Gnarls Barkley

This has to be my best cd purchase in a long time. I like when a hybrid band comes around which doesn't fit comfortably in just one genre.

Gnarls Barkley's "St. Elsewhere is one of those rare finds. It's somewhere between r&b, alt-rock, jazz, blues, etc. The first track, "Go-Go Gadget Gospel,"is a semi-gospel type of thing and serves mostly as an extended album intro, then goes right into the first single--"Crazy." That's the first tune I heard from these guys. I was hooked just by that one tune. Then I heard "Smiley Faces" on the radio as well. When I heard Gnarls Barkley's cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone," I knew I had to pick up this cd.

I'm definitely not disappointed. Every song on this 14-track cd is great.

You've gotta check it out.

Test

Snakes on a Plane

I went to the theater fully expecting this movie to be so bad it was funny. I was pleasantly surprised.

No, it isn't the greatest movie ever made. There are some definitely cheesy parts which could have been left out. At least one of those scenes was obviously one of the scenes which were added in order to rate an R rating.

There's a lot to like about the movie, despite the obvious cheese factor that goes along with a movie like this. There's always that when creatures are attacking and some gore is involved. That, and some of the dialogue is horrible. And the title is one of the most dreadfully bad titles in cinematic history.

But overall, I found it entertaining and a fun view for my money.

Sponsored posts.

Since I don't post as regularly as I'd like, I'm going to try something new. In order to find things to blog about, I've joined Pay Per Post. I can choose from different opportunities to post about products and/or services that may interest me. In return, I am paid a small one-time amount. When I do a sponsored post, I will indicate that it is a paid post.

It's a good concept. If you decide to join, please say you were referred by me (mr_al@fuse.net) as there are also benefits for referring others.

I guess we'll see how it goes.

Officially Official

Yep, the corrected certificate came today.

http://www.alnewberry.com/certif.jpg

Check it out.

Finally almost close to being pretty close to maybe being rested up.

Well, it's been almost a week now since I've been back from Washington D.C. What a wild, fun, exhausting, exhiliarating trip it was.

I was pretty much on duty from 7:30 am each morning until 10:30 or 11:00 pm each night when the boys finally got settled for the night. They were pretty good despite some initial difficulty. I think mostly they were trying to impress the older guys.

Tuesday we visited the Smithsonian Institute. We only got to the museum of natural history and the National Air and Space museum, but there were a lot of fascinating things to see there. That evening, we got out to see the sites in D.C., including the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, Korean and Vietnam memorials, and such.

Wednesday, we visited the White House and the Capitol building. That evening, we went to the National Zoo, but it was later in the evening and there wasn't much to see. Most of the animals had gone to bed.

Thursday we got to go on a Duck tour. A Duck is an amphibious vehicle, so part of the tour was on land and part on water. It was pretty impressive. After that, we took a drive to Six Flags America for some R&R Six Flags was a pretty small park, really, compared to what I'm used to. But there were a couple of really cool rides. And the few of my guys who were paired with me got to see a whole different side of me. They're not used to seing be be exciteable.

Friday was the long ride home, which we also made fun.

Saturday and Sunday nights I worked at St. Joe's, which wore me out even more. Monday and Tuesday were spend playing catch-up, yesterday we had a meeting for work, and today I had to go to the house and mow the lawn.

So maybe this weekend I'll be able to recoup.

Official.

Well, mostly.  I got my certificate in the mail, but they misspelled my name, so I've got to get a corrected one.
Click here to see my certificate.

A Party of Real Principle

Since the Libertarian Party has decided in its last convention that it stands for nothing, we need a new Party of Principle for us libertarians who remember it's about winning liberty, not elections.

My friend Tom Knapp has come up with the solution.  A new party, the Boston Tea Party, with a small yet all-encompassing platform which covers everything libertarians stand for.  The state that this platform can never be altered.

Now there's a party of principle.

I hereby endorse the Boston Tea Party's platform and announce my joining of said party.

Congratulate me.

I am now a certified hypnotist.

I had the verbal portion of my final test tonight.  I did very well, if I do say so myself.  Don't have to--my instructor told me I did excessively well.  I only missed one on my final written exam, and aced most of my other tests.

So now I can make new cards up.

Al Newberry, C.H.

Next step, work on completing the training for Certified Hypnotherapist.

Who Knew?

Okay, so I decided I'd try out turkey bacon for the first time.  I bought one package despite the 2 for $4 deal, not knowing whether I'd like it or not.

Well, I'm eating some right now, and it's really rather delicious.  It cooks up rather easily as well, not curling up like crazy as regular pork bacon does.

Yummy. 

And. . . Victory

Well, I start full time at Boys Hope on the 16th.  Not as much of a pay cut as I was afraid it might be--not that money was such an important consideration.  I turned in my notice at St. Joe's already, although I'll probably stay on PRN again.

In the meantime, I referred my supervisor to Boys Hope.  Maybe he'll end up being my new boss over there as well.

Now I have to get ready for work over at Boys Hope, so I'll post more later.

Bunches of Stuffs.

A few interesting tidbits from today.  I got up at 2:30 after working overnight last night.  Around 3:00 or 3:30 the interim program director at Boys Hope called me regarding an e-mail I had sent him proposing hiring me full time instead of just hiring another part time residential counselor.

I'm meeting with him at 11:30 tomorrow morning about it.  It would be a bit of a pay cut for me, but I'm dedicated to the organization.  I really believe in the organization.

Also, three of the cds I pre-ordered came in.
Saint--The Mark
Servant--Shallow Water.  Their first album.
Servant--Rockin' Revival.  Their second album.

So after stopping to get my mail and picking up these cds, I headed off to eat at LaRosa's Pizza.  I've been on soft foods for a week due to a tooth issue, but I'm able to eat solids again.  Also down another five pounds, so I was rewarding myself.

And I'm going back for hypnosis again on Wednesday evening.  About time for reinforcement.

Keep your fingers crossed for me on the job situation.

Mr. Al Goes to Washington

Well, I got the time off, and I called my boss at Boys Hope.  I'm going on the trip to D.C. with the boys.  It will be a working trip, but nevertheless with people I enjoy being with.  And I've done very little traveling in my life, so the new experiences will be a positive.

I'll probably feel like taking about a thousand showers after having been in D.C. for a week, but it'll be fun. ;-)

Higher Education.

I just had to share this video one of my Boys Hope Scholars and I found yesterday.

Doesn't exactly inspire confidence in this higher education institution.

This close.

I'm so close to finishing my beginner course in hypnosis. I am studying for my final exam and will have to verbally demonstrate my abilities to my instructor over the phone before I'm done.

But then I will be a certified hypnotist. With that and about $3.75 I can buy a gallon of gas, but I'll be ready to head into the advanced course and work toward being a certified hypnotherapist. With that, I'll be able to maintain a private practice as a hypnotherapist. That's about a one-year program, all distance education.

I'm excited but nervous.

Bored

Yep. I'm bored. I'm sitting here at Boys Hope bored. Just got back from taking one of the guys to Tae Kwon Do, and another just back from his baseball game. One's watching TV and the other is playing video games.

I'm hoping this one tooth that's been bothering me gets back to normal soon. I can't go to a dentist until July since St. Joe's screwed up my dental insurance and I had to wait until open enrollment again.Grr. I'm just trying to maintain until then. This new mouthwash I've been using has seemed to work wonders, but I was without it for a couple weeks and the tooth began flaring up again. Now I expect it to start getting better in the next few days.

For now, I'm on soft foods. My right gum is inflamed somewhat, making this one tooth loosen, and causing pain. So biting down on anything is not an option right now. And the other side of my mouth is where I have the other tooth which bothers me.

One thing I know is that it can't get much worse, it has to be all uphill from here.

D.C. or no D.C.

I got a call today about going on the Washington D.C. trip with Boys Hope. I had to tell them I was really shaky on the possibility of getting the time off from St. Joe's. It's July 24-28, which is over a month away, but July is the prime vacation time and I'm sure there are a lot of staff ahead of me who requested time off. I went ahead and submitted the request this evening, along with a note explaining the situation and the opportunity to take a trip to Washington. I explained that I had just been asked to chaperone tonight, and that's why I didn't submit the request earlier.

Anyway, I'm hoping to be able to go. It also looks like I might be starting my new hours pretty soon, unless of course Boys Hope steals me away from St. Joe's. If they did, it would definitely free me up to go on the Washington trip with them.

First post with Semagic.

Consider this a test post. Since I'm going to try to use this as my primary blog, I want to find out if I can post effectively with Semagic.

So here goes.

test testtesttesttesttesttesttest

New Beginning.

What used to be Ex-Reprobate webzine is now my personal blog, linked straight from http://www.alnewberry.com

I figured Blogger was a better choice than 360 since yahoo kept screwing up my posts. Now this should work better.

Stryper Review

Stryper Review.

I arrived around quarter after eight at the venue. Big place, for a bar. It's one of those bars where they have several points of purchase set about the place, and the stage is in the middle of the place.

I'm already being entertained when I get there. The bands aren't slated to start until about 9pm. But the variety of people in attendance was entertainment enough.

There were the obvious Christian music fan crowd, with Tamplin, Day of Fire, and other such T-shirts. There were the die-hard Stryper-heads, with yellow and black outfits, and then there were the usual crowd of people with Stryper t-shirts. Add to that the second generation Stryper fans who were there with their parents--and obviously happy to be. These weren't the most entertaining, however.

Here are fixtures at every show, but always noticeable.

Air Guitar Andy--the guy who walks around the place playing really bad air guitar to every song, but looking more like he's pantomiming carrying around an extremely oversized penis. He stops at the beginning of certain songs to raise his hands in the "devil salute" and shout something inane like "rock on" or "f---in A" (whatever that means).

Old Edna--you know her. She's the lady at every show that looks like she's about 300 years old, has a Winger T-shirt, and rocks out to every song.

The 'look at me, I'm cool' types. They're obviously dressed to go to a show, because there's no way they actually dress that way in everyday life without getting their ass kicked several times a day.

And last, but certainly not least, the ever present, never deterred, oblivious to his own obsolescence,

87 Man
Does this one really require an explanation? This is the guy we all were back in '87. He's got the jean jacket with the original "To Hell With The Devil" cover ironed onto the back. All around the rest of the jacket are various band patches, most prominently the "Poison" and "Warrant" patches. Don't forget the strategically ripped jeans and band t-shirt.

Oh yeah, and no review of the surroundings would be complete without mention of the many mullets, or the guys with long hair except for the completely bald patch from the earlobes up.

Okay, so at around 8:35 the first band is announced.

First up is Patchwork, a local band. These guys surprisingly impressed me. They have a lot of talent and don't sound like every other modern band out there. Their music is modern, but there are touches of 80s and 90s metal actually incorporated well into it. The use of dual leads is executed well, but not overdone.

I particularly enjoyed Patchwork's cover of Eleanor Rigby, but their original material was well worth hearing while waiting for the main attraction. I recommend checking them out.

Next up was A Nervous Wreck, another local band. My first clue to what we were in for was when they began their set with "Look What The Cat Dragged In." Nothing but 80s/early 90s party metal. In all fairness, their original material wasn't too bad, but sitting through covers of Kiss songs and Motley Crue songs was pretty excruciating. The singer really, badly, desperately, wanted to be Sebastian Bach.

Finally, the main event began.

Here's where the drooling fanboy in me came out, rockin' out and singing along to every single lyric I knew. Stryper started out with a new tune I'd never heard before. They then did a few off of the new album, Reborn. After this, they started a mostly chronological go-through of their material. "Loud and Clear" was the first. The guys rock just as hard as ever. The only disappointing thing was the absence of any big screams from Michael. It was fun to sing along to all the old songs and watch the guys perform with close to the same energy I witnessed them perform with 18 years ago on the "To Hell With The Devil" tour.

Conspicuously absent was the performance of any songs from "In God We Trust." This was an excellent move in my opinion. They only performed a couple off of "Against The Law." They did a medley of ballads somewhere in there, with a completely re-worked version of "Honestly."

The last one or two songs, Michael started letting the screams fly. I had a feeling he was saving it for later--he's not exactly a spring chicken. Then the show ended too abruptly. Well, it seemed. Of course we knew an encore was planned. When we heard the intro from "To Hell With The Devil" begin to play, everybody cheered. I think we were all waiting for it. The other moment we were all waiting for came a couple songs afterward with "Soldiers Under Command. Screams were in full effect during the encore, which consisted of about four songs, if I remember right.

Stryper is a band that knows how to put on a hell of a show. Highlights were the bible throwing, in which Robert came out from behind the drums and participated in the throwing. After all these years, Robert is still the glam boy in the band. It was kind of funny to see the contrast between him and the rest of the guys.

Finally I packed up and drove the half hour or so home. I stopped at a convenience store across the street from the venue, where I engaged in conversation with a few people about the show. The guy in front of me said he had been waiting about 16 years to see Stryper play--his mom wouldn't let him back then. And I felt old, having seen them 18 years ago.