Oh, poo. I've been tied up all day again, so I haven't been able to post all that junk yet. I'm about to leave to this nation's capital, where I will stay all day tomorrow. I have to finish getting ready. Goodnight, all, and safe journeys to all of you as well.

Last night, I learned that the show must go on, or in the words of Joe Dirt, I learned how to keep on keepin' on. I should be shot for making up lyrics to some of the songs that I did. Not that I didn't enjoy improving lyrics. It's kind of fun, and I could tell that the crowd there wouldn't know the real lyrics to the songs I was playing. I'll post pictures and that belated bassed "One Last Time" tomorrow.

But please don't even consider coming to the show if you're planning on watching The Sound of Music which is on ABC right now.

Ummmmm, I just got back from a sound check there. I have a brief rest b4 I have to go back. I was told that it would be good if I could play for a lot longer than I thought I was supposed to have. I am now raking the files for any song I know all the lyrics to. Also, I think there is a $5 entrance fee they are charging if you're planning to go, but I'm not sure what it is. If it were up to me, I would never charge anyone anything to hear me practice up on stage. Yes, it's always a practice. Time for my last supper, waffles.

This just in!:

The plans are that I should be starting at 10:00 tonight. Once again, this is at the Coffee Bean in Dobson, NC. For those of you in Tokyo, tough luck. Um, here's some directions if you need them.

FROM NORTH (Mt. Airy):

Take I-77 south until you get to I-74 connector, merge left onto connector(after your into NC)... go until you get to the Hwy 601 exit (mt airy/dobson). Take a right onto exit and at the end of the exit ramp, go right again... towards Dobson. Go 5 or 6 miles til you get to Dobson exit(the name of the exit) Go right at end of exit ramp, you will pass Hardees, keep going until you get to stoplight(kerr drug on right), go past burger king, and when you see The Lantern(resturant on right), turn into the parking lot after it..(video store at front of a building), Shooters is right after it in the same building...


This is from their website which was made when the place was called "Shooters," I believe. Anyhow, I've got to go. I still don't know all details of everything. I don't know that I really want to play, but I don't think I can back out now. I'm going, going, gone.......

So, a one Mr. David Sloop just came over and we jammed out for a couple of hours. It was fun. We yielded a bass line for One Last Time that he wrote. I'll release that tomorrow, probably. I'm dead tired now. This full day stuff is just too much for me...

Hello all, and welcome. It is Wrestling Boxing Day. If you live in a country where you buy hot dogs in packages of 10 and buns in packages of 8, this means nothing to you, but I'm sure some Canadians are real happy for having so many holidays in a row. There was no blogging yesterday because I was doing things with my family and such. You know, things you do at Christmas. I heard a real good joke yesterday, although my aunt claims it was true (she overheard the conversation):

My aunt was standing in the License Plate Office, here in Mount Airy. Someone walked up to the counter and asked inquisitively, "What do you have to pay for one of those handicap tags for the car?" The person at the counter quickly replied, "An arm and a leg."

That was good. Alright, I'll post later. The first annual Boxing Day Jam-Out is going to take place in my room in a couple of hours. Fun fun.

Forget the dinner thing. It didn't work out, but that's okay. Mom's going to make Hamburger Helper Cheesy enchilada! That's a real good meal. It's kind of late, though, and I'm real hungry.... I think Christmas Eve will forever be the super-blogging day of every year for colaterality.b-spot. Yes, that's what it is officially; "Super-Blogging Day"

So, here I am. I'm about to go "last-minute" shopping. That's not a ery good term because it's more the "only" type of shopping for me. So, I'm about to go only shopping for a sibling. I wouldn't do it if I hadn't picked his/her name out of the hat. Yes, we draw names every year. I don't know what I should get him/her, but I don't really care. After the quick bout of buying something, I'll proceed to go over to my Uncle Alan and Aunt Karen's house, where we've been invited for piggin' out dinner. I imagine it has something to do with them wanting to see Bryan, since he just came home (for all of you first-and-only-time readers out there). I hope potato salad is involved with this dinner......

HOLY COW!!! It's Christmas Eve!

"Merry" Christmas!!!!!!!!



heheheheh.....strange me

Here at Colaterality.blogspot, we will be running full during this day of Christmas Eve. We will be posting messages throughout today, and as far as I know, tomorrow. First bit up, last year I sent a wish list to Santa Claus. Unfortunately, I was not in a good mood when I sent it, and I was sort of making fun of the whole deal. I was posing as a 24 year-old with the same name as mine. I sincerely hope that Santa didn't fly around all night last year looking for that geeky adult who never grew up. This is the email that was sent in direct response to me from Santa:


Dear Brad

Thanks for filling out my email form.
Your gift list has been entered into my Master Computer.
You have made my job much easier now.
Here are the presents that you requested.

X-Wing/Tie Fighter Play Doh Set
Rush Limbaugh Tie Collection
"Stories That Scared Even Me" by Alfred Hitchcock
Monsters, Inc. Toadstool
Sub-Woofer for bathtub

You can go see or change your file in my computer anytime you wish, before
December 23.
at the following address: http://write-santa.com/view.html

Your secret code is:

****** [I don't give out secret codes too often. Sorry]

I'll do my best to get you the things that are on your list.
Please don't forget the milk and cookies!
Oh, and a few carrots for the reindeer, please!

Merry Christmas!
Santa

Note: Due to internet connection interruptions, this has been posted about two hours after it was written.

Oh no, oh no.....not good.....Christmas Eve is here. That's not the problem at all. The problem is that it's passing very quickly. I woke up somewhere around 7:30. I haven't done anything yet, and it's already past 10!!! What am I to do? I was also hoping that we would have a white Christmas this year, but it doesn't look like that's in shape. I have to watch some Christmas movies today. I have the Charlie Brown Christmas movies in line, along with The Santa Clause (the first one). We have both Grinches here somewhere, along with the newer Miracle on 34th Street, but because of the play I was in earlier, I don't think I'll want to review that story again. Greg's party last night was a party. There were lots of people there, and the place was packed! In fact, too packed for my liking. I don't see myself ever having a "party" if that's what a party is. I'm both bored and boring at places like that. Oh, when am I not boring? Well, you should see me when I'm given a full table of food and I'm told to start a food fight with it. I'm not boring then! You see how things like that can turn a person around? Alrighty then, I'm going to go have a nice Christmas Eve. You all do as well, or else.

You re-arrange me till I'm sane

I don't know how I've forgotten to do this every time I blog, but I have. I've been asked to open for an acoustic show Mr. Charlie House and Nathan Rattermann are putting on at the Coffee Bean in Dobson Saturday the 27th of December (this year). I accepted. So, as it is this coming Saturday, I am inviting all readers of this blog to come. I don't know about their show, but I can promise a lively and all-around pretty cool show from myself. I've put together a nice and lively set list. Want to know what songs I'll play? Too bad! You'll just have to be there. Want to see my golden tooth? Too bad! I.....don't have one. I'm not sure what time the show will start exactly yet, but I'll get back to you with that and directions to the Coffee Bean (I think). I think the time will be somewhere around 10 PM, but we'll see. I'm going to Greg's Christmas party later today. He wants me to take some stuff down to him, so I'd better go ahead and start getting some of it ready. I'm outs.

I've gotten more done today than I thought I would. I'm afraid that lately, I've gone from trying to entertain the readers of my blog to just telling about my everyday life. So now I will stand on my head while beating a sibling at mancala. I will proceed by making a victory lap around the Vatican. My plans on how to get there are pending. I did go see The Return of the King today: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! MY CAPS LOCK BUTTON IS STUCK!!! Yes, the movie was very very good. I don't think there was a square inch of skin left on my arms when the movie was over because I was scratching my arms and wringing them throughout the toughest and most intense parts of the movie (which were so frequent, I could have gone to the bathroom for 5 minutes and missed 20 of them. haha, im a liar). I was also doing air karate against Gollum. Okay, I must go. The hour is late, and I am too.

In the town where I was born lived a man who went to sleep.

That man is about to be me. There wasn't a lot of doing things today. Let's see, tomorrow, I'll probably stick around the house and do stuff like clean my room a bit. It always makes the Christmas season, uh, cleaner in the vicinity of my room. On Tuesday, I'm going to my brother Greg's Christmas "party" at his place in Statesville. I'm not sure if it should really be called a party since he invited his whole family. That's kind of strange for parties people his age give. Shouldn't they be having the type of party where they crank music really loud and and make Tostitos commercials? Well, I don't know that the music won't be cranked loud. After all, I will be there. Okay, I'm leaving.

I've spent about the last 6 hours away from home to pick up Bryan. We're back now, and I'm really really really tired, but I must stay awake for my little sister's late family-limited b-day party (it is her birthday today), and the Fountains of Wayne thing. I'll have that taped, too, so I can see the parts that I miss while falling asleep. I mean, Austin City Limits comes on at midnight! Tired, I am......

Exam Day #2: The Shorter One: Today, I just had to take the US History exam. I answered a total of 300 questions, folks. 300! You see, the exam was in two hundred-question parts. One part was basically the first midterm we had, and the second part would be the second midterm. I was really happy that the second part was basically going to be the second midterm, because I did the second midterm last night, here at home. I went through almost every question and verified it. Anyhow, when I got the second part of the exam, I noticed very quickly that it wasn't similar at all to the second midterm I had worked on. There were many many questions repeated on it that were already on the first part of the exam, and over half of it was on just Civil War battles. This was bad, because I sure haven't studied Civil War battles lately, and I was guessing on several. After I turned it in, Mrs. Merrit (after giving a fellow classmate a grade of 28) questioned her use of the right bubble sheet key. Indeed, she had used the wrong key. This was because she had given us the wrong second part of the exam. The second part she had given us was for a different US History class. She didn't have the second part for my class run off, but she decided that if we wanted to (and I did want to), we could take the second midterm and have it count as our exam. Yeah, so 300 questions in all.

So, school is over. I didn't get to go to that Jump, Little Children show the other night. No way down. So, that was one on my wish list that didn't happen. However, tomorrow night, Fountains of Wayne will be playing a full show on PBS's "Austin City Limits." Don't ask me to do it; check yo' own local times. I think it's late at night. Also tomorrow, we will leave to the airport in Greensboro to pick up my brother Bryan, who has been away on a mission for the church the past two years. We haven't seen him since, of course, and he has only been allowed to call home twice a year (Christmas, and Mother's Day). We sorely miss picking on him here, and can't wait to get started back up. Well, that's all I'm going to go on about. School's out!

I'm sure I've had enough.

Exam Day #1: Due to excessive absences on my part, I was obliged to take both possible exams today for Spanish I and precalculus. The Spanish exam was easy, as I had taken it before, and it took a lot less than an hour. So, we all sat around for a long long time. I was really bored. The precalculus exam was pretty easy. I feel really good about it, unlike the make-up quiz I took in there (since I missed it yesterday). That quiz only had 6 problems on it. I could have dealt with about 40 more to even out the gradage. Anyhow, I'm glad those are over with. Tomorrow, I have to take the US History exam, and then it's off to see The Return of the King with any luck, but that is so unofficial and out of my control I might as well tell everyone when the end of the world (as we know it) will be.

Here comes Christmas!!! I can't wait! Unfortunately, I'm not really in the spirit this year. I never got in the Christmas spirit last year, either. The Christmas spirit is, in essence, the longing to listen to Christmas music excessively. It is also the gratitude one might feel towards everyone else. I haven't experienced either of those in full, yet. Here it is, a week from Christmas, and I'm listening to regular ole' any-time-o'-year music. I don't want it to skip past me this time.

....mumble grumble dumble murmur mumble....

Never have I woken up so much in one week and thought that I was late for school. Is it bad that the first thing I'll believe is that I'm late for school? We had a 2 hour delay this morning. Dr. Church just couldn't wait to announce it in the morning instead of the night again. We've got to do something about that guy, like figure out what his degree is in. It might be a PhD in "Announcing things late, or in the nick of time." Sometimes, I forget what I want to write in my blog until the day after I think of something to write in my blog. However, today I can't think of anything that I was supposed to put any day. So, I'll leave you with these pictures. I noticed an uncanny resemblance. This is not, however, the best demonstration of their resemblance, but it will have to do. I think it's easier to tell when Galdalf is more tired and the bags under his eyes are more prominent. I never noticed Saddam had a nose that big.... G-night.


Starring Saddam Hussein as Gandalf

For clarification (and the elite Triple Blog!), that was a radio frequency scanner I fixed up, not a computer image scanner. The former-mentioned scanner is useful for listening to the police reporting that they just busted someone or pulled someone over. Laughter and finger-pointing by me usually follows hearing one of these reports.

Aha ha haha. We're not running a popsicle stand here at the Colat homestead. No siree. We're not that motivated to do anything. Instead, we like to sit around. Today, I fixed a scanner, borrowed a record player and copied a record to CD, splitting each track up. I also thought I had slept in and missed school when I woke up this morning. I was convinced for about 10 minutes as I was on my back, anyhow. I don't know why we were out today, but I'm glad we were. Very glad. Last night, I was disappointed that we weren't even going to have a 2 hour delay. I guess that's Dr. Church's idea of a joke. Haha, very funny. He's got to get his kicks from somewhere; we all do. It might've been his retirement present to all of us students or something (as he's retiring after this semester). That's all I care to think of right now.

In a slight glance over my blog, I became suddenly aware that I misspelled the word "nauseous" on the 11th of December, just a few days ago. I apologize for this misspelling, and promise it will not be the last. After all, I was nauseous when I was typing it. I also think it's funny when people misspell "misspell."

P.S. Don't worry if it is snowing on my blog. This time of year, my blog always has a little bit of the white stuff.

As promised, friends, family, I bring you two Christmas tracks to hold you over until next year's full Christmas album release by me (yeah right, Brad; you've been saying that for two years!). The songs in reference are indeed:

I Want an Alien for Christmas and Feliz Navidad

By no means are these final versions, I'm afraid. But, they are not too far. The instrumentals on both will stay the same. The vocals......well, I want to work with them for the next year. I recorded the vocals for Feliz Navidad b4 I knew that Zs were supposed to be pronounced as S's (or lispy th's, but that just wouldn't sound right in the recording). Anyhow, that's it for now. Except, oh yeah. Here's my computer trying to talk. Strangely enough, it sounds just like my little brother:

I don't like RAM anymore.

Okay, bye.

It seems as though today was a day of traditions. Yes, for sure. This morning, I continued a tradition by going to the Regional Quiz Bowl practice. I was supposed to be up on the first practice, but I slept in by a good deal. I personally blame Tom Clancy for my sleeping in. I was reading The Hunt For Red October last night. Anyhow, I did get to go up. I got the same questions wrong this year that I did last year. They used the same questions that is. It was mostly easy stuff, though. I continued another tradition by going with Mom to get a Christmas tree right after the practice. This isn't as late as we normally get our tree, so don't laugh. Mom was seriously thinking about getting an artificial tree. I was stupefied. I had tears in my eyes. I told her it would kill me to have a fake tree in the home. Why, if we had a fake tree, what would stop us from having a fake Mom, and a fake Christmas. I hated to contend with her, but oh well. We have a wonderful-smelling tree standing in our living room now. What a great tradition! I continued my monthly tradition of going to Wal-Mart, where I hate to be while there are people there. However, Santa was there (not in a chair; where would they put it?) and I was all jolly myself. At home, I continued the tradition of sitting around. I've been doing that for a long time, and I fear it might lose its significance or become too commercial. Tonight, I watched the Jimmy Stewart classic, "It's A Wonderful Life". It was great and funny, as it always is. It's by far my favorite Christmas movie. It catches the Christmas spirit better than any other commercial movie I've seen. Traditions, traditions...

Blah. It's been a very long week, full with lots of work from all directions. I'm glad it's the weekend. Tomorrow morning, the region is having Quiz Bowl practice here in Mt. Airy (how convenient for us). That should be fun, as it always has been. Yesterday, I did go to Winston, as the previous post can testify. I went with my dad to pick up parts for computers. We were going to get a case for a motherboard w/ processor that was lying around. I was going to use it to replace the piece of junk that is now sitting on my desk, when I realized it would be twice as slow as mine (which isn't all that slow in my experience). So, I decided I'd rather have a fast(er) computer that freezes all the time than a slow computer that runs smoothly. We dropped by Best Buy for a little while, where I instantly fell in utter, complete, and unrequitted love with a 20 gigabyte mp3 player that happened to catch my eye. It was a hard drive with an earphone jack, but so what. I wanted it a lot. However, the price tag was over twice my weight, and I was heavy-hearted. Thoughts of shoplifting flashed through my brain, but I couldn't do that. How would I upload songs in prison? Yes. Well, I'm going to go now. Not then, but now...

I am at Intrex Computers in Winston. I am sick and nautious from doing homework on the way down. I am going to Record Exchange in a few minutes. Bye.

Not only am I tired; I'm real tired. im sick of being stupid

Oh, by the way, that recording is dedicated to Spanish I, or any other class that has made me feel made me feel made me feel stupid.

Today has been today. I don't think it's been any other day. I began with a space-time hole puncher in hand (apparently something Mr. Holden Appler couldn't handle so readily), and have not yet ended my day (I don't have a space-time hole puncher in my hands). Those space-time chads were spilling everywhere. In precal, we were taught some things that will come extremely extremely helpful on the SAT in the math sections, and we were given a large grammar lesson by a teacher other than my precal teacher. My US History class was spent by my teacher trying very hard to impose her views on her students (views that I happened to quite agree with this time) and handing out extra credit to those who agreed to act on her beliefs. I listened to her call parents whiney with disgust, then suggest that we be whiney too. She told us to complain. I'd rather explain, though. But that's okay; whatever. In band, I didn't get one page of homework finished, though we had the whole class as free time. This is due to the movie The Santa Clause 2. I've seen it b4, but it's been a long time. All I have to say is that sequels are hardly ever as good as the first ones in a series. This is not true with the Star Wars series (substitute "prequels" for "sequels"). Here at home, it's Dad's b-day. I think I forgot to mention Mom's birthday on the 3rd, but I don't know. Anyhow, Dad came home and started shouting something about, "I knew it! I was right!" He had been working on a computer at a customer's workplace when he began to hear a rumble and feel the desk shaking. He searched the internet for geological events, but couldn't find any at the time. He did file a report that he felt some sort of activity (because he didn't think it was the granite quarry and it wasn't a rumbling truck outside) around 4:00. So, he came home and went to The Drudge Report, a frequently visited site here at the Gentry household, and saw that there was an earthquake in Richmond, VA. The times reported by himself and the geologists were very near each other. It makes me mad that I didn't feel it. When am I going to feel an earthquake ever again here in Mount Airy?! Well, I doubt it was possible for me to hear/feel it at the time, because I was recording this cover of Ben Folds Five's "Bad Idea" (the original demo version, for those who care):

Bad Idea!

Consider it a treat for reading the blog, or maybe it will be a pain. It's real stupid, but it's supposed to be. However, only I could be stupid at being stupid. It needs Windows Media Player to play. Also, you might wanna you might wanna you might wanna you might wanna turn down the speakers a little before it starts. I don't know how relatively loud it is. Anyhow, I've given you fair warning. Goodbyebyebyebye.

Also, late last night, I was feeling real queasy. I was hoping I'd wake up sick this morning. I didn't.

Free banshees!

Tonight was the fall semester band performance. I just got back from it. As far as I know, it was the last time I'll have to be on the stage of Mount Airy High School for a while. That's good, too, since I've been on that blasted stage for a good few months now. I wasn't able to play much there at the concert tonight. My lips were blown after about the second piece (out of five). I just faked the rest of the time. In Spanish today, we were watching The Crocodile Hunter (the movie). I've never seen it in English, but the English subtitles on the bottom of the screen looked alright. I'll have to download it rent it sometime. I'm planning to get a couple of Christmas songs I've recorded up here soon. I'm just too lazy. Thanks a lot, Brad, for being lazy. You're quite welcome.

After a second Thanksgiving holiday in a row, I have to go to school tomorrow. That makes me sad. I'm homesick for Florida already. There's no place like home, but home is where the heart is. My heart is in Bristol, Florida. That has caused a few problems as of late, since I need my heart wherever I am. Blood can't pump itself! And I leave you with that really dumb "joke".

Over. Over! The play is over. The parts I discussed here before smoothed out. There were still a few bumps, but not near as many. I'm glad I'm going to be able to stay home after school for now on. In other news, I wore makeup today. I'm currently playing chess, listening to a tape, typing this blog, and waiting for my computer to freeze up for the fifth time in 15 minutes. I really really can't wait for Christmas! Also, New Year's is coming up. I'm going to take a quick trip up to Washington, D.C. somewhere around then, I think. Also, before Christmas, Jump, Little Children will be having an acoustic show in Charlotte (at a "no smoking" venue!), and Fountains of Wayne will have a full show of their's aired on PBS' "Austin City Limits." oh yeah, my brother bryan will be coming home from his two-year mission for the church on the 20th. That's all folks!

Yipee! We had no school today due to a rogue snow. All day yesterday reports were coming out about when we would and would not have snow. I don't think I heard a report that it would snow last night until last night at play practice. I do believe the play is still on, though. We didn't have practice tonight, but I think we have practice tomorrow night. If anyone has real answers, let me know. I've gotten the pictures up now. I didn't realize what a poor set of pictures it is, but oh well. It's all I've got. We don't have any school tomorrow, either. I guess that's when I'll clean my room or something. Here's how you get to the pictures:

Click here for my trip's picture album!!!

Okay, bye!

My goodness......I never want to go to another play practice like that again! Things were running smoothly until we got to the court scenes (which I, as judge, was "presiding" over). All I can say is that I hope a couple of actors who were acting like lawyers never become real lawyers. No, in all seriousness, I believe they will get their lines before the performance. I was given permission tonight to hold a script with me on the stand to keep them from dying if lines are forgotten again. Anyhow, I've worked some on the trip pictures, but I haven't gotten it done yet, as I haven't had much time and I still have a good bit of homework to do. It looks like this is going to be a late nighter.... Wait a second! What am I sitting here writing this blog for?!! I'm a bum!

Woops! Yesterday, nobody at the Gentry household had a connection to the internet, so you'll have to forgive me. Or maybe you won't.I was going to post some pictures from the trip today, but the batteries in the digital camera are definitely dead. There are some good pictures but not very many. One reason is because the camera heats up batteries like crazy! Another is because I was too lazy to take too many pictures and carry the camera around with me everywhere. There's at least once funny one in that stack of pictures. Moving on, by visiting the Jump, Little Children web site, and reading a recent post, you will see that my suspicions have been confirmed. At least one member of Jump, Little Children is a fan of Homestar Runner. I always thought so! That is so cool! I wish I knew of more [semi-]famous people who were Homestar Runner fans. That's what the world needs, after all. Well, I will go ahead and wrap up this post. There isn't much to say today. I will try to get the pictures up later, but don't count on it with your life. Oh, for those of you who really care, this entire post was typed by dictation software. That is, all I had to do speak to type this post. It was dictated by a program called NaturallySpeaking. It's pretty cool. Well, I think I will go now. Goodbye, everyone!

I've just gotten home from the trip, and what can I say? It was a really really good trip! My southern accent has re-deepened, I've had enough deep-fried things to kill a westerner, and I fell younger. I think that going down there to my grandparents' is a lot like the fountain of youth. Yes, it is. I'm already homesick for the place that's not my home. Well, not my home literally. I want to go back. I have some pictures I'll work on posting, but for now I'll just try to work my way back into reality and convince myself I have to start worrying about things again. I really let go for this one, and I'm glad I did. I almost forgot there was an outside world. Well, I suppose I'm pretty tired from the trip home. It was a long one. I will go now. Laterz!