| The time has come |
[Jun. 21st, 2006|10:48 am] |
I'll be skedaddling over to blogger from now forward, since it offers neat flexibilities, such as RSS, Google Analytic compatibility, etc.
Whispered Scream is my new blog.
Feel free to hop on over, take a peek, and bookmark it! :)
Also, for those using Atom enabled software, use
http://whisperedscream.blogspot.com/atom.xml
for the feed.
Firefox users... Live Bookmarks rock. Give them a try! Live Bookmark the XML feed :) |
|
|
| A random poem. |
[Jun. 21st, 2006|09:33 am] |
I am your creator.
I can make you
I can break you
I can take you
I can change you.
Hate me not, for I have an unfathomable will.
This will has capabilities beyond whatever dreams I've allowed you to experience.
Fear me
Revere me
Love me. |
|
|
| Work |
[Jun. 20th, 2006|10:27 pm] |
Just was musing to myself about where work has taken me and what things it has exposed me to.
I started working for the Federal Aviation Administration back in summer of 1998 as a high school/college hire for experience. Total lackey job, but I met some very cool people, two of which I foresee being lifelong friends. I have learned a lot from them about work and life, usually the lighter side of.
Then after I left school, I was hired by Internet Entertainment Group. I saw an opportunity to work with some really great systems, and some really good people. I worked in a small office of about 20 people, all typing away writing code, working on network systems, while people at a remote facility did things that provided content for the site that I thankfully had to view only when images were broken due to bad code on the site.
I still to this day am asked about that job, usually eliciting some laughs, some gasps, some "......oh okay"-s as well.
Just like being a policeman, working there has strengthened my morality, seeing the seedy side of things, me buckling down and doing my work, WHICH, for most of the 6 months I was there, was building an e-mail system.
Tiring of aspects of the job, including the lack of stability, I decided to move on to greener pastures. Zip, boom, pow, onto LA I go.
I got to travel all over the country, doing installations of media servers and supporting storage systems. Some of the most trying times of my life occurred there, between August of 2000 and July of 2002.
Having seen government, small company, large corporation, and now a respected family-oriented company has been a great learning experience altogether.
I don't regret any of the jobs that I have worked, nor will I ever say that I didn't learn valuable lessons from them. |
|
|
| Bowling! |
[Jun. 16th, 2006|01:23 pm] |
Andrew and I went bowling last night.
First game I bowled a 206, my top game in over 5 years. Wicked.
We had fun, bowled about 6 games, chatted with people next to us, one of which is an A+R rep for Geffen. Wicked. |
|
|
| A Classic Beavis and Butt-Head Moment |
[Jun. 14th, 2006|04:28 pm] |
Van Driessen: OK, Stew, let's pitch a tent
(B&B laugh)
Van Driessen: Grab this pole, Stewart.
(B&B laugh)
Van Driessen: Stick it in the hole, Stewart.
(B&B) laugh)
Van Driessen: OK, boys, let's erect this thing. |
|
|
| My night. |
[Jun. 14th, 2006|10:06 am] |
Sushi = $20.
Treats at Fred Meyer = $10.
Being propositioned by two drunk chicks outside of my apartment building..... Just.. No. |
|
|
| From Yahoo News : GAO Finds Mismanagement of Hurricane Aid |
[Jun. 13th, 2006|05:19 pm] |
The government doled out as much as $1.4 billion in bogus assistance to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, getting hoodwinked to pay for season football tickets, a tropical vacation and even a divorce lawyer, congressional investigators have found.
Prison inmates, a supposed victim who used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address, and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel all were able to wrongly get taxpayer help, according to evidence that gives a new black eye to the nation's disaster relief agency.
Federal investigators even informed Congress that one man apparently used FEMA assistance money for a sex change operation.
Agents from the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, went undercover to expose the ease of receiving disaster expense checks from the
Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The GAO concluded that as much as 16 percent of the billions of dollars in FEMA help to individuals after the two hurricanes was unwarranted.
The findings are detailed in testimony, obtained by The Associated Press, that is to be delivered at a hearing Wednesday by the House
Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations.
To dramatize the problem, GAO provided lawmakers with a copy of a $2,358 U.S. Treasury check for rental assistance that an undercover agent got using a bogus address. The money was paid even after FEMA learned from its inspector that the undercover applicant did not live at the address.
"This is an assault on the American taxpayer," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the subcommittee that will conduct the hearing. "Prosecutors from the federal level down should be looking at prosecuting these crimes and putting the criminals who committed them in jail for a long time."
FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said Tuesday that the agency, already criticized for a poor response to Katrina, makes its highest priority during a disaster "to get help quickly to those in desperate need of our assistance."
"Even as we put victims first, we take very seriously our responsibility to be outstanding stewards of taxpayer dollars, and we are careful to make sure that funds are distributed appropriately," he said.
FEMA said it has identified more than 1,500 cases of potential fraud after Katrina and Rita and has referred those cases to the Homeland Security inspector general. The agency said it has identified $16.8 million in improperly awarded disaster relief money and has started efforts to collect the money.
The GAO said it was 95 percent confident that improper and potentially fraudulent payments were much higher — between $600 million and $1.4 billion.
The investigative agency said it found people lodged in hotels often were paid twice, since FEMA gave them individual rental assistance and paid hotels directly. FEMA paid California hotels $8,000 to house one individual — the same person who received three rental assistance payments for both disasters.
In another instance, FEMA paid an individual $2,358 in rental assistance, while at the same time paying about $8,000 for the same person to stay 70 nights at more than $100 per night in a Hawaii hotel.
FEMA also could not establish that 750 debit cards worth $1.5 million even went to Katrina victims, the auditors said.
Among the items purchased with the cards:
_an all-inclusive, one-week Caribbean vacation in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic.
_five season tickets to New Orleans Saints professional football games.
_adult erotica products in Houston and "Girls Gone Wild" videos in Santa Monica, Calif.
_Dom Perignon champagne and other alcoholic beverages in San Antonio.
_a divorce lawyer's services in Houston.
"Our forensic audit and investigative work showed that improper and potentially fraudulent payments occurred mainly because FEMA did not validate the identity of the registrant, the physical location of the damaged address, and ownership and occupancy of all registrants at the time of registration," GAO officials said.
FEMA paid millions of dollars to more than 1,000 registrants who used names and
Social Security numbers belonging to state and federal prisoners for expedited housing assistance. The inmates were in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida.
FEMA made about $5.3 million in payments to registrants who provided a post office box as their damaged residence, including one who got $2,748 for listing an Alabama post office box as the damaged property.
To demonstrate how easy it was to hoodwink FEMA, the GAO told of an individual who used 13 different Social Security numbers — including the person's own — to receive $139,000 in payments on 13 separate registrations for aid. All the payments were sent to a single address.
Likewise, another person used a damaged property address located within the grounds of Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans to request disaster aid. Public records show no record of the registrant ever living in New Orleans.
Instead, records indicate that for the past five years, the registrant lived in West Virginia — at the address provided to FEMA, the GAO said.
---------------
Unreal. |
|
|
| For the non-drummers out there/Road Rage/Weekend |
[Jun. 9th, 2006|03:07 pm] |
Try the paradiddle today.
Right-left-right-right | left-right-left-left | repeat
If you're going to try and be cool drumming along on your steering wheel whilst driving in traffic, at least learn a couple applicable bits so you can really pull off the great "fool everyone and think I'm knowledgably rocking out" mind trick.
Perhaps if you figure it out, I'll throw up another 5th grade rudiment.
To those who possess zero rhythm, buy a hand drum, honestly. So much has a rhythm to it in our lives, you might as well jump on the train, children.
----
For those with some slight road rage out there. Do you try to set an example when someone in front of you ticks you off? Do you yell at them in the safety of your own vehicle? Do you honk at them incessantly?
Are you the type who sees the vehicle that says "Road Rage killed my daughter, XX/XX/XXXX" Was she a shitty driver? Probably. I wouldn't say she deserved death, not to mention the persons vehicle didn't say exactly how it happened, of course. Just some slight babble, was thinking about road rage yesterday.
---
I have pretty much smooched my weekend away. WWS night rehearsal tonight. WWS concert tomorrow night. Sousa. Don't go. |
|
|
| A dream |
[Jun. 9th, 2006|08:35 am] |
Sidama/Ce'Dama.
I was in some futuristic/sci-fi scene. Multi-tiered ship, some people were being tortured, some were just going about their business. I saw my brother (or at least I thought it was my brother) and we were able to communicate without speaking. "What is this place?" I asked. No response. Annoyed, I walked over to this semi-open bath/hot-tub area and asked this woman what this place is.
She was -shocked-. She spoke to me without speaking "*gasp* You can speak!?!?"
"Of course!" I sounded out to her. A chorus of gasps came.
Her face was on fire... "Will you....sing for me?", she said. "Uh, no!" I responded, as I don't really like to but I know how. She was sullen and turned away.
I muttered to myself "damn, what a crazy lady".
My brother charged in and pulled me out of the room. "She wanted you to mate with her!", he said.
I was like what the? Why?
"Because you can speak out loud, you will be revered in this society. But you are Sidama."
I'm like what the hell is that?
He ignored my question and we walked along.
Next thing I know, I'm flying and overlooking this mass exodus of people attempting to get onto the ship in the atmosphere. Couldn't really see any ground, or water at that.
A very brutal group of people with alien faces were walking up a set of stairs as my brother and I walked down them. They all ignored me but when they saw this mark (that I couldn't see or didn't even know existed...hell I checked in the mirror this morning....Nothing!) on my neck/chest, they gasped and scampered away.
"Do people hate me?" I asked without speaking.
"They are afraid of you. You are not one of them. Ignore them. Do -not- speak out loud to them!", he yelled at me without speaking.
Why! I sounded out loud. These people -freaked- out. They all began to kowtow desperately.
"Now you've done it!" my brother barked at me silently.
A group of assassins charged at me. My brother stood in front of me and began launching them left and right, protecting me.
I stood beside him and took on a few as well. He was just throwing them. I was launching them in the air with such accuracy that they would fall onto their heads and their spines would crunch.
After the attack was over, everyone was staring at me, mouths agape. I shrugged it off and walked away.
I soon saw what I thought to be a Chinese man entertaining some kids with a tiny hourglass drum. I noticed that he was only playing tones and very very gentle slaps on the drum. He was playing rather poorly. He smiled at me as I watched and I gestured as if to say "May I play the drum?" He gasped and handed it to me, bowing fervently.
I sat down with it and began to play in my usual showoff manner. I tend to play with my eyes closed, and after I opened them, I saw a crowd of people watching me, entranced. (Obvious ego brushing, eh?) Then I opened my eyes and played a bass tone. The bass tone on this little drum was pathetic and weak due to its size. I forced my hand into it and it became a gunshot-like sound. People were scared of the sound. Wimps.
The alien-esque girl that asked me to sing to her was descending upon me, begging me to sing for her.
"Stop asking me to sing!" I said. She went into some odd throes that offended me and I walked away.
Soon a slave was being tortured, which I couldn't handle, so I attacked the torturers.
Then I woke up.
Weird. |
|
|
| Bowling |
[Jun. 8th, 2006|11:45 pm] |
Had a great time bowling with Andrew and Ken at Sunset Lanes tonight.
Did pretty well considering I haven't bowled in many years.
Good times, fellas. Good times. |
|
|
| My Saturday Night |
[Jun. 3rd, 2006|07:47 pm] |
mmm, Dinner has been slow-cooking since 2pm, Dessert has been chilling in the fridge since 3pm. Guests will arrive at 9pm.
Fixing to be a lovely evening. |
|
|
| Memorial Day Weekend |
[May. 27th, 2006|08:36 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | fair | ] |
| [ | music |
| | David Eddings - Magician's Gambit e-Audio | ] |
Last night was enjoyable, went and checked out X-men 3 : Last Stand. Good entertainment, although there were some frustrations, including late start of movie, waiting in line in the drizzle, annoying people as well as whiney children.
Then had some Italian food for dinner.
Been pretty laid back today, played a bunch of (and will probably play more) Dragon Quest vii. Took a shower, watched Chronicles of Narnia (it was acceptable and interesting. A bit... ridiculous, but that's okay), and did some calisthenics.
What am I going to do tomorrow? Weather's not too hip, I just dropped a bunch of money on bills, so I might just chill out and take it easy.
And you know what? That sounds excellent. |
|
|
| Launch Parties Retrospect |
[May. 26th, 2006|08:27 am] |
Lots of tequila to drink, good turnout on both dates. They ran out of shrimp on Thursday.
Poor soundcheck on Tuesday. Decent set that night.
Excellent sound re-check on Thursday. Phenomenal set.
I had a good time. |
|
|
| jeesh |
[May. 22nd, 2006|11:59 am] |
what is with me today?
bleh! I'll get out of this funk soon.
-----------
*edit* hmm maybe that's what I need.... a few laughs from Adam Sandler's "Gay Robot" or perhaps some James Brown screeching away. |
|
|
| Happy Birthday Mom! |
[May. 19th, 2006|08:52 am] |
Ah today's my Mother's 50th birthday.
Looking forward to spending the afternoon with you, Mom! |
|
|
| Great memories |
[May. 16th, 2006|07:49 pm] |
Found my old roommates Jason and Rob on myspace.com
They're doing great. Saw some old pals from the Conservatory on there too. (watches his friends list explode)
Jason is already off to a great start in his acting career, appearing on Bedford Diaries as of recent.
I have nothing but fantastic memories of them. Hope someday I can see them again. It's pretty amazing how with one look at a photo, 8 years melt away with a snap of a finger.
I love you guys. And as the tradition continues.... Deuce! |
|
|
| I'm sure in trouble according to this |
[May. 15th, 2006|03:00 pm] |
http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp
I'm a 1, according to this.
Read up on your birthday, lemme know what you think.. Is it accurate?
July 31, 1979 : Strong, muscular, adaptable, takes what life has to give, happy,content,optimistic, needs enough money and acknowledgment, hates loneliness, passionate lover which cannot be satisfied, faithful, quick-tempered,unruly, pedantic and careless. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
comedicbelial's journal
