Penny for your Genre?

What defines a Genre of music? Is it the Rhythm? The tempo? Could it be the instrumentation or the composition? Maybe it's the sound in general?

I listen to a lot of different music, take it from the size of my collection. I'm now over 56,000 songs in my library and it will continue to grow as long as I keep hearing things I like. Everything from Bluegrass, Classical, various electronic sub-genres and many instrumental and vocal genres as well as Classic Rock and Hip Hop. Music isn't just poetry with song, it's also art in sound. It's something that you feel, it stirs up emotions and feelings inside of you. If it doesn't, well then maybe you aren't at the same wavelength as I am when it comes to it.

Take Dubstep for example. There's a few different variations of it. Most describe it as "Garbage Disposal" music. Yes, there is some that can be so repetitive and boring that it makes you want to jump off a high rise to end your sorrows. But this goes for any other genre really. I prefer listening to the adrenaline pumping variations of it. The deep dark bass and sounds to it.

Music is dependent on my mood as well. Say I'm at the gym for instance (Yeah, I need to go back). If I'm doing cardio, I need to have something upbeat and positive like a good Dance, Progressive House or even Break Beat playlist going. If I'm going to lift weights, I need something that will make me feel that rush of a faux rage. Drum & Bass, Dubstep or Heavy Metal come to mind.

When you break down the music, you have a lot of varied parts of the song that make up the class or genre. Hip Hop is one genre that if you ask me, has been slowly ruined. Not so much because of the words or the lifestyle todays so-called rappers are living. It's down to one thing for me, Production Value. When someone like Dr. Dre puts a track together, the drums are crisp, clean and make perfect sense with the rest of the background. He puts detail into his songs that we take for granted. If you listen to some of the modern stuff, they just throw the same samples (a cheap snare, shitty and unclean basslines that hardly make sense) with poor thought put into the lyrics or even into the rhythm of the song. Hip Hop was an expression that made you move. Now it makes you want to live a lifestyle that is faked and staged more now than any reality show.

Maybe I think too much about all this, but it's what I do. I can listen to the many layers of a song or just bob my head back and forth because it just makes me do that with a smile. Sometimes I even still grind my teeth to some music.

Be an Adult for Christs sake...

So today I had the pleasure of being screamed at again by my co-worker. He's 5 years my senior, college educated and seems to think that his view in life is superior to keen intellect and past experience of those who have knowledge in areas he does know. Simply put, he's an artist that knows how to "Use" a computer and printer, but couldn't figure out how to take one apart if his life depended on it. I for one am the person who knows how to both use the equipment while also knowing how to maintain and repair it as well.

So we have this printer that I've been using for the past 4 years now. He's been there only the last 2 years. The printer has a "Sleep" function so it saves power. When a job is set to the print cue, the printer wakes up and resumes functioning once it has warmed back up. This is how this machine has worked since day one.

I had asked him to print some items for me and when I noticed that over an hour had gone by and the prints weren't done (Or even started for that matter) I went to ask if he had done them (You know, instead of yelling at him that I've been waiting for them for half the day now) and he said no he didn't but he said he hit the button to send the jobs. He then asked if the printer was asleep and I said yes, but it should wake up when it gets a job. He says, and I quote "In my experience it doesn't do that..." Your experience? You've been here for 2 years, you've sent numerous jobs to this printer and you never paid attention to when it wakes up? At this point I'm holding my tongue from telling him how much of an unobservant idiot he is. I simply tell him "No *Name*, the printer wakes up when you send a job to it. It's supposed to do that." So then he replies back, now raising his voice "Well in my experience it doesn't do that!" to which I replied "I've been using this particular printer for the last 4 years and I know for a fact that it does, it's a built in function" and before I can finish I get even louder now "IN MY FUCKING EXPERIENCE IT DOESN'T DO THAT! FUCK MAN! WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM!!!".... So screaming this at me will make it come true? Or you're telling me that I've been in some sort of delusional state for the last four years and the "Sleep" and "Wake" functions have all been just a dream? No, I think not my technologically illiterate friend. So my reply was "Dude, you don't have to scream at me ok? I'm just saying I know how the printer works rather well since I've been using it for so long" and again I'm cut off to more colorful words and screaming from his desk, to which he has not gotten up from to even see the printer wake up on its own anyways. I just said "Look, it turned on by itself just now so yes it does wake up when you send a job to it. Grow the fuck up and stop screaming at me and stop being a baby..." Mind you my tone and volume were far lower than his.

I walked back to the printer 2 minutes later only to notice he started printing the wrong job anyways so I had to clear the print cue and ask him to start the correct one this time. *sigh*

Simply put, when I have a question on Art History or what mystical bullshit alien conspiracy is hot today, then I'll trust your word. But when there's a technical issue or question, you best let the one with over half his life in experience handle the facts on that one, ok?

My Father...

A wise man once told me "Deal with it!". That wise man was my father. His words sometimes would sting a part of me that made me think "What the hell does he know?" but then I grew up and now I find myself more often than not saying "You were right dad... You were very smart..." I miss him to this very day. It will be 8 years this May. He wasn't the model citizen in his younger days, but he was one of the most honorable men I ever knew and one of the best friends and fathers I could have ever asked for. He kept me safe and made sure I was provided for. Not just in the sense that he bought things for me, but in the sense that no matter what I would be able to survive on my own. He gave me the ability to do many things for my self and not have to rely on others for so many things in life. He taught me independence and the basics of how to figure things out. So when something breaks, I try (And usually succeed) to fix it myself. When I want to improve something, I do it myself. Again, he wasn't exactly the perfect person, but to me he was the perfect father.

They say when you lose a loved one that they will always be there watching over you. To be honest, I never believed in that mumbo jumbo. Honestly, who wants to be in the middle of sex and think "Wow, so my dead relatives are watching me now?" Not me, that's for sure. But there have been many of times that I've felt like he was right there next to me when I needed him. You can keep your spiritual nonsense and your religious folklore. I have my heart and my memories and that's all I need to survive in my world.

Angry little Jew...

So my boss seems to think he knows everything. He also seems to think I know nothing. He comes to me asking advice about buying a computer for our Art person, but then comes in today telling me what the guy at Office Depot and Best Buy said to him. Basically, he disregarded my advice and is choosing to go down his own path. I'm sure I'll get blamed for whatever decision he makes as that's his usual go-to move with everything.

See, he's the kind of person you don't want to come into your restaurant or retail store or even your home. Now I'm not a racist, anti-Semite or anything like that...But... This man is the reason why Jewish people have such a horrible reputation when it comes to business and everything else in life.

This is the point where you either continue to read on or you start re-thinking your interest in reading my blog or even being my friend. Anyways.

He is hell bent on finding something wrong in EVERYTHING around him. I don't care if it's the people who work for him (Me...) the people who deliver his pizza or the bill collectors calling him because he's 2 months late. It's never his fault and he's happy to tell you "The way it looks to him". This man is never satisfied in life and has to mask or bullshit his way out of every error. Even if you catch him on paper with hard proof of his error, he still has to fire back an error you did.

I really don't like my job to be honest. I don't wish ill harm on the place, other peoples livelihood depend on that place doing well. However my boss is one person that once I walk away from I know I will never look back or even think of coming back to. He's ungrateful, disrespectful and degrading to anyone that doesn't do exactly what he wants without him telling you exactly what he wants. This is no exaggeration when I say he's the type of person who will tell you to go "Move something" but get made when you move the wrong thing in the wrong place. It's like his parents raised him to be mad and dissapointed in everything in life.

Anyways. Enough about him. I needed to document this for future reference. The next time some short bald guy driving a Porsche asks me if I want to work for him. It's ok, he drives a Range Rover now.

Why Skittles?

Ok so the naming of this blog is kind of random. That's the point! I will write about random things. Like a bag of skittles, I have many colors to me. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole "Blog" thing though just yet. This could be a good place for me to post long ramblings that I can't do in other places, I just have to remember to use it I suppose.

If you had the chance...

So if you had a chance to go back into any part of your life and do things over, would you? If someone gave you a golden ticket, a magic lamp or a Delorean with some crazy scientist and said you can fix or change one thing, would you?

Though I battle with this question every day of my life, my answer has to weigh out to the "No" part. Why you ask? Because lord only knows what other directions things would have gone in. Have I done things that I wish I didn't do? Yes, I'm sure we all have. Does it warrant a change and a chance to ruin what I have now? Absolutely not. Though my life isn't in the exact place I may have wanted it to be in at that time, it's in a much better place than it could have been in.

There's a few things I've learned in life after experiences a few traumatic events. Love what you have no matter what because there's always someone out there with less to love than you have. Once you have lost things, remember the good they brought you and don't dwell on them not being around anymore. Nothing lasts forever except for your memories (Unless you lose your mind, then be prepared for naked mall fountain escapades...) and most importantly, always try to make positive impacts on people, even if they are silent ones.

That is all. For now.