January 28

Wrote a short song in about 15 minutes last night--was going to record it this morning, but it's hard to be motivated to play, record, and sing a song immediately after waking up at 5:30 in the morning. Maybe will record it tonight and put it up on FAWM tomorrow.

January 27

Listened to some Kris Roe (of The Ataris) doing acoustic songs. I don't think I can prepare for FAWM much more than I have been for the last few days. I'm still brainstorming ideas, but I'm READY for February 1st to get here.

January 26

Listened to some Something Corporate on the way to work, still working on building my desire to write some piano pieces for FAWM this year.

Other things of note: My parents got two new horses, bringing their total up to... I believe 2. In addition, here's a facebook account you should friend: http://www.facebook.com/#/profile.php?ref=profile&id=100000718780010

January 25

Catching back up with the FAWMcasts from this past weekend, since I was at the in-laws. Had a decent weekend, but I begrudgedly have to get back to work.

What am I doing today to prep for FAWM? Well, I listened to a few bands on the way to work this morning to inspire writing with basic chords (Counting Crows) as well as Acoustic solo guitar (Dashboard Confessional). The sorts of things I regularly listened to when I was writing my best stuff (circa 2004-2005).

I'm also going to start today in doing a little working out a little each day to try and build motivation and a little self-esteem, which are two qualities I'm desperately going to need next month. I'm going to try and write two songs this week as a lead up to FAWM--I might post those up when I get them recorded.

Finally, I saw that my friend Matt, who I used to play in a band with, finally signed up for FAWM. His name on FAWM is 'shade', so you guys should head over and check him out.

FAWM idea list

The following is a list I'm keeping of ideas to possibly include in FAWM this year:

Song Ideas:
- Theme song for Galaxy Invader (organs/rock, intro to Track 8 from 'I Can Make A Mess...')
- Mega Collective on FAWM boards
- Loteria Challenge on FAWM boards
- At least 1 SongFight song.
- FAWM Week Challenge 1
- FAWM Week Challenge 2
- FAWM Week Challenge 3
- FAWM Week Challenge 4
- Re-Score challenge (YouTube video by Errol)
- Collaboration with Matt

- A song with multiple vocal tracks singing different things at the same time (ala TBS)
- Story song of some kind (maybe even dark - 'The Tide')
- Piano and synth strings slow song (Making April - 'All of Yours' from the EP)
- An educational type song
- About Twitter, taking comments under the #FAWM search any given day.
- A number of serious songs concerning the characters of Homestarrunner.com
- - Doing a few collaboration songs with Strong Sad from HSR.


Song Title Ideas:
- Balance and Ruin
- Bullet Catch
- Darkness and Starlight
- Not That Blasted Quake Spell Again!!
- NYC is overrated
- The Marquee Theater
- Complacent, see?
- Please don't
- My privilege
- Sunset, Sunrise, repeat
- The Prince and the Popper
- The Radio Stations Aren't Alright
- Bio-mom
- A year of great deeds and empty promises
- Tradyng i's wyth y's (ys realli annoiyng)


Songs I've agreed to either on compilation or concept:
- Random Collaboration with Adam Hill
- Loteria theme: The Drums
- Collaboration with my friend Matt (shade)

January 23

Came up with an interesting idea for FAWM--jotted it down. Gonna visit the in-laws this weekend, so I won't be around to write anything pithy or whatever on here. Added a link to the sidebar so that you can see my ever-evolving list of notes for preparation to FAWM.

p's

January 22

I've decided to turn my random thought blog into my update blog for FAWM. It's located above this posting. I did this mostly because I'm only keeping the last day's updates on this blog. I'm sick of updating my profile every time I want to say, 'Hey, this is what I'm doing right now!'. I believe that should be for my twitter page, anyhow.

Anywho, feel free to head over to my blog if you have a few minutes to waste. When FAWM is over, this will probably be where I post my 'refined' songs, once I've had a chance to re-record them.

Hijacking for the purposes of FAWM

This blog has now been hijacked...

Well... It's been reassigned for the next 40 days or so.

I'm taking part in an online community project called FAWM, a musical equivalent to NaNoWriMo (for those of you familiar with that). I've been keeping a daily blog entry on my profile on that site, but due to word space restrictions, I can only really keep 2 or 3 days worth of information on there. So, I decided to use this blog as my update blog for FAWM until the end of February. Just in case you were wondering what the heck any of what I say has to do with anything.


(Previous updates)

Update: January 21:

Finishing catching up on blogradio broadcasts that I missed. I'm really enjoying listening to the songs I missed last year in FAWM 09'.

I've changed my idea about doing a concept album for FAWM '10 this year. At least what I was planning on doing this week (something video game based). So, back to the drawing board.

I'm also wayyy behind in prep work for FAWM. I have about three things I need to do as far as hardware and equipment is concerned--and I haven't done any of them yet. This FAWM is supposed to get me motivated, but right now the lazy side of the force is still strong.

(1-Restring acoustic guitar; 2-Set up laptop as portable studio so I can mix on lunch break at work; 3-Prep with a few songs before Feb.)

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Update: January 19:

At work, listening to Homestarrunner.com toons in the background. Starting to refine my objectives for February. Handling a number of challenges, a concept album, and maybe a SongFight submission or two. I'm starting to feel overwhelmed--but looking oh so forward to it!

How to jumpstart the economy

I've been coming up with a few interesting ideas of how to help recover the economy here in the states. I know these will never be taken seriously, but it would help tremendously...

- All US licensed drivers (and we're talking about ALL -- Class E included) should retake an exam and driving test every 3 years. If someone fails their test, they have to retake the test a week later at their own expense ($50 - $60).
A) This would get stupid drivers off the road and save lives and time in commuting, thus saving gas from the morons that burn gas by putting the pedal to the metal 24/7
B) This would increase revenue, because I feel 1 out of every 2 drivers are going to have to pay this fee every 3 years.
C) This would create a lot of new jobs, for instructors and whatnot.
D) This would also make people more aware and competant of new driving laws when they are passed.

- I think churches that put incredibly cheesy or stupid (and in many cases, copywrite infringing) messages on their marquee signs should have their tax exemption certificates pulled. I just hate those stupid signs, because it makes them looks like chumps and makes religious individuals who actually know what they're talking about, such as myself, seem stupid and hickified. (And yes, any church can apply for a complete tax exemption certificate--probably about 40% of churches abuse that privilege by including non-church expenses under it)