Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in a.mech's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, August 9th, 2007
3:00 pm	the swiss alps I'm in a little town called Griesenfeld in the Swiss Alps with a storm raging outside, stuck in here with the internet. Good time for my yearly post right? My parents are I are at the tail end of a fourteen day hike through the Swiss Alps called the Walker's Haute Route, from Chamonix to Zermatt. As you would expect of this area, when you can see through the clouds the scenery is unreal. This trek comes as the second half of my first trip to Europe. The first half was spent with my sister Amy and her friend Jen. We visited Paris, Nice, Venice, and Rome. Rome was the definite highlight. The ruins are massive remnants of an ancient, brutal, and powerful society, and the modern city is like a European prototype for the omnicultural urban sprawl that is New York. Some observations of Europe (what I've seen of it anyway): What I previously viewed as a fairly original sense of style on the part of NYC hipsters is really just a working knowledge of contemporary italian fashion. Cheese in France marked "Fromage du Caractere" is stinky beyond comparison and imagination, pretty good in a sandwich though. French Fries ARE better in France. Most Europeans speak very good English and almost always with an American accent. I'm sure it irks the Englishmen. Coffee in France and Italy is in my opinion, contrary to popular myth, crap. They only offer little shots of espresso and "cafe americano" which is a shot of espresso with enough added hot water to make it the size of an American cup of coffee. I vastly prefer fresh ground coffee beans made into coffe through the usage of a drip machine or a french press (which I didn't see in france.) German coffee, however, can be very good. Belgian beer really is the best. You cannot escape American pop music. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
10:54 pm	bwahahahaha! I haven't been able to steal wifi from inside my room for like a month, but then phil said, let's go on the roof! hahaha! internets! it's really cold out here...... (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
10:57 pm	Over the weekend I bought a practice drum set and started learning to play. Today I started converting this practice pad set into an electronic kit. In the conversion process I was left with a bunch of jagged pieces of metal which i wrote "friendship" on. This made me happy. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
10:23 am	I like the kind of metal that lets you know exactly when you should be doing a flying jumpkick into some poor fuckers face. The kind what makes even the most timid do a little hop when the chorus hits. Unearth is a good example. Also school has started agin. Time consuming. The English and Pol Sci classes are impressive new levels of pointless bullshit from stammering sputtering teachers. The MAT056 class seems like it will get me up to engineering speed with the math I slept through in high school. All in all, I'm hopeful. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 26th, 2007
9:49 pm	the end of an era school starts on monday. I am a college kid again. doom? (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007
11:31 pm	I am now 23, which makes me a twenty something, woo. Spent new years in a quiet gathering with a couple friends and bree. It was good. I am enrolled to start school again on january 26th as an engineering student Borough of Manhattan Community College. I'd fucked my grades with previous school experiences too bad to go to a state school, but bmcc seems like the best funded community college I have ever seen, it seems to totally escape the High School: Revisited feel that most have. Death metal seems to be my primary musical focus these days, and trying to get my chops up to a Fear Factory level. Your ears need to bleed. I've quit going to see live music and my social anxiety seems to have gotten worse. I have no problem playing shows, but the combination of having worked as a live sound engineer for a year and just the sheer number of people at a show is something I have trouble stomaching in a participatory manner. Hopefully school will be good for me, I really need to get going somewhere, sound engineering is a seriously dead end occupation I don't even really like. The truth is that I don't like music all that much, just sounds. Also I found out that my real father is Q'thoth and he is an ancient tentacled tripod beast of unimaginable horror from the planet Yuggoth. My real mission is life is to devour the souls of all humankind because they taste like fruit loops, only better. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 3rd, 2006
5:34 am	KITTY! Her name is Siouxsie Sioux. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 12th, 2006
2:42 pm	ugh, just because you are drunk enough on the good stuff that you can stomache the bud light, doesn't mean you should. I feel fucking terrible. good night though. arizona is still filled with crazy people. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006
3:45 pm	PREPARE YOURSELVES! ARIZONA from NOV 8th to NOV 15th. I WILL BE THERE, WILL YOU? (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 16th, 2006
12:49 pm	I really really hate kafka I don't know why, but for some reason few things send me off into such a blind unfeeling rage as the mere mention of Kafka. His writing was so fucking awful, a special level of awful. All his stories end on variations of "so that's how it was, I guess, but it doesn't really matter anyway." He never published anything because HE though it sucked. The first part of the Metamorphosis and most of The Trial are the only things that have any merit at all, and as such should have been relegated to an anthology of an obscure litereary magazine for that year. If that. And all the rest doesn't even get near that half-assed art student level of writing. He fucks about and wishes he was thoreau, and then he fucks about and wishes he was Poe, and then he just complains about being a fucking wishy washy aristocrat with a bunch of slaves who never worked a day in his life. GAH! HATE! (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 13th, 2006
6:08 am	hennepin is very good beer It's amazing how no matter how many friends you have, how close they are, the ones that affected you first will always be the ones that affected you most. Whenever I play guitar I think of Adam, with synths I think of Nick, and whenever I drink good beer I think of Kelly. Therefore I propose a toast to the ones that have disapeared. cheers. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 1st, 2006
1:31 pm	Yesterday while I was gone my doorframe separated itself from the wall on one side. Now my door doesn't close and there is a huge gaping hole leading into the wall so scary bugs can come out. Fucking brooklyn. Also, for another round of job interview coming up I trimmed the mountain man beard I'd been growing and got a haircut, not I look (as mike put it) "age appropriate." I hate it. I look like a fucking IT guy. Like I graduated college with a major in, goddamnit, I dunno, something unpleasantly nerdy. Like I should own a POLO shirt. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 30th, 2006
11:35 am	Last week I saw my parents at my grandmother's house in virginia. I hadn't seen my dad for a full year. That was so much fun. My parents didn't even nag me for my current directionless lifestyle or anything, they were just fun. Mom did say one thing that affected me though, she has me covered under her health insurance because she works at a hospital and asked me to go back to school sooner than later so she could retire. I think I need to do that, she should be able to retire. I just don't know what I'd major in. My dad is retiring in a month or so. He has been going nutty lately, he bought a Porsche Boxster, a motorcycle, some new bicycles, went on a trip to Peru (he wanted to see machu pichu) etc. Watching him do that is an incentive for me to go back to school and not be a penniless sound guy my whole life. I'd like to buy a sports car and retire someday too. They also bought me a coffee machine. COFFEEEEEEE. Oh my god I fucking love coffee. And I brought Bree with me to Virginia so she could meet my parents, they got along really well I thought. A good week definitly. We've been going out like 8 months, how crazy is that? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
8:05 pm	august! The new place in williamsburg rocks. I have my own private roof that can only be accessed through our bathroom window. It's fenced off so graffiti people can't get to it and it's on top of a meat warehouse. I like to sit on top of it late at night smoking and honing my metal skills. The subway runs above ground there and is about 50 feet away, I wave to people on the train and then give them a solo in tribute. The fourth roomate finally moved in, he's another actor and he brought funiture. Previously the house had been entirely empty since the other three of us had NO COUCHES. THERE ARE NOW COUCHES AND A TEE VEE. HOO HAH. And yes. I'm now in virginia. BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT. I dunno. I'd been telling my grandma I'd come and hang out for a while, so it was finally time to do so, especially because I'm only semi employed. I mean, I'm not really employed at all, but I pick up random gigs here and there. I need a metal band, I've been auditioning to join several lately. Apparently when I try to play death metal I just sound like Ministry, but heavier. Same happens when I play keyboards, only it turns into skinny puppy. fuckers. whatever. I'll destroy all of you. I found a drummer I might be able to coerce. He's a veteran of several post-hardcore grind bands and is really into blastbeats. blastbeats are fun. DOOM. I have no long term, or even really short term plans at this point. I'm free, free fallin... I still hate tom petty. I'm tempted to grow a beard. (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 17th, 2006
11:48 am	I dreamt that my dad gave me a motorcycle with flames on it, and then I ran sound for a show in my underwear. I actually briefly woke up during the dream and wondered why the show would be in my room and where all the bands were, then I went back to sleep and rode my motorcycle. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006
12:30 pm	new place So now I live in Williamsburg. For you non-new yorkers: williamsburg is the now bloated expensive "hip" part of brooklyn. Where hipsters come from. However, it's also 10 minutes from the lower east side, where all the best bars and concert venues are, and a good place to sneeer at other people for not being as cool as you. It used to be a jewish neighborhood. I just bought a kosher energy drink. It is alright. I live with this dude Nat who is bizarrely enough also from phoenix and went to Horizon High School and knew our dear friend Dave. Yay. All I had to say was "hey, did you know dave? he was kinda crazy..." and he says "Dave with long white hair? dave ketchum? he was fucking insane!" So that's good. Also an Australian girl named Olivia who just moved to the states and another guy named... um, dustin? who I have not met yet. The room itself is bigger than my previous room and not salmon colored. It is pretty sweet. I live above an "International Restaraunt," now I just need to get a job to insure I can stay here. (Comment on this)
Monday, July 31st, 2006
12:58 pm	I'm moving to williamsburg! (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 23rd, 2006
4:19 pm	man. I'm conflicted, confused and apathetic. So I need to be out of this apartment at the end of the month. My burning need to get out of New York calmed somewhat after I quit that job, so I applied for a bunch of much better ones. but, eh. I still don't like new york. however if I want to be in the audio industry, especially since I'd love to do recording and editing for broadcast, I need to be here or LA. going back to phoenix would be weird. I don't have a lot of friends left there, didn't have a lot when I left two years ago. As far as jobs go I'd have to work in a club, of which there are few, or get an install job, which sucks but pays ok. Mainly, I'd have to go back to school. My original plan was move back to az, use it as a base while I decide where to go next. Seattle would still be neat, not much more job possibilities there than phx tho. bah. Bree and I made up, which definitly is a large factor in me staying. in other news, my friend Chris got me back into video games. Painkiller and Destroy All Humans are the big standouts. mmmmmm violence. The Wretch - Northern Air will be released 08/08/06 (Comment on this)
Monday, July 17th, 2006
12:32 pm	I'm done with pragmatech! I'm gonna dance a little jig! *dance* woo! also my fudge tunnel cd came in the mail. I'd been trying to find it in stores for a while to no luck, but man, I needed some fudge tunnel. fudge tunnel! it's fun to say that. like it was a superhero. so I haven't decided whether I'm moving back to arizona at the end of the month or not. that's been this week's big decision. fudge tunnel! hehehehe (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 14th, 2006
11:51 pm	I quit my job yesterday, last day is sunday. let me rephrase that: FUCK YEAH! ... I don't know what I'm doing besides for that. This week has been insane. It's like, every now and then a switch flips and everything is different again. (Comment on this)