Tell Me About Yourself–The Survey

This was a survey I took on MySpace.  Hopefully you all will enjoy reading it.

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey

Name: Mike

Birthday: January 8th, 1980, Yes - the same day as Elvis' but not the same year.

Birthplace: Portland, Oregon

Current Location: Harrison, AR (Batavia area) by way of Fort Smith, AR & Phoenix, AZ - also lived in Branson, MO for a while

Eye Color:   Hazel

Hair Color:   Brown

Height:   5'8"

Right Handed or Left Handed:   Right

Your Heritage:   Not for sure.  I know I got some indian in me, and I think my mom's side is from England.

Your Weakness:  My biggest weakness is rejection - so I'm not comfortable with meeting new people by myself.

Your Fears:  My biggest fear is just like my weakness: rejection.

Your Perfect Pizza: Canadian Bacon and Pineapple. Maybe with some extra cheese.

Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year:   Get out of debt, and get my divorce finalized and move out of my parents' house.

Thoughts First Waking Up:   No, I don't want to wake up!

Your Best Physical Feature:   Are you kidding me?

Your Bedtime:   whenever I feel like falling asleep.

Pepsi or Coke:   Pepsi

McDonalds or Burger King:   Burger King!

Chocolate or Vanilla:   Chocolate

Cappuccino or Coffee:   cappuccino

Your Most Missed Memory: anything involving my ex-wife and girlfriend, and all the great times spent with friends.

Single or Group Dates: Would prefer single dates - but group dates can be fun too!

Budweiser or Miller: Miller, it's cheaper - but I'd prefer Budweiser.

Straight shots or mixed drinks: either, it doesn't matter to me.
Do you Smoke: occasionally, i don't like the taste, lol.  The last time was a peach cigar in August 2008 and before that was a cigarette in December 2005.

Do you Swear: do you really want to know?... Yes, unfortunately

Do you Sing: sort of, just not in public.  I don't think my singing is all that great
Do you play an instrument: I play guitar, and I dabbled a little bit of keyboards and harp (harmonica) - my musical playing talent isn't all that great I just play at home.

Do you like music: are you kidding me? I'm an aspiring Musicologist - I would actually like to teach music appreciation.

Do you Shower Daily: Yes, who doesn't?

Have you Been in Love: Most definitely.

Have you ever been divorced: I'm going through one now

Do you want to go to College: not sure.  I've always felt the best way to learn is from life, not from a classroom

Do you want to get Married:  I don't know if i want to get married again.  Right now I just want to live my life and have fun.

Do you believe in yourself:   I try to

Do you get Motion Sickness:   nope

Are you a Health Freak:   no way!!

Do you get along with your Parents:   I try to

Do you like Thunderstorms: It depends.  If I'm with that certain girl whose afraid of them it'll give us a reason to cuddle...

In the past month have you been on Drugs: no, unless you count Tylenol, lol.
Have you done an illegal substance: pot.  I wish the stuff were legal!

In the past month have you gone on a Date: no
In the past month have you gone to a Mall: yes, the first time in a few years and malls sure have changed over the last 10 years.  what is happening to all the great record shops?
In the past month have you eaten Sushi:   no, but i do enjoy some sushi
In the past month have you been on Stage: no. Because of my fears I get stage fright really bad, but I do love to "act" - and love to make little movies for YouTube so does YouTube count?

In the past month have you been Dumped: no, but have been before.  It's no fun at all, but I got over it.

In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping: no, but I have - once with my ex at the lake and a few times by myself when i was a teenager, and I would love to again most definitely!  i love skinny dipping!
In the past month have you Stolen Anything: no - I don't care for stealing and I don't care for thieves
Ever been Drunk: Of course!

Ever been called a Tease: no

Ever been Beaten up: no

How do you want to Die:  I try not to think about death, lol

What do you want to be when you Grow Up: I'm 29, so I'm already grown up, lol.  But I would love to be a dad, a record collector, musicologist, film-maker or even a writer.

What country would you most like to Visit: Anywhere with all kinds of history like Greece, Italy, Japan, China, Russia - especially places full of music history like England, USA and Australia. Or anywhere in my country, the good ole USofA! Memphis and Nashville are great towns to visit with lots of music history, and I still would love to check out Clarksdale, MS - the home of the blues!!  Recently went to Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas and that was awesome!

Number of CDs I own: Are you kidding me? About 600 or so...

What do you look for in a girl: I hope she is someone I can relate to, and hopefully she can be as much into music as I am.  Hopefully she's a creative person, because I'm a sucker for creativity. But as long as she enjoys being with me and loves giving me attention, it really doesn't matter in the end what she's into.

Are you still a virgin: No.  I lost it to my ex when I was 24 when we were dating

Do you like sex: Are you kidding me?  Who doesn't?  I could have sex all day if I had the stamina for it!

Number of Piercings:   none, but thought of getting my ear pierced one time.

Number of Tattoos:   none

Number of things in my Past I Regret: I regret that I didn't take a different path after high school, but other than that nothing really.  Things in life happen for a reason.

What Is The Truth? I Want To Know And I Seek It

I was not brought up in a religious home, but I was brought up to believe in God, in fact every once in while when I was a little kid my mom would take us to church, not every Sunday but a lot of Sundays.  It wasn't until I was 16 when she started taking us to church every Sunday and we ended up participating in all the church activities than, and a few months later I started attending church on my own and she quit going but at that church I was that animals have no soul, and that the Mormon church and the catholic church were both cults and that you should stay away from cults.  Later on over the years, I learned that all of the religions of the world if they aren't a cult now they started out as a cult.  Think about it - what is one of the main traits of a cult?  The leader always says "They are God" - David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Dividians claimed to be God.  Who else claimed to be God?  Jesus Christ, as quoted from the bible, said "I am God in the flesh."

Christians are also taught that they are the only true religion, however all other religions of this world are taught that they are the only true religion also, so what is one to believe?
And I finished reading a book that is handed out be Jehovah's Witnesses, and I got even more confused.  They believe that according to the bible when a person dies there is no spirit because they return to dust on the ground, however if that is true than explain ghost sitings.  It is a well proven and well documented fact that ghosts exist.  It does state somewhere in the bible (not exactly sure where) to not contact the dead, that you really can't and when you think you do it's really the devil at work.  If you really can't, than how come we are able to see ghosts and how come some people claim to have spoken with loved ones beyond the grave?  If there are no spirit after death than how are we able to see ghosts?

Also, the church teaches you to stay away from the occult that it is devil worship.  According to the Wikipedia (I did some research of my own after I started reading Dan Brown's new book this morning) Occult doesn't mean devil worship at all - it just means hidden secret.

Also as Christians we are taught to not worship any idols because God is jealous, however I recently attended a Shabbat service (for those of you who don't know Shabbat is a service that Messianic Jews attend) and they worship the Torah!  It may be God's book, but they are worshipping the book during part of the service and not God which somewhat bugged me since we aren't supposed to be worshipping idols?

Religion has always really confused me.  I believe in God, however believing in God is like believing in Santa Claus.  Look at it this way: God supposedly created every thing you see, but who or what came before God?  He just didn't just show up one day, he had to come from somewhere, I mean think about it? Just like how would you think Santa Claus is able to visit all the houses in the world in one night?  It's impossible.  Even though a lot of the stories you read in the bible have proven to have actually happened, does God really exist?  Who is he and where did he come from?

Churches have also made me feel like a loser or a low-life because of the stuff I like to watch or listen to, however I never went out seeking to hurt anyone in any way shape or form, so why try to convince me that I'm a low-life piece of trash.

Some of my closest friends are very highly religious and Christian and I try to listen to what they have to say, but I just get confused.  I don't know if it's because I'm so open minded or not, but when they talk about their beliefs and things I'm just lost.  There are times where I feel like I want to get involved with church again because it does help you be a better person - but if i do, I know it's not going to help my confusion any better, it's just going to make my confusion even worse.  I know that from my own personal experience.  I hear some agnostic people talk and atheists talk, and it's interesting hearing what they have to say but I don't want to convert to those beliefs out of fear.  Not a single one of us really knows the truth about God and Religion or Christianity.  We never really know the truth until we die.  If there really is a God and heaven and hell, I know I definitely wouldn't want to burn in hell and the bible states if you don't believe you will burn.  Of course the Jehovah's Witnesses believe that you won't burn as long as you believe, that the only people going to hell will be people who have truly showed sin after the second coming, that when you die you return to dust and you won't go to heaven or hell right yet, that after the 2nd coming you get a 2nd chance.  Like I said, not a single soul on this planet knows the truth until we die and I don't think a single person after death has come back to say what happened.  Yes, there are some who claim to have seen a white light and was told it wasn't there time and so they came back to life - but people are always in search of fame and fortune that they will say anything!  My dad told me how my uncle was pronounced dead from a drug overdose, but he came back to life and according to what my dad told me, my uncle didn't see no white light, no pearly gates, nothing.  So what does this tell you?

Another thing the bible and church teaches is to stay away from false prophets.  I don't know about all the other so-called prophets, but look at Nostradamus.  He supposedly predicted Hitler's coming, Napoleon's coming, JFK's assassination, etc. and if you read some of his work I could see how people have come to the conclusion that he predicted these events.  That would be some strange coincidence if he really didn't predict them.
In school, we're taught about how great our fore fathers were, and about their religious beliefs, etc.  However - one thing I never learned in school was the fact that our forefathers were freemasons.  We are also taught how they believed all men are created equal.  Explain this one to me than: if all men are created equal, than how come they had slaves and how come both women and slaves didn't have such rights - women and slaves weren't treated like people much back than, and if all men were created equal wouldn't they be treated just the same as our fore fathers wanted to be treated?  Also, we were taught that our fore fathers were Christians.  I recently found out that this isn't entirely accurate.  They believed in God, yes - but that didn't make them necessarily Christians.

On another note, in school we are taught that Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F. Kennedy.  If it's not the truth, should we really be learning it in school?  I learned over the years that Lee Harvey Oswald had nothing to do with the assassination of JFK.  He was just a patsy!  Yet, our history teachers teach us that he killed JFK.
Aliens - if aliens really did crash in Roswell in the 1940s, why is our own government trying to cover it up?  Our own government claims to cover up things for national security reasons. 

Another conspiracy: 911.  Did terrorists really destroy the twin towers and kill all those innocent people that day?  I don't really think so.  I saw this video about the 911 conspiracy and it's rather fascinating.  George Bush had a brother who owned part of the WTC building a few months before it's "demolition", and apparently underneath the building there was gold.  Also, how many magazine covers or newspaper photos do you see of a plane crashed into the pentagon?  You see the pentagon with a huge gaping hole and people scattered all over, but no plane and plus - the size of the gaping hole doesn't even look big enough to even fit a plane, but i don't think the plane crash mess would've been cleaned up that quickly so where the evidence of the plane at?  Someone in the WTC building that day also had stated hearing 4 or 5 more explosions when trying to escape the building - like someone had placed bombs in it to demolish it.

What in the world is our government afraid of?  The people want to know the truth, and we seek the truth so why can't they ever tell us.?  If they have proof that aliens exist and they told me I'd be like "cool, finally we know."  this isn't the movies where you see aliens out to terrorize us so we run!  and I already can't stand the government, and I'm for sure the government was who killed JFK so I would still be like "ok, so now we know the truth."  Is our own government thinking that if we know the truth that we will march in the streets and protest?  Hell, if we do - oh well!  Something else I recently learned about something our forefathers have written is this: if the current government is wrong, do whatever it takes to make it right.  So if our government is really hiding all of these truths from us we do have a right to protest and fight once we find all these truths!

I am somewhat of a conspiracy theorist.  Mainly because I seek the complete truth.  I have always been fascinated with mysteries and puzzles, and unfortunately my brain can't function and absorb things like scientists can.  But I am a firm believer that my mass confusion is a big cause of a lot of my problems.  I just want and seek the truth.

Guitarlington Weekend

On October 15, 2009 – October 18, 2009 I went with two very close friends of mine To Arlington, Texas to help one of them at the guitar show “Guitarlington." What an amazing weekend it was too!  We stayed at the La Quinta Inn which is right across the street from Six Flags Over Texas (we didn’t go there, but I got some video footage of there, and if I had $40 and more time, I would have loved to have gone into the park!)

During the guitar show, which was at the Arlington Convention Center, they also tried to break the record of the most guitarists playing the same song under one roof at the same time by trying to have 2000 guitarists play “Louie Louie.”  The record could’ve been a much better attempt though.  I wasn’t too thrilled of it because after a minute, it was over.

It wasn’t just guitars being bought and sold here.  Some one sold some records, there was even some saxophones on sale, and paintings of rock and roll stars (if you got $500) and also some rock and roll memorabilia including Beatles merchandise, real unused concert tickets from the 1950s – 1970s including an unused ticket to Woodstock!  There were also some books there about REM, The Beatles, and guitars!  I bought me a pin/necklace from there that’s of a lit-up guitar and I also bought some magnets to put on my car of different instruments and I also bought a “G” harp there.

While we were there we also went to Dealey Plaza in Dallas where JFK was assassinated by our own government on November 22, 1963 – not Lee Harvey Oswald!  That was very amazing too!  I learned more about the assassination that night than I ever thought I did, and I hope that I do live long enough to see the truth to Kennedy’s assassination come out.  Apparently that won’t be until 2029!  We all need to know the truth!

Overall, it was a very exciting and amazing weekend.  We saw lots of amazing guitars, bought a few, and we even sold a couple, and on top of that we learned more about why John Kennedy was assassinated which was very interesting!

If you are interested in the 1 hour Guitarlington video I made please contact me and let me know.  Cost will be $10.

The following are some pictures taken at the show:

Tut Campbell and Ben Ketcherside at our booth

 

Ben Ketcherside with the daughter of the founder of Mosrite Guitars

 

There Are Some Things In Life A Person Misses

There are some things in life a person misses.  I was on my way home from work tonight and I was thinking to myself about how much I miss being with my ex-wife and doing things with her after work when she decided to do things with me, or the times we went to Neosho, MO and stayed the night, and the times we went to Illinois by ourselves to visit her family.

I also miss going to my ex girlfriend's house and doing things with her like going to Branson, or Springfield, or Fayetteville and spending time with her kids.

Now-A-Days, I just go home after work, and yes I am happier because there isn't any pressure in my life to make someone I'm living with happy, but a relationship gives you some fun activities whether it's playing games, going on a drive or to a movie, etc.  Right now, I feel like I want to be in a relationship because of the things I miss that a relationship provides, but than again I don't want to be in a relationship because I now am able to hang out with my close friends again, which I wasn't able to when I was in a relationship, and besides - the girl of my dreams doesn't even exist!  I met the girl of my dreams recently and she's married!  If only I can find me a girl just like her, which seems to be too hard to find these days.

A Little Depressed Right Now

I don't know why, but I seem to get this way after being on a long trip with some friends.  It's a feeling that sort of reminds me of how you feel when a relationship is over.  I don't know if me being a loner has anything to do with it or not, but I think about all the fun things over the last few days with the friends I was with, and I want to cry because I want to go back to that.  I loved being able to spend the last 4 days with Ben and Tut.  We had a lot of fun, but now tomorrow I got to go back to the real world and go back to work.

Last month when we went to St. Louis I felt the same way when getting back home.  I'm happy, but I guess i just feel depressed because it had to be over until the next trip.

I remember when I was in high school, and I was going to church camp I'd get home from church camp and feeling the same way.  a little depressed because of reflecting on the past week and the fun that was had.

i don't know if anyone else gets these sort of feelings, but i sure do.

You Have Just Been Punked!

We have been pranking each other from left to right all week this week at work, and I'm not much of a prankster because I know certain pranks can get you in trouble and I try not to do anything that will get me into trouble no matter how big or small the prank is.

It all really started a few weeks ago when my boss tried to sell me fake pot - it was really parsley, and I fell for it unfortunately.  Last Wednesday I come in after having two days off and they bring that up again, and i was upset because they made me feel and look really stupid, talking like I never smoked grass before, and one of my co-workers said that there's something on the shelf that looked like meth - which was really rock salt, so I was in on giving my boss the rock salt saying it was meth.  LOL!  That night I bought some powdered sugar and tried to give it to him the other day saying it was coke!  lol.

One of our other workers like to "sabotage" my lunch bag by putting trash in it.  The other day he put a zucchini in it, with a note saying "give this to your woman" - I wrote on the note "what woman? and quit sabotaging my lunch bag" and taped it to the desk in the prep room.  the next day I took a different zucchini and cut it in half with a note saying "here's your zucchini back, how do you like them apples?" - he got me back by saying "I really do like those apples" as he shoved a zucchini slice down my shirt.

That night I found a roll of double sided scotch tape and taped the door to the desk shut and stuck a couple of their clipboards onto it too, and another night I stuck 5 pieces of tape on the opening of the desk to where when the door to the desk was opened you saw the tape their.  lol.

The other day someone shrink wrapped my lunch bag so yesterday I tried to shrink wrap his umbrella but I was caught red-handed unfortunately.  And than he decided to wrap up my lunch bag and tape it to the ceiling in the cooler and spray cooking oil all over it. 

LOL.  so last night what did I do?  I took all of their managerial stuff, stuck it all in a trash bag and put it by the ice machine and taped a piece of shrink wrap across the desk.  I came in this afternoon and I saw 4 of my co-workers outside on their break and they mention that our boss was mad at me they he came in today and all of his stuff was gone, and couldn't do the order that the store owner had to go and get copies in order to do the order.  They all had me thinking the bag I put those books in was thrown away, and just to think I was about to jump in the dumpster to go hunting for that stuff!  I go out to the floor to put some freight up, and I come back and lo-and-behold the books are back where they belong!  they had me going for the whole first two hours I was at work today!  They all were in on it and all kept a straight face so well, that I thought I was really in trouble, and I thought my job was on the line.  Somebody (not really for sure who) also duct taped my car windshield, and also duct taped plastic to the hood of my car, and even put Vaseline on the door handle of my door.

I figured what could I do to top their prank?  What they all pulled on me today was the prank of all pranks.  and it was 4 of them involved, so what could I do?  some told me I couldn't top that.  Will, they are wrong.  After I clocked out at 8 this evening, I went and bought $23 worth of stuff for my plot of revenge, and spent probably 20 minutes or so setting it up.  I took their plastic they used on the hood of my car and taped it to the prep room table, hung a sign there saying "smell that - smell like sweet revenge, i give you all 5 days top this"; and than put a note under the plastic stating "it's sad it takes 4 of you to pull one on little old me, and it only takes just one me to top you - you have all just been punked" and than I also left my receipt for my merchandise there too so they see that the stuff i used was paid for, and also put the grape tape thing under it, hiding the red tape also; and than I taped 2 garbage bags to the desk, and put a sign above the desk stating "whos the punk now?"; and than sprayed cooking spray all over the trash bags on the desk and all over the plastic on the table, not missing one single spot!  and than I sprayed on the light switch and dipped the switch in some Vaseline.  and to top it off, i blocked both openings in the cooler.  Who is the real punk now?

And since I was in the mood, I decided to pull a fast one on one of my friend's cars who doesn't even work in the same department as me so he wasn't even involved in the prank my department pulled on me today.  but it's all in good fun though.  I'm off the next 5 days, I better watch my back when I come in Tuesday because there is no telling what they may have up their sleeves that I will just have to top!

Good times!

Here are the pictures of my prank:

Life Does Seem Much Better Single

You know, as much as I like the intimacy and passion (and something else I won't post here, lol) that a relationship does provide, I do find that I enjoy being single.  I can come and go as I please, and do what I want whenever I want to with no pressure or stress on anyone.  I can jump up at a moment's notice if a friend calls wanting to hang out without worrying if I'll make a girlfriend mad if I don't go see her instead.  I like to not really make plans and just do what I want at a moment's notice, and I definitely don't like asking for permission to do things, and when you are in a relationship you have to ask for permission a week or so in advance, which means planning on things, and like I stated I don't like plans unless they are plans for a trip or something of that sort.  Tonight after I left a buddy's house I was debating on whether or not to drive up to Best Buy in Branson because I needed a new tripod for my camcorder, I was debating to go there Wednesday before work or just go tonight since I had nothing better to do.  I went ahead and went and got me a better tripod than the last one I had.  Life is good!

This Is A Milestone

well, 10 years of trying and taking my driving test 3 times, at the age of 29 years, 3 months, and 11 days I finally have gotten my license today!  My mentor told me "well, this is a milestone."  I just thought everyone should know...

Chuck Berry Concert Review

Chuck Berry… Need I say more? The guy had just turned 80 on October 2006, and he still can rock and roll. The man is a legend. An icon! What more can I say? He may be from St. Louis, Missouri, but he has never ever come to Branson, Missouri until this year. February 16 & 17, 2007 were his first ever performances in Branson. It was a very awesome and extremely entertaining show. Not much to really say. The man is absolute genius. See his show, and the article basically writes itself.

Otis Day & The Knights was his opening act. Remember the movie “Animal House” with John Belushi? Will, there's a band that plays in that movie. This was that band (although in the movie the band members were fictional people - Otis Day was the only real person). They came onto the stage at 8:00 and they did an hour show. They did all cover songs, but boy were they good And most of them were done to their style. They covered people from the stones, to the kinks (“Jumpin' Jack Flash”, “Can't Get No Satisfaction”, “You Really Got Me”) - and than would go straight into soul and do “Soul Man” that I know Sam & Dave and The Blues Brothers have made really popular and than would get funky with a cover of Sly & The Family Stone's “Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself Again”. And than go on to do a couple of numbers from the “Animal House” soundtrack. “Shout” and “Shama Lama Ding Dong”. Talk about a mixture of styles of music. It was like watching a Blues Brothers concert, and it might as well be - Otis Day starred in “Animal House” with John Belushi, and John Belushi was one of the Blues Brothers, so there's the connection.

20 minutes or so into their show, they had an American Flag come down onto the stage. Otis Day and the rest of the band, except for one of his guitarists, leaves the stage. His guitarist than starts playing an exact - note for note - copy of Jimi Hendrix's cover of our National Anthem. Now, I'm not much for complete note for note covers, but that guitarist was good! He was more than good, he was great!

On an interesting side note, I have read somewhere that when Hendrix started playing his version of the national anthem, some folks, mainly from the older generation, were cursing him and saying he was putting down the national anthem when he played it that way. And saying it's disrespectful. But I don't care what they think. I think Hendrix did an awesome interpretation of the song. His rendition of our national anthem was the most unique and most creative interpretation I have ever heard, and I love it. Hendrix wasn't being disrespectful when he played his version. He played the anthem much like why people sing it before sports events, but he did it with his own style. It didn't mean he respected the song any less. And to this day, 40 years after he first recorded his rendition of the song, I still respect it and feel it's the best rendition of the song.

Otis Day & The Knights finished their show around 9:10. At about 9:20, Chuck Berry took the stage wearing a Red shiny jacket and no teeth, and of course his famous Gibson ES-355 that you always see him with. He played songs from “School Days” “Sweet Little 16” to “You Never Can Tell”. He also did a blues number “It Hurts Me Too.” He had his son with him, Chuck Berry Jr. who is now 45 years old and has been playing with Chuck for 5 years now.

30 minutes into his show, he has his piano player playing a solo. Chuck Berry decides he would do a solo of his own, so he does this great solo. After playing all these great songs, and only doing his infamous “duck walk” at least twice, he tells the audience, “Now that we're all tuned up, It's time to start the show.” That was when he broke into his classic “Johnny B. Goode” - everyone in the audience stood up, and I swear he did the duck walk more than two times in that performance, he did it about 6 times! It was awesome, too bad I couldn't video any of it. IMHO, that was the best performance out of all of them.

I was actually hoping he would do “My Ding-A-Ling”, his famous novelty song from the 1970s (and according to what I have read somewhere, his only #1 pop-chart hit). In fact, I was anxious for that song - but he didn't play it. However, I did think it was cool at the end of the show he had people from the audience come onto the stage and dance when he did a little boogie jam. He even went offstage (stage-right) and played his guitar, where you couldn't see him (ahh, the amazing powers of technology) during the last performance.