Last weekend a fiend and I drove to Cleveland, Ohio to see Intronaut, Kylesa and, of course, the mighty MASTODON!

I had met the guy I went up there with on the Mastodon message board and we hit it off because he lives in Indianapolis (I live in Columbus, a town about 40 miles south of Indy). He offered to drive up there so I agreed. I knew he was an alright guy from talking to him on the board, but he ended up being much cooler than I expected. That's definitely a good thing considering Cleveland is about 5 hours away.

We arrived at the venue about an hour an a half before the doors opened and met up with a couple of other guys from the board who lived in Ohio. We stood around and talked for a while when Bill Keliher (guitar player for Mastodon) walks up to and starts talking to us. I was trying so hard not to nerd the fuck out (Mastodon have been my favorite band for I don't know how long). I had told him we drove 5 hours from Indiana to come see them to which he responded "You guys are fucking nuts, thank you so much". He took off after about 15 minutes so we went inside to hang out at the bar and get a few drinks before the show.

At the bar, there was this 40-something year old dude who was there because he took his son to see Mastodon. He was smashed off his ass but was cool none-the-less. We talked sports (he was a Browns fan and I a Colts fan) and just random shit. It's surprising the cool people you meet at shows.

We heard Intronaut start so we made our way to the crowd. The venue itself was pretty damn tiny. I'd say the average movie theater screening room is larger by a pretty big margin. Intronaut sounded incredible. The heavy parts in their songs sounded like a freaking stampede of bull elephants racing towards you, you could feel the double-kick drum in your chest, it was fucking awesome.

After Intronaut, Kylesa came on. To be honest, they bored the living shit out of me. I don't know weather they just weren't that good live or I was just too damned excited to see Mastodon and was getting impatient. To be fair, the rest of the crowd seemed to like them.

After what seemed like forever of the crew setting up the stage for the 'Don, the lights went out and they came out on stage. They played their new album in it's entirety from front to back. It was one of the most incredible live expireinces I've had in my concert-going career. After they finished Crack the Skye, they took a break for a few minutes and came back out and played another set of their older stuff. Most of the songs they played were off Blood Mountain but they threw in some Leviathan and one song from Remission. To put it simply, they kicked major ass. I don't regret the 5 hour trip in the least.

After the show we waited around in the crowd and the drummer, Brann Dailor, jumped out and started talking to people and signing stuff and taking picutres. I got my picture taken and shook his hand and we took off outside. We met the guys from Ohio out by the tour bus to wait on the rest of the band and soon enough we had met and talked with Brent Hinds and Troy Sanders (lead guitar and bass, respectively). By this time there were just us 4 guys out there, after they went inside Brann came out and talked to us for like 40 minutes. We told him we were from the Mastodon board and our screen names and stuff. I got another picture with me, Brann and the guy I went with. When Brann left, we decided to start the trek back home.

The drive home was fucking brutal. We didn't talk as much because both of us were tired as hell. We stopped somewhere in Nowhere, Ohio and ate at a Denny's. It was about 3 in the morning but the place was fucking packed. I guess all that the people in that town have to do on a saturday night is to hang out at Denny's, haha.

I made it home about 9 on sunday morning. I had such an amazing time. Meeting the band I've adored for years, hanging out with some cool people, listening to great music. It was the trip of a lifetime, for sure.

That is all.

Well today I start my new job. It's been a loooooong time coming, but I'm finally among the employed. It's second shift so I don't go in until 3 this afternoon. I really hate the time right before I go in for the first time, I'm pretty nervous and anxious.

Wish me luck!

Fuck my life, fuck my life in it's stupid ass.

I was going to grab some food at the grocery store for dinner and I was stopped at the light in front of my apartment complex. I tried to go when the light turned green but the van jerked really hard and wouldn't move. It starts and runs fine, it just won't go anywhere.

So I call the cops so they can send someone over to let people know to move around me (I was broken down in a turn-lane) and they called a toe-truck.

I have no idea what's wrong with it buy I know for sure it's going to cost me every fucking penny in my bank account.

Friday I went into the employment agency to take some sort of dexterity test to see if I'm fit for this assembly line position that opened up. I take the test and go home, they said I should hear back from them in an hour or two. They never call me so I call them this morning to find out I didn't get the job.

Fuck me man. It seems like every corner I turn there's someone there to kick me straight in the fucking nuts. I just don't understand it anymore. I'm completely at my wits-end and I need a fuckin miracle.

Not to mention the fact that I had to walk my fat fucking ass home carrying my girlfriends purse for a mile or so.

Hey there, giantbombers!

So I'm 24 now, that's pretty crazy. It feels like the older you get the faster years go by.

GAMES! Yes, I've been playing some games.

 I finally finished Final Fantasy XII. Yes, after over two years of owning that game, I've completed it. I'm not really sure why a lot of fans of the series didn't like it. I thought it was a fantastic game. If you took the time to learn the ins and outs of the battle system, you could literally program the AI to deal with anything the game throws at you. The license board was really the only thing I had a problem with. I guess it's cool that you can customize your characters any way you see fit; however, I'm more of a fan of the archetypes that you see in past Final Fantasies or other RPG's (like mage, fighter, summoner, etc).
 I really enjoyed the storyline as well. It had more political and personal strife than the typical "evil monster comes to take over the world and you're the chosen one to stop it" bullshit. My favorite character would be Balthier as he was the most interesting.

A friend of mine gave me a sub-account for Gametap. As a sevice, it's not bad. There are a lot of interesting games available for a number of different platforms. I've played FarCry, Puzzle Quest, Sam and Max Episode 1 and various old-school arcade games. I really didn't think much of FarCry but Sam and Max and Puzzle Quest are both pretty awesome.
 Puzzle Quest is like a cross between Bejewled and an RPG. I haven't really played that much of it, just the first few battles or so, but it is rather enjoyable. I'll write more about it when I've spent a bit more time with it.
 Sam and Max is really funny. I haven't really played many adventure games but I've had fun with this one. It's typical "point and click" and that's fine but it's really the clever writing that carries the game.

Watchmen comes out friday. I'm pretty excited to see it. I've only read about half of the novel, I never finished it because I was borowing it from someone. I'm a lazy reader and it usually takes me twice as long as it takes someone to read something. I think I might go the extra mile and drive up to Indianapolis to see it at an Imax. That would be pretty sweet.

Today Lindsay is having surgery. Shes getting her wisdon teeth taken out, I guess they've grown in so much, the root is embeded in her jaw. They're going to have to cut her bone a little to get them out. I certainly don't envy her. She's going to be in some pain for the next few days.

Nothing else is really going on. I just figured I'd type up a blog here since I've nothing better to do right now.

Take it easy everyone. Untill next time.