Two Memories of Snow

when i think of snow, only two strong memories come to mind, unfortunately. i know, if i dig through my deep and dark head, that i can find lots of fantastic memories about enjoying my times in the snow with my dear family and friends. anyhow, here they are.

the first one is rather negative. i remember while living on danville, it snowed and i made lots of snow things, as i loved to scuplt back in those days. a bunch of the street trash kids, who were always pretty mean to me, came up and messed with me until i went inside. then, they destroyed my snow sculptures. i couldn't make anything in the backyard since we didn't have a pool. i really think that i hated those kids. i'm over it now. haha i'm not fond of that memory.

my other big memory of snow is a great and teriffic one. on our first great annual road trip, dad and i journeyed to colorado, where we'd been plenty a time before, but that was in june. this was march. there's a huge difference, if you've never been to the mile high state during either or both. we were at berthoud pass, a really high elevation point on the great divide, and couldn't help but notice all the beautiful snow. as a texan, i don't get to see much of it. the norweigan in my blood really wakes up to it and loves it. anyhow, dad and i are loving this snow and decide to pull over and play in it. we erect horribly crappy sleds out of cooler tops and have one of the most fun times of my short but already very full life. i love the snow.

...if you don't mind, i'd rather forget my first snow memory, maybe you can help me replace it...? dang, i sure know i'd like to walk/dance/goof around in the snow with some classy gal of sorts... oh well, time and place for ever'thing. girls girls girls. hahaha. maybe i should get back to my paperszzZZZzz

~drew <3

ps. oh yeah. for my own personal inventory, it snowed today. duh? that's why i'm writing this. lovelove.

The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here

i am ready to be done with school. i need to learn something that will stick to help. am i sad? i have no idea. am i thankful? oh yes!!! thanksgiving was wonderful! i love new york city. it was nice to go beyond just manhattan and to see the bronx and brooklyn. mm mm coney island. joyous. overall it was a tremendously fun break from schoollife. i'm back to school-life. and it's like that scene in armageddon. like staring down the end of the world. it's coming soon, but it's horribly brutal and we'll likely not see anything past it. i want school to be done. if this is too much, i'm going to be destroyed by an actual load. something has to happen. i'm trying, and it's hard, and i'm getting it done... but it's so hard to try, and so hard to care and to keep caring and trying.... blast you, school!!! anybody got any suggestions? other than leaving the country for a while?? apparently not the best idea for yours truly at this time. but hey, fingers crossed.

in conclusion, it's not bad, it's just hard. and i'm growing my winter wings. excited about that.

Start Spreadin' The News...

...i'm leavin' today (tomorrow) i wanna be a part of it
new york, new york
these vagabond shoes are longing to stray and make brand new start of it.
new york, new york
i wanna wake up in the city that never sleeps
to find i'm king of the hill, top of the heap,
these little town (less-big city?) blues are melting away
i'll make a brand new start of it in old new york
if i can make it there, i'll make it anywhere, it's up to you, new york, new york.

And now some wise words about my magical destination that you won't find sung by frankie s...

"i love new york city, oh yeah, new york city! i love, new york city! oh yeah!! new york city!!"
~andrew w.k.

"big nights, big city, bright lights, no life. 200 dollars for nothing, i think i know you're bluffing. hand me the money. he's not on the phone, they're playing along, throwing the table, the cardboard mayhem. we're surrounded. new york city is overrated."
~training for utopia

...i'm leaving tomorrow morning, excruciatingly early, for new york city. i'm excited. my travel companions will be sisto (a clever nickname i've given to my sister) and her fiancee rick (who was coined "slick rick" by our darling cousin zachary, who works at the smoothie king). at our destination we will reunite with mom, who has been in the big city for a week. dad and shelbert will hold down the fort while we're gone, as i'm certain brent won't be staying on 1960 eastpark for thanksgiving. i hope that you all get to see people you love, and that love and joy and peace and friendship dominate the thanksgiving season. and some rockin' food. i'll have to hold off the great southern cooking 'til i get home on friday, but i'm okay with that. love y'all.

~drew

An Afterword For The Sleep-Deprived

...i botched the next day because i didn't go to sleep. don't do it, kids. get your sleep! and enjoy any time you can with your friends! if they're anything like mine then they're amazing folks!! oke doke, i'm headin' off, just making the point that not sleeping really has no benefit. trust me. i'm well-educated.

i love. love love love. You and all of you. and me too but don't tell anybody ;)

~Drew

Wise Musings From The Experienced

...sometimes you have to tell yourself to go to sleep.

...if you don't do this, sometimes you simply won't go to sleep.

...when this occurs, a myriad of complications soon arise. they are listed as follows:
a) loss of primary motor skills and muscular functions
b) degeneration of thought processes and inability to maintain constant flow of thought
c) abdominal and spinal pains
d) numbness or loss of feeling in outer extremities
e) rashness or pursuing pointless latenight endeavors
f) getting guitar hero songs stuck in your head.

...yeah. i wish i'd slept last night? oh well! happy friday, team! love love. this was a great week.
~drew

When Your Past Comes Back To... Hug You

...ever have that happen to you? i did yesterday. it was nice. and by "past" i mean (of course, goofballs) a person from my past, particularly the usually unspoken chapter of my existence spent at sam houston state university. i love how unexpected it was! that's so fun! to be caught up in what you do and what you're used to, and to have your phone ring and somebody you've thought of but haven't seen in like a year does what you couldn't and up and call you. simply fantastic.

busy things these days. it's mega mega busy but i'd be lying if i didn't love it. i've always thought that i worked best when i had lots to do. and i love thinking i have it all figured out.

because i don't. like yesterday.

love it. and i love my black hair. i'm like spider-man's costume, only it doesn't make me evil (or so i think...). i enjoyed the comic book convention (and makin' poor chuck pope stand in line for a couple hours to get some stuff signed for me... thanks chuck:)...) i like lookin' at that gears of war game, but i doubt i'll be playin' it. i don't like going to the ihop by dbu, but that's okay, it was fun anyway. i like girls. yay! and music. have i mentioned music? good day. it's a monday but i like it. softball game tonight. i like those too. the ones we win are especially fun. ok i'm done now. bye!

~drew

Building a Better Me (In Times of Standing Still)

i see the far greater country ahead of me. it's a distance away so long that it's indeterminate, but it's so close that i can taste it in my nostrils, on the tip of my tongue, that it might drive someone insane if they let it. for a while there, i think it was starting to do just that. had to stop walking for a while, look around, and just take it all in. smell the air of my present. feel the life all around me and put away the aggravation and bitterness. grow in patience and grace. remember love and keep it in you. waiting for tomorrow would kill me if today didn't bring so many blessings. the worry and the anxiety lie broken and bleeding on the floor. the courageous monster roars again. the mighty albatross shakes off his funk and flaps his wings. he flaps the hell out of them.

carpe diem. take no prisoner. and nothin' but love. i'm standing my ground. i'm moving, growing, starting to get a little bit of what's going on. if you're there, you get it. if not, it's cool, we'll all float on. i'm happy to be where i am, finally, but i still feel the itch at my soul when i think of my future. i guess i'm thankful. i'm here, i'm supposed to be, it's gonna work out. and it's been pretty good all along... it's just hard to tell sometimes when your head is buried in the sand. but like it was previously mentioned... the monster's back.

...so lock up your daughters. hahaha

~Drew

Top Ten Bands... To Have, See.

Here's my compiled list of ten sick-out awesome bands that you should way past check out. I hope ye like 'em, but it's your thing if'n ya don't. either way, l'enjoy.

10.Queens of the Stone Age- you've possibly heard of these cats, and they may be the only band you can say that about on this list... wait, no. that's not true. but they're good, and tend to bring back memories of highschool band and all the fun that ensued there. if you're gonna check 'em out, hit the album "songs for the deaf"... lotsa variety and fun. kinda stoner-y, though... and no. no, i'm not like that. thanks. next band, please.

9.Showbread- i must say that of all the music i love, i'm snagged easily by music that incorporates the delicious tactic known as music fusion. showbread's great since they blend hardcore with southern rock (like my loves he is legend and maylene & the sons of disaster) but also throw in an instrument that's guaranteed to snag my ears: the keytar. if you like screaming, hit up "no sir, nihilism is not practical"... if that's too hard for ye, "age of reptiles" is all the goodness sans the blood-curdling screams. mmmyes.

8.311- okay, you've heard of them. surprised that they're number 8? well, don't be. it's been a long time since they were my favorite band, kids. that was highschool... which ended about two and a half years ago. this having been said, 311 brings back lovely old memories that i cherish, and i finally got to see these cats live back in sept. with my cousin amanda. goood times. if you want to check them out.... i'd recommend the album "soundsystem". or the self-titled one with the blue cover. it's got the hits you might know on it.

7.Shiny Toy Guns- only been listening to them for about a year but they have stolen my heart. how? well, it all goes back to fusion, my friend. fusion. they blend rock and electronic and pretty singing oh so well. i think that if i could make a band any way i wanted it to, it'd almost sound like them. they only have the one album out so far (entitled "we are pilots") and i highly suggest you go get it and feel the love.

6.Zao- zao ("zay-oh") is definitely one of my favorite bands. anybody in the top ten should be. lead singer daniel weyandt sometimes sounds like he's simply barfing out the oft-unintelligible lyrics that, if you take the time to read them (even if you have to do it with a mirror), are pretty spiritual and say some pretty great stuff. a lot darker than music i usually get into, it's been called "depressing metal" and stuff like that. zao's old stuff is kinda punky-hardcore but the newer stuff is metal to metalcore... do you even know what any of these genres mean?? sometimes i feel like they're pointless even to me. check out the album.... oh yeah. "the funeral of God". don't let the name scare you off, it's actually one of the band's most spiritually influenced albums... just keep in mind that the idea of the cd is that God has decided not to honor His promise to His people and decided not to come back at the end of time. so imagine the bad guys winning and everybody losing. ...depressing much?

5.Extol- yes, we're getting into it now. this norweigan metal band (should there be any other kind?) has been around since '93 and is truly, truly metal. what makes them so great, other than the fact that they straight up preach in their music (the last song on the album "burial" is a metal-fied norweigan hymn), they use so many styles of straight-up metal in each album. black metal, death metal, thrash metal, just plain pretty heavy metal...? extol's got it all. i'm going to recommend their newest opus, "the blueprint dives", since it's really gorgeous and won't necessarily tear your head off. honest.

4.Skillet- wow... skillet's number four? the top three must be intensely good. and it is. i've looked ahead. i must congratulate skillet with being the first band being worthy of being called my favorite. when i first heard of them i took one look at them (the cover of "invincible" if you know of the band) and thought "what a bunch of heathens. that junk can't be christian." hahaha, i used to have a narrow mind. their first four albums were true gold in all they pumped out, especially since they had a great tech-rock fusion that they were second-to-none at doing. i saw them live three or four times, which was a true delight. the fifth album, "collide", was not what i wanted from them, and was upset of the "new direction"... that was a really long time ago. senior year, if i'm not mistaken. so, thankfully, the new album came out in october of this year. one of the myriad of things i loved about them was that at the time they had an album out every year. that's okay, they're older now. i understand. however, "comatose", the new album, does not disappoint. they're fusing again! they're using strings! john cooper still sings like a freakin' hoss! the band's great, and has one of the few non-sucky chick drummers. yup yup. i recommend "alien youth" by them. get it and love it. and "comatose". it's good. support!

3.Becoming the Archetype- the moment i saw these guys' album cover, i knew i was in for some sick-out metal fun. i love loving this band because very few people know who they are. but... they're amazing. and i hope they blow up and become the new face of metal like i know they should (this means show them off, solid state). they use a bit of fusion with organs and sick sick siiiick guitars. and drums. yeah, they're just amazing. and it was a pleasure to meet them at the totally awesome demon hunter/zao madness. i'm going to recommend their only album so far, "terminate damnation". it's simply amazing. can't say enough good about this band. love them. oh, and march 2007. "the physics of fire". new album. drooooooo

2.Demon Hunter- did i say demon hunter? oh freakin' yes, i sure did. these guys were one of the first "metal/ hardcore" bands i really got into, and this decision has not been a bad one at all. the fun thing about them is that you can listen to it and it won't blow your head off. hard to do, since their hard is so hard. their soft is really pretty and melodic, though, so it's manageable if you're an open-minded music listener. they're easily a "gateway band" for people to get into metal, especially since they're completely a christian band, and have very Christ-centered lyrics... rare, even in the world of "christian hardcore/metal" bands. seeing them live was phenomenal, and if you do the same, you'll way agree. i shared a love of demon hunter (and b.t.a. and a few other bands) with some of my kids while doing intern work at the heights... so that definitely keeps dh close to m'heart. i'll recommend the self-titled first album, and the newly released "the triptych special edition" which is... bleepin' loaded with goodies.

1.Project 86- it isn't easy being my favorite. i assure you. they're not as hard as most of the "metal" or "hardcore" groups on this list, but what makes them so great is that they're very unique. p86 is said to be "heavy alternative" or "post-hardcore" (so many labels!) but all that means is it's hardcore, just there's plenty of singin', and the "screaming" is more "yelling" than "screaming". also, my boy andrew schwab's voice is pretty unique, with a pretty high-pitched yell (but not squeaky or anything; let's be real here) that cooks. the band has tons of albums full of great songs. i have never had a favorite song by these guys (unless you want to count the month or so when i couldn't stop playing the song "chimes") because each and every of their (so far five) albums is pretty much all great. seeing them live was a truly epic experience that shan't be forgotten, but will hopefully be repeated many a time. i will recommend their newest cd to you, since it's not too brutal. it's called "...and the rest will follow". i love it. and they're already making a new one for '07! how kind! love those guys.

Honorable Mentions (or Up and Coming Potential Replacements!):

he is legend
norma jean
pillar
killswitch engage
mewithoutYou
gojira
skindred

....hope y'all enjoyed getting to see why i love the bands i love. does anyone read this? it's cool if you don't. i enjoy writing it as it is so have your funnnn. ok bye bye now.

~drewbers

Bringin' Sexy/Shelby Back

oh yes. the jester of 1960 eastpark drive has returned to us, eleven teeth less. let us all celebrate the homecoming of our champion!

i'm happy about this. it's good for a boy to have a dog around. thanks everybody ;)

...sometimes i suck at calling people

Don't Bring Me Down (Bruuuuce!)

it's time for a change in perspective. thankfully i've been given a new one by talking to and confiding in some of the people that i love, and that love me. love. love love love.

this word is probably written in bold capital letters on the core of my person. or at least i sure hope so. lately i've found some stuff in me that's more bitter and hating than loving. these things don't coexist well; they pollute and obstruct, which always make the negative one the victor. this having been said, i'm done with it. or i'm working on it. let love reign. why?

love is God. God is love.

i hope that encourages you. when others love us, let's be joyful! return love with love, not self-directed bitterness! i'm having to learn to accept things, and to understandd things that i'll have to coexist with for the rest of my life. but... i'm learning. it can be done. more encouragement.

i don't know who reads this, but i don't need to either. i'm just throwin' this stuff out there. good to say, i guess. i hope if you find this and read what i've got to say, it could mean something to you. maybe just to brighten your day. every day won't be great, but i gotta say, things are looking up. much love to you.

~drew