Guys! Don't try this!

Man, The other day I messed up my drumset pretty bad. See, I bought two really cheap electric guitars, right? I don't know how to play them or anything, but I hooked them up to amps and had them all ready to go for this idea I've had. See, I thought it would be the bossest thing ever to play a huge drum solo, only with electric guitars instead of drumsticks.

Man, it really didn't work so hot. I broke all of my drum heads, and really dented my crash cymbal bad. My man Zooker videotaped the whole thing, and it turned out it didn't even look very cool. I thought it would be all electric guitars flying all over the place, but in real life it looks like you're hitting the drums really slow. Plus I kept on screaming "Oh YEEEEAH!" in this metal sounding voice that I thought would sound really cool, but it turned out it just sounded like I was a nerdy kid from a television show about people who make fun of nerdy kids.

The song is just about finished, but I can't record it until I get my drums fixed.

Zooker's song idea

OK, Zooker left a comment last night with a weird idea for a song:

Hey, are you still looking for ideas for stuff to write songs about? I was thinking we could do a song about a planet where nobody could dream (in the literal sense, and as in aspirations), and everybody got really depressed, and then at the end, like, a single child would begin having dreams, and sharing them with the people or something like that. It's hard to explain.

I guess that could probably turn out cool if it was done right. I've been directed toward a website that helps you figure out rhymes, so I'm gonna write these lyrics RIGHT NOW, fools! Just watch as the mastery unfolds!

There once was a planet where nobody could dream,
Everyone was so sad they wanted to scream,
Everybody all got so depressed
That none of them could win a happiness contest
But then there was a single child
Who went up to everybody and smiled
He had some dreams and shared them with all the people
It's hard to explain, but this all happened in a steeple

I'm not 100% sure what a steeple is, but I'm pretty sure it's a kind of church. I think this is basically what Zooker was looking for. It might be better if it was longer, but keep in mind this is only a 20 second song.

Zooker is in my band for now

I was trying to find somebody to play guitar and Zooker told be that he plays the "Honksichord", which is kind of like a piano, only when you press a key, it squeezes a bicycle horn instead of making a piano note. I had him over to help work on my song and he did some OK stuff, I guess. I was really hoping for more of a heavy metal sound, and the honkin' thing is kind of weak. It'll work until I can get a real guitarist.

I got my ride cymbal back, so we were able to jam pretty well. I found out that my song is only twenty seconds long, though. I was hoping it would be a little longer, but since it's like my first song it should be OK.

I'm trying to come up with some lyrics right now, but it's hard to come up with good stuff to sing about. I wrote one verse earlier:

The burrito had a lot of ingredients-ay
And I was in an eating ood-may
Why don't they serve burritos with ies-fray?
I wish somebody would do at-thay
I would buy like enty-one-tway
I wish I had some andy-cay
Come up to me and I'll kick you in the face
I will do this with my shoelace.

I don't know. I think that it's kind of weak. I was mostly just singing that stuff because I had just eaten a burrito, and I had burritos on the mind. I'm not sure if it's az good idea to make rhymes with pig latin either, because about halfway through, I realized that absolutely everything rhmes when it's in pig latin. It kind of feels like cheating. So on the last two lines I tried to rhyme the old fashioned way. It's kind of OK, but I'm not quite happy with it, because you kick people with your shoe, and not just the lace.

Capture the Flag

I just remembered the other day how fun it was when I was a kid and I used to play capture the flag. That was a pretty fun game. I've been trying to organize a game on the ship, but nobody wants to run around in the halls and stuff, and everybody is all worried about tripping over furniture. It's too bad. I have the perfect place to hide my team's flag. (I don't want to type it here, because I might want to use the place in the future, and somebody who might play might read my blog. Hint: It is a place where I can lock the door and nobody else can get at it!)

I met up with a wealthy enterpreneur online to pitch my idea about ranch dressing in a toothpaste tube, but he said he wouldn't pay for the idea until I told him what it was. I told him that I wouldn't tell him the idea unless he promised to pay me afterward. He said that he didn't have time for talking to me, and I got really nervous. I kind of blurted out the idea because I was scared he would leave (it was video chat), but I am not sure that he liked it. He just looked at me like I was wasting his time. I think the idea is safe.

Telloon wanted to borrow my drums because I hven't used them a lot lately (they are so hard). I let him borrow the ride cymbal, but nothing else. Right after he left, though, I came up with a really good idea for a beat. See, I would play on the bass drum something like this:

BUM bada BUM bada BUM BUM BUM baBUM!

Then I'd switch to the hi hat and play the same rhythm:

CH chicka CH chicka CH CH CH chaCH!

And I would just do that and go around on every drum playing that same thing. I end on the crash cymbal, because that's the best one for this beat. Unfortunately, without my ride cymbal it doesn't sound very right, because it's too short.

As soon as I get my ride cymbal back, I'm gonna see if I can get somebody who knows guitar to come over and figure out some guitar tabs to play with it. I think this is gonna be a pretty good song.

i got some drums

So I bought a drumset today, and spent about an hour setting it up. I put the hi hat on the right instead of on the left, just to be different. I tried to play it for a while, but it was kind of hard to do good beats.

Telloon came over to see it and like the first thing he did was ask me if I was left handed (are people going to keep thinking that when they see the setup?). He played some pretty good beats on there. Apparently he learned how to drum while he was in college or something. Who knew? I asked him how the heck he could be so good at the drums if he only had two fingers. He got all serious and told me that there are lots of people with just two fingers who are awesome at playing different instruments. Then he named like a whole bunch of instrument players that I have never heard of and he said that all of them totally had just two fingers on each hand. None of them were saxaphone players, though. I think I might get a saxaphone, because there is NO WAY that he can play that.

I asked him to teach me some stuff about drums, and he showed me how to do this beat where you play the bass drum (he told me that that was how it was spelled. It doesn't look right.) and then the hi hat and then the snare drum, and then the hi hat again and then you just repeat that whole thing a bunch of times. I tried to do it, but it was really hard, because you have to be playing three things at the same time. I decided that I am going to come up with my own drumming style where you like, take turns on the different drums instead of playing them all at the same time. Telloon said that it was a pretty visionary idea.

I came up with a great invention today: Ranch Dressing in a tube like toothpaste. I don't really want to start a business though, because I don't need another job. I'm going to try to sell the idea to somebody. I'm just having trouble figuring out how to convince them that it's a good idea before I tell them it.

Drums

Allright so today I had some shore leave on some weird planet called like, Crappiola or something like that (Actually it wasn't called that but I think it should have been because it was a crappy planet). Anyhow, there wasn't really anything to do there or anyplace cool to hang out, so I ended up dropping by a music store and looking at some istruments.

It sort of hit me when I went in there that I've never seen a drum set up close before. I've seen them on stages and in music videos and stuff, but I had no idea that there were so many different kinds of drums! I had always thought that they just bought a bunch of drums and arranged them however they wanted, but it turns out that there are special kinds that they use for special reasons!

Here is a list of some of the different kinds:

• Base (Bace?) Drum: This is a big drum that is kind of like the foundation of the drumset. All of the other drums are arranged around it. It has a low sound.
• Base Drum Pedal: Not actually a drum. It is a little foot-shaped pedal that you can push with your foot and then a big mallet thing hits the base drum. It's handy because it is really not very convenient to hit the base drum with a regular drumstick.
• Toms: I am guessing that the guy who invented them was named Tom or something? I asked the guy at the store, but he didn't know.
• Crash Cymbal: If you hit this cymbal really hard it makes a crashing noise. The guy told me to hit it at the same time as I hit the bace drum, and it made it sound really powerful. I liked it.
• Ride Cymbal: This cymbal is actually pretty boring.
• Hi Hat: This cymbal goes up and down when you push a pedal. It looks like a gentleman raising and lowering his hat and saying hi to you.
• Snare Drum: Probably my favorite. It's pretty loud.
  

The guy at the store played some drum songs for me really quick, and one of them sounded just EXACTLY like the beat from a Nebula Nation song that I really like. I asked him if that was what the song was, but he said no, he was just making stuff up! I am totally amazed that people can actually just play stuff like that if they have the right equipment.

I asked the guy how much it costed to buy a drumset and it was pretty expensive. When I got back to my room I kind of tried to make my own drumset out of like boxes and containers and stuff, but I couldn't find anything for the cymbals, and I couldn't get the base drum pedal to work. I am thinking of buying some real drums next time I get a chance.