Who’s with me in traveling the world for a year?!

So this last week at the Santa Monica hostel has been a blast. The hostel is really nice and there’s a lot of cool things to do and just a lot of cool people you meet from around the world. It’s inspired me to want to see the world even more than I already did. I kinda want to take a break from school, even though I barely started. I feel like I have to do this while I’m still young though. I don’t want to be old and seeing the world in hostels.
Most of the people here are young, there’s a few older people and they’re cool, but they’re definitely the outcast. I came to the conclusion today that I should just see the world. I’ll graduate a year older but that’s fine. And I can possibly even go back to some places I will have visited like France and Australia when I study abroad. The only real problem C-blocking me is $$ and I don’t want to do it alone and I doubt I’ll find anyone to go with me.
First thing I have to figure out is how am I gonna afford everything. I’m thinking I’ll move back home, as much as I don’t want to move back to the Bay Area. Get a job working full time and live with my parents and save save save, for how long I’m still figuring out.
Let’s say all the hostels average at 30 a night. It can be as cheap as $10 a night in some places, but as far as more popular cities, it’s gonna be maybe around 25 depending on what kind of room you get. So it’s gonna be roughly $700 a month. Then you have to include food, lets say I do things cheap and give myself $15 a day for food, it comes to $420 a month. Next, you have to add in travel expenses like plane tickets and bus travel. I figure I’ll fly where I have to, like Australia and Europe and then just take bus/trains. Usually the max stay at a hostel is 2 weeks. I figure I’ll live somewhere new every one or two weeks. I’m gonna have to figure transportation out later when I decide for sure what I’m doing. From there, I’m gonna give myself a $100 a week for fun things, like pub crawls, tours, and other activities the hostels hopefully have.
So far the total is $1520 a month. Working minimum wage full time would almost give me the money I need, I basically would need to work 1 month for every month I want off.  Well that’s a reality check. Change of plans, I think I’ll just visit Europe and Australia.
Now I need to think of the route.
1st. Dublin, Ireland for one week

2nd. London for one week.

3rd. Madrid, Spain for one week.

4th Paris, France for one week.
5th Amsterdam for one week

6th Berlin, Germany for one week

7th Sweden for one week

8th Italy for one week

9th Australia for two weeks.
Melbourne

Sydney


So its 10 weeks total. 4 weeks in a month, so basically 3 months. I need to save for 3 months. I think toughing it out for 3 months would be worth it. I probably wouldn’t be able to leave until next January anyway due to my whole probation thing. I guess in the meantime I can also do another semester of school. That gives me 6 months to save. I have to change my ways. I have a serious spending problem and have to break that addiction. Maybe this will be the motivation  to start learning how to save. Plus 6 months should be enough time to lose a few L B S’s. When I get back I can continue my education.

Today I didn’t even have to use my A.K.

I gotta say it was a good day. If I had to describe my day by music video, it would be Fight Fair’s Pop Rocks

I woke up this morning feeling good. This last week has been probably one of the best weeks I’ve had in Santa Monica/LA. I think it may be because of the Hostel. It’s been an adventure. So I wake up today and head to Jamba Juice to start my day with a Strawberry Whirl with a soy protein boost and a 3G charger and it was delish obviously. Oh and they were playing Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby lol.

On the way there I saw a random guy break into dance on the street lol. I was like what?! but ok, I’m feelin it. Then the bus was right on time lol and again, there was a girl on the bus who randomly broke into dance, and she was gettin low, I’m guessing she was listening to Ludacris’ How Low Can You Go. Also, there was two incredibly hot girls from Australia, one was blonde. How do I know they were from Australia? I overheard their accents aand this old lady started randomly questioning them lol, it was great. I went to storage to grab my gym clothes and rode my bike to the gym. It was probably the first time I’ve gone into the gym in maybe a little under a year. I got my work out on, felt great, came back to the hostel, showered, went to walk around Santa Monica and decided to get corn dogs at the original Hot Dog on a Stick.

I’m not even kidding, on the way there, another girl randomly breaks into dance. It’s like the Pied Piper was following me today. While I was in line, there was this black guy on his skateboard whistling for people to like get out of way because he was coming down the hill and for the most part people moved but there was this kid who didn’t get that whistling meant get out of the way, so the skater guy accidently kinda hits him and it knocks him off balance and he goes straight into the beach sand lol. On the way back I looked for a bar that would be showing the UFC fight tonight. I saw a lot of street performances. Two drummers! and good ones. So there went my dreams of being a drumming street performer in Santa Monica lol. One place was charging a cover and everyone else wasn’t showing the fight.

Luckily I ran into Cabo Cantina. No Cover. and Rampage lost, that was the only downer the day really. I should mention that there was beautiful girls everywhere all day today. Also while walking on 3rd st. I heard the Outhere Brother’s Boom Boom Boom Let me here you say Wayoh! The night ended with people coming from the bars and I met this girl who was at the hostel, she was definitely intoxicated lol, her name was Alexa Castillo.

She had some deep things to say lol. She was very intriguing. She saw my shirt

and it inspired her to come up with a bikini and thats when we found out she was a fashion designer.  She’s a fan of using you as a brand, not what you wear and using clothes to express yourself without labels, or something like that. What a day.

Polar Bear Club – Burned Out In A Jar

Seriously has been my theme song the last few weeks here in LA.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At midnight my house is ablaze
I feel the heat on my hands and face
In the background of the pictures, my fingers in the fixture
It's time to stop running and race
Damn it all, I am just sad
Everything's staying as fucked up
Because all that I used to have
Burned out in jar like a lightning bug
"Home" is a tight-wire show
Lucky for me my feet don't grow
I live with hyenas who take me back eons
When we used to stay up and see the sun, say hello
Damn it all, I am just sad
Everything's staying as fucked up
Because all that I used to have
Burned out in jar like a lightning bug
Damn it all, I am just sad
Everything's staying as fucked up
Because all that I used to have
Burned out in jar like a lightning bug
I miss the times in streets where we never got tired
Laying down in the grass by the empty camp fire
Like spies on the roof as we'd watch stars expire
But the image is a million years old
I miss the times in streets where we never got tired
Laying down in the grass by the empty camp fire
Like spies on the roof as we'd watch stars expire
But the image is a million years old
Damn it all, I am just sad
Everything's staying as fucked up
Because all that I used to have
Burned out in jar like a lightning bug

My theme song the few months before moving to LA was definitely All Time Low’s Weightless.
Manage me, I'm a mess
Turn a page, I'm a book
Half unread
I wanna be laughed at
Laughed with, just because
I wanna feel weightless
And that should be enough
But I'm stuck in this fucking rut
Waiting on a second hand pick me up
And I'm over, getting older
If I could just find the time
Then I would never let another day go by
I'm over, getting old
Maybe it's not my weekend
But it's gonna be my year
And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go nowhere
And this is my reaction
To everything I fear
Cause I've been going crazy I don't want to waste another minute here
Make believe that I impress
That every word
By design
Turns a head
I wanna feel reckless
I wanna live it up, just because
I wanna feel weightless
Cause that would be enough
If I could just find the time
Then I would never let another day go by
I'm over, getting old
Maybe it's not my weekend
But it's gonna be my year
And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go nowhere
And this is my reaction
To everything I fear
Cause I've been going crazy I don't want to waste another minute here
This could be all that I've waited for
(I've waited, I've waited for)
And this could be everything
I don't wanna dream anymore
Maybe it's not my weekend
But it's gonna be my year
And I've been going crazy
I'm stuck in here
Maybe it's not my weekend
But it's gonna be my year (it's gonna be my year)
And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go nowhere (go nowhere)
And this is my reaction
To everything I fear (everything I fear)
Cause I've been going crazy I don't want to waste another minute here

Jay Seans Down = Vegas Strip Clubs, every time.

Every time I hear this song, it immediately takes me back to Vegas strip clubs last year. It’s like my official Vegas strip club theme song.

I feel the same exact way.

What you think about hardcore right now?
Sometimes I feel a little confused on hardcore right now. I'm getting older, and I'm starting to feel out of place at shows. I don't really know all the younger kids coming out, and just feel like an outsider. The confusing part is I don't really have a place outside of hardcore either. I'm still a hardcore kid and always will be, it's just hard being stuck in this inside/outside world, not fitting in anywhere really.
- Scott Wade (ex Comeback Kid Singer)

I guess I like Jazz… kinda

I’ve always liked the Rat Pack. I’m a big fan of the music and just the vibe they gave. I haven’t listened to them a whole lot lately though. Since getting my last computer a few years ago my play count for Dean Martin is only 59 and Frank Sinatra, 17.

Then I saw Joss Stone on CMT’s Crossroads with Leann Rimes a year or two ago..

and I definitely became a fan of Joss Stone. I guess she’s more of a soul singer than jazz but it opened my mind to new music.

I used to not watch American Idol at all. Then I finally decided to give it a shot, I’m a musician after all and I kinda love music, haha, so I started watching Season 6 and have been a fan since. Last week Harry Connick Jr. was a guest mentor for Frank Sinatra week and I immediately became a fan. I liked the fact that he took the time not to just mentor the contestants but help with composing the arrangements. I think its the first time I’ve seen a mentor do more than say “connect with the audience” or “connect with the song and lyrics”. Then the contestants sang a Harry Connick Jr medley

and I was like wait, that’s Harry Connick Jr.? The only thing I really knew about him was the my brothers ex gf Lorri got to go on stage and sing with him; if my memories serves me right. It actually put me in a good mood watching the video lol. So I looked him up, cause that’s what I do when I discover new music I like and jazz came up as one of his genres you could put him in. I played Harry Connick Jr. on

to see what else is out there within that genre, and sure enough Joss Stone played, Norah Jones played, and then Michael Bublé played, so I look him up to because I know girls seem to love this guy, so I wanted to see what all the hype was about and apparently this guy has been called today’s Frank Sinatra. Ha, and I love this song.

So I guess I’m a fan of Jazz in a way, there’s like a million subgenres, after I looked up Jazz on Wikipedia and all of these artist list jazz as a way to describe there music. So am I going to any jazz festivals anytime soon? F yeah I am! I’m always down for new adventures. I looked up jazz festivals on Wikipedia because there was a link for it, like always, and apparently I moved from the jazz festival capital in Nor*Cal. 3 out of the 14 festivals listed are in SoCal and the rest are up north. I’m gonna try to hit up the Playboy Jazz Festival this year, held at the Hollywood Bowl.
clownhatcurlyhairsmileyface.

2nd and 3rd and 4th Tattoos

I honestly forget what order these went in. I know for sure the lip tattoo was before my lower ankle one but other than that. I kinda forget the order in which I got them.
Inner lower lip tattoo
At the time I was hanging out a lot with Rachelle Bogue. Enough to nickname each other Sidekicks. I don’t remember how we came up with the idea to tattoo Side Kicks on our inner lips but we did. I honestly thought she was gonna chicken out. Then we actually went to a tattoo shop and got it done. We had trouble finding someone who would tattoo it because the lip is hard to tattoo and it fades quickly. We finally found a non fun hater to do it in San Jose. It was her first tattoo and she handled it like a champ. The lip actually doesn’t hurt that bad.

Right Lower Ankle
This is almost the same story as the lip tattoo. It started off as a joke and turned into a game of chicken, in which case we both won or lost depending on which way you look at it, lol. It was St. Patricks Day and I was on the phone with Elizabeth Rodriguez (no relation) and I was talking about how I don’t ever need to wear green again on St. Patricks Day because I have green permanently on me (my tattoo) and she says how her next color tattoo will have green on it and I say you can tattoo a shamrock, we can get matching tattoos and without hesitation she agrees! I was caught off guard, I wasn’t expecting her to say that, so we talked for another 5 minutes each saying how we’re not playing around, how we’d really go get it done right now and how the other one is going to chicken out. There was no way I was backing down from this, I’m King Spontaneous. So we found this new tattoo shop in Fremont called

We walked in and both of us walked out with new shamrock ankle tattoos. This all happened in the span of an hour or two. She later got hit by a bus.

Left Lower Arm Tattoo
I knew I wanted a Dia De Los Muertos tattoo, I just wasn’t sure what to get. I started looking at some flash and finally decided I want a sugar skull. Then I thought of putting roses around it but not symmetrical. I wanted it to kinda flow on my arm. Then for the eyes I decided to put poker chips and add sort of a poker theme to it. I wanted the suits in it but I wasn’t sure where to put them. Next I needed to pick a tattoo artist.

I immediately knew who I wanted for this design. Freddy Corbin from Temple Tattoo in Oakland. Freddy is sort of a big deal. He’s worked with Ed Hardy. He’s done tattoos for Rock Band. He does all the tattoos on Sons of Anarchy, he designed the SOA logo. If you ever watched Miami Ink you can see a sticker on the doorway for Temple Tattoo. I went in and set up an appointment. I think the wait was only a few months for him.

A few days before the appointment, I went in, discussed the design with him and let him do what he does best. Freddy is a really nice guy. Not a huge ego or anything. Halfway through it I realized I forgot to tell him that I wanted color, lol. So basically we set up another appointment after he was done with the outline and shading to come back in and do the color. After he was done with the outline and shading though I almost didn’t want to go back in and add color. It looked really good without it. But I like color and so I did and I think it looks even better. I’m proud of it. I guess I forgot to mention why did I want a Dia De Los Muertos tattoo. That part of it is kinda personal and don’t really tell people, but if you know what Dia De Los Muertos stands for, then you have your answer. Its a reminder for me, which is why I chose to put it on my lower arm where I can see it everyday.

My First Tattoo - Left Upper Arm Tattoo

So some tattoos, not all, sometimes it just looks cool, but sometimes tattoos do have a story, message, meaning, or something more to it. All of mine do for the most part, lol, as crazy as they are, I’ve decided to share. Starting from my first tattoo to my last.
I always knew what I wanted for my first tattoo. I had the image in my head since high school. In high school I took a digital graphics class and learned how to play with Photoshop. I took those skills and made an image of what I wanted for my first tattoo. I had the old image on my computer but it broke and I lost all the files on it. If I fix it some day and can recover those images, I’ll update this with new pics. I lost the pics I had of me getting it done too. I got into real estate at 20 and with one of my commission checks I knew exactly how I was gonna spend that money lol.

I printed the image that I made with Photoshop and shopped it around to local tattoo shops and NOBODY wanted to do it. I got a lot of drums are hard to tattoo because they’re to detailed. It would be too cluttered. The image I had was of real drums. I think they thought I wanted the drums to look like real drums. Finally, I changed the way I worded it. When I was living in AZ there was a band by the name of Where Eagles Dare. They opened for Bleeding Through in Flagstaff and I was blown away. Later I found out the lead singer was a tattoo artist. I looked up his portfolio and I really loved his tattoos and what he could do with colors. I saw that he would be coming to the SF Tattoo Convention at the Cow Palace, so I shot him a message through myspace and e-mailed him the image. I said I know this realistically isn’t tattooable, but feel free to play with it and make it tattooable. He responded with he’d love to do it and was excited about it. SCORE. That’s the response I’d been looking for.

I met him at the convention and he showed me what he had drawn up and I loved it. Because he was only in town for the convention we’d have to do the whole thing in one sitting. Normally you wouldn’t do a big tattoo like that in one sitting. You’d do the outline/shading/color in different settings so it can heal, otherwise you risk it bleeding too much and the ink wont stay and it can come out. 7.5 hours later I had my first tattoo. A huge one at that. I remember people would walk by and would be like wow wait, thats your 1st tattoo?! Thats huge! and I’d be like yeah, I’m a G… lol, k, not really, I wouldn’t really respond with that. I saw Trinity (an old friend from H.S.) that day, I hadn’t seen him in years. I guess he’s a tattoo artist now. I also saw Mark Palmer (another old friend). He was promoting his ambigrams as flash art. Since then I’ve seen his myspace and facebook and he’s done quite well for himself. He turned his designs into a clothing company and has celebs and everything wearing his stuff. I think he also has a shop at Knotts Berry Farm.

The number one question I got/get is did it hurt? or How much did it hurt? Over the years I’ve decided the best way to describe it is if you peeled off the top layer of skin, so it was raw and then poured rubbing alcohol on it. That would be the equivalent pain. Yeah it hurts, but its tolerable. Except for when they get to the bone. I’m still not sure how to describe that pain and there’s no way I could do 7.5 hours of only shoulders and elbows. 2nd question is how much. Simple answer $1,000 not including tip. Sometimes I get “What did your parents say?” I thought my dad would throw a huge fit and my mom would be cool with it and it ended up being the exact opposite. My dad was cool with it and actually liked it and my mom, well, I came home and it was wrapped up and bleeding A LOT and it was super swollen, it kinda reminded me of when you buy meat and it still has blood in it kinda thing, and well, she cried, lol. Yeah she was pretty upset that first night.
Now as to the actual tattoo. I wanted my first one to have meaning behind it.

For most of my youth I wanted to be a Magician. It was either that or a professional wrestler lol. I had seen every major magician (Lance Burton, David Copperfield, even Siegrfied and Roy before he got bit) Then I got bored with magic. I knew how most of the tricks worked and unless you’re doing close up magic, buying magic tricks can be expensive. I used to do birthday parties and everything. I still liked magic, I was just bored with it and stopped paying attention to it all together. Then I saw Criss Angel. I mean first season Criss Angel before he was the mega douche he is now. For the record, I still love Criss Angel, I think the way he looks and acts now fits his persona and especially after seeing David Blaines last two specials, Criss Angel is still about a billion times better; Angel actually keeps me entertained. I’ve even met him to show my tat and he took a pic of it to add to his collection I guess. He said it might end up on TV.

Anyway, I saw Criss Angel and was blown away. I instantly fell in love with magic again.  This time though, I stopped wondering how he did it, ok, I’m lying, obviously i still wonder how he does things, but the difference is I don’t NEED to know. I can sit back and just enjoy the art form of it. He’ll tell you straight up what he does isn’t real. It’s an illusion. But some of the stuff he does IS real. like when he was hanging from hooks. It’s up to us to figure out what’s what. So that’s pretty much why I got the magic stuff and the mask the guy is wearing is one of Criss Angels logo mask things. It’s a little off because JSN (tattoo artist) didn’t know it was supposed to be exactly like the pic, not knowing it was a Criss Angel thing.
Nobody’s asks me, but I’m pretty sure people wonder what the fuck is with the pink drums and the answer is in short they’re Alex Gonzalez’s signature drum set from DW. He’s who inspired me to pick up the drums. I’ve always loved the drums since I was a kid. I had one of the cheap ones you get at ToysR’Us with the paper drum heads and quickly went through that. Then I saw Maná, I’d say my first major concert and I fell in love with the drums and Alex Gonzalez. Maná is one of my top two favorite bands ever.

Then Alex switched from Pearl to DW drums! Drum Workshop is my favorite drum company. So Favorite drummer ever + favorite drum company ever = Alex Gonzalez Signature Drum Set = beings I love music and obviously the drums, and was gonna have a drum set tattoo’d on my arm either way = Mr. Gonzalez’s drums on my arm. And its roughly the same set up as the real drums, with the chinas on the sides and everything.

The camo shorts we’re a joke. He asked me what I wanted him to wear and I was like I don’t know, camo shorts, and he laughed and tattoo’d camo shorts. Camo shorts for those who don’t know, are one of the stereotypical things hardcore kids wear.
the lightning represents the energy and excitement of playing drums and the flames, well who doesn’t love playing with fire?
p.s. I think this was done in 2006, I forget what month though.

NFG 10 year Anniversary Tour 3/21/10

I almost didn’t go to this concert. I didn’t really want to go by myself and I didn’t know anyone in LA that was going or that was even into New Found Glory. I bought my ticket a while back when I had money because I knew I HAD to go to this show. Especially after I found out it was going to be a 10 year Anniversary tour of their self titled CD and they’d be playing EVERY song from the CD beginning to end. Then on top of that the line up was perfect. Well minus Hellogoodbye. Both shows that weekend sold out.

Like usual, I showed up late. After I knew I was gonna miss Fireworks, I wasn’t in a huge rush because I really didn’t want to see Hellogoodbye. The House of Blues Anaheim is located in Downtown Disney, so with my extra time I walked around and for the first time, beings I”m a SoCal local now, I looked at people like silly tourist. I’m gonna say since I was a kid I’ve averaged going to Disneyland once every 1.5 years, so I’ve seen the HOB from the outside plenty of times. I even went to the one in Orlando (I saw A7X, MCR and Funeral For A Friend). This one is roughly the same layout. Its laid out kind of like The Catalyst in Santa Cruz but smaller and upstairs, they have an outside area with a full bar. The main thing I didn’t like about the venue though is the center part of the main floor is lowered. The show obviously sold out and it was difficult to get to the main floor unless you were already there. Because of that, there wasn’t a lot of room for the MOSH.

Saves The Day was fun. The played all the songs I wanted to hear and a lot of new ones that I could have fast forwarded through but still kinda enjoyed. I think if I gave new Saves The Day a chance, I might like it. I keep buying the new CD’s like I’m gonna listen to it and then listen to it like once. The line up looked a little different, I’m sure they’ve had band member changes.

I was kinda upset that I couldn’t get to the main floor for NFG. I was still on the lower level but off to the side a little bit but it still wasn’t where I like to be for a NFG show. I quickly got over it the second they came out and went right into Better Off Dead. Immediately the energy from the whole venue I think went through the roof.  From then on, I think I had one of the best times I’ve had so far in LA. I really needed NFG that night too. I got goose bumps hearing songs they never or rarely play live.  A small pit kinda broke out. There wasn’t really any room for one. Even Chad said this is normally where we say we want to see a circle pit but there isn’t any room. After they played their whole self titled CD they went off stage and came back and encored with their classics that they obviously had to play. For the last song (My Friends Over You) because it was the last date on the tour, they brought out all the bands on stage and everybody either played an instrument or sang along. In the end I was left wanting more. I felt like the set was really short, or maybe it just went by fast because I was having such an amazing time.

P.S. Didn’t see any FSU, I was kinda expecting to see some FSU members. Also, no fights, well, no fights that I saw.