Three more weeks, Campbell. Three more weeks....

First off, I want to express the fact that I am feeling MUCH much better than I was a while ago. That's a good thing.
Second, I want to say that I AM DONE with school. No, the semester hasn't ended. It's just that I've been running since the spring (that's right, through the summer too) and I'm ready to plotz, as it were. I'm going to push out my best performance for the coming three weeks, and then I'm going to crash at home, hang out with friends, sleep, eat good food, write music, sleep, enjoy christmas music, hang out with friends, sleep, go walking, explore my town, sleep, etc.

Man, I haven't written music in a while. I haven't had the time. Once school is over, I am totally get back to writing lyrics, and finishing the songs I have.
So far, I have:
"Love Another Day" -- Kind of soft-rock-ish. I wrote it in February last year I think, to get myself through a hard time. I have almost finished editing all of the parts, and I wanna add in a string section, but that doesn't have to come right away. It's really really close to being finished.
"Bitter Cold Night" -- Dissonant, hard rock. I wrote it while I was in denial about something last year. I kinda abandoned it for a while, but have come back. I'm hoping that will be another one I can come closer to finishing over the break.
"Bliss" -- A working title. Basically, it's about wanting to be in a relationship, but not being able to. I haven't finished the lyrics yet. I need a second verse and a bridge. Again, soft-rock-ish. I wrote it over the summer. I have a relatively good idea of where the music is going, but it still needs work.
"Stay Awhile" -- I'm not entirely sure how this will be. It's about a relationship I was once in, and it's kinda something I really don't wanna look back on right now. I'm not sure. I might continue it, I might not. As it is, the lyrics need editing. The bridge speaks too personally to the situation that I was in for me to be comfortable with it. Other than that, I have a relatively well developed piano part, and a solid chord progression.
"Child With A Knife" -- About a girl I met at the beginning of last fall. She was rather... troubled, we shall say. I believe I may have posted about her last year somewhere. I'm not sure whether I want to continue this either, but I like the musical sound. Unfortunately, singing with the piano part has proved to be difficult.
"Laughing At Nothing" -- The one relationship song I've written. It's basically about finding someone, being able to let go of the past, and loving them for no other reason than because you want to. I have no idea where this is going musically, but I'll figure it out eventually.

I think I have a few more, but I don't remember now. I know it's kinda weird to forget your own projects, but hey, it happens.

I've also decided what my image as an artist will be. I'm going to be a completely normal person, as weird as that sounds. I'm gonna walk up on stage in jeans and a t-shirt, and I'm going to sing about my life. I'm going to sing about everything. My pain, my joy, my love, my sadness, my happiness... you name it. I want to portray a real human being, because that's all I am, all I ever will be, all I want to be.
That means that I'll have to start to write relatively happy songs. My original aspiration was to be a rock artist, so I wrote lots of depressing lyrics. And, save for romantic love, it's kinda hard to find really happy stuff to write about. But then, I found it hard to write depressing songs at first. I thought, "Hey, my life really doesn't suck that much -- what's there to write about?" I found stuff, though. So there is hope. There is always hope.

Anyway, that's all, folks. Gotta get up at 5:45 tomorrow morning to catch a bus.

With much sincerity,

T-WAC

Day 22 of the thirty-day song challenge

Hey everyone!
As you can probably tell, I'm feeling much better now. Yeah, breaking up kinda depressed me a bit, but we both thought it was for the best, so I'm fine now. It's looking like everythings going to be getting back to normal soon, and we'll be getting back to being friends like we were before.
Oh, and I actually have an excuse for why I haven't posted in a while. I just got home from a trip to North Carolina where I visited my aunt and uncle.
It was alot of fun. After a hellish car-ride, we settled in for the first day, then, on the second day, we went to an amusement park. At this park, they had a roller coaster called "The Intimidator", and my, was it intimidating! Since everyone else chickened out, and my uncle was putting our stuff in a locker on the other side of the park, Banana and I were the only ones who rode it. Now, the last time I had ridden a real roller coaster was nine years ago. I went on one at an amusement park once, and never went back. So this was my first roller coaster in nine years. And what a way to jump back in the water! "The Intimidator" was probably the tallest ride in the whole park, taller even than the skyview tower. Yeah. Pretty doggoned tall. Needless to say, Shannon and I were both quite nervous. After waiting in a decent-sized line, we finally got on the roller coaster, and it slowly began climbing uphill. Now, when things like that happen, I have a tendency to dwell only in the present moment. So I'm not even thinking about what happens next. So I went the hole ride up to the top without panicking. Now, those of you who know me know that I rarely, if ever, swear, and if I do, I use the mildest profanities available. Well let me tell you, the second that coaster started going over the top and I had a glimpse of the bottom, two words escaped my lips: "Holy sh[expletive]!"
The thing went down, and I felt like I was going to fly out of my seat and land on the inviting sylvan turf below the coaster, effectively snapping my neck. And that feeling, along with said two words, accompanied every drop in the track. After the longest roller coaster ride I had ever been on, the car pulled to a stop at the boarding area, and shakily, we disembarked. My face was extremely pale, and Shannon and I grasped each other's hands as we awkwardly stumbled back to the rest of our party. After a few minutes, I reallized exactly what had been flying unchecked out of my mouth, and I felt a terrible sense of guilt, given that I had taught a few seven-to-eleven-year-old children a new word, and one way to use it.
None of the other coasters came close to the magnitude of "The Intimidator", and quite frankly, I think that's a good thing. The rides were thrilling, yes, but I enjoyed them for the speed and the movement rather than the danger of flying upside-down several times.
Then we went to the water park for a while, and took home some free souveniers, courtesy of our dear solar ally. Or oppressor, depending on how you look at it.
My mom bought me a hilarious shirt that I can't wait to show off, and then we left.
The next day, we took a trip to a science museum, and then went to the bookstore, where my uncle bought us all a book. I chose "Empire" by Orson Scott Card, who happens to be the author of "Ender's Game", and "Ender's Shadow", which are two of my favorite books. I guess I wanted to see if he was as good an author without superintelligent children involved. I haven't started reading it yet, but it looks very interesting. Then we went to see "Captain America" at the movie theater. Now, I'm not big into superheroes (unless it's the epic version of the song by Edguy), but this was an amazing movie. And then, last, but not least, we went to "Buffalo Wild Wings Bar and Grill".
Will all of my fellow New-Englanders please stand up. How many of you have tasted the hot salsa around here? Well, our hot is a little bit less than medium in the south.
I'm Colorado born, so I don't have wimpy New-Englander taste buds. We got the hot wings with a side of the hottest sauce in the place. I tried it, and it was amazingly hot. So hot I almost couldn't eat it. Almost. It was one of those times where you look up to heaven during grace, and, as an afterthought, add, "....and thank you God for bleu cheese dressing and celery. Amen."
After the meal was done, Mom bought me some of the hot sauce they used! I am so excited! I can't wait to try it on our next meal with chicken! I got Spicy Garlic, Wild (normal buffalo sauce -- hotter than hot), and Blazin' (the hottest stuff in the place).
When we were ordering, the woman double, triple, and quadruple checked to make sure that I wanted Blazin'. And when I said yes, she just sighed and shook her head as she put it in the box for me to take home. Yes. It is THAT spicy. Lovin' the Habaneros!
Today, after another hellish car-ride, we got home, and that leads us to where we are now, doesn't it?
Where are we now?
AH YES, the song challenge!
Okay, so today is day 22, a song that I listen to when I'm sad. Even more irony! I do a song I listen to when I'm happy when I'm sad, and a song that I listen to when I'm sad when I'm no longer sad.
That's kinda hard, given that I don't tend to listen to music when I'm sad. But there is one. After the first breakup I ever had, now this is years ago, I was absolutely miserable. Because that's what breakups do. They make you miserable. And I had my favorite tape playing, and suddenly, this song came on. And I just started singing along to it at the top of my lungs with all of the passion I could muster. It's an awful song really, and I didn't mean a word of it, but it felt so good to let out the feelings that were bottled up inside me.
What was the song? You're not going to believe this.
I'm sure you've heard of "Weird Al" Yankovic.
....
....
....
Yes, I know that's really weird. You'd expect someone like, oh, I don't know, "Boys Like Girls" or "Mary Chapin Carpenter" or some other artist who sings about breakups, but no, "Weird Al" Yankovic. Unexpected indeed.
Back then, those years ago, he was my favorite singer, and I would listen to his tapes over and over and over and over and over again. This song was one of my favorites, and it's called "One More Minute".

The song is very clean, and actually, very funny hilarious!

Oh my gosh, another random tangent here, Evanescence has returned with a new single entitled "What You Want". One word description: amazing!
You can hear the song here:

Awesomeness, right?
I just heard it today, and already I'm thinking of covering it. I mean, it would be the most recent cover the band has done. Speaking of the band, Josh and Ture are healing nicely, and hopefully we'll be able to get working on my finished song, and whichever ones the rest of our band have finished, as well as our covers of "Everdream" and "My Immortal". I want to get together with our other vocalist and work on the vocals for the two covers for a little bit before working on it with the rest of the band.
Well, anyway, it's getting late, and I've been up since 4:30 this morning, so I think it's best that I go pass out on my bed until morning.
Cheers!
T-WAC