gifts

Today was a good day. Two words - cliff jumping. anyone who hasn't done this needs to because it's just awesome with a capital A. My good buddy and photographer extraordinaire David Molnar (www.DavidMolnarPhotography.com) accompanied me and convinced me to even do a bit of rock climbing up the cliffs.



I'm afraid of heights. Plain and simple. But there's a rush that i get whenever i force myself to get over a fear. And i don't mean the rush from jumping 40 feet into deep water. I'm talking about the euphoria i get when i realize that willpower and reason have the power to overcome something that feels wrong but i know is ok.

Most people accept their fears as natural limitations. They think they will always be afraid of heights, or bugs, or this, or that. When you talk to them about their fears, they reasonably agree that if they were to get over said fear, their life would ultimately be more enjoyable. Yet few people actually make the effort. It's almost universally agreed that those fears will always be there and we use that as a cop-out so that we won't have to step outside our comfort zone and try something new.

As we grow up we acquire new skills. Physical skills. Verbal skills. And most importantly, mental skills. For instance, delaying momentary gratification for a much greater reward in the future. A child wants everything NOW. A mature adult understands that saving money now can result in enjoyment at a later date. I believe that knowingly and purposely forcing yourself to get over one of these "natural" fears is a skill we should all acquire. well, i guess "should" is the wrong word to use. It's not like it should be a law or anything. I just would imagine that it would make life better.

Let's say that on Christmas morning i was presented with a huge warehouse full of gifts. But i could only keep the gifts that i could open that day. Wouldn't i want to open as many gifts as possible? The life we have is a gift. In fact, i believe in our lives we have many gifts given to us to enjoy. a beautiful sunset is a great gift. A beautiful day is a gift. Being able to go to a far off place and see the local sights is a gift. A gourmet meal is a gift. Flinging yourself off a rock into water is a gift. Do we NEED these? No. But wouldn't you want to experience as many gifts as you can?

stoptional

one of the things that makes my wife sigh in slight annoyance is something that happens whenever we're driving though any sort of mall parking lot. i hate speed bumps. not just because they're annoying - no, i hate the very principle of speed bumps. punish everyone for the sins of a few. it's kinda like in grade school when a teacher threatens to punish the whole class if she doesn't find out who put a tack on her chair (which i really did in 5th grade, but i digress).

and something i hate even more than speed bumps are stop signs. i hate to break my momentum and stop signs are the antithesis of momentum. it's not like stopping at a store to get something done. it's not prolonged like a stoplight where you could actually use the time to change the radio station, send a text message or just look around at the other drivers who you will momentarily challenge with some sort of suburban drag race once the light turns green. but ya know, stop signs are stop signs. they serve a valid purpose....well, kind of. get this - in many European cities (specifically, cities in Holland, Germany and England) traffic planners have been testing a new theory about traffic for the past couple years with good results. they are tearing down stop signs, removing stoplights and getting rid of lane lines. apparently accidents in these cities have gone down dramatically as a result. when people rely on lights and signs, they are lured into a false sense of security and let their judgment lapse and get into accidents. but with no lights or signs telling them what to do, people are forced to be aware and to watch out for other drivers. it's interesting how a laissez-faire approach works even beyond economics.

anyway, it'll probably be a while before American cities start tearing down stop signs and lights so for the time being i just have to deal with it. EXCEPT in mall parking lots. those stop signs at malls are bogus. they're imposters. frauds. fakes and phonies. they were not placed there by city ordinance. no, they were placed there by the owner of the mall which means we aren't obligated by law to obey them. don't believe me? well think about this. real stop signs must be a certain height and oriented at a certain angle to be valid. if you get a ticket for a stop sign violation, you can actually get out of that ticket if you prove in court that the stop sign was turned around a few degrees or if the sign was bent over and therefore the incorrect height. now think about mall stop signs. they're about 3 or 4 feet lower than real stop signs and are hardly the right size. sooooo, much to my wife's chagrin, whenever i'm driving through a mall parking lot and there's no traffic or pedestrians or good reason to stop at a mall stop sign, i drive right through it in perfectly good conscience. it's those instances where i declare said stop sign to be "stoptional"

you can call me roger...

sometimes i have guilty pleasures that creep up in the weirdest of places. i love to eat popsicles...even if it's freezing outside, for instance. or take this tour. us, Skillet and Decypher Down. three loud rockbands and somehow i fit this into our set every night. there's absolutely nothing rock and roll about it, but i think it's sweet. take a look:










oh, and if you understand the reference in the title of this blog, extra gold stars for you.

plugins

some have said that men who drive big flashy cars are compensating for something in their personal life. i've always said that a guitar player's ego is directly proportional to the size of their pedalboard. in studio world, it seems the appropriate metaphor is plugins. talk to any kid fresh out of recording school and the first thing they'll talk about is plugins. the disdain you're picking up from me is really targeted at my younger self who was very guilty of such offenses, i should point out. why on god's green earth would anybody ever need 28 different kinds of EQ and 35 compressors? i mean, i understand the subtle differences between a few added features here and there. but seriously? i once was talking to an intern who was telling me about a project he was working on. apparently he was pretty proud of the fact that he had to put an average of two EQs and one compressor on every track of a full band. really? the unspoken yet implied message was this: more plugins = better recording. and of course, better recording = bigger ego. instead of spending all that time tweaking compression ratios and zeroing in on the perfect frequency, maybe do a little prep work by making sure the drummer has a good sounding kit. maybe even have a conversation about what they are playing and whether or not it's the right thing for that part of the song.

i could be totally wrong about all this stuff. maybe all the big engineers and producers out there use boatloads of plugins to hammer a square peg into a round hole. i've just found it easier to find a creative solution rather than a technical one.

note to self

things i've learned tonight:

1. when up late at night in a dark house with most of the lights turned out, do not - in a search for comfort noise - turn on history channel documentaries about bigfoot, UFOs and
especially not anything demon related.

2. UFOs are sometimes called USOs because apparently they are swimming in the ocean now.

3. don't eat a whole 4th meal cobbled together from bits of olive garden leftovers so late at night. heartburn is calling my name. oh wait. i didn't just learn that. i already knew that from EVERY OTHER NIGHT WHEN I STUFF MY FACE AND THEN WONDER WHY MY GULLET IS ON FIRE.

"this toy for ages 5 and up"....is 27 ok?

i love coming home to see my family. a lot of the people i grew up with who moved seem to have done so in an attempt to escape the semi-small town of springfield. but for some reason i like coming back to see friends and family.

today (or should i say yesterday since i'm writing this at 2:30 in the morning) was christmas. my birthday. i turned 27 today. i probably shouldn't put this much information about me on the web, but i figure, hey, i'm sure if somebody was hell bent on stealing my identity, a birthday from a blog won't make much of a difference.

i got a bunch of gifts from family that i'm very grateful for. some clothes. digital camera. a sentimental stone from my great grandfather's house in germany. oddly enough, my favorite gift that i got and was the most excited about was a joke gift. my parents got me a small remote controlled helicopter. i think i spent the better part of the day perfecting the skills required to navigate around my parents house.

anyway, i hope everyone had a nice christmas. i know i did.

nick

commute

the wind rushed through the tunnels and all around me with an urgency not unlike the fevered pitch of the people that crowded the passageway. as the train sped away and i climbed out of the underground catacombs known as the red line Grand Ave. stop, i couldn't help but think, "wow, here i am again". i lived and worked in Chicago for about three years. it was a love/hate relationship with a city i dearly loved, but suffered in for so long.

i took that same train every day for three years. if you're familiar with chicago, you may know that from this stop i have two choices to get to work. Lower Michigan Ave. goes underneath Michigan and cuts across to Ohio St. with almost no traffic. no waiting to cross the busy street. plus, in the cold weather being underneath minimizes the bite of the wind on your face. short and sweet. the other is to actually cut across Upper Michigan - to experience the lights and hustle and bustle of a beautiful city.

on this new day, although things felt familiar, i know that i am a different person that i was back then. life isn't about avoiding hardships and minimizing pain. it's not about just getting from point A to point B. life is experiencing the wonders that are around us in everyday life. it's about seeing the positive and not dwelling on the negative. it's about staying focused and finding out who you are among the cacophony of voices going in different directions.

i took Upper Michigan