Some times Google is a horrible thing to have

The other day we were discussing old friends who had found us on MySpace or FaceBook or other social networking sites and how we were either glad that someone had found or more than often not found us. But it got me thinking about a couple of guys that I used to pal around with in elementary school and wondering what ever happened to them.

I started thinking about my friend Roger Hittle. Roger lived in the the same neighborhood as I did and we went to the same elementary school till sixth grade. Roger had cystic fibrosis a disease that attacks the lungs and pancreas. If you've never known someone with cystic fibrosis you need to know that a person with this disease has an inordinate amount of mucus that gets generated by the body and you are constantly coughing it up and feeling like you are on the edge of drowning.

As kids in the 3rd and 4th grade, I was one of the few people who actually called Roger a friend. Most kids at that age simply were mean and nasty and wanted nothing to do with that goofy looking kid. I thought was proud to call him one of my best friends.

I remember going over to his house, playing games, riding our bikes, sneaking a look at a dirty magazine, and just doing those things that boys will do at that age. Roger and I were in the same scout troop together and would share a tent when ever we went camping. Roger's dad who was in the army would get us MREs for us. For those few years he and I were nearly inseparable.

Roger was keenly aware of the statistics regarding his own life span, even at that age. At the age of nine he already knew that he had lived four years longer than doctors had told his parents to expect. With that fact burned in to his brain he lived each day to it's fullest. Never once dwelling on his own potential death, he made sure that he was happy.

Roger and his family moved out of the neighborhood the summer of sixth grade if I remember correctly. I think it was because they were renting the house they were living in and were able to buy a house in West Sacramento. I visited Roger once after he moved. I spent the night at his new house and I remember it fondly as it was the first time I saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. That was the last time I ever saw Roger. With the two of us living nearly 15 miles apart going to different schools we simply drifted, as friends will.

Years later, after I moved to Michigan I Google'd Roger and found an e-mail address for him. To my complete shock he was alive and well in Las Vegas. If you knew Roger, well, that was a perfect fit for him. We traded a few e-mails and even a phone call. But again, we drifted.

With the rise of the social networking sites I decided to see what Roger was up to. A search on both MySpace and FaceBook didn't turn up anything. Now though, a search on Google didn't reveal his e-mail address, it instead revealed this tribute video put together by his family. Roger passed away some time after he turned 30. 25 years longer than doctors had originally given him.

As I sit here trying to fight back the tears, I don't know what clever and witty thing to say other than I think that in the video, that's Roger and I swimming in the public pool together.

Roger, I'll miss you buddy.

They make you do the strangest things

The girl likes toast. So I bought a toaster....

Bird

 
There is this bird that has been sitting on my fence since I got home. It looks like a baby. I wonder if it is going to make it through the night.

I couldn't help myself

I like the last one, so I did another one. I present Punk Track 2.

More music you say?

Here is a little punk style track I just laid down, using the "Country 4" drum voice on my RP250.  BPM = 160.

A little musical ditty

Earlier this year I purchased for myself a DigiTech RP250 guitar effects processor. This effects processor is a great little thing to have and wasn't terribly expensive either. It's got two banks of pre-sets, one that is factory set, and the other is an exact duplicate but allows you to store on top of it. There is a built in guitar tuner, and a USB port to allow you to plug it in to your computer to both program and record out of. The last added feature (which is what sold me on it in the first place) is that it has a built in drum machine as well. There's over 60 drum styles with a variable beat per minute setting which gives you a ton of control over it. While I was living in the apartment though I never really got much chance to play with it for fear of really annoying the neighbors. Now that this is no longer a primary concern I've been having a great time using it. In fact, using Audacity I just recorded a little test track. I've done zero after processing to this and I think it came out fairly decent. It is by no means a masterpiece, I simply turned it on and started recording. But hey, give it a listen.

The Unpacking 2 -- Electric Boogaloo

In celebration of July 4th, I've actually be quite productive rather than my expected ass sitting self.

First I walked down to the Clawson parade and checked it out. I actually managed to get a few pictures of Carl Levin our Senator. I thought that was pretty cool.

I then came home and pulled the 4 foot weeds that were surrounding the house out of the make shift planter. Now the yard doesn't look so much like a jungle.

My bathroom is now finally all put away. I can stop using the trial sized shampoo's from the hotels.

The computer desk is all set up and I'm typing this up while sitting at my desk.

And, in the Pièce de résistance, I set up my guitars and my amp. For the first time in over a decade I was able turn the amp up and just crunch away for a while. I even worked up a sweat in the process. Oh man that felt good.

The Unpacking

The unpacking goes slowly. It's times like this where having someone around to help would be nice.

Big old procrastinating update

I closed on my house on Wednesday. By Thursday evening I had all of my possessions sitting in one small corner of my basement. By Friday the old apartment was cleaned and empty. I am now a homeowner at the ripe old age of 31. Should I be feeling this smug? I think so.

My house is huge, or at least it is compared to the apartment. 200 sq feet in the old place, 1000 sq feet in the new place, and that doesn't even include the basement in to that figure. So everything I own currently fits in to one small section of the basement. But it has begun to creep out, as "stuff" tends to do. The place is really a disaster right now.

I've been procrastinating on doing any more work because I think I pulled a muscle at Ikea yesterday. See I had to do an emergency Ikea run yesterday because I went out Friday night with my buddy John. When I got home I realized there wasn't a single place to sit comfortably. In my apartment by bed doubled as a couch (ahh the magic of foutons) but now that I have a real bedroom it no longer acts in that particular fassion. So I purchased a couch and a real bedframe for my mattress. The fouton frame has been broken for a while and I kind of wanted to have something a bit more "grown up" than the college look I was sporting in the studio.

I was without internet for nearly five days. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to make it. Well, without internet is a slight over exageration, I do have it on my phone, but it is kind of a pain when you want to do some serious procrastinating. I will post some pictures later once I start to get things all in order.

But for now, home ownership is such a fun thing :)

Don't like $4 gas?