[Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal

[Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal We believe that people who love erotica are more than just faceless members sitting at a computer looking at photos of nameless models. We are a community, a cooperative, a society of people that are more than the dollar amount of their site memberships. Deviant Nation We believe that people who love erotica are more than just faceless members sitting at a computer looking at photos of nameless models. We are a community, a cooperative, a society of people that are more than the dollar amount of their site memberships. We are striving to combine community, subculture, artistic expression and erotica all at once. Deviant Nation satan@deviantnation.com Girls,Pinup,Tattoo,Pierced,Goth,Punk,Rockabilly,emo,Metal,Subcultures yes http://deviantnation.com/girls/TheSaint en-us Copyright 2003-2008 Deviant Nation, Inc. satan@deviantnation.com Sat, 15 Mar 2003 07:00:00 GMT Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:21:29 GMT 60 DN Logo http://i.deviantnation.com/i/dn-logo-small.png http://deviantnation.com Deviant Nation 76 144 Aaaaaaaannnndddd breathe..... http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/79682 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal TheSaint  So the store has now been open in our new location for three days. We still have a few unfinished areas to work on, but the mega-overload is basically over. To put that another way, when I clocked out today I had about twenty minutes over one hundred and two hours for this pay period. And that's only for one of my two jobs.  Speaking of my other job, I went to work there this afternoon and was told all about how there had been a power outage for a couple of hours earlier in the day that had affected our side of the street for about four or five blocks. Not real easy for a tattoo shop to do much business without electricity. The weather has been crazy here today, so no real surprise there. Anyway, I get about halfway done with my workload for the evening and out goes the power again. Guess who gets to go back in tomorrow, the first of two days off in a row that I've been waiting for.....yeah, that wasn't too difficult, was it? In other news, I finally got my right leg worked on again. I've been waiting about a year for this particular artist to get his shit together and work with me on this. This is the same guy who did the Frankie face on my thigh and we're continuing with the theme by putting a Bride of Frankenstein in the style of a Gil Elvgren pin-up down the outside of my lower leg, from knee to ankle. The first session was three hours and he did the outline and the vast majority of the shading. This doesn't really seem like a particularly painful area in general, but considering the fact that I had a sinus infection and felt like shit, it was a bitch. Had I not been waiting this long for this to get started I probably would have rescheduled, but I just bit the fuckin' bullet and got through it. I'm super stoked on it and would love to flash a picture up here, but that is an amazingly difficult part of the body to photograph on your own.  In even more other news, I got my plane tickets to go down to Austin next month. I'm going for a week to visit friends and family as well as to attend the third Fun Fun Fun Fest. There's an absolutely amazing line-up this year and they've expanded yet again. The first year was incredible, they had three stages playing three very different types of music for a full day. The highlight for me was that Negative Approach played their second ever reunion show in 25 years there. Circle Jerks and Electric Frankenstein were also high points. Last year they expanded to two full days, still on three stages with three different types of music. The high points (for me) were Poison Idea and a Murder City Devils reunion, among other things. This year there will be four stages and the one that most interests me will have Bad Brains, Cro-Mags, The Adolescents, All, Dead Milkmen, DOA, The Cute Lepers, Born To Lose, Municipal Waste, and a slew of others. Needless to say, the overtime I've been putting in lately will be paying off quite nicely next month. Blog yes
Speaking of my other job, I went to work there this afternoon and was told all about how there had been a power outage for a couple of hours earlier in the day that had affected our side of the street for about four or five blocks. Not real easy for a tattoo shop to do much business without electricity. The weather has been crazy here today, so no real surprise there. Anyway, I get about halfway done with my workload for the evening and out goes the power again. Guess who gets to go back in tomorrow, the first of two days off in a row that I've been waiting for.....yeah, that wasn't too difficult, was it?

In other news, I finally got my right leg worked on again. I've been waiting about a year for this particular artist to get his shit together and work with me on this. This is the same guy who did the Frankie face on my thigh and we're continuing with the theme by putting a Bride of Frankenstein in the style of a Gil Elvgren pin-up down the outside of my lower leg, from knee to ankle. The first session was three hours and he did the outline and the vast majority of the shading. This doesn't really seem like a particularly painful area in general, but considering the fact that I had a sinus infection and felt like shit, it was a bitch. Had I not been waiting this long for this to get started I probably would have rescheduled, but I just bit the fuckin' bullet and got through it. I'm super stoked on it and would love to flash a picture up here, but that is an amazingly difficult part of the body to photograph on your own.

In even more other news, I got my plane tickets to go down to Austin next month. I'm going for a week to visit friends and family as well as to attend the third Fun Fun Fun Fest. There's an absolutely amazing line-up this year and they've expanded yet again. The first year was incredible, they had three stages playing three very different types of music for a full day. The highlight for me was that Negative Approach played their second ever reunion show in 25 years there. Circle Jerks and Electric Frankenstein were also high points. Last year they expanded to two full days, still on three stages with three different types of music. The high points (for me) were Poison Idea and a Murder City Devils reunion, among other things. This year there will be four stages and the one that most interests me will have Bad Brains, Cro-Mags, The Adolescents, All, Dead Milkmen, DOA, The Cute Lepers, Born To Lose, Municipal Waste, and a slew of others. Needless to say, the overtime I've been putting in lately will be paying off quite nicely next month.]]> TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/79682/#comments 10 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/79682 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/79682 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:35:12 GMT long overdue, but not too substantial http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/77812 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal TheSaint  I've been putting off updating for a long time now. There's been lots going on and lots and lots of stuff running through my head, but for some reason instead of having the usual response people have to stuff like that where they wanna talk about it or just write it down to get it outside of the headspace, I've felt like that wasn't an option. I still don't really wanna write that stuff out, but I feel like I've been sitting on a journal that's months out of date so I had to get something new in here.  Anyway, I'm getting ready to take a much needed break from this town and especially from my day job in a couple of days. On Thursday I will be accompanying the rest of the folks from the tattoo shop I work for (Your Flesh Tattoo) to the Denver Tattoo Convention ( www.denvertattooconvention.com ). I'll be up there from Thursday evening until Monday morning and would be stoked to meet anyone who is in the area, so hit me up and maybe we can work something out.  One of the main reasons I need this break so badly right now is because the day job is stressing me the fuck out. I work as a buyer and Grocery department guy in a Health Food store whose business has gone so far through the roof in the past couple of years that we are just about to move into a new location that is about twice the size of what we are currently in. We have been dealing with vendors and sales reps who all want to get their products in the new store and at the same time a huge lack of communication from the owners about the overall plan for the move. It seems that the only time we get info on an aspect of it is just before some certain thing has to be done. Now, I don't want to come off as if I think the owners are incompetent or anything, this is an independent business owned by a husband and wife who are genuinely good folks, but since this whole new building and massive amount of change is all coming out of their pocket, they've been playing it pretty close to the chest. I'm sure that the stress they are under with this project is way beyond my own, but that doesn't really make it any easier for me. Thankfully, this convention is coming at just the right time. I do have some pictures I need to upload and show off, but that'll have to wait. I need to head out to get some supplies for the trip and try to figure a few things out since I'll hafta work both jobs tomorrow and be ready to go by Thursday morning and then when I get back from Denver it'll be nonstop work to get the store moved and open on time! One of these days I'll get all caught up, I swear! Blog yes
Anyway, I'm getting ready to take a much needed break from this town and especially from my day job in a couple of days. On Thursday I will be accompanying the rest of the folks from the tattoo shop I work for (Your Flesh Tattoo) to the Denver Tattoo Convention ( www.denvertattooconvention.com ). I'll be up there from Thursday evening until Monday morning and would be stoked to meet anyone who is in the area, so hit me up and maybe we can work something out.

One of the main reasons I need this break so badly right now is because the day job is stressing me the fuck out. I work as a buyer and Grocery department guy in a Health Food store whose business has gone so far through the roof in the past couple of years that we are just about to move into a new location that is about twice the size of what we are currently in. We have been dealing with vendors and sales reps who all want to get their products in the new store and at the same time a huge lack of communication from the owners about the overall plan for the move. It seems that the only time we get info on an aspect of it is just before some certain thing has to be done. Now, I don't want to come off as if I think the owners are incompetent or anything, this is an independent business owned by a husband and wife who are genuinely good folks, but since this whole new building and massive amount of change is all coming out of their pocket, they've been playing it pretty close to the chest. I'm sure that the stress they are under with this project is way beyond my own, but that doesn't really make it any easier for me. Thankfully, this convention is coming at just the right time.

I do have some pictures I need to upload and show off, but that'll have to wait. I need to head out to get some supplies for the trip and try to figure a few things out since I'll hafta work both jobs tomorrow and be ready to go by Thursday morning and then when I get back from Denver it'll be nonstop work to get the store moved and open on time! One of these days I'll get all caught up, I swear!]]> TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/77812/#comments 12 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/77812 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/77812 Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:45:22 GMT One more! http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/71035 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal Members Only Journal TheSaint Members Only Journal Blog yes TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/71035/#comments 15 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/71035 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/71035 Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:45:42 GMT The Countdown has begun! http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/70838 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal Members Only Journal TheSaint Members Only Journal Blog yes TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/70838/#comments 8 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/70838 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/70838 Sun, 15 Jun 2008 19:59:17 GMT AWESOME SAUCE http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/70435 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal TheSaint  After getting to a very dangerous point of burn out at work, I finally took a couple extra days off and drove down to Santa Fe with a few friends to go see X with The Detroit Cobras. Holy shit, did I ever need that break. I feel so recharged now, although I'm a little panicky about only having 7 actual workdays at the day job left this month since I head to Florida on the 19th so I can be there for my kiddo's birthday on the 21st! And even better, she'll be coming back with me on the 24th to stay here until the 3rd of July! Color me stoked!  As for the show, it was easily one of the best I've ever seen and everything about the whole trip was fantastic. The usual place I head to for fun in New Mexico is Albuquerque and the drive from here to there is boring and ugly. The drive we took to get to Santa Fe, on the other hand, is absolutely gorgeous. It's all smaller roads and runs through some of the prettiest areas I've seen in this part of the country and it just keeps changing and getting more and more interesting until you end up in Santa Fe, which is a pretty cool place, itself. The venue for the show, The Santa Fe Brewing Company, was also great. It's on the outskirts of town in an industrial section and is a big brewery/restaurant with the stage area outside. There were only the two bands playing and since they started at 7:30 the sunset was right behind them as The Detroit Cobras played. They were fucking phenomenal and I think I fell in love with their new bass player, she's fucking beautiful and rocks that bass. The only complaint I have about their set is that it could have gone on for days and I still would have wanted more. They played almost every song that was at the top of my list for them and were so obviously enjoying the hell out of themselves that it was impossible for anyone there to not enjoy it. Between their set and X's, I ended up pulling total fanboy shit and bought a really fantastic screen printed poster they had for sale and got two of them to sign it and talked to them. I normally don't understand the appeal of the whole autograph thing at all as it's never really been a part of my life growing up in the world of Punk Rock and such, but with this band I just couldn't help it. Rachel, the singer for The Cobras, was really fucking cool. She talked to me and had seen me out there singing along and told me how much she enjoyed seeing that shit. The only other signature I got was from my new love, that glorious bass player. She was funny and a sweetheart, and actually came over and asked if she could sign my poster before I even had a chance to open my mouth. Shortly after that, X took the stage. Somehow, I've never gotten to see them even though I've loved them since I discovered their records in the eighties, so this was a pretty momentous occasion for me. I don't think I could have picked a better set list for them, they honestly played every single song I would have hoped to hear and stayed mostly with the early stuff that has always been my favorite. Exene now looks like a tiny little Eastern European Grandma, but she still belts out her own amazing brand of singing. John Doe sounds better than ever. Billy Zoom was kinda creepin' me out with the perma-grin thing, but he got more animated as the night wore on and was fun to watch, not to mention being a guitar genius. DJ Bonebrake looks like he's still in his 20's and beat the hell out of his kit. Another nice thing about the show was the fact that it was definitely an older crowd, as opposed to most of the shows I see in Albuquerque where it's seems the scene is mostly made up of high school and college kids. Nothing wrong with the younger kids being into it, I was one of them once, but I enjoy shows a lot more when I know there'll be a lot less drama and such. Plus, it's always awesome to see the hot Punk Rock girls in their thirties and forties and Santa Fe seems to have it's share of them. The drive back the next day was great too, my traveling companions were all pretty hung over so we stopped off at this tiny little bar in Espanola that we had seen on the way down. It was a really cool little place that was out in the middle of nowhere. I think there were only 6 or 7 seats at the bar and about 2 or 3 tables. We stayed there for an hour or so and then hit the road again. A bit later we went to the Echo Amphitheater which is a naturally formed amphitheater in the rock along the way. We wandered around that for an hour or two and got eaten alive by bugs. I guess that might be payback for the fact that two of the people in our group ate some giant ants on a dare while we were there. I still owe Rob a pint for eating one live.  Yesterday I went to work at the tattoo shop and had tons to do, which was nice since we were really slow for a couple weeks. It's also good since I get paid by the amount I do and not the time I'm there and I really need a little extra cash for my trip later this month. I also talked a bit more about the next tattoo I'm getting and that artist is starting on the artwork for it. It's gonna be amazing. I have two fairly new outlines that will be worked on more once my visit with the kiddo comes to an end and hopefully the artist who did my big Frankenstein leg piece will be ready to continue that piece down my leg soon after. This will be the summer of leg tattoos for me. My most recent piece that was started is down my entire right shin from just under the knee to the base of the ankle. I'll take a picture of the outline as soon as I can find my camera, it's awesome. Anyway, I'm super stoked right now, the show was great, tattoo happenings are great, Santa Fe was cool, and most importantly, I'll be seeing my little princess in a very short while! I highly recommend catching this tour for anybody still in it's path, or seeing both bands in any way possible after it ends.  Edited to add that my friend mentioned in that last journal is doing MUCH better. He has gotten back to us a bit and is going through a LOT of therapy and such, but is definitely on the road to recovery. Thanks to all of you who posted your well-wishes on that journal. Blog yes
As for the show, it was easily one of the best I've ever seen and everything about the whole trip was fantastic. The usual place I head to for fun in New Mexico is Albuquerque and the drive from here to there is boring and ugly. The drive we took to get to Santa Fe, on the other hand, is absolutely gorgeous. It's all smaller roads and runs through some of the prettiest areas I've seen in this part of the country and it just keeps changing and getting more and more interesting until you end up in Santa Fe, which is a pretty cool place, itself. The venue for the show, The Santa Fe Brewing Company, was also great. It's on the outskirts of town in an industrial section and is a big brewery/restaurant with the stage area outside. There were only the two bands playing and since they started at 7:30 the sunset was right behind them as The Detroit Cobras played. They were fucking phenomenal and I think I fell in love with their new bass player, she's fucking beautiful and rocks that bass. The only complaint I have about their set is that it could have gone on for days and I still would have wanted more. They played almost every song that was at the top of my list for them and were so obviously enjoying the hell out of themselves that it was impossible for anyone there to not enjoy it. Between their set and X's, I ended up pulling total fanboy shit and bought a really fantastic screen printed poster they had for sale and got two of them to sign it and talked to them. I normally don't understand the appeal of the whole autograph thing at all as it's never really been a part of my life growing up in the world of Punk Rock and such, but with this band I just couldn't help it. Rachel, the singer for The Cobras, was really fucking cool. She talked to me and had seen me out there singing along and told me how much she enjoyed seeing that shit. The only other signature I got was from my new love, that glorious bass player. She was funny and a sweetheart, and actually came over and asked if she could sign my poster before I even had a chance to open my mouth. Shortly after that, X took the stage. Somehow, I've never gotten to see them even though I've loved them since I discovered their records in the eighties, so this was a pretty momentous occasion for me. I don't think I could have picked a better set list for them, they honestly played every single song I would have hoped to hear and stayed mostly with the early stuff that has always been my favorite. Exene now looks like a tiny little Eastern European Grandma, but she still belts out her own amazing brand of singing. John Doe sounds better than ever. Billy Zoom was kinda creepin' me out with the perma-grin thing, but he got more animated as the night wore on and was fun to watch, not to mention being a guitar genius. DJ Bonebrake looks like he's still in his 20's and beat the hell out of his kit. Another nice thing about the show was the fact that it was definitely an older crowd, as opposed to most of the shows I see in Albuquerque where it's seems the scene is mostly made up of high school and college kids. Nothing wrong with the younger kids being into it, I was one of them once, but I enjoy shows a lot more when I know there'll be a lot less drama and such. Plus, it's always awesome to see the hot Punk Rock girls in their thirties and forties and Santa Fe seems to have it's share of them.

The drive back the next day was great too, my traveling companions were all pretty hung over so we stopped off at this tiny little bar in Espanola that we had seen on the way down. It was a really cool little place that was out in the middle of nowhere. I think there were only 6 or 7 seats at the bar and about 2 or 3 tables. We stayed there for an hour or so and then hit the road again. A bit later we went to the Echo Amphitheater which is a naturally formed amphitheater in the rock along the way. We wandered around that for an hour or two and got eaten alive by bugs. I guess that might be payback for the fact that two of the people in our group ate some giant ants on a dare while we were there. I still owe Rob a pint for eating one live.

Yesterday I went to work at the tattoo shop and had tons to do, which was nice since we were really slow for a couple weeks. It's also good since I get paid by the amount I do and not the time I'm there and I really need a little extra cash for my trip later this month. I also talked a bit more about the next tattoo I'm getting and that artist is starting on the artwork for it. It's gonna be amazing. I have two fairly new outlines that will be worked on more once my visit with the kiddo comes to an end and hopefully the artist who did my big Frankenstein leg piece will be ready to continue that piece down my leg soon after. This will be the summer of leg tattoos for me. My most recent piece that was started is down my entire right shin from just under the knee to the base of the ankle. I'll take a picture of the outline as soon as I can find my camera, it's awesome.

Anyway, I'm super stoked right now, the show was great, tattoo happenings are great, Santa Fe was cool, and most importantly, I'll be seeing my little princess in a very short while! I highly recommend catching this tour for anybody still in it's path, or seeing both bands in any way possible after it ends.

Edited to add that my friend mentioned in that last journal is doing MUCH better. He has gotten back to us a bit and is going through a LOT of therapy and such, but is definitely on the road to recovery. Thanks to all of you who posted your well-wishes on that journal.]]> TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/70435/#comments 9 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/70435 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/70435 Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:57:16 GMT On internet friendship http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/69473 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal TheSaint  We live in strange times. I have a pretty good friend whom I have never met. This friend lives in a country I have never visited. It's quite possible that if he and I were in the same room we might not even recognize each other. I talk to this friend at least a little, almost daily. He and I are long standing members of a message board for a record label that hardly ever puts out any records anymore and yet there is still a fairly sizable group of us that check in over there very nearly daily and sometimes many times in a single day.  I bring this all up because yesterday morning he created a thread with a very cryptic message that seemed to indicate that he was about to take his own life. He then deleted his myspace account and could not be reached through phone or any electronic means. After some discussion about what to do amongst this group of people on this message board, One of the members who had both a phone number and address for this friend called the police and had them go check on our friend. When I finally went to bed last night, the last thing I knew was that the police were waiting on the super for the building our friend lives in to let them into the apartment. By the time I checked in this morning, immediately after waking up, all we knew was that there were several of us who had not slept well and who were anxiously awaiting some news. I then had to go to work at two jobs where I had no chance to check in and see what was going on, if anything.  When I finally got home, I logged in to discover that our friend had been taken to a hospital and his family is there with him. The member who had contacted the police was given the name of the hospital along with that information, but was told that anything else would have to go through our friend's family. Needless to say, because of the manner of this particular friendship, we aren't acquainted with his family. This same member contacted the hospital and asked to speak to our friend and was eventually told that he was not available to speak, but that a message would be passed along to him. The message was left with a contact number and the news that his friends are all thinking of him. While the timeline is not clear and it's entirely possible that he was already in the hospital when the call to the police was made, it's also quite possible that his life may have been saved because one member of this board made that phone call.  I'm very anxious to hear word on my friend and I'm hoping that everything will work out for the best, but I don't really know what to expect. One thing I do know, we live in strange times. Blog yes
I bring this all up because yesterday morning he created a thread with a very cryptic message that seemed to indicate that he was about to take his own life. He then deleted his myspace account and could not be reached through phone or any electronic means. After some discussion about what to do amongst this group of people on this message board, One of the members who had both a phone number and address for this friend called the police and had them go check on our friend.

When I finally went to bed last night, the last thing I knew was that the police were waiting on the super for the building our friend lives in to let them into the apartment. By the time I checked in this morning, immediately after waking up, all we knew was that there were several of us who had not slept well and who were anxiously awaiting some news. I then had to go to work at two jobs where I had no chance to check in and see what was going on, if anything.

When I finally got home, I logged in to discover that our friend had been taken to a hospital and his family is there with him. The member who had contacted the police was given the name of the hospital along with that information, but was told that anything else would have to go through our friend's family. Needless to say, because of the manner of this particular friendship, we aren't acquainted with his family. This same member contacted the hospital and asked to speak to our friend and was eventually told that he was not available to speak, but that a message would be passed along to him. The message was left with a contact number and the news that his friends are all thinking of him.

While the timeline is not clear and it's entirely possible that he was already in the hospital when the call to the police was made, it's also quite possible that his life may have been saved because one member of this board made that phone call.

I'm very anxious to hear word on my friend and I'm hoping that everything will work out for the best, but I don't really know what to expect. One thing I do know, we live in strange times.

]]> TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/69473/#comments 17 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/69473 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/69473 Wed, 28 May 2008 02:39:33 GMT Massive YAY! http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/69259 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal TheSaint  After a giant new piece of baby mama drama delayed the planning stages for a month, I have finally gotten my travel arrangements sorted to go to Florida for the Princess' birthday and to bring her here for a nice visit. I was hoping to set it up so I'd only be in Florida for a couple of days, but since the day of birth falls on a Saturday and airline tix skyrocket from Fridays thru Mondays, I'm gonna hafta go from a Thursday until a Tuesday. That'll be alright, it's well worth that inconvenience to get to spend time with her. The worst bit will be dealing with the baby mama herself as she has just reentered the phase where she tries to convince me that it would be a good idea if we got back together. I get tired of telling her that it's never gonna happen and she likes to get the kiddo to ask me uncomfortable questions about why I don't love her mommy, which is a dirty, underhanded trick. Anyway, enough of the negative, this is exciting news for me. I really can't wait to see my beautiful daughter again and we're gonna have a great time. The plan is to spend her actual birthday at Disney and I think this will be the first time she'll be old enough to really appreciate it, when we've gone before she was just tired from all the walking and fussy about the crappy food. I'm gonna try to squeeze in the time for us to get a Father/Daughter family portrait taken when we get back out here, whether it's with a friend who is a photographer or just the cheeseball Wally World photo studio. We're also gonna take a little drive up to see my mom and step-dad while she's here so she can get even more spoiled before she has to go home. This is also great news for another reason. It means that the SORELY needed vacation from the day job is an actual thing that is coming soon, so I won't have to go postal like I was getting close to doing. I am getting a short break soon since I'm gonna go see The Detroit Cobras and X play in Santa Fe on June 6th! If anybody is down that way, you NEED to go see this show, it's gonna be fucking legendary! On a completely separate note, I just got done being one of the priveleged few to help test out Chixor's EPIC and amazing idea, DN Radio! I believe she's going to test again sometime on Monday, so everybody needs to go check with her to find out how and when to tune in. Chixor, if you read this, thanks again for letting me listen in, it was a whole lotta fun! Blog yes
Anyway, enough of the negative, this is exciting news for me. I really can't wait to see my beautiful daughter again and we're gonna have a great time. The plan is to spend her actual birthday at Disney and I think this will be the first time she'll be old enough to really appreciate it, when we've gone before she was just tired from all the walking and fussy about the crappy food. I'm gonna try to squeeze in the time for us to get a Father/Daughter family portrait taken when we get back out here, whether it's with a friend who is a photographer or just the cheeseball Wally World photo studio. We're also gonna take a little drive up to see my mom and step-dad while she's here so she can get even more spoiled before she has to go home.

This is also great news for another reason. It means that the SORELY needed vacation from the day job is an actual thing that is coming soon, so I won't have to go postal like I was getting close to doing. I am getting a short break soon since I'm gonna go see The Detroit Cobras and X play in Santa Fe on June 6th! If anybody is down that way, you NEED to go see this show, it's gonna be fucking legendary!

On a completely separate note, I just got done being one of the priveleged few to help test out Chixor's EPIC and amazing idea, DN Radio! I believe she's going to test again sometime on Monday, so everybody needs to go check with her to find out how and when to tune in. Chixor, if you read this, thanks again for letting me listen in, it was a whole lotta fun!]]> TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/69259/#comments 14 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/69259 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/69259 Sun, 25 May 2008 04:09:30 GMT New music and ink always brightens things up http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/67895 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal TheSaint  So yesterday and today I got some great new music in my mailbox. Yesterday's arrival is mindblowing. I got the debut album from The Cute Lepers which is a side project from Steve E. Nix and Stevie Kicks from one of my favorite bands, The Briefs. Steve E. Nix wrote all of these songs aside from one cover they sneak in at the end and while his guitar playing and singing definitely brings The Briefs to mind, this is a completely different beast altogether. Obviously the man has a huge love for 60's Pop and Mod stuff, which he has combined with his trademark style singing and non-stop energy, not to mention brilliantly quirky lyrics. He brought in some piano, handclaps, and female backing vocals to flesh it out, but the focus is clearly on the songwriting here. Mr. Nix has slowed the pace a bit from what I'm used to hearing him do in his usual gig, but that's not to say that he's taken away an ounce of the electrical jolt I'm used to getting from him. I played this about four times at work today and it was literally impossible to keep from bouncing all over the room. Easily the most danceable record I've gotten in a long time, this self-titled CD makes me wanna grab a well-tailored three button suit and resurrect my long gone Vespa to cruise girls to dance with. That's saying a hell of a lot for a guy like me who has to be in just the right mood to dance for my long time favorite bands. If you're a fan of The Briefs, Moddish Punk, or just great music in general, I highly...no, fuck that, I INSIST that you get yer grubby mitts on this CD ASAP. Today I came home to discover that the second CD from Pat Todd & The Rank Outsiders was waiting for me. This one's called Holdin' Onto Trouble's Hand and is a bit more polished sounding than their first outing which I LOVE. I got turned onto the band and that first album after seeing them play two very different shows when I was back home in Austin in November. I was absolutely blown away by their live show, Pat is one hell of a showman and an even better songwriter. After getting back to Nowheresville I ended up listening to that first album, The Outskirts Of Your Heart, a nearly ridiculous number of times a day and was obviously mad for it from the first spin. So far I haven't had quite as strong a reaction to Trouble's Hand, but to be fair I'm exhausted after a 13 hour day and still have The Cute Lepers hooks in my brain. I can say that this album has bumped the Countrified influence up a bit from the last album and that's just fine by me. Pat Todd is a huge fan of the best parts of The Rolling Stones and it shows. By no means could he be called a rip off artist, but if you take the Countrified Garagey bits of some classic Stones albums and feed them through a great writer backed by an amazing set of musicians and then cranked up the energy a good bit, you might find yourself treading Rank Outsider territory. For those who aren't familiar with these guys, maybe the name Lazy Cowgirls will ring some bells. That was Pat's previous band and not all that far from Rank Outsider sound. The Lazy Cowgirls are pretty legendary in Garage/Underground Rock 'N Roll circles and that status is very well deserved, but I think this new filter for the main man behind them might be a notch or two higher on the ranking pole for me. Now onto the anticipatory segment of the journal.... Tomorrow I am FINALLY getting my right shoulder capped. I've been in talks with this particular artist about this piece for well over a year now and we're finally doing it. I'm super stoked and will try to get some photos once it's done, but it's gonna be difficult to photograph so we'll hafta wait and see. I am also in talks with the artist who did my Zombie Hands piece about doing something on my left thigh to balance out the giant Frankie on my right thigh, but I'm not sure when we'll start that one. I'm also waiting for a chance to talk to yet ANOTHER artist at the shop about a piece for my left shin and since I brought up the Frankie piece, I should mention that the artist who did that has been working on sketches for the work we're gonna do on the rest of that leg.  Also falling into the anticipatory segment of the journal is the fact that I am still working on finalizing plans to go see and then bring back my kiddo for a visit out here after her birthday next month. I still can't believe that she'll be 7 years old in about 6 weeks. It's amazing to think of how fast she's growing up. Needless to say, I cannot wait to see her. Blog yes
Today I came home to discover that the second CD from Pat Todd & The Rank Outsiders was waiting for me. This one's called Holdin' Onto Trouble's Hand and is a bit more polished sounding than their first outing which I LOVE. I got turned onto the band and that first album after seeing them play two very different shows when I was back home in Austin in November. I was absolutely blown away by their live show, Pat is one hell of a showman and an even better songwriter. After getting back to Nowheresville I ended up listening to that first album, The Outskirts Of Your Heart, a nearly ridiculous number of times a day and was obviously mad for it from the first spin. So far I haven't had quite as strong a reaction to Trouble's Hand, but to be fair I'm exhausted after a 13 hour day and still have The Cute Lepers hooks in my brain. I can say that this album has bumped the Countrified influence up a bit from the last album and that's just fine by me. Pat Todd is a huge fan of the best parts of The Rolling Stones and it shows. By no means could he be called a rip off artist, but if you take the Countrified Garagey bits of some classic Stones albums and feed them through a great writer backed by an amazing set of musicians and then cranked up the energy a good bit, you might find yourself treading Rank Outsider territory. For those who aren't familiar with these guys, maybe the name Lazy Cowgirls will ring some bells. That was Pat's previous band and not all that far from Rank Outsider sound. The Lazy Cowgirls are pretty legendary in Garage/Underground Rock 'N Roll circles and that status is very well deserved, but I think this new filter for the main man behind them might be a notch or two higher on the ranking pole for me.

Now onto the anticipatory segment of the journal....
Tomorrow I am FINALLY getting my right shoulder capped. I've been in talks with this particular artist about this piece for well over a year now and we're finally doing it. I'm super stoked and will try to get some photos once it's done, but it's gonna be difficult to photograph so we'll hafta wait and see. I am also in talks with the artist who did my Zombie Hands piece about doing something on my left thigh to balance out the giant Frankie on my right thigh, but I'm not sure when we'll start that one. I'm also waiting for a chance to talk to yet ANOTHER artist at the shop about a piece for my left shin and since I brought up the Frankie piece, I should mention that the artist who did that has been working on sketches for the work we're gonna do on the rest of that leg.

Also falling into the anticipatory segment of the journal is the fact that I am still working on finalizing plans to go see and then bring back my kiddo for a visit out here after her birthday next month. I still can't believe that she'll be 7 years old in about 6 weeks. It's amazing to think of how fast she's growing up. Needless to say, I cannot wait to see her.]]> TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/67895/#comments 9 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/67895 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/67895 Wed, 07 May 2008 02:30:18 GMT my head asplode http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/66938 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal TheSaint  Baby mama drama sucks ass. Blog yes TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/66938/#comments 19 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/66938 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/66938 Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:39:30 GMT Music http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/65612 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal TheSaint  So, in addition to sliding back into never updating this journal I've been slackin' big time on one of my favorite things to write about, music. I've even made various promises to clue various folks in on how some albums are and haven't done it, so here's a little somethin'.... The new Nine Pound Hammer album, Sex, Drugs & Bill Monroe is one of their best. For those unfamiliar with them, NPH are the other band featuring Blaine Cartwright who is better known for fronting Nashville Pussy. Nine Pound Hammer are what would probably be termed Country Punk (as the more intuitive amongst you may have figured out from the title of this album). In the past they've thrown in covers from as varied bands as The Dead Boys and Buck Owens, so maybe that gives you an idea of where they sit, although that may just confuse the issue a bit more. This time out the boys are playin' almost all originals and doin' it well. The usual heavy dose of humor is thrown into the extremely hi-octane mix as should be obvious from song titles like Mama's Doin' Meth Again. That song is very nearly a straight up Country ballad and is one of the very few times this CD slows down enough for you to catch your breath. I was excited when they put out a new album a year or two back with Kentucky Breakdown since they had been on indefinite hiatus for years, but aside from a few absolutely brilliant tracks I was a little disappointed by that one. That's definitely not the case this time around as the boys are back in top fighting shape and I wouldn't call a single track on this sub-par. Highly recommended for anyone who likes a dose of hillbilly goodness in their Punk Rock 'N Roll. On a much more somber and relaxed note, I'm finally getting around to listening to some John Doe (of X) stuff. I had heard a few songs here and there over the years and always meant to check out more, but never seemed to get around to it. I picked up Meet John Doe and Kissing So Hard in a lot auction on eBay and got it in today and have been spinning them ever since I got home. I think I'm digging Kissing So Hard a bit more at this point, but they're both pretty much what anyone familiar with the stuff he played in X would expect him to do at this point. Mostly pretty laid back, Country influenced Rock with his unique lyrical take on life. I guess this is what people refer to as a "matured sound", it's definitely a more low-key version of what I've always loved hearing him do and is a great addition to my collection, even if it's not gonna be an everyday listen anytime soon.  Side note: I found out a few days ago that X is touring with The Detroit Cobras and I'll be getting tickets to see that show in Santa Fe very soon. I've been anxiously awaiting a chance to see The Detroit Cobras ever since my very late introduction to them last year and somehow I have never managed to see X live even though I've loved them since I first saw Decline Of The Western Civilization way way back when I was in High School.  I've been on this tear lately of going back and picking up albums that I never got around to when they came out. Like those John Doe albums, I slept on the Joey Ramone solo album, Don't Worry About Me. He recorded it shortly before his passing and then died shortly before it was released. I'm suitably impressed with it, he still had a lot of magic left in his sick bones. It's nearly as depressing to listen to as it was to watch the documentary End Of The Century. A lot of the songs are either about or at least mention his health and make it painfully obvious that the man wanted to live right up until the very end. I had always worried that his cover of What A Wonderful World would be some sort of schmaltzy cheesefest, but it's a fantastic and fun ride. He pays a bit of tribute to a couple musical heroes of his with his dead on cover of The Stooges' 1969 and what SHOULD have been an early Who song, Mr. Punchy, had they had Joey writing lyrics for them anyway. It took me several days to stop playing this on repeat and I still play several of the songs two or three times through every time I put it on.  That's all I've got in mind music-wise tonight, but lemme update you on everything else that's been going on lately. Saturday night was the fancy-schmancy dress up affair known as the grand opening party for the new shop for Your Flesh Tattoo where I do my sideline gig. We slacked really badly on getting invites out and had little hope that many folks from out of town would make it down, but it turned out amazingly well. I think we may have had more people in from out of town than locals and everybody was decked out to the nines. We had it in the shop, and it was absolutely packed. Big crews rolled in from Denver, Fort Collins, and even several people from Oregon and California, not to mention lots of other places I never even found out about for sure. Everyone was suitably impressed with the new shop and kept telling us all how lucky we were to work in such a beautiful space. Hopefully we'll finally get some folks committing to do some guest spots for us now that they've seen it.  At the other job it just keeps getting more and more dramatic and stress filled. I worked Saturday morning and the girl in my department who was closing that night was basically saved from getting fired from another department by my department head and now she's complaining that her schedule is too stressful to continue. She told me she wrote my boss a note telling her that if she didn't get her schedule changed immediately then she considered the note her two weeks notice. I let her know that she certainly wasn't going to get what she wanted that way, but it seems she feels that's the right way to treat someone who saved her from getting shitcanned. And of course, this comes at a time when our department is actually short handed by about 4 people. I'm beyond burnt out over there right now and it doesn't help that the weather has been incredible lately. All I wanna do when I'm there is head out and jump on my bike. I started riding it to work again as soon as it was warm enough and the temptation to leave early and just ride is almost overwhelming some days. I am taking an extra day off this week to head down to Albuquerque to see some old friends from back home play a show. I try to get down and see these guys every time they come through on tour, but it's a little bittersweet since it reminds me of what I'm missing out on by living here. When I was back home I would go down and sing back ups with them every time they recorded, I put on their first non-house party show and my old band opened up for them a time or two. Hell, there was even talk at one point of my touring with them as their roadie and these guys have been around the world I don't know how many times now. Fuck, here I go depressing myself again. Anyway, it'll be great to get out of town and see them again. There's been a little talk about starting up a new musical project here recently, but it's difficult to find dedicated people who are even into worthwhile music in this town, let alone people who can commit to working on a project. We'll see what happens, but I'm not holding my breath. Blog yes
The new Nine Pound Hammer album, Sex, Drugs & Bill Monroe is one of their best. For those unfamiliar with them, NPH are the other band featuring Blaine Cartwright who is better known for fronting Nashville Pussy. Nine Pound Hammer are what would probably be termed Country Punk (as the more intuitive amongst you may have figured out from the title of this album). In the past they've thrown in covers from as varied bands as The Dead Boys and Buck Owens, so maybe that gives you an idea of where they sit, although that may just confuse the issue a bit more. This time out the boys are playin' almost all originals and doin' it well. The usual heavy dose of humor is thrown into the extremely hi-octane mix as should be obvious from song titles like Mama's Doin' Meth Again. That song is very nearly a straight up Country ballad and is one of the very few times this CD slows down enough for you to catch your breath. I was excited when they put out a new album a year or two back with Kentucky Breakdown since they had been on indefinite hiatus for years, but aside from a few absolutely brilliant tracks I was a little disappointed by that one. That's definitely not the case this time around as the boys are back in top fighting shape and I wouldn't call a single track on this sub-par. Highly recommended for anyone who likes a dose of hillbilly goodness in their Punk Rock 'N Roll.

On a much more somber and relaxed note, I'm finally getting around to listening to some John Doe (of X) stuff. I had heard a few songs here and there over the years and always meant to check out more, but never seemed to get around to it. I picked up Meet John Doe and Kissing So Hard in a lot auction on eBay and got it in today and have been spinning them ever since I got home. I think I'm digging Kissing So Hard a bit more at this point, but they're both pretty much what anyone familiar with the stuff he played in X would expect him to do at this point. Mostly pretty laid back, Country influenced Rock with his unique lyrical take on life. I guess this is what people refer to as a "matured sound", it's definitely a more low-key version of what I've always loved hearing him do and is a great addition to my collection, even if it's not gonna be an everyday listen anytime soon.
Side note: I found out a few days ago that X is touring with The Detroit Cobras and I'll be getting tickets to see that show in Santa Fe very soon. I've been anxiously awaiting a chance to see The Detroit Cobras ever since my very late introduction to them last year and somehow I have never managed to see X live even though I've loved them since I first saw Decline Of The Western Civilization way way back when I was in High School.

I've been on this tear lately of going back and picking up albums that I never got around to when they came out. Like those John Doe albums, I slept on the Joey Ramone solo album, Don't Worry About Me. He recorded it shortly before his passing and then died shortly before it was released. I'm suitably impressed with it, he still had a lot of magic left in his sick bones. It's nearly as depressing to listen to as it was to watch the documentary End Of The Century. A lot of the songs are either about or at least mention his health and make it painfully obvious that the man wanted to live right up until the very end. I had always worried that his cover of What A Wonderful World would be some sort of schmaltzy cheesefest, but it's a fantastic and fun ride. He pays a bit of tribute to a couple musical heroes of his with his dead on cover of The Stooges' 1969 and what SHOULD have been an early Who song, Mr. Punchy, had they had Joey writing lyrics for them anyway. It took me several days to stop playing this on repeat and I still play several of the songs two or three times through every time I put it on.

That's all I've got in mind music-wise tonight, but lemme update you on everything else that's been going on lately. Saturday night was the fancy-schmancy dress up affair known as the grand opening party for the new shop for Your Flesh Tattoo where I do my sideline gig. We slacked really badly on getting invites out and had little hope that many folks from out of town would make it down, but it turned out amazingly well. I think we may have had more people in from out of town than locals and everybody was decked out to the nines. We had it in the shop, and it was absolutely packed. Big crews rolled in from Denver, Fort Collins, and even several people from Oregon and California, not to mention lots of other places I never even found out about for sure. Everyone was suitably impressed with the new shop and kept telling us all how lucky we were to work in such a beautiful space. Hopefully we'll finally get some folks committing to do some guest spots for us now that they've seen it.
At the other job it just keeps getting more and more dramatic and stress filled. I worked Saturday morning and the girl in my department who was closing that night was basically saved from getting fired from another department by my department head and now she's complaining that her schedule is too stressful to continue. She told me she wrote my boss a note telling her that if she didn't get her schedule changed immediately then she considered the note her two weeks notice. I let her know that she certainly wasn't going to get what she wanted that way, but it seems she feels that's the right way to treat someone who saved her from getting shitcanned. And of course, this comes at a time when our department is actually short handed by about 4 people. I'm beyond burnt out over there right now and it doesn't help that the weather has been incredible lately. All I wanna do when I'm there is head out and jump on my bike. I started riding it to work again as soon as it was warm enough and the temptation to leave early and just ride is almost overwhelming some days. I am taking an extra day off this week to head down to Albuquerque to see some old friends from back home play a show. I try to get down and see these guys every time they come through on tour, but it's a little bittersweet since it reminds me of what I'm missing out on by living here. When I was back home I would go down and sing back ups with them every time they recorded, I put on their first non-house party show and my old band opened up for them a time or two. Hell, there was even talk at one point of my touring with them as their roadie and these guys have been around the world I don't know how many times now. Fuck, here I go depressing myself again. Anyway, it'll be great to get out of town and see them again.

There's been a little talk about starting up a new musical project here recently, but it's difficult to find dedicated people who are even into worthwhile music in this town, let alone people who can commit to working on a project. We'll see what happens, but I'm not holding my breath.]]> TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/65612/#comments 2 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/65612 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/65612 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:44:55 GMT Douching my skull http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/63259 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal TheSaint  Due to the aforementioned allergy misery I purchased a device made expressly for the purpose of what I call the skull douche. Apparently the makers of this fine product prefer the term "nasal rinsing system", but make no mistake, this little doozie provides a full facial douche and is well worth purchasing for any of my fellow sufferers. The brand name of this treat is Nasaline, although I'm sure there's gotta be at least a couple other brands floating around out there somewhere. I had tried the more primitive and popular neti pot a while back and due to several issues found it to not be worthwhile for me even after fanatically enthusiastic recommendations from many, many people.  Out of desperation and misery, I decided to lay down some cash and give this device a shot and I'm really fucking glad I did. After several days of overdosing myself on a variety of allergy meds, I was able to go without popping a single one all day today and I even slept easy with a clear nose all night last night. Now, I've had chronic sinus problems as well as massive allergy troubles all my life and have tried a slew of different things designed to alleviate my suffering, but they all seemed to be band-aids and not anything more substantial so please believe me when I tell you that this is the real deal. It's recommended to do this thing twice a day and that's definitely my plan while the allergy season is upon us, but in the interest of time I'll probably only do it once every day or two under regular conditions just to keep the inside of my skull in proper working order from here on out.  I apologize to those of you who may read this who have no experience with allergy problems and the like because I'm sure this just seems like too much information on a rather disgusting topic, but I figured the people who might possibly benefit from this info were worth it.  On to other matters.... I'm still searching for a good deal on an ipod, so if anyone is looking to get rid of one or knows someone who is, clue a brother in, ok? In listening to the Acetate Records comp that I bought the day before yesterday I discovered that one of my favorite bands, Nine Pound Hammer, have a new album coming out soon and if the track on that compilation is anything to judge by, it's gonna be brilliant!  Blog yes Out of desperation and misery, I decided to lay down some cash and give this device a shot and I'm really fucking glad I did. After several days of overdosing myself on a variety of allergy meds, I was able to go without popping a single one all day today and I even slept easy with a clear nose all night last night. Now, I've had chronic sinus problems as well as massive allergy troubles all my life and have tried a slew of different things designed to alleviate my suffering, but they all seemed to be band-aids and not anything more substantial so please believe me when I tell you that this is the real deal. It's recommended to do this thing twice a day and that's definitely my plan while the allergy season is upon us, but in the interest of time I'll probably only do it once every day or two under regular conditions just to keep the inside of my skull in proper working order from here on out.

I apologize to those of you who may read this who have no experience with allergy problems and the like because I'm sure this just seems like too much information on a rather disgusting topic, but I figured the people who might possibly benefit from this info were worth it.

On to other matters....
I'm still searching for a good deal on an ipod, so if anyone is looking to get rid of one or knows someone who is, clue a brother in, ok? In listening to the Acetate Records comp that I bought the day before yesterday I discovered that one of my favorite bands, Nine Pound Hammer, have a new album coming out soon and if the track on that compilation is anything to judge by, it's gonna be brilliant! ]]> TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/63259/#comments 17 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/63259 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/63259 Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:57:17 GMT .... http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/63158 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal TheSaint  Apparently wishing for an end to winter got me a heavy duty allergy season to kick in with the warmer weather. I've been knocked on my ass for days now. It sucks not being able to breathe, y'know? It has finally gotten away from either snowing or just being icy as all fuck and that's amazing, but the melt from all the snow has provided a huge amount of moisture to all these things that normally lay dormant around here since we are actually on the edge of the desert and it's typically dryer than mummy dust.  When my allergies kicked in my nose started pouring like somebody had installed a faucet in my skull. When that showed no signs of slowing down, I started taking Claritin-D and that helped somewhat, but still left me miserable. I've been dragging ass everywhere ever since, but I'm finally starting to feel a bit better tonight. Of course, that's too late for me to patronize any of the shows that have been rolling through lately. Monday night was the return of Agent Orange which I would have loved to see if it wasn't for the fact that I had to work at 5 the next morning on top of feeling cruddy. I never really was much of a fan of them until I saw them several months back when they came through here for the first time and blew me away. I always considered them kind of a Punk one hit wonder, but they absolutely converted me with that show. Tuesday night was Dropkick Murphys down in Albuquerque, but with me not finding out until a few days before I hadn't planned enough ahead to take time off work, and then of course I was broke and feeling cruddy, so oh well. Last night was another show here, oddly enough. This time it was The Supersuckers, who have never impressed me at all, but I understand that their live show is supposed to be great, so I was considering going even though it was a twenty dollar show which is really pricey to this old man who grew up on three to five dollar Punk shows. Of course, I was still pretty broke and feeling cruddy so the final decision was to just go home and try to sleep (not all that easy when you can't really breathe). Today all I heard was that the show was pretty lackluster, so I guess I did the right thing and saved my money as well as my health. Speaking of saving my money, I'm saving up for a replacement ipod. Mine is just about to die and the one I had lined up for a really cheap deal fell through. Anybody got a good one they wanna sell me for a decent price? If I don't find anybody looking to unload one soon I guess I'll be waiting for my next paycheck to pick up a new one. Now that I actually have a computer that not only has the space to load up with music, but that runs great too, I'm really jonesing for something I can load up and change out if and whenever I want to do so. I've had the same songs on my old one for almost three years now and since it's just a mini, I'm a little tired of hearing some of that stuff. Other than that stuff, I've just been thinking tentatively about summer plans. I have some friends back home getting married this summer, so I'll be heading down for that if they'll ever solidify the plans, that is. I'm also trying to get things in order for my kiddo to come visit. I miss her like mad and all she talks to me about lately is wanting to come see me, so that needs to happen ASAP. Oh yeah, I'm in such a daze I almost forgot that I finally got my shoulder piece finished on Sunday. There's some pictures in my Tattoos folder, but they're just crappy cameraphone pics, so it's kinda hard to tell what's what in it. It was done by the fantastic Nic Montgomery at Your Flesh Tattoo here in Durango and I will try to get some better pics with my actual camera once it's healed. Blog yes It has finally gotten away from either snowing or just being icy as all fuck and that's amazing, but the melt from all the snow has provided a huge amount of moisture to all these things that normally lay dormant around here since we are actually on the edge of the desert and it's typically dryer than mummy dust.
When my allergies kicked in my nose started pouring like somebody had installed a faucet in my skull. When that showed no signs of slowing down, I started taking Claritin-D and that helped somewhat, but still left me miserable. I've been dragging ass everywhere ever since, but I'm finally starting to feel a bit better tonight. Of course, that's too late for me to patronize any of the shows that have been rolling through lately. Monday night was the return of Agent Orange which I would have loved to see if it wasn't for the fact that I had to work at 5 the next morning on top of feeling cruddy. I never really was much of a fan of them until I saw them several months back when they came through here for the first time and blew me away. I always considered them kind of a Punk one hit wonder, but they absolutely converted me with that show. Tuesday night was Dropkick Murphys down in Albuquerque, but with me not finding out until a few days before I hadn't planned enough ahead to take time off work, and then of course I was broke and feeling cruddy, so oh well. Last night was another show here, oddly enough. This time it was The Supersuckers, who have never impressed me at all, but I understand that their live show is supposed to be great, so I was considering going even though it was a twenty dollar show which is really pricey to this old man who grew up on three to five dollar Punk shows. Of course, I was still pretty broke and feeling cruddy so the final decision was to just go home and try to sleep (not all that easy when you can't really breathe). Today all I heard was that the show was pretty lackluster, so I guess I did the right thing and saved my money as well as my health.
Speaking of saving my money, I'm saving up for a replacement ipod. Mine is just about to die and the one I had lined up for a really cheap deal fell through. Anybody got a good one they wanna sell me for a decent price? If I don't find anybody looking to unload one soon I guess I'll be waiting for my next paycheck to pick up a new one. Now that I actually have a computer that not only has the space to load up with music, but that runs great too, I'm really jonesing for something I can load up and change out if and whenever I want to do so. I've had the same songs on my old one for almost three years now and since it's just a mini, I'm a little tired of hearing some of that stuff.
Other than that stuff, I've just been thinking tentatively about summer plans. I have some friends back home getting married this summer, so I'll be heading down for that if they'll ever solidify the plans, that is. I'm also trying to get things in order for my kiddo to come visit. I miss her like mad and all she talks to me about lately is wanting to come see me, so that needs to happen ASAP.

Oh yeah, I'm in such a daze I almost forgot that I finally got my shoulder piece finished on Sunday. There's some pictures in my Tattoos folder, but they're just crappy cameraphone pics, so it's kinda hard to tell what's what in it. It was done by the fantastic Nic Montgomery at Your Flesh Tattoo here in Durango and I will try to get some better pics with my actual camera once it's healed.]]> TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/63158/#comments 10 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/63158 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/63158 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:58:08 GMT GAH! http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/61692 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal TheSaint So I ordered my G4 Powerbook last weekend and have been watching the tracker thingie tell me where it is each day as it makes it's way here from Tampa and I was all excited today because it's status was finally switched over to "Out For Delivery". I was home from about 1:45 until about 7:15 when I figured it was probably too late for UPS to come knockin' at my door anyway. I went over to a friend's house for a couple of hours and out of a lack of patience checked the tracker again when I got home. It says that nobody was available to sign for it! I checked with my roommates and somebody was here the whole time I was gone, so unless the driver just happened to knock on the door at the one time when everybody went out back, then they went to the wrong house. I'm really really wanting to get it before I go out of town tomorrow evening, so I really hope that they figure it out tomorrow morning and all will be well. I don't normally geek out over packages quite so bad, but I don't spend this much money very often and I'm incredibly tired of putting up with the bullshit from this ancient paperweight I am using currently. People always think I'm exaggerating about how bad this fossil is, but just as an example, let me tell you, there's not enough free space on here for me to download Adobe Acrobat. There's not enough memory for me to load enough stuff in iTunes to even update my iPod mini. There's not even a trackpad on here, it's so ancient that there is a little nub in the middle of the keyboard that looks like a pencil eraser which you're supposed to wiggle around to control the cursor. I call it a brick or a paperweight because it actually weighs about 10 pounds. It was handed down to me and was previously "upgraded" to Windows98. I was able to get XP loaded on it when I first got it before realizing that doing that was going to use up pretty much all of the remaining memory. Anyway, I just wanna get my damn Powerbook! Is that so much to ask? I've waited all week for it, I think I'm entitled. Meh, enough bitching. Hopefully, tomorrow I will get it and things will go smoothly for my trip to Fort Collins. Blog yes I don't normally geek out over packages quite so bad, but I don't spend this much money very often and I'm incredibly tired of putting up with the bullshit from this ancient paperweight I am using currently. People always think I'm exaggerating about how bad this fossil is, but just as an example, let me tell you, there's not enough free space on here for me to download Adobe Acrobat. There's not enough memory for me to load enough stuff in iTunes to even update my iPod mini. There's not even a trackpad on here, it's so ancient that there is a little nub in the middle of the keyboard that looks like a pencil eraser which you're supposed to wiggle around to control the cursor. I call it a brick or a paperweight because it actually weighs about 10 pounds. It was handed down to me and was previously "upgraded" to Windows98. I was able to get XP loaded on it when I first got it before realizing that doing that was going to use up pretty much all of the remaining memory.
Anyway, I just wanna get my damn Powerbook! Is that so much to ask? I've waited all week for it, I think I'm entitled. Meh, enough bitching. Hopefully, tomorrow I will get it and things will go smoothly for my trip to Fort Collins.
]]> TheSaint Blog http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/61692/#comments 18 http://rss.deviantnation.com/comments/journal/61692 http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/61692 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:58:14 GMT Update http://deviantnation.com/members/TheSaint/61472 [Deviant Nation] TheSaint's Journal TheSaint Let's see.... Friday was pretty cool, or at least it was until the end of the night. The Toasters rolled through this little burg and played a great show. Some friends of mine in a local band called Pinhead opened up and played a really fun set, it was cool to see them finally get on a good show that isn't just a couple local bands. There was a band called The Fear Nuttin Band that I guess is on part of the tour with The Toasters that played second, but I found their brand of dancehall reggae bordering on hip hop to be almost unbearable. There were some very interesting encounters with some very odd folks that made my time waiting for that band to finish bearable. Most interesting was a rather attractive woman who sat down next to me and latched onto me but would only tell me a few things by way of conversation. The first thing she told me was that "It's so ridiculous", I tried several times to find out what it was that was ridiculous, but she would just look at me very seriously and say "It's... it's...just so....sooooo ridiculous." I asked her if she was ok and she told me that she was, so I tried to figure out what it was that she was all fucked up on, because it didn't appear to just be booze, but since her vocabulary was a bit...limited, shall we say, and I didn't want to ruin the mood by just blurting out "what the fuck are you on?" So I was just attempting to make conversation and see what I could learn that way. I finally got her to tell me something besides how it was so ridiculous, but it was another cryptic statement that was not readily applicable to anything specific. She told me, "It's just SOOO WRONG." So I said to her, "OK, I understand that it's ridiculous and so very wrong, but aside from that I'm not too sure what the hell it is that we're discussing, is it politics?" She looked a little confused for a moment and then looked deeply into my eyes and said, "It's just that it's....so, so wrong." At this point I asked her if anything would ever make it right and she actually answered that question, telling me that it never would be OK and that nobody could make it alright. This went round and round for very nearly the entire time that second band was playing, only broken up the couple of times she saw someone she mistakenly thought she knew. Anyway, finally it was time for The Toasters to play and they were great and everyone had a blast. Afterward I gathered up my friends and headed back to the car. We got about 6 blocks down the road and a cop got on our tail. The roads are very icy right now and the speed limit there is only 25 so I was going very slow and safe. I'm sure the cop was on the lookout for a drunk driver as we have a huge percentage of the population here with DUI's, but that's definitely not gonna be me. Anyway, he stayed right behind me for a few blocks and then went ahead and pulled me over. The thing is, I haven't bothered to get a Colorado driver's license, nor have I switched over the registration on my car. My licen