amazingadrian

Things have been moving along, I guess. Starting to lose hope on the job front, so I'm just taking things one day at a time. My time at the workshop ends July 3rd, so I've got about a week left of any kind of employment before I'm on my own again.

And the future is pretty uncertain, but I'm starting to feel as though The Dream is dead. With everything lining up the way it is, I don't think we'll get back to good times, probably for the remainder of my generation's lives. With the latest threat from North Korea, I'm convinced that World War 3 and nuclear bombardment is the 2012 disaster Nostradamus predicted. Even if the war turns out to be relatively benign (in the way of US casualties), it would be an addition to the two wars we have already going in the Middle East, and there's just no way we could fight or pay for military operations on three different fronts. And that is on top of the looming fiscal crisis brought on by the number of senior citizens becoming disproportionate to the population of adults worldwide. Since the latest depression has evaporated baby boomer's retirement funds, as they age they are going to rely more heavily on the government, and the government is pretty broke as it is. They say that Medicaid will become insolvent as early as 2017. As if that wasn't enough, some economists are predicting that once the economy does recover (assuming the above events don't derail any recovery) hyperinflation is going to set in. And then there are the effects of Global Warming, which the government is too corrupt to address, and which will slowly but steadily affect the living quality of subsequent generations.

The 00's have been a decade defined by disasters on a global scale. While we aren't facing anything near the scale of the Black Death, I'll be damned if it doesn't get oppressive sometimes. If worse comes to worse, I'd at least like to have someone to hold when the shit hits the fan.

There, done venting.

I recently ordered a DVD of Journey's Frontiers And Beyond. It's the 1983 documentary filmed for the band by the NFL, probably in return for the band's sponsorship of the football season of those years. It was released on VHS in 1984 as a Journey Fan Club exclusive, and as far as I am aware, that was the end of it. I ordered this CD/DVD set knowing full well that it was probably going to be a bootleg, but when I got it the production value was so good that I'm no longer sure of where it came from. It might actually be a limited-release promo, or something that was released many years ago but is no longer in print. The DVD itself is just a straight rip of the VHS. No menus or anything. Decent quality though. There doesn't appear to be any obvious aging...

The documentary is very much old school. It does, however, do an excellent job of showing how the band functioned at the height of their career, following the road crew as they tour arenas throughout the United States. It is an absolute trip to watch, because it is a poignant glimpse back into a time when the culture of the 80's was hitting its stride. It makes me wonder where all the 80's chicks have gone, because ridiculous as it sounds, I really find them attractive. The band is in top form, too. It is actually strange to see them so young. Stranger still to see Jonathan Cain come out from behind his grand piano and just totally rock out with Neal on a double-necked guitar. The music video for Faithfully is composed entirely of clips from this documentary.

I'm going to try and get in touch with the seller and see if I can get him to tell me where these discs came from. I don't really care if they are bootlegs, as that's the only way you can find them these days, and the quality on these are very good. My only gripe is that the CD portion of the set desperately needs to be remastered and that the video isn't closed captioned.

So chalk it up to my collection being one step closer to completion!

My room is almost done. All that is left is to install new shelving in the closet and bring up a dresser unit. Then I should be free to move the remainder of my stuff in here (assuming I can get to it by myself) and go through everything to determine what I am keeping and what I am getting rid of. I might be making offers to trade here later, although I don't expect I'll get any offers.

As for real plans after I get out of the work program, I'm going to try to not be as fatalistic in my outlook as I am feeling today; I get in these funks sometimes though. I feel better about it having vented. Anyhow, since my room is about done and I've got my stuff mostly unpacked now or at least where I can get to it, I'm going to crack open my school books and start making a dedicated effort to improve my skills in the way of web development and programming. I'm also going to attempt to bone up for some of the basic certs I can get...basically just go as far as I can with an associates degree level education. There may not be jobs around here, but if I get good enough, maybe I can freelance on the cheap for small businesses looking to build a web presence or something. Anything, you know? I will need to improve my skills first. On top of this, I intend to check into the temp agency, even if I end up working a dangerous factory job like my brother is...Plus there is also a job offer as a typist, but I need to get my wpm up to 85, so I'll be practicing that. May not be able to do it though, because from what I hear it is typing up recordings, and with my hearing being the way it is...

Oh yeah, and I just heard about the death of Micheal Jackson. I'm not partcularly a fan of his music, but the sudden death of a man who was so important to popular culture still comes as a huge shock. I find it ironic though, that his death would happen at a time when he is the least relevant in the world that he's ever been. His comeback album was a failure, and his behavior over these past few years has been downright bizarre. He went from being the most influential pop icon in the world to being the media approximation of a clown. But there can be no doubt that he contributed heavily to the shape that the 70's and 80's took, musically and to a lesser extent, socially. Heck, if I'm not mistaken, he was only the second artist after Journey to get his own video game. I wonder though...now that the "King of Pop" is dead, who will inherit the throne?

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Now playing: Sonata Arctica - Fullmoon
via FoxyTunes

What a surprise! Young raccoons inside a soda machine.


Lucky or unlucky? A 93 year old man was discovered to have survived both atomic bombs dropped in Japan, making him the world's only documented doulbe-A bomb survivor. While the human toll is always going to be catastrophic when you drop a nuke in a densely populated area, this man proves that nuclear strikes are survivable if things roll in your favor.

A wife in Connecticut became so desperate to get her husband's attention that she handcuffed herself to him.