i'm finding out, that the easy answers won't suffice anymore

this weekend was very positive.
ojk played a show on friday. we played with okra and the blend. the blend was basically a hip hop band. they were pretty neat and caused a lot of white people to dance like white people dance. i felt that ojk was well recieved and i walked away from this show feeling very good about the band.

yesterday i went to warped tour and i could probably blog about it for a long time but i will only hit the highlights.
family force 5. killer. that band requires attention. their sound was not that great and was kindof covered up by escape the fate. i was very mad at escape the fate and wanted to show them my middle finger but then remembered that pretty soon they will realize their music is bad and that will be punishment enough for them. family force 5!
paramore put on a very fun very positve set.
mxpx. heck yes. i finally got to see these men play their music in front of people. we were very close for their set and i had so much fun. they took requests at the end which made their set even neater. once they concluded their set i went and watched the graduate play and i noticed that mike of mxpx was talking to some people. i conveniatelly timed my departure from watching the graduate and just so happened to see mike and shake his hand and thank him for making good music. it was gnarly.
another high light was seeing new found glory. you can laugh at me if you would like but they reminded me of a time when i could not grow a beard. i felt like i was 14 again watching them play with such vigor. they only played one song of their new album which was a good idea.
bummer of the day: i was watching bayside and noticed that big d and the kids table was playing near by. i wanted to see a small portion of their set and walked up and stood on the outskirts. i was standing next to an attractive female who turned out to be meg from meg and dia. i didn't realize it till some awkward kid came up and took a picture with her. she disappeared shortly after that. i then went back to watch bayside slightly bummed, but bayside's music quickly lifted my spirits.
a good day. a very very good day.

i have been reading the irresistable revolution and feel crappy because of all the stuff i have.

i am not looking forward to moving out of the house i am in now. not at all.

(this is where i would have put my warped tour pictures but i gave my camera to my sister and forgot to take my parents old one. oops)

who let you let this feeling die.

i just returned from my pigrimage home.
i would rate this as one of my favorite trips home ever.
thursday i pretty much hung out and got lemonade from my cousins lemonade stand. he gave me a good deal.
saturday ojk and tba came down and we had many many laughs. i forget about all the small little things that are strange about my home town that i never noticed. for instance stinky's bar and grille. totally normal. i have consumed food there many times but to an outsider that is a pretty funny name for a resteraunt.
ojk and tba and the freshmen hung out for a while and then it was show time. we had a good sized crowd considering the short amount of time this all came together. the freshmen took the stage and got the crowd sufficiently pumped. they are already a good band. the benedict affair absolutely owned the crowd that they had never played for before. everyone was into their music. ojk too the stage and put on a solid set as well. it was so much fun performing for a crowd of people who already knew me and were excited about the music. piper came from her home town, that was gnarly. i got to play celebrate life in front of grandma rosie.
post show we went back to my house and made a fire. all the bands hung out and then erin brought some friends over. i felt like the high school kids were observing us college kids on our natural enviornment, but it was fun.
i went to church on sunday morning and made my way home.
i came home early thinking ojk would be played on the radion round 6 or 7. i was lied to. the radio program did not begin until 10. all the kids at the niessink home were excited about hearing our band play and they couldn't. i was very mad.
now i am back in my boring routine.
i just made coffee and am going to go zone out in the living room.

sweet Jesus i swear that i love you

i'm exhausted.
ojk played a show last night and it was a great success. we played in hull iowa with some new bands and i think we made some new fans. the only down fall was walhof approaching the mic and dropping an f bomb in front of people who have never heard us before. we had a good talk as a band about it and hopefully it won't happen again. i got a good chance to mingle with our new crowd trying to get our cd sold without being a jerkhole. i sold a cd for an empty bottle of pop. great success.

on tuesday i went with kenny and walhof and saw maylene and the sons of disaster in omaha. aslkdjav;bnajeoiva. that is the only way i could think to express how i felt. it was so so good. while he is legend was playing me and kenny noticed that walhof had not come in from his smoke break and we decided to pursue him because more than likely he was doing something awesome. sure enough there stands walhof standing next to dallas taylor the lead singer of maylene. apparently walhof walked right up to him and asked him why he was a Christian. he told us everything. it was incredible. his perspective on being in a band really made me want to change my attitude towards being in a band myself, and i have. he talked to us about how he could be at home with his wife and his kid but he is so convinced that God will work through their music eventhough the lyrics aren't explicitly Christian. i want to feel that convicted.

ojk is playing a show in aplington next week saturday. i have been contacting tj out the waz to try to get the stuco center booked but he has not returned phone calls. basically i don't know where we will be playing but it wil happen.

i recently made the purchase of a cd by a band called manchester orchestra. they were not billed to me as a Christian band but some of their lyrics are so spiritually challenging that it is eery.

i just finished reading the book simply Christian by nt wright. i borrowed if from roomate kris walhof and i would recomend it to anyone who has a soul.

i have had heartburn a lot lately. i don't know why but i am guessing work related stres may be the culprit.

that is pretty much all i can think of at the moment.

can we take the next hour and talk about me

i'm tired and a little bit burnt out.
in my current occupation we have what we call a turn around shift. that means that you work until 10:30 pm and then have to come back in at 6:30 am. tomorrow will be my second one in 3 days.
we also had a little bit of a scare at the old neissink home, but i don't want to go into that.

other than that this summer has been pretty gnarly. i don't do a whole lot, i basically sit around and write songs. i have not been completely lazy. i do go for pretty regular bike rides and the other day i decided to yog. but i am writing a lot of songs and actually kindof reading.

i went camping last weekend and it was truly a delight.



i totally stole this from piper but i found it entirely entertaining.

Create Your Own PaloozaHead - Visit Lollapalooza.com

some mornings when i wake up my room smells like urine. i wake up terrified thinking omg i just wet my bed. after a careful inspection my bed is not wet and said urine smell cannot be located. i can only determine that there is some creature that urinates outside my window occasionally which pisses me off (pun).

today i tried to replace my rear view mirror in my car after a year of driving without it. i failed for the second time. anger etc.

i hope to go to the warped tour later this summer. very excite

i don't really have much else to say for myself.
picture of camping

somehow everything's going to fall right into place.

it has been so so long since i have posted.
rather than attempt to go over all that has happened i will give brief summaries.

work is going well and i am enjoying my time.
spiral macaroni is completely kick pants.
i played a show as the benedict affair's stand in guitarist and had a good time. (i think walhof is still a little mad)
ojk has 2 new songs both of which rock electronically.

those are the highlights of the past few days/ weeks.

in other news 3/4 of ojk went to sioux falls the other day. i purchased a mandolin and i love it. paul purchased a banjo and i love it. we are playing folk music. happy times.
to hear what i have been up to i will direct you to the link to your right that says my music. a will be posting a new song soon. there you can find a little song i wrote incoporating acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, and my voice. the lyrics are simple and not that great but it is a 2 minute gem of mediocre stringed instrument playing.

well it had been so long since i posted and that is all i have to say. embarrasing.

now that i have you may i use you as a muse and keep you up all night

i have moved into my new residence. as of 4 am this morning i have moved into the town house in sioux center, but more on that later.

rep tour went extremely well. i am absolutely amazed by all the things that went right.
here are some things that went right:
no one got mad at eachother.
i did not loose patience with anyone.
the piece we wrote was recieved amazingly.
all the workshops my group led went spectacular.
i bought the movie magnolia for $10.
i didn't feel like the tour was oppresively long.
i did not totally hate riding in the van.

here are some highlights.
1. we performed our big piece that we wrote for high school students at teresa's church. the average age could not have been above 50 in the audience. the piece we were performing could definetly be taken the wrong way. we performed it as a part of their evening service. the reception to the piece was amazing. everyone in the church truly appreciated what we were doing and we had great discussions about what we were doing.
2. tj and i stayed with a family that lived right on a lake. there was a very nice trail so tj and i decided to go for a walk. we were gone for about 45 minutes. as we turned the last corner before the house we saw people with flashlights who were saying our names. our host family thought we were lost and was looking for us. they sent their grandfather who was visiting out in a van to find us. we were embarressed. i can't spell.
3. staying at micha schurmaan's house i again can't spell.

this is a very brief summary, but typing more about it would bore me and i have no doubt that it would bore you the reader.
the tour was a very positive experiece.

today we had to get up at 7:30 to unload the trailer and i have been awake since. i got 3 hours of sleep.
but i am living in my new residence.
today was really laid back and i loved it. walhof and i played donkey kong and there was much anger and laughter the throwing of controlers.

i start work on monday.
yuck.

i can tell by the way your standing, the nights about to get a whole lot sweeter.

well no one even guessed on the last guess the lyrics game. it was saves the day. two demerits for everyone who didn't even try.
here is a more challenging one. try if you dare.

it is sunday which i call blogday, if i haven't blogged in a long time.

this week was pretty low key. i didn't do homework and we performed our rep tour piece. the performances went well.
i would like to use this blog to explaing how beautiful yester day was.
my day started at 5:30 am. i had to go in a job shadow again. the only other living thing awake in my apartment was a fly and for some strange reason said fly made it it's personal job to piss me off. i told him that i would not bring harm to him, a2 is a big place and we can coexist for now. he did not listen to my warning so i violently killed him.
job shadowing was pretty neat. i took away points for the first time and began to establish the fact that i will be fun with the boys but will be tough when i have to.
once work was done we did another rep tour performance. i screwed up the names in a scene and we all laughed and everyone informed me that i should not do that again. i have taken their advice to heart.
on the way back from the rep tour performance there were high winds that threatened to take me to oz. i refused their offer and battled this wind all the way back to my appartment. upon arival to my apartment i was reminded that we were having people over for a meal before the dance. i was slightly embarrased but very pumped to throw down again.
this is a picture of people at the dance party. yes i am wearing a bandana and will do so more often. again jeremiah and i decided haste the day would be an appropriate dance number and we threw down in our kitchen. i can now officially say that i have moshed in my kitchen. people were terrified and stood around the permiters of the room and pretended to not enjoy it. my parents are probably so proud of me. once everyone had sufficiently cleared out and jeremiah myself and a few others danced about to maylene and the sons of disaster the dance was over.
at the time it was raining pretty hard and i decided it would be most fun to go outside barefoot and enjoy the rain. the rain let up slightly so a group of us decided to walk to shell and get cigars. we were so close to shell when the rain became intense. it was raining cats and dogs and they were biting. we turned around and enjoyed the rain. upon our rearival to dordt we decided tea sounded nice. a few of us wild spirits decided to go find big puddles and engage them. puddles were found and enjoyed. truly a beautiful experience. running around in the rain is in my top 5 things i have done at dordt college
we returned and made our appartment smell of rain and moldy things.

i removed my shirt and people were impressed.

i have decided that i am going to live a very simple lifestyle this summer. i hope to be outside more often wear cut off jeans, smell, be barefoot and not watch tv. i think it will be a good time. i might even pick up a souther accent, i haven't decided yet.