers would just like to pick up and play. In a game were you would need a "reference guide" for commands, versus Nintendogs, were almost all the commands are displayed on screen, and I began petting the dog and blowing him bubbles within 5 seconds of picking it up. Most people don't have the time to devote on video games and this should not stop them from enjoying them.

Picking up a 2 button controller and playing Mario Brothers: Easy. Installing, and playing King's Quest: a little bit harder. Using one joystick to look around, one to move back and forth, then a trigger to shoot: requires some practice. Using a stylus to pick something up and move it across the screen, or to scratch someone's back: almost human nature.

Ok, so that was complete ranting, however I truly think that the Nintendo Revolution is going to be a really good time that is going to change the face of gaming for the most part. Also, I'm kind of being a fan boy, but no matter, GOOD TIMES.

Busy like a bee

I've been working too much, and it's kind of fun, sadistic, but fun.

My music class is like some very strange language class, were we use math to figure out how to speak the language properly. I'm excited though, because I will finally be able to read music properly, or so I hope anyways.

I've got a computer modelling/animation class. I've never done any of it before, so I am kind of afraid the grading curve is going to destroy me. There are a lot of nerds in this class who are super gung-ho about making videogames and getting furious blowjobs due to their super modelling prowess.

My net.art class is going to be really fun, since I really like webdesign, but rarely have any projects to challenge me. Does anyone have a site they want me to design and build? I really want to do it! It won't even cost you money for my time!
(just so you know, I didn't code this site, not in this form anyways, I think I found most of the old code from my previous design and may be brought back to town.)

My class restarted.... peace

best regards,
Bananatree

Behold, the power of Merlot

I bought a bottle of wine tonight and drank the bulk of it, and I am very pleased with the results.

I mostly made the purchase because I was remembering back to some of my old posts about christmas time, when Chris, Ron and I drank, and drank and drank, then drank some red wine then went to Denny's. That was a great time, because there was something very strange and shady about Airdrie that week, very sketchy indeedly.

I'm kind of afraid for the next couple of months. I had 4 straight months without school, and with warm weather. The first time that has ever happened, so I am afraid how I will deal with so much winter after I just had so much summer :|

Darnit

I accidentally broke my template. I'll fix it later, but for now you have the pleasure of this fruity ocean theme. Much better than what I can do, but a little cheap looking.
Anyways, have a good night.

Really Really into Sports

So my first day of school was yesterday, assuming you read this on the 8th, but if you are not, and you are too lazy to look at the post date then I will have to tell you that the first day of school for me was the 7th of September.

What a terrible sentence, it looks like a short paragraph, however that is just me being terrible at grammar. Good thing I am not an English major, because I would probably get slapped on the wrists for being terrible at all the spelling and all the grammarz. My pal Kent is an English major though, and he has to read a Harry Potter book for his "Children's Lit" class. If I could take that class, I probably would.

I think when I get some electives, I will take some English classes so I can learn to read and write well. Thankfully the UofL is an artsy/creative type school, Einar's English teacher treated him like a robot who had never expressed him self, at least that is what I got from his blog. I would hate some professor telling me to "Read" books that aren't "pop culture" like no one but her had ever done it before. Or see foreign movies like it was a club that only really smart and interesting people with thick rimmed glasses could join.

If anyone cares, my radioshow has been changed from Sunday afternoons to Saturday nights. Most of the time I will be starting around 9 pm going through to 10:30 then Martine will take over to finish the night off. Before that is P-bone, one of the coolest guys ever, so if you have between 7:30pm and 12am free on Saturday nights (and I know you do, you read my blog, you have no social life) you should tune in for the coolest Saturday night you will ever experience.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by, I thought I'd stop before the post got any longer and update some aspects of the site design.

<3's Bananatree

P.s Don't go see Theory of a Deadman tonight if you live in Lethbridge, however do go see them tonight if you live in some other town, because that means they aren't here and that will be really funny because the people who want to see them will be disapointed.

Good CDs

I haven't had time to post about it, but I got some really good CDs the last couple of days.

I picked up some classics (in my eyes):

Air - Moon Safari (recommended if you like chill out music)
Shawn Hewitt and the National Strike - Soft Society EP (Like Tv on the Radio, meets Bloc Party with some Mars Volta)
The Flaming Lips - Transmissions from the Satellite Heart (classic flaming lips is all there needs to be said)
Massive Attack - 100th Window (more jazzy chill stuff from 1/3rd of the original group)
Death Cab For Cutie - Plans (the new Death Cab CD)

Me and Martine had some good times running around town buying things and feeding our consumeristic nature. That, and I got Fifa for my PSP, which is great because I am the only one I know that likes soccer better than hockey.

Celebrations

This is a picture of Me and Martine at the Alberta Centennial celebration in Stavely, Alberta.

This is a picture of a real life turkey at that same celebration.

Thanks to my sister for taking these pictures. I would've posted some of mine, but my camera got busted up.

School is Around the Corner

School is seriously right there, I can see it over in the distance. It's looming, and I kind of hate it.

Although this should be pretty fun, I haven't seen a lot of cool people in awhile, mostly because I don't care to keep in touch with people. Why do I do that? Mostly because I'm selfish and I'd rather ignore people and wait for the big reunion, than put a lot of effort into calling people and asking about all the shitty portions of their life.

:D