Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Thinking of All Those Colorado Peter Gabriel Fans

In September, Peter Gabriel is scheduled to play at the iconic Red Rocks amplitheatre as part of the So Back to Front tour.  Whether Red Rocks will survive the current round of wildfires is actually pretty good. (Now look at image of Peter knocking on wood for luck.)

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Anyway, if you happen to be a Peter Gabriel fan from Colorado within smelling distance of the myriad of wildfires currently happening, let me be the first to say, "What the HELL are you doing on the freakin' Internet???  GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW."

I do have relatives in Colorado but they ain't leaving but are getting liquored up.  I guess that will make them more flamable.  Quite frankly, if I could only save the life of one person and the choice was any random Colorado PG fan and one of my Colorado relatives, I'll grab the PG fan, thank you.

Hopefully, in  September, the Red Rocks concert will go off spectacularly and the times of wildfires will be but a smoky memory.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Welcome New and Old Readers to This Blog

I took a look at my stats for The Perfect Blog Title (which I rarely do) and was shocked to see my readership has gone up.  Perhaps you are new to this blog.  Hello, there.  Welcome to my world.  What have you gotten yourself into?

I started this blog in 2006 to
  • help me learn how to blog
  • promote my writing
  • discuss spirituality 
Let's just say that I failed in all three counts.  I was a witch/pagan back in 2006 but by 2009 I came out as an atheist.  My pagan years were fun and as religions go, it's the best, but jut rings hollow to me now instead of sounding like sweet, clear music.

Shift to Peter Gabriel

How's that for a segue? 

In the last three years or so I've mostly blogged about singer/songwriter/humanitarian Peter Gabriel.  Quite frankly, I love Peter more than I loved any Deity.  Anyway, my shift in blog focus was due to a lack of information from Petergabriel.com but this has really picked up in the past year.  It used to be that I had to hit Google News for PG news (which I would then pass on), but now PG's official Facebook page has taken up the slack, rendering my blog posts superfluous. 

I will still post about Peter Gabriel as the spirit moves me, but check out the Peter Gabriel links on the left for the latest PG news.

And Then 2011 Hit

Last year, my Mom's health has dropped like a rocket.  She took me and my dog in when we were homeless, so you better believe I've been taking care of Mom 24/7 ever since.  This means I have very little time for writing.  Mom's been paying most of my bills because I take care of her, the house and the pets.  I'm really ashamed that I can't contribute more financially to the household, but there it is.

At this point, I suppose I should write something inspiring like "Now that the we content industry has dried up, I can use this as a new opportunity to expand my craft and pursue a new evolution in freelance writing" but that would be bullshit and I will not bullshit you, Gentle Reader.  My web content freelance writing jobs are gone and I have not been able to find other writing work and IT SUCKS.  I used to make an average of $50 a day -- now I'm lucky if I make $5 per day.

I don't see this as an "opportunity."  I see this as a huge neon sign pointing to me with an arrow saying LOSER!

I do not make any money on this blog or my WordPress blog ReasonsNotToCommitSuicide so I can have absolute writing freedom.  So, I don't know what direction The Perfect Blog Title will take from here on out, but at least you won't find any bullshit.


Sunday, June 24, 2012

My Demotivational Posters

So, why did I stick these up?  Because I want to place them on one of my Pinterest boards and you can't pin anything from Facebook, where these beauties were originally stored.

That's pretty much the highlight of my life recently -- playing with Pinterest.  It's not like I could write for clients because I have so few of them.

I am still mostly taking care of Mom, who had a knee replacment surgery on 24 May.  She's able to dress herself now (hey -- that may not sound like much, but get YOUR knee replaced.)








Thursday, June 14, 2012

Hugo is Two Years Old

Today is Hugo's birthday.  He's 2.  Everyone grab a can in your mouth and strut around like Hugo.

Saturday, June 02, 2012

I'm Going to See Peter Gabriel Concert in Philly

After a huge drama that I really didn't need, I finally managed to snare a ticket for Peter Gabriel's concert on 21 Spetember at the Wells Fargo Whatchahoosey (better known as That Place Where the Flyers Play.)  I didn't have to deal with Ticketbastards this time around.  No, this time I had to butt heads with ComcastTix.com.  Unfortuately, some other people had problems with this website, but other people managed to get their tickets without much hassle (other than paying three figures for a ticket.)

Since my Mom's health is going downhill, I'm her caretaker.  Since my profession (freelance writing) has also sunk faster than the Titanic, I cannot afford to hire a "Mom sitter" so no travelling to New York or Germany anymore.  This may be my last Peter Gabriel concert.  Since it may be my last PG concert, I thought I'd splurge and get a Front Row Package (which includes admission to the soundcheck.)  It turns out that Front Row Packages were not available for sale in Philly, even though they were advertised on ComcastTix.com.  I found this out by actually phoning Comcast and trying to get tickets that way.

The pre-sale started at 10am on 29 May.  No, I didn't mention that fact on this blog for 2 reasons:

  1. Mom had a knee replacement and she's even more crippled than usual.  It's like taking care of a 200 lb baby that can talk back to you.
  2. I wanted to have the best shot of getting a good ticket.  The less PG fans knew about the pre-sale, the better for me.  So I'm an arsehole.  Get over it.
Have you ever had a knee replacement?  Unless you have really good drugs, it's not a lot of fun.  You are basically stuck in a recliner or a bed 24/7.  You are so stiff and sore that you cannot wipe yourself after you use the toilet.  Since Mom could only walk a few steps, she couldn't even get to the toilet and so uses a commode. 

Keep in mind Mom took me and my dog in when we were homeless.  I have no problem with cleaning the commode.  But it's a big production to get Mom on and off the commode.  So I told Mom again and again that I would be busy from 10 to 10:30am.  I got up at 7 to be sure she ate breakfast, used the commode and took medication before 10am.

So you know what happened at exactly at the stroke of 10am.  That's right. "Rena -- I have to pee."

"No, you don't."  I replied, 'cause I have such a stellar bedside manner.  "I'm getting my concert ticket. We discussed this."

"Don't be mean to me.  Making me hold my urine is mean to me."  Now, because of Mom's medications, this isn't true.  Her bladder sends her false signals.  She often claims she has to urinate and finds that nothing's going on down there.  This is the old "choose between me and X" scenario that we all love to loved ones through, don't we?

So I had to abandon ticket-quest and go help Mom.  By the time I got back to the website, it said that all of the presale tickets had sold out.  That's when I phoned and was told the same thing.  I was on Facebook with another PG fan from Florida who said to keep on trying with  the website.  And lo and behold, a ticket for Row 4 suddenly appeared on screen.

Man -- it was less stress to stand in line for 24 hours to get a ticket, like in the good old days.