Wrong time to get sick

"This is not a time to get sick, with report cards around the corner"

"Saturday at 5:30, got it"

"Saturday at 12:00"

"Math test on friday"

Somebody answer me this one question, why is it I get sick when I always have a full agenda? Why is it, all the other times I could have been sick, it happens NOW??!! I guess that is just me, someone has a party, there's a math test, I plan to work on a geography project with some other people, my school's remembrance day service, and God know's how many other things, I end up home sick with "a fever, a cough and flu-like symptoms" (flu?!). Now I don't get sick very frequently, but when I do, it is always at a price.

This is now the fourth day of school I have missed and instead of getting one wheelbarrow full of homework, I'll probably end up with two. And since I'm still contagious apparently, there is the potential for more. If this wasn't 2009, I'd probably be sitting in a geography class right now. But with all the fear of H1N1 and all the precautions being taken, I now have to wait seven days before I can even consider going back to school. By this is over, there'll be a U-Haul waiting outside the school with my name on it with a wheelbarrow thrown in for good measure.

The thing I find funniest about this is that I was supposed to go to a friends party Saturday night. He had been waiting since August for a day all of us were available. On the day of the party, 2 of us couldn't make it.

2009 hasn't been a great year health wise for me, or anyone for that matter. I usually get sick about three or four times a year. I have now gotten sick three times since August. Looks as if this is how we will remember 2009. With two letters and two numbers.

MY view

So Eric Was Focusing on the "fun aspect of the trip and matt on the "not so fun" aspect, me am just giving a over view

Day 1 left home at 6:15

Went to gas station with cool sign "HIDE YOUR BEAGLE VICK'S A EAGLE"
Ended up in Williamsport Iowa with outlet mall and Arbys

Day 2

Left Williamsport Iowa Headed to Denver!
Went to strategic air and space museum in Nebraska.
Ended up in Sterling Colorado
Ate at TJ Bummers
Day three
Did Hanging Lake hike
Stopped in Colorado Junction
Had Mexican food
Day 4
Missed Obama (landed in Colorado Junction that day)
Went to Colorado Nat'l Monument
Left for Moab
Did Delicate Arch Hike.

Ate sandwiches the Arch
Day 5

Went to Campground got #16!
Did Petroglyphs, Delicate arch overlook, Windows and Park Avenue Hikes Before Lunch

Went to Moab ate Sandwiches and walked around town for 2-3 hrs.

Left for Campground for dinner tube steak and salad

Did Landscape arch on Devils Garden Hike

Day 6

Left campground heading to Sand Dune Arch

Left For Canyonlands Nat'l Park (Island in the sky)

Went to the Grand View point and trail hikes a bit.

Went for picnic in the picnic area

Left for Upheaval Dome Hike.

Left Canyonland

Headed back to Moab For the night

....... To be continued (Have to go to bed)

My View On Our Trip

If Eric focused on the fun, positive aspects, then I'm going to point out the bad, negative aspects of the trip, and some of the good ones too for old times sake.

First of all, the days where we did nothing but drive for 10-12 hours. The only things you could really do were take naps and stare out the window while listening to Eric's playlist which contains almost nothing but Bon Jovi, Van Halen and stuff of his 70's rock CD's. And trust me, it is hard to try to sleep while listening to that. When you got to watch a movie, Sam would get sick, it would be turned off and it was back to staring out the window.

That was probably my least favorite part of the trip, but after that, that's when it became the trip I hoped it would be. Filled with visits to 12 nat'l parks and monuments, all with breathtaking scenery, interesting history, most with good hikes.

The other thing I wasn't the biggest fan of were the nights we camped. I'm don't mind canned food at all, but when you're trying to sleep, you roll over a bit to your left, and you're on top of somebody, that's when it gets a bit uncomfortable. Before, I never realized how great a bed to yourself was. So, when we were in a hotel and it was my turn to sleep on the rollaway cot, I was thrilled.

That's pretty much all I have to whine about so, 3 weeks, between 5-6 thousand pictures, and about 7200 km later, I can honestly say Zion was my favorite park, Angels Landing my favorite hike and I really enjoyed this trip.

Eric's Trip Notes

Our 2009 road trip to Utah and Arizona was lots of fun.

It had its ups and downs, but mostly ups. I liked seeing Delicate Arch in Arches, hiking up Angel's Landing and down in the Narrows in Zion. I also liked receiving 13 junior ranger badges because I learned new things and earned them at the same time.

It was also cool to see a lot of deer, a bunch of lizards, a couple elk and a few coyotes.

Going down the sand dunes in the Great Sand Dune National Park was fun but going up was hard work.

During the trip we went to many national parks and monuments such as Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon, Sunset Crater Volcano, Wupatki, Glen Canyon, Walnut Canyon, Mesa Verde and the Jefferson Expansion Memorial.

That covers everything so that is our trip.

by Eric

Dream Theater-Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Okay, here's the situation here. I walk into a Future Shop, with little money in my wallet. I head straight toward the CD shelves, since that's where I always go. I see this album on the shelf for $12.99. Then, the $15 question hits me. To buy or not to buy, that is the question. I think for a few minutes, then next thing I know, I've given up $15 and walking out of the store with a new CD. This scenario shows perfectly my pitiful willpower. But after listening to this seventy-five minute long album. I thought to myself, best fifteen dollars I've ever spent. Out of the six songs on the album, four are longer than ten minutes. All the ten minute or longer tracks are incredibly diverse, going from a choir style intro to a heavy metal style to slowing down quite significantly shows how the songs cover more than one style and it makes it sound all the more interesting. But on the longest track, you have a four and a half overture style introduction to a minute of seagulls at the end.

Bottom line: Worth it. 4.5/5

Van Morrison-Astral Weeks

If you look on any greatest albums of all time, you are almost guaranteed to find this masterpiece on it. And why not? This is unlike any thing I have ever heard. Odd lyrics, barely understandable vocals all accompanied by instruments that you wouldn't find on many other albums. Yet they find a way to make it all work, and the result is incredible. People like Johnny Depp admitted that they were blown away by this work of art, which just goes to show how big an impact this album had on the world of music.

Bottom Line: a masterpiece 5/5

Supertramp-Crime Of The Century

Considering how harshly I rated the last album that I listened to, it seems weird going from a 1 to a 5 between two albums. Crime of the Century... I loved it. I just plain loved it. It sounded like one big orchestral performance, like an ELO album. (Eldorado is a great listen) With "School", "Bloody Well Right", "Dreamer", and "Asylum". This album is great all the way through and never slows down. An exceptional album.

Bottom Line: Worthy of a perfect. 5/5 

U2-No Line On The Horizon

If you're a big U2 fan and still haven't purchased this album, do yourself a favor and not buy it. This album was just plain painful to listen to. The only good song was "Magnificent" but everything else was horrible. It is just the same odd sounding tunes going for five minutes or longer, and I learned the hard way how painful that is. The only non-repetitive track was "Get on Your Boots" and still it was bad. U2 is a great band, but they are going to lose me if their next releases sound like this. So if you are planning to buy this album, take it from some one who has listened to it. Don't buy it.

Bottom Line: Terrible 1/5

Pink Floyd-The Wall

Roger Waters' 81:09 of glory, this concept album touches base on isolation from the world, hence the name The Wall. The second part of this album, I found it quite depressing considering the fact it was told by someone completely isolated from the world and is regretting that decision. But the first disc isn't, so that's good. "Comfortably Numb" is quite hypnotic and the musical style "The Trial" sounds... well... different. But The Wall is a pretty neat album and I did enjoy it.

Bottom Line: Depressing, sad, but yet so incredible. 4/5

Arcade Fire-Neon Bible

Arcade Fire's commercial breakthrough, the majority of this album was recorded in a church. (hence, neon bible). My first impression was to the different, more orchestral sounds compared to their other album, Funeral. I must say that did make it more listenable than Funeral. Win Butler didn't sound like he was choking on something, so that helped a little. I loved the very progressive sound that I heard and the buckets of different instruments as well. Overall, this was a great album.

Bottom Line: Great album 4.5/5

Happy Birthday To Me

Wow... 13. Bad luck or good luck? Anyway, that's how old I can say I am now. I can't believe I'm now in teenage years. Does it mean more than not having to use the kid's menu at restaraunts and finally being able to use my student card when I take the subway? I hope. But still, it feels I've gone through some drastic change. I can't believe I'm saying this. I didn't think I'd feel this way until I was 50. On the other hand, I managed to get a bunch of CDs (just what I wanted!) as presents and a few books. So I'm pretty pleased about that. But 13... 3 years until I can drive,       unless it changes of course, 2 years from high school. There is a lot to look forward to.   

John Mayer-Continuum

John Mayer's 2006 release features "Waiting on the World to Change", "Belief" and 10 other molasses slow songs. And when I say slow I mean slow. But slow is not bad. Especially in this case. The songs are very melodic, and some of them are very fun to listen to. "In Repair" is six minutes of the same thing over and over and over and over though. But I really don't care. 11 great songs, 1 clunker. Really not that big a deal. 

Bottom line: Reminds me a lot of Jack Johnson. 3.5/5

Comments always welcome

Maroon 5-Songs About Jane

Maroon 5's debut album features "This Love", "She Will Be Loved", "Harder To Breathe" and a bunch of others. The first thing I noticed was the different sound it had compared to the other albums I have heard recently. But this different was not a bad thing at all, in fact, I thought it was a very good different. It doesn't matter that almost all the songs were breakup songs, it doesn't matter that Adam Levine sounds like he has something stuck in his throat. I thought this was a good album. Period. 

Bottom Line: Very neat sounding. 3.5/5

(every blog about CD's is by Matthew, in case you were wondering)

Dream Theater-Octavarium

Octavarium: eight songs on the album, Dream Theater's eighth studio release. Is that a coincidence? Probably not. Anyway, this was an album I wanted for quite some time but I couldn't find it anywhere. Finally, I found it and could I picture myself walking out of that HMV without it? No I could not. Featuring songs like "Panic Attack" from Rock Band 2, "These Walls", "The Root Of All Evil" and the twenty-four minute "Octavarium". Almost all the songs were six minutes or longer, so listening to it was quite time consuming. But each one of the songs was the progressive metal that I hoped for. Especially "Octavarium". That is perhaps one of the most incredible songs I have ever heard.

Bottom Line: worth the $25.00 that I spent on this. 3.5/5

AC/DC-Black Ice

AC/DC's first studio release in 8 years since Stiff Upper Lip features "Rock N Roll Train" which was nominated for a Grammy in case you were wondering. The first thing I noticed was that almost all the songs are the same. But since almost every one of their albums is like that, I'm not really going to complain. But seriously, it is 55 and a half minutes of the same things over and over and over. But it is still quite entertaining.

Bottom line: nothing special 3/5

Rush-Moving Pictures

Loaded with songs like "YYZ" "Tom Sawyer", "Limelight", "Red Barchetta", "Vital Signs" and "The Camera Eye", there is really no way Moving Pictures can fail. I completely 100% swear to God that is the truth. Besides, all the songs I listed were six of the seven songs on this album. This album starts well, continues well and finishes well so it is great all the way. This is clearly one of Rush's best efforts to me and is great progressive rock. 

Bottom Line: absolutely incredible 5/5

Muse-Black Holes & Revelations

Featuring songs like "Knights Of Cydonia" (if you have Guitar Hero 3 you should know this) "Supermassive Black Hole" (featured on the Twilight soundtrack) "Starlight" and my favourite, "Map of the Problematique" there is really no way this album could be a stinker. And you know what? That, to me, is the truth. Although the second half of the album is nowhere near as good as the first, I still loved it. Muse has quite a bit in common with Coldplay. They are both British, They sound similar and Matthew Bellamy and Chris Martin's vocals are almost identical. 

Bottom line: awesome album. 4/5

OneRepublic-Dreaming Out Loud

OneRepublic's debut features the singles "Apologize", "Stop and Stare" and "Mercy". That is pretty much all I can say about it other than the fact it is one of the slowest and most boring albums I have heard. I found that it was the same songs over and over. It seems appropriate that I was doing my homework while listening to it. Both are very boring.

Bottom Line: almost put me to sleep. 2.5/5  

Work and French

Est-ce que tu sais que je deteste? Tout les devoirs que je recois les fin de semaine passe. Un fin de semaine je recois un projet. Le prochaine fin de semaine je doit finir un autre projet. Le fin de semaine prochaine je doit finir un autre projet. Et maintenant, j'ai un autre projet que je doit finir. Wow, all the french work I have done the past few weekends has really got to my head. But I am serious about the fact that I have had truckloads of homework the past few weekends. Being in a program where half my classes are in french, Je ne suis pas tres surpris. It better end soon or all my blogs will end up being in french.

SUPER BOWL

Last week was the super bowl between the Arizona Cardinal's and the Pittsburgh Steelers Final score (27-23) Steelers

I found the Santonio Holmes catch a lot more exciting (winning TD) than the 100 yard run by James Harrison at the end of the half. Although they were favoured by 6.5 points the card's actually had a chance.

As the Steelers reined with glory I think that the Card's thought we should have gave Larry Frizgerald the ball in the first half. he was a decoy for a route for Edgerrin James. That was a dumb idea Larry can haul down ANYTHING.

From that move, the Steelers have the Lombarbi and they have nothing

Nickelback-All The Right Reasons

This album, Nickelback's fifth, features the singles "Far Away", "Rockstar", "Photograph", "If Everyone Cared", and "Saving Me". What do I think about it? Well... the song topics are different for almost every song, from wanting to be a rockstar to reminiscing their older days by staring out the backdoor. That doesn't hurt it that much. What does is how the songs aren't that melodic. Still it is an okay album which I can't say I hate. But I can't say I love it either.

Bottom Line: okay. 3/5

Coldplay-Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends

Up for Album Of The Year at this years Grammys, I am not surprised that this album is up for Album Of The Year. It had that "different" feeling to it. At least that is what I thought when I heard it. But different comes back and hurts them in a few songs. I really enjoyed this album especially songs like Viva la Vida, Violet Hill and Lovers in Japan. It deserves Album Of The Year. That is what I think.

Bottom Line: great album. 3.5/5

Charades

On Sunday evening, my family and I went to the Davidson's. We played on the PS2 most of the night but at the end played Charades. I find charades fun but frustrating. We had to act out the following phrases:

-Me Talk Pretty One Day (book)
-From Russia with Love (movie)
-Desert Rose (song)

It's just as hard to guess this stuff than to act it!?

Overall it was pretty fun.

Last night our dad rubbed it in a bit by making me act out "Blazing Saddles". OMG

Electronic Crisis

After trying to convince my dad for 2 T.V and a PlayStation 3 (Blu-ray and games.) He's kinda all for them but not anyone all but won't hand over the $2500. He's waiting for the sale but when. He wants it to be on his birthday. Thank god it's not outta my college fund. When will our mom finally learn that a big T.V's are good.



Plan

#1 Send her (and Eric he's not for it either)to Florida

#2 Go as fast as we can to best buy hope for the best

#3 Send it home with some sorta gift for mom

#4 All is well she won't boil over and we got T.V's :)



Little Big Planet hear I come

The Killers-Day & Age

The killers's latest studio effort features the single "Human" but that is pretty much the only bright spot on this album. Every song sounded... well, odd. They were almost completely driven by keyboards. Mixed with the equally odd lyrics, it's not the best sounding thing you'll here. The Killers have taken a new step forward, but fell flat on their face. My view of it is a weird sounding, cryptic lyric singing mess.

Bottom line: Odd. 2.5/5

Hedley-Famous Last Words

Hedley's second studio effort Famous Last Words was an album I recently borrowed fro the library the same time a picked out Minutes To Midnight. All I planned to do was listen to "Dying to Live Again, "Old School" and "Never Too Late". But when I listened to it start to finish, I saw those were pretty much the only good songs on it. Everything sounds the same on it. It sounds a whole lot like Billy Talent's second album. The songs sounded great, but we've all heard this stuff before.

Bottom Line: Nothing new 3/5

Linkin Park-Minutes to Midnight

When I borrowed this album from the library, at first all I wanted to do was listen to "What I've Done" over and over. But when I listened to it from start to end, I realized how much I was missing. Minutes to Midnight is Linkin Parks third studio album and shows them moving beyond their original rap-rock music. And I found that to be a good move for them. This album was more complex than I expected like the instrumental track "Wake". But that is what I like and I enjoyed this album. I'm probably going to renew it. And renew it again. And again. And again.

Bottom Line: Great album. 4/5

The Pictures From 2008

Fortunately, I'm not in any of those pics. In case you were wondering, the one of Eric dressed like a Secret Service agent was on the day of his First Communion. He dressed that way for Halloween as well. The one of Sam skiing, well... there is not much to say about it aside from the fact that he didn't hit anything. The one of Eric with the dandilion, the ones he was blowing were huge. The tops were about the size of a tennis ball. That was the first time I had seen anything like that. The last one of Eric and my cousin John looking above the sign that says "Falling Ice" got a few chuckles out of everybody.