My 25 (or 43) favorite songs

Self-explanitory. Sort of filler. No order. Rock on.

1. NOFX-"The Decline"
2. The Lawrence Arms-"The Disaster March"
3. The Mars Volta-"Frances the Mute"
4. The Goo Goo Dolls-"Iris"
5. Tom Petty-"American Girl"
6. Against Me!-"I Still Love You Julie"
7. A Wilhelm Scream-"The King is Dead"
8. The Hold Steady-"Chips Ahoy!"
9. Bob Marley and the Wailers-"Redemption Song"
10. Damien Rice-"Cannonball"
11. Godspeed You! Black Emperor-"Sleep"
12. Foo Fighters-"Everlong"
13. Jimmy Eat World-"Big Casino"
14. American Steel-"Finally Alone"
15. Amon Amarth-"Under the Northern Star"
16. Municipal Waste-"Born to Party"
17. Animal Collective-"Bluish"
18. Bad Religion-"Sorrow"
19. The Beach Boys-"God Only Knows"
20. Jawbreaker-"Kiss the Bottle"
21. Ennio Morricone-"Theme from A Fistful of Dollars"
22. Eluvium-"Seeing You Off the Edges"
23. The Gaslight Anthem-"The Backseat"
24. Fake Problems-"Heart BPM"
25. Propagandhi-"Iteration"
26. LaGrecia-"Silently Just"
27. The Locust-"Armless and Overactive/Invented Organs"
28. Modern Life is War-"Midnight in America"
29. The National-"Slow Show"
30. Osker-"Going on the Instincts"
31. Panda Bear-"Comfy in Nautica"
32. Ludacris-"Get Back"
33. Pg.lost-"The Day Shift"
34. Pharoahe Monch-"Welcome to the Terrordome"
35. Planes Mistaken For Stars-"One Fucked Pony"
36. Samiam-"As We're Told"
37. Say Anything-"Admit It!!!"
38. Small Brown Bike-"I Will Bury You In Me"
39. Sundowner-"Midsummer Classic"
40. The Swellers-"Fire Away"
41. Thrice-"Stand and Feel Your Worth"
42. Clipse-"Trill"
43. Radiohead-"Reckoner"
44. Weezer-"Only in Dreams"

Classic discussion

Hey kids,

Not a whole lot of time to talk today, since I've got work in about an hour and I still need to shower/shave/finish this grilled cheese/try and be a pace car in the awful traffic jam on the way to work. Then it's an open to close shift of boring, needy, indecisive people so I can hopefully make enough money to pay the electric bill. Such is life, I suppose. We live, work, and die. But somehow, life is a little bit more exciting for me lately. Maybe it's the fact that over the next few months, money is going to be really tight and it's going to take some inventive living on my part to make everything fall into place. Maybe it's the fact that one of my best friends is about to move in with me this weekend, and it'll be nice to have a pleasant soul in the house instead of a bunch of bros, and it'll be nice to be able to get drunk and do ridiculous shit. It'll also be nice to get some quality music writing done, which seems to be the only part of the album writing process that I really would like some chemistry with. Maybe it's the fact that in less than 4 months, I'll be allowed to legally drink. That'll be nice. No more incognito getting drunk prior to public events. Good times. Maybe it's the fact that fall always seems to entail a ridiculous amount of hijinks, regardless of what year. Fall for me has always been the time of new experiences, for whatever reason. Even last year, when I was a seasoned college student, I did a ton of shit and pushed boundaries like I didn't even expect. I'm excited for fall. Hopefully it cools down a lot, and the weather stays clear. I love the end of summer and early fall, as well as mid winter. The best part of the year is yet to come. Anyway, work.

xoxo

It's the end of the world as we know it.

So if you've been to a movie theater within the past two months, chances are you've seen a few movie trailers repeat themselves. Particularly, 9 looks to be a stellar and epic battle of little potato sack guys (or something) against machines while Coheed and Cambria plays in the background. Another one that seems to have an alarming amount of trailers out is 2012, the movie about the Mayan-predicted apocalypse with Kevin Spacey and shit. I dunno, it's a lot like all of those other apocalypse movies in that it looks really cool in the previews, but you know exactly what's going to happen, it's not very realistic, and it's probably going to gargle chodes.

I once met a girl at a party where I knew just the crew of friends that had come with me. This girl was the most attractive girl at the party, but even then, she wasn't exactly a beauty. Regardless, she was one of the few that was not instantly filed under "mountain troll," so she garnered her fair share of attention. However, instead of trying to further her case for a wang to bring home that night and cuddle with, she started talking about how she was absolutely frightened of the Mayan prediction of the apocalypse in 2012. Needless to say, most everyone stopped talking to her after this.

Personally, I think worrying about the apocalypse is a pretty silly thing to do. For one, the day the earth decides it's going to end, that is pretty much it. Regardless of any preparations you make, and any ideas about escaping the planet before it dies, I'm pretty sure an entire fucking planet deciding to self-destruct is not going to be foiled by the actions of even millions of people. Armageddon is a force much bigger than any number of people, and nothing you or I do is going to stop it the day it happens. And if there is nothing we can do to change the inevitable, then you know what? So be it. The world could end at any moment, and I'm certain that if I knew it were to end soon, I wouldn't be typing an overly personified blog when there is any number of things I could be doing.

So in the end, will the world end? Who really knows? I know I don't. But what I do know is that, if the world does decide to end, I'm throwing a party. What better way to go out, right?

Baked Lays: A sad metaphor for my sex life, or merely chips?

Oh wow, so I've posted one entry a month for the past two months. Shame shame Joeycakes. Well, I could sit here and apologize, and then make some stupid excuses as to why I haven't posted, and then promise to post more, but I'm pretty sure that's what I've done the past two months. So, I'm just going to say that I have missed all of you 6 followers that I have. How are you? Everything good? I'm glad. Not really. That's cheesy and way too Chuck Palahniuk for my taste, thanks.

So uh, not really sure where to start. This past month or so has been pretty fun. I'm officially moved out of the bro mansion for good, and I couldn't be happier. Aside from passing moments where both parties are most likely thoroughly intoxicated, I will never have to see those three again, and already it feels like a behemoth weight has been lifted from my shoulders. In typical fashion, they left a ton of their bullshit behind which required me to hang around and clean up/throw away a ton of shit. The silver lining is that now I have a steamer, which I have been trying to get my hands on for a while but haven't had the money (although I do own a walmart steamer basket, so that was pretty handy). I guess the gold lining is that hopefully, I will never have to deal with such complete retards in such close quarters for the rest of my life. That is, until we have Guns 'n' Roses open up for us on our arena headlining tour. OBVIOUSLY.

So I dunno what's going on. Today is boring. I'm eating leftover pizza from I can't remember when, and drinking some swill bud light that I found in the fridge. It's not very good, but in that I didn't buy it, I have no remorse drinking it for free. Definitely drinking it out of a glass though, because fuck actually clutching such a bottle of douche swill.

Anyway, I'm gonna go hang somewhere else on the internet on this unnaturally cloudy day. l8er sk8ers.

You'll never be safe and sound

"Life is a gift, not a given."

Last night, driving home from some raucous evening of drinking and dancing to ridiculous music with even more ridiculous people, a good friend of mine mentioned the above in passing, and more than anything else I heard that night, that stuck with me more than anything that I've heard recently.

To me, it makes a lot of sense. Life is a gift; the gift is the opportunity to be what you want in life. It's the opportunity to better yourself, or to fall in line with the rank-in-file. And that choice is what makes all the difference. Life, for many, ends up being about what comes easiest or what makes them the most money, regardless of if they enjoy are doing. Life, for many, is about the destination, and not the journey. But really, what is the destination without the journey?

The only true destination that is common amongst everyone is death. Clearly, no one starts living with the desire to die as their only goal, a patient in life's waiting room. Life is as much about the day-to-day struggles of living as it is one's greatest triumphs. It's the struggles, toils, heartbreaks, and disapointments that we face head on that make us stronger, and similarly, it's those setbacks and troubles that prepare us to fully embrace life's greatest heights.

There is nothing beautiful about a privileged life--the beauty in all of life is born from the tragedy that one day, it'll all be over. It's what we make of our time here that matters most.

xoxo

Joe

Criminal neglect, what the fuck

Holy hell, haven't updated this thing in fucking eons. I have no legitimate reason for this. I haven't been working THAT much, haven't really been doing anything that outrageous, and definitely haven't been busy at all. I was contemplating writing out a random spewing facebook note, but that seems pretty silly to do. I mean, firstly, who the fuck reads facebook notes that they aren't tagged in? I do, but that's partially because I'm a creepy shithead. Moving on.

I have been experimenting a lot in the kitchen lately. Not just with foods mind you, also with different activities. The showering in the kitchen/cooking in the bathroom thing isn't really working out for me though. Damn. However, I did make a lights out grilled cheese the other day. Seriously, it's the best. Maybe I'll let one of you try it. Or maybe not. Bitches. I used a few key ingredients, but the most important were the velveeta singles, the cracked black pepper, Jane's mixed up salt, and a light coat of minced garlic on the inside of the sammich. It was pretty epic.

Lately, in the most homoerotic way possible, I've been revisiting the Harry Potter books/movies. As much credibility as that definitely loses me, I have to vehemently back up the fact that the Harry Potter series is an incredibly solid contribution to literature for not just kids, but adults as well. I mean, shit, this series kept me from driving my grades into the ground c/o Pokemon Blue. Plus, it's a fuckload better than the garbage passing for teenage literature these days (Twilight, I'm staring right at your fucking grave).

Anyway, see you ladies in hell.

xoxo

Joe

The weather is hot and the cocktails are cold

So, I guess it's now officially summer.  Well, maybe not actually summer according to silly dates, but in Florida, we only have like two seasons anyway, and if its above 90 degrees with thunderstorms in the afternoon, it's indisputably summertime.  What's great about summer (for a lot of people, anyway) is that it means a genuine reprieve of social and educational responsibility.  Not to say that everyone quits their jobs and stops taking classes, but everyone at least scales things back a little bit (unless they are clinically retarded).  So, tis the season to spend your entire friday getting wasted from sunrise to...well sunrise again.  In fact, I'm debating on whether I should do that today.  I know I'm going to get a hot dog in a bit, but aside from that, the world is my oyester today!  Especially because the oyester, I've always considered to be the biggest alcoholic of shellfish.  But I digress; here is a bit of a summer drinking style guide, for those of you eager for my opinion.

What to Drink This Summer, Pt 1:  Breakfast

Bloody Mary:  The bloody mary, for me anyway, is the premium wake up cocktail.  The mix of tomato juice, vodka, celery, and everything else is great for a "hair of the dog" hangover cure, and it goes particularly well with scrambled eggs or a garden/southwest omelet with salsa.  There are two x-factor ingredients in bloody marys that separate them from the crowd.  The first is the type of vodka you use.  Tomato juice acts like many other fruit juices, in that it works to kill the harsh bite of the vodka.  This makes cheap vodka a viable alternative to anything good, so don't bother making a fancy grey goose mary, because you won't really taste the difference.  If you do go with expensive vodka, however, Absolut Peppar is the way to go.  Adds a great bite to it.  Secondly, celery salt is absolutely essential to a solid bloody mary.  Much like celery salt turns a chicago hot dog from something pedestrian to something amamzing, it does the exact same thing with bloody marys.  No bloody mary is complete without it.

Screwdriver: Another fixture of the morning alcoholic.  Thanks to Orange juice, this is also a great breakfast cocktail.  However, it doesn't quite mix as well with eggs as the bloody mary does, so you should probably drink this when you are eating other breakfast foods, such as pancakes, french toast, waffles, Count Chocula, etc.  A lot of people consider screwdrivers acceptable drinks at night, but you pretty much look like a horrendous creep if you are drinking orange juice that late at night.  The only exception is if you are at a really lame house party, and that is all they have to mix it with.  

Joose/Sparks/Tilt:  A bit of a curve ball, in that most people consider these drinks that 13 year olds pound late at night behind the movie theater dumpster.  But Joose/Sparks/Tilt (in that order of importance) has taken on a whole new role, particularly with the development of the energy drink generation as alcohol imbibers.  What is great about these drinks is that all of them have both caffeine (roughly 1-2 cups of coffee per drink) and alcohol (1-4 beers per drink).  And the best part is that they are generally very cheap, ranging from 1-2 dollars per can.  This is the perfect thing to start your day, and also helps with hangover relief too.  

That's it for this segment, but keep checking back for whenever I get less lazy and post the next episode in this segment, where I tackle the lunch and afternoon cocktails section.  

xoxo

Joe