So...we meet again.

So brain, we meet again. I'd like to know math again, but I refuse to give up drinking so we need to come to some sort of compromise on that. Also some sleep would be nice. And that thing we do where we get caught checking out women? Cut down on that.

I saw a job post for a laser operator on kijiji this week and thought "holy crap this is the job for me"! Hell I already make laser noises at cats on a regular basis and half of all the posters I own are Star Wars ones. This shit should be right up my alley, except for one thing: all my real life experience with lasers is imaginary, so I doubt I'd be as good with a real one. But hell if there's one thing I'm good at it's daydreaming. Some days I want to feel like a terminator with a laser gun, is that too much to ask?

The best weekend of the summer by far and away was the Heavy TO heavy metal concert festival that I went to. Some of my all time favorite bands played some of my all time favorite songs. I'm not going to lie, I cried. Twice. I even learned some things:

1) I inadvertently called concert merchandise "band swag". This irritates the hell out of some people. (So I kept doing it)

2) Apparently metal really is all ages. There were strollers. (kids had on industrial grade ear protection though, go responsible parents!) Hell, a pair of 10 years olds got dragged on stage by the lead singer of Five Finger Death Punch and headbanged better than most of the crowd.

3) I can get starstruck. I would have never thought. We hung out in the Jager tent area when Killswitch Engage was signing autographs. The group of us hung out there for an hour. I stared and then tried to play it off like I wasn't staring. I even thought about getting in the huge line-up, but if I actually got up to a band I've loved for 10 years I'm pretty sure I would have fainted. Oh and they played a killer set.

4) It seems as though I can get the best night of sleep I've had all damn year on a single tiny blowup mattress in the corner of a damp tent. Even trains passing right by the campgrounds didn't even phase me. I slept like a happy, slightly drunk, wet, tired baby. (which may be the best band name ever..imagine: " WEEEE AREEEE THE DRUNK! TIRED! BAAAABBBIIIIEEEESSSSS!")

5) Starting a fire with wet wood only requires one thing. Bug spray. Of course said bug spray may disappear off into the night and 6 people might spend the next day looking for it and not being able to find the stuff. Thank you bug spray... wherever you are.

My hands were stuck like that for days!

I moved out of the house I've been living in the past 2 years. And even though it wasn't going to be the same with almost of people I like not going to be living there this year, I still didn't have an easy time of it. The new place does have it's perks and I think I'll be just fine, I'm still going to miss the place. But my happiness there was more about the people I was with and I'm damn sure not going to stop seeing them just because we all don't live together anymore.

I was talking to a dude at the comic book store who is so pumped for another world war that I'm pretty sure he's going to offer to start one himself if there isn't one by Christmas. Which is absolutely ridiculous. Everyone knows that the next "world war" is going to be the computer/machine/matrix uprising.

That's where all those laser operators are going to come in real handy.

That's me. Free time is for the weak! Tomorrow, pillows!

Sam

I get that a lot.

So I'd like to think I have a wide and varied taste in music. But I think everyone says that, so even I'm not sure how true it is for me, that's what I usually tell people. I think a lot of it depends on what I'm doing and who I'm with. For example, normally I'm not a fan at all of pop or dance music, but when I'm out dancing with the roommates and getting shot down by pretty girls at the bar I get kinda into it.

And as much as I hate myself for saying this is a semi-public forum, I also think country music is okay when it's live and you're at a country bar. Plus, cowboy hats on women are hot. Just sayin.

Now all that being said, when it's just me typing out a blog entry it's usually Metal coming from the laptop speakers (at the moment it's Hail the Villain). Now I could probably be more specific, but the truth of the matter is I don't give a hungover dinosaur's fossilized shit about all the different classifications. If I like a band, I listen to them, don't care if they're post-apocalyptic or black thrash symphonic. Funny story, didn't make up those genres.

But it's pretty easy and accurate to call me a metal-head. Even if I don't fit into the whole "metal scene" very well.

I relate more to the huge metal fan.

But last week I tagged along with one of my roommates who had some friends having a birthday party. I'd met Lisa and James both before and I get along really well with them...because we talk about music. It fucking rocks. I don't really know a lot of people who I share a similar taste in music with, but these two? Pretty much identical. I almost felt bad for Aubz.

Almost. Muahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahaahahahaah!

But I had a pretty awesome time at the party. Kinda interesting though, as it kinda reinforced the whole "Sam doesn't come off a metal loving dude" thing I got going on. It turns out that James knows a couple guys in a local metal band where he lives and they all made it out to the party. The drummer started to, in a way I can only describe as "establishing my credentials", question me about my top 5 favorite metal bands. Of course, I passed with flying fucking colors and an announcement of "he knows his shit".

Let me clear this up. I've been a fan of Metal since I was 14. Of course I know my shit. But it was a fucking great time getting trashed and talking about music all night. I love talking about Metal.

But I guess I don't look like I do. Everyone else there was in black band hoodies and t-shirts all with piercings and tattoos. I have no piercings or tattoos and the only black pants I own are part of an old work uniform. But it doesn't bother me. But just because I don't look like a metal fan doesn't mean I'm not one.

Also an acceptable form of Heavy Metal.

Want to know one of my favorite musical things? When a big scary hardcore metal band just slows the fuck down and puts out a ballad love song type dealy. That stuff blows my mind.

Cause while I may be a metal fan, I'm also a sappy geek who likes love songs.

That's me. I'm going to go all Apocalyptica on the Slipknot holding up the Trivium of In Flames.

Sam the Prof







P.S. Shout out to Rhonda who I ran into at the grocery store today and reminded me that she finds her way here from time to time.