Sunday, June 19, 2016

6/19/16

I need to think of things to do this summer. I have until about September 16, which is Move In Day for those living in the UC Riverside campus apartments. I'm really looking forward to that. I'll finally have my own bedroom and a kitchen. I think I will work this summer to improve my cooking and baking skills since I will be making all of my meals next school year instead of going to a dining hall. In addition, I think I will do some volunteer work at my local animal shelter. I did that last year and I really enjoyed it.

This summer has been off to a great start so far. On June 9, I drove to Ventura to see the premiere of Hearing is Believing, a documentary about my friend Rachel Flowers. I had a great time and enjoyed sitting next to Rachel during the movie. I could tell a great deal of time, care, and attention went into making it. Her family truly is amazing. I always feel great after spending time with them so I will definitely have to jam some prog with Rachel some time this summer. I need that kind of positivity in my life.

On June 12, I drove to the Canyon Club to meet up with my friends Xhana and Steve to see Justin Hayward. I had not seen him since I saw the Moodies back in November 2013. We had a wonderful time. I was seated right up front, and throughout the show, I could tell Justin was looking at me. At times, I felt like he was telling me stories from his past rather than the audience. After the show, I managed to get one of Justin's guitar picks as well as a setlist. I had never been able to get a setlist at a concert before, so that was very cool.

Anyway, I went to my local record store again the other day to return the live ELP album the owner had let me borrow the last time I was there. It was a live album released on this year's Record Store Day, but recorded in 1997 (my birth year!). He wasn't present sadly. I really wanted to tell him what I thought of it. I finally picked up a copy of the late Chris Squire's solo album Fish Out of Water. I had been meaning to get it for a while but never got around to it until now. That copy had been sitting in the store for a long time and I always knew that someday it would be mine. I'm listening to it now. So far, I can see why so many people like it. It definitely has a classic Yes sound to it with special emphasis on Chris as a bass player. I never really liked him as a lead singer, though. I also grabbed a 45 of the Stevie Wonder song "My Cherie Amour." 

Staying off of Facebook has continued to be nothing but beneficial. Almost every time I log back on, I am quickly reminded of why I chose to take a break in the first place. It seems like it is typical to see people post negativity on Facebook these days. I don't mean this towards any of my friends or ProgBook followers, of course. If it's not music, then it's politics, or religion, or how much society sucks. It gets exhausting seeing all of that all the time. If it weren't for my friends or ProgBook, I would probably not have a Facebook page anymore. That's how bad it's become. But since I have such great friends and followers, I will stay. :)

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

6/8/16

Sorry it's been almost a month since my last entry. I have been taking an extended break from Facebook and social media in general. Facebook was once a positive, upbeat place where you reconnected with people from your life. Nowadays, it has become a black hole full of negativity, politics, religion, pointless debates that never get resolved, and the ugly world known as the comment section. I realized that it's not good for me to see that every single day, so I deactivated my account for a few weeks. I reactivated it today, but deleted the app from my phone, since I realized that that is where I log on the most often. From now on, I think I will just go on to make a few updates or to post a new blog entry.

Anyway, I am home for the summer. I came home Monday afternoon after my finals. I can't believe my first year of college is done. It went by so quickly! I got very lucky this last quarter. My computer science class had no final. My poetry class did have a final, but we worked on it during the last few weeks of the quarter and then turned it in on the day of the last lecture. The only two finals I really had were in my English class and in a class I took on an intro to women's rights. I think I did well.

Concertwise, I have a few more shows to look forward to this year. Firstly, I learned that Al Stewart would be coming to Thousand Oaks in September, which is very close to my hometown. Naturally, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. In addition, my dad and I got tickets to see Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, and Trevor Rabin at the Orpheum in November. However, we ended up with nosebleed seats since those were the only decently priced seats. As much as we love those guys, we weren't willing to squander well over $1500 for both of us to briefly meet them. We learned that lesson when we did the Yes meet and greet back in 2011.