I sat on the back porch, alone, smoking a joint and enjoying the effects of the Demerol lingering from a morning medical procedure. All I could think about was my friend’s whimsical decision to move to California. I told him he was nuts, but only because it’s what I told myself every time I had the same idea. I lectured him, almost, the same way I lecture myself for having such impetuous urges. How nice it must be to come to such a conclusion; to drop and forget everything you’ve known for your whole life, in search of something you’ve only wished you could find but were afraid to look for. I’ve had these ideas, but so impractical, they seemed. It’s sad, because money controls everything. If it weren’t about finances, I would have moved west last year in a hurry. I need a degree, I’ve been told; even if it is for something I could learn to do without a 4 year degree. Society has us trapped, and the only way I can think of escaping is to succumb to its ideals; or take a life-changing risk that could grant you everything you’ve ever hoped for, or completely fuck up your life. 

Why was I given such “great” opportunities? Why couldn’t I have been born with nothing, so I could start over and have nothing to lose? And why am I so afraid to lose what I have right now? School leads to security, and wanting security is human nature. I don’t mind life at school, but I’m afraid I won’t feel the same way about my life after it’s done. When I sort it all out on paper, it seems like such a good idea to drop everything and leave, but it’s the necessity for security, and fear, that keep me from doing so.    

I imagined how it could be; how unlikely, yet incredible, life could be if I somehow became successful in one of my musical endeavors. How can I take the chance, even if it is to achieve the one thing I would most want in life? I couldn’t take that risk with no plan to fall back on. Right then, a movement in the woods snapped me back to reality, as I saw the figure of a body climb over a rock wall, into my backyard. I attempted to clip my roach, and hide it from the stranger’s sight. As he crossed over, I could see the kid was carrying a guitar. I don’t know if he saw me, as he continued looking and walking straight ahead, into the brush of the neighboring yard. What could this mean? Is it just coincidence that a boy with a guitar just so happened to walk across my yard at that very moment of deep, introspective thought? And might I add that kids walking through my yard are certainly no daily (or monthly, or even yearly) occurrence. I thought about it for a bit, convincing myself that it wasn’t a sign, but simply a coincidental occurrence. Sometimes I wonder if I’m too ignorant, too blind or just too stupid to acknowledge these signs; but it’s a lot easier to just disregard them.

Here is a video I just made that explains how to EASILY make hash from your grinder’s keif collection. All you need is some keif from your grounded weed, wax paper and a clothes iron. A 3 year old could do this. Enjoy!

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been wiped out this week from doctors appointments, and getting tested for ibs and figuring out my whole situation; so basically i’ve either been sedated on some crazy drug my doctor injected into me, or too tired to move. I’m going to try and get some good posts and a tutorial up before Friday, and then I have some more tests. Stay tuned, Tomorrow will be a better day (for me, and for my blog)

Quick post here. I’d just like to point out something a bit funny that I, and probably most of you have noticed about the adsense banner beneath my logo banner. OK, so if you’ve read any of my other posts, you’ve probably learned that I’m PRO marijuana; very 420 friendly. Well, if you aren’t sure how adsense works, it basically crawls my site for keywords, and places ad links to sites that it feels I have associated with on my blog. Usually, it does a good job; I’ve seen links to buy Keurig coffee pods and links about the NBA finals, among others. Unfortunately, It doesn’t do a great job crawling my posts about marijuana, because everytime there is a marijuana ad, its something along the lines of “Marijuana abuse cure book: Free yourself of addiction.” Yes, because we all know some real hardcore marijuana addicts who are about ready to hit rock bottom. I mean, I’m not even going to unlink those ads from my websense account, because I think its actually quite funny, even to the non-user. Well, I have to go work on my tutorial on how to make hash. Stay tuned, should be a nice video tutorial within the next few days.

When I first got home from college, the first thing I did was to remove my High Definition LCD from my car and set it up downstairs. I immediately drove my unpacked car to the mall to pick up my new Motorola DCH3416 HD-DVR receiver from the Cox Communications shop. Finally, I had HD again, after a year of basic dorm cable! I was thrilled, so I plugged it in and checked it out.

I had the same set-up before the school year started, except with the older Motorola DCT6400.

After setting up the new box (DCH3461), I was excited to see that they finally added an HDMI digital output, and a “format” feature so I could finally utilize the 1080i feature on my TV, instead of being stuck in 720. I decided to ignore the component cables that Cox gave me, and instead use the HDMI output to my TV. About a month later, I have realized all the quirks with this box: pretty much equally as quirky and digitally “sloppy” as the previous box, except this one had more problems! Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled to have HD and DVR back, but there is just so much that annoys me with these Motorola receivers.

First, as with the old box, the load/response times are terrible. If I press guide, it takes a second or two to respond. Not a big deal, but annoying nonetheless.

Here is, by far, my biggest complaint. Ok, so this may not pertain to everybody, but the sound output just doesn’t work with my sound system. I’m not sure if it needs a firmware update, or if it is because my surround sound receiver is too old, but it is impossible to get surround sound from my cable box to my receiver. I can still use all the speakers on “simulated surround” but using the outdated Dolby Pro Logic II results in only the center speaker working. I’d imagine, but I’m not 100%, that using the optical output into a newer receiver with Dolby 5.1 would work fine, but again I don’t know. All I do know is that no matter what movie or show is on, I will not get surround sound (and yes the sound system is set up correctly: tested with DVD player and Xbox 360 for working surround sound).

Another big issue that, again, may not affect everyone, but has been a major issue with me: Every time my cell phone rings, or someone else’s in the room above mine, the digital picture gets choppy. Basically, it seems like the interference your phone makes with speakers when it rings, only this is the video to accompany the interference.  It’s not terribly annoying, but it was when there was a minute left in the Lakers game, and my phone rang and made watching impossible! Aside from that, certain channels get the same digital choppy look all the time, or sometimes just don’t tune in. I first thought this was because my cable line came from a splitter, but after direct lining it from the wall I still had no solution to this problem. I called my cable company, and they “resent” the signal, which somewhat helped, but I still get choppy picture on my local channels, only when tuned in HD. The regular channels work fine.

My final complaint is that the HDMI output simply stopped working last week. It just did not work. “No Signal,” my TV told me, which was absolutely false. So I Unplugged my HDMI and now I’m using the component cables again, which isn’t too bad; I can live with that.

Really, the only improvement from the old box is the format option. I like that I can switch from 480 to 720 to 1080 (all I and P). When I am not on an HD channel, I switch back to 480, that way I can use my TV’s “Full Screen” feature that gets rid of the black bars on each side of the picture. It distorts the picture a bit, but I prefer the full screen. When I’m back to an HD channel, I switch to 1080i, a big step up from 720p on the old box. The picture is a bit better, but more importantly, 1080 removes the “widescreen” bars on my already widescreen TV that were so annoying when using the old, 720p box. If I switch back to 720, alas, the bars on the top and bottom come back. So this feature had me very pleased.

Overall, I love HD, but I wish these receivers didn’t run so much like a glitchy Microsoft product.

Well we’ve all heard about or seen H.R. Pufnstuf. And of course we’ve all watched Shaggy and Scooby chase food, run from ghosts and ride in a VW bus. We’ve speculated drug and sex references in all kinds of Disney movies, not to mention Fantasia being excellent on Acid. On top of that, we all know Alice and the Madhatter are tripping on some crazy strong acid. What we don’t remember are the little things that flew over our heads as kids. No wonder our parents didn’t want us to watch certain shows! Check out this clip from an episode of “Dinosaurs” and see if you don’t agree:

Article from Seattle Pi

Teens will find it harder to find work because of a number of factors.

There’s the economy, of course. Nearly half (49 percent) of hiring managers at companies providing traditional hourly employment such as retailers and restaurants reported that they weren’t planning on adding any new seasonal workers in 2008, a consequence of the uncertain economy, according to a survey of more than 1,000 summer employers by SnagAJob.com, an online source of hourly jobs.

Teens looking for work will also find a lot of competition. Recently laid-off workers and college graduates are grabbing some of the jobs that would have gone to teens.

Unfortunately, my friends and I have found nothing but the truth in this article. To be honest, I was hesitant to even start my job search for the summer, but I did start reluctantly filling out applications over a month ago. I applied to EVERY chain store on Rt. 2, including Target, Guitar Center, Newbury Comics, DSW, PetCo, Pets’Mart, Daddy’s Junky Music, Best Buy and FYE. Not to mention I applied to many small shops and even my private beach club. I got a response about a month ago from Guitar Center saying they would call me back for an interview, but they never did. The same thing is currently happening with the beach club.

Now as lazy and unmotivated as it sounds, I really don’t care if I don’t get a job this summer. I thoroughly enjoy sitting at home all day brushing up on my guitar, writing, eating and television-watching skills, and then hanging out with some friends at night. To me, that is what summer vacation is all about, but alas, I need money to use my car, buy food, and pay my cell bill; not to mention support my weed habit.  I’ve found ways to make it by, and I still have a about two hundred bucks to try and spread out, but with gas over $4 a gallon, that money will last about, well, not even 4 fill-ups at the station.

I guess it’s not the biggest dilemma in the world, but it is evident that our economy is collapsing. Today, my state’s newspaper headline was something along the lines of how our state is one of the many in a recession; while national headlines have lately been involving unemployment rates and stock market crashing.

Last night I watched the 1^st in a best of 7 Lakers vs Celtics NBA Final. Although I was certainly unpleased with the outcome, it was a great game. No team had more than a 6 point lead until the last half of the final quarter. What really bothered me, as a Lakers fan, was watching Kobe try to do it all in the last 5 minutes, and get completely shut down. As of late, he’s been good about passing when he can’t get anything going, but it seemed as if he thought he could turn the magic on and win another dramatic one for the Lakers.

Boston fan’s finally strayed from their “Yankees Suck” chants and instead chanted the long-since heard chant of “Beat L.A.” And that they did, for the first game at least. Pierce, though in foul trouble early on, led the Celtics after a dramatic injury return from the locker room.

More importantly, I’d like to discuss the calendar of the NBA finals: it makes ZERO sense. The second game isn’t until Sunday, which leaves to practice days in between. Then the teams go to LA to play on Tuesday, which leaves only one day in between; that makes sense (sarcasm) seeing as they have to fly across the country sometime before the third game. Wouldn’t it make A LOT more sense to have game 2 on Saturday night? Damn sports broadcasting politics, I hate how it all revolves around the television schedule. Oh well, I guess I’ll just twiddle my thumbs until Sunday.

I’ve heard about it but I never expected it out on the market, or at least not this soon! Not to mention I thought it was going to be some over elaborate table of projections into a cloud of mist… not a regular HD.

Anyways, Here is the article from Engadget:

It’s no nightmare — 3D is officially in style. Or it’s succeeding in fooling us, one or the other. Further proof that taking things to the third-dimension is all the rage has arrived courtesy of Philips, who has announced its intentions to reveal a 1080p 52-inch 3D display at InfoComm later this month. The unit will utilize the same WOWvx technology showcased a year prior in its 20-inch display, and will feature 700 cd/m2 brightness, a 2,000:1 contrast ratio and an 8-millisecond response time. The auto-stereoscopic display should be “commercially available from Q4 2008 onwards,” but we haven’t a clue how costly it’ll be when it eventually lands.