Daily Chew (the good stuff)
Welcome to my weblog! gqGoat.com is a blog about a wide range of topics, from web design to politics to odd diseases, all served up with a dash of sarcasm and a pinch of smartassedness. The freshest rants will appear here on the main page, then get archived over in Leftovers when they get stale and cold. Enjoy.
Why I Haven't Blogged Lately
2007-06-16We went our own ways.
Divorce sucks.
I’ll always love you, hot stuff.
Well it finally came to an end. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Life is funny. You make plans, but as the saying goes; you can plan a pretty picnic but you can’t control the weather.
Ahhh well. Sic vita est. Life goes on and you roll with the punches. Or you don’t, Which will I be? I dunno ... time will tell.
New passions. Old flames die hard. I sit here drunk on excellent beer and listening to ‘Wild Horses’ by the Stones. Wild horses couldn’t drag me away, but they can’t stop you from leaving. And once you’ve left, I can’t take you back. It sucks but its life. I should have taken you horseback riding. I should have done karaoke with you. I’m sorry, so sorry.
Read the full post § CommentsForget the campfire stuff....I wanna rock!
2007-02-11A single, awesome moment transformed my musical aspirations from folk singer to guitar god.
I came across a cool site today, via Popurls; it’s a list of Youtube videos ranking the 20 Greatest Guitar Solos Ever, and it reminded me of part of my life that I’ve basically left behind. I haven’t written much about it here, but at one time I fancied myself a guitar player and I got pretty decent for a high school/college kid back in the olden days before I married HotStuff.
What got me into guitar originally were artists/bands like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, early Beatles, Eagles, etc, and I really focused on trying to play like the singer/songwriters that I loved. Sure, I’d try to jam out a fast lead, but at that point I pretty much sucked on anything other than straight open chords, so blasting out a Hendrix solo was far beyond my capabilities. Until that is, that I started taking some guitar lessons from a guy named Randall.
Randall started showing me some blues patterns, and explained that most rock melodies and solos came from older blues licks and chords. This was pretty impressive to me, but it took a single, defining moment of musical realization for me to shed my previous dreams of campfire sing-a-longs and move into the world of electric rock.....
Read the full post § CommentsHappy Holidays from the Minigoats!
2006-12-24It's Christmas time in the gqGoat household, and the minigoats are in fine form.
Don't let this good behavior fool you: it all ends right after Christmas morning and then its back to hooliganism for the next 10 months.
But Season's Greetings from the Peel Family anyway!
Specifically, I guess that includes:
- Merry Christmas
- Happy Chanukah
- A Kickin' Kwanza
- A Cool Yule (for my pagan friends)
- And whatever else you and yours like to celebrate!
Halloween 2006: The Killer and the Cutie
2006-11-01Halloween has come and gone again, and the minigoats and I had a great night of Trickin' and Treatin'!
As always, the gqGoat family celebrated the wonderful holiday of Halloween yesterday, and the minigoats had a real blast. Originally, we planned on doing our Trick or Treating in the new area we are about to move in to (more on that later!), but at the last minute we changed our minds and rolled over to the 'County Estates' subdivision in Newberry FL.
We'd been to this area for Halloween for the past 2 years, and this 3rd year did NOT disappoint us. They really put on a great event over there, with a very high concentration of houses in the subdivision participating in the festivities.
Read the full post § CommentsOh The Horror! (Pass the Popcorn...)
2006-09-25What is it about good horror that keeps me coming back to soil myself in abject terror again and again?
As I sat in bed last night, with the covers pulled up to my eyes as the film An American Werewolf in London played on my TV, I started to wonder just what the fascination with horror films is all about. Personally, I absolutely love a good horror/thriller/slasher film (yes, they are all different sub-genres of “scary” movies), but I can't for the life of me figure out why.
Some horror fans can sit through the scariest, bloodiest films laughing all the way through, picking up on subtle references left by the film maker and enjoying things like the “cinematography” or the “parallels to modern American society.” As for me, I do that for about the first 3 minutes of the film, and then I'm reduced to a crying, quivering puddle of unmanly fear and shame as I ever so cautiously peek through my crossed fingers at the bottom third of the screen, desperately trying to hide my eyes in time when the killer inevitably pops up on screen.
So why do I do this to myself over and over again? Some of the movies that I am really fond of have seriously traumatized my ass, and I've “watched” several films with my eyes closed for probably a good 30-40% of the film. After each horribly scarring experience, I'll swear off of horror for a while, but when those new previews start coming out for the next big horror picture, I'll start to get that familiar urge to go put myself through the ringer yet again. It's like wanting to ride a rollercoaster, but being deathly afraid of heights.
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