The Jack Noodle Journal

The rains are coming down, friends! At last. The brown lawn looks so relieved. The grass is coming back to life and now I’ll have to cut it a few more times. I think Fall has arrived. The start of a new week and the end of a month today.

How did your weekend go? My was just alright. We didn’t do much. Yesterday I didn’t do anything. I caught up on my napping. Eugene, Tracy and new friend Joel came over on Saturday night. That was pretty fun. The kids had been packing up all weekend to move into different apartments. We watched “Panic Room” staring Jodie Foster. Boy that was a disappointing film. It’s sad too because David Fincher is one of my favorite directors. The movie just wasn’t very believable and you really didn’t feel like the characters were ever in that much danger.

Well, I should really try to do something today. Oh you know, I guess I did start the web site redesign yesterday. Maybe I should keep going with that today. I probably won’t have it ready for tomorrow’s self-imposed deadline, but maybe this week huh? I should continue on with my music project also. Only 2 songs does not a rock star make. G had mentioned something about letting me borrow a different keyboard, so maybe that will help with the tunes.

Well, well, well. Good bright and shiny morning to you all! I think I got up too early this morning. I couldn’t sleep though! I’m up, I’m up. Gee wiz. We got some coffee yesterday. That’s a good thing. I’m brewing some right now. Do I seem a little anxious? I’ve got one of those get back to you on Monday things going that I hoped I would get a resolution to on Friday. I’m left to stew over the weekend. That’s okay, just relax Noodle, take a deep breath. I can’t give any details yet of course but keep your fingers crossed for me.

I went to rent the first volume of The Sopranos Season 3 but they were out! Argh. This is a Sopranos town, man. I rented Panic Room and Monsters Inc. K and I have it good now days because all of the movies coming out on video now are ones that were in theaters when we weren’t watching movies, so we have lots to choose from. We watched Monsters Inc. last night. I thought it was great. Beautiful animation. Those Pixar cats really kick some ass. The story was pretty good also. The hair effects on the John Goodman character, Sully were amazing. It looked so real. I remember reading an article on that a long time ago about the new tools they invented to get that effect.

Martin and Lianne came over last. Martin cooked a yummy meal for us. Pasta and mushroom dish. So good. Maybe I will go have some left overs for breakfast.

I’m not sure what we are going to do today. We don’t really have anything planned now that I know of. I do need to start getting to work on the redesign of this here web site. I’ve an Idea of what I am going to. I don’t know if I will have it done for the October 1st anniversary, but maybe.

Dang it. Left to stew.

I can’t believe it’s already Friday again! It seems like I was just writing a Friday journal entry. I feel a little chilly this morning. The Sun is shining through the overcast sky, but it’s starting to feel like a fall morning out there. I’m tired again. I think that I sleep fine in the first half of the evening it’s just the second half, early morning I’m having trouble with now. I’ve got to go microwave a cup of coffee. After this pot of coffee we are out again! NO! I guess we are due for some grocery shopping this weekend anyway.

Happy Birthday mother! The lovely lady’s big day was yesterday. I gave her a call and wished her well last night. She is coming to town next week so we will get to see her and give her a present then.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. Looking back over the entries for this week I kind of seemed annoyed in my writings. I guess I have been pretty annoyed. Yesterday was good though, I loosened up and mellowed out. I went on a nice bike ride in the afternoon and went and saw Eugene at his shop. I went home and listened to some music. When K got home we went downtown and had dinner at Ringlers. Later we took the puppy out for a nice evening stroll. Ah, nice relaxing day.

Oh man! When we were downtown, we stopped into the record store. I previewed the new UNDERWORLD album. It is SO good. I almost started weeping at the listening station. Damn I love those guys! I am going to buy it for myself as a celebration gift when I get a job. The name of the album is “A Hundred Days Off”. I think I have them beat by a few more days, but that’s what I’ve been doing, taking days off this year. When a job comes around the days off will be over and the album will help ease me back into the work environment.

So I was going to try to go to the Sleater Kinney concert tonight, but it’s sold out. Oh well, I really only know a couple of their songs anyway. It kind of stinks though because Eugene and a lot of the crew are going. I think it might be nice to chill at home this evening and rent some videos. Yeah, that will be the plan.

Gosh people, it is just gorgeous out there this morning! Summer is still here, folks. It has been very dry this week. I wonder if we are going to have a dry Winter? I went on a nice walk with the dog yesterday and may have to do the same today. It was nice getting out into the fresh air and out of this stale laboratory. Phillip is a fun dog to walk. He gets a lot of attention. Phillip loves the ladies and they love him back. He’s kind of unruly when you first start out walking him with a leash, but he mellows out and is quite pleasant by the end.

How have you been doing? Is it just me and a false since of hope, but are things starting to look up for people? It seems that some of the friends I have been talking to that have been anxious about problems or changes have been starting to get through them this week. There’s been some events going down that I think will be good. People I have talked to this week seem a little more positive. I don’t know, it’s like people are getting excited about a new start that seems to be coming up real soon. I hope there’s a new start in my future. I’m ready for it.

Have you been watching the news lately? Man, what the heck is going on with our government? Hey our economy is in the toilet! Why the Hell do they keep talking about Iraq? Hey our economy is in the toilet! What are they doing about getting poor slobs like me jobs? Not that I expect the government to hand me a job, but they at least could pretend like they are concerned. I think we have enough concerns domestically to take up all our time with. We don’t need to go over and bomb Saddam do we? God people, it’s not 1991 anymore. Where the heck are all these approval polls being taken? Nobody has asked me if I think the President is doing a good job. That Bush. Every time I see him I just shake my head. Actually anytime I see any of those governmental types. Who do they think they are? Hey our economy is in the toilet! What to do though? Am I worried enough about the current state of affairs to get off my butt and do something?

Gosh I’m sorry. I just got interrupted there by a telemarketing person. Geeze she wouldn’t take no for an answer! Now what was I saying? Oh man I just lost my train of thought. Dang it! Well, I’m outta here!

I think they said that Fall officially started yesterday or the day before? You wouldn’t know it around here. It still feels like Summer. Gosh, September sure did go by fast. What the Hell? I can’t believe I don’t have a job yet. I guess I’ll send out 50 to 100 more resumes today and not hear back from any of them. I don’t mind if you guys turn me down and tell me you’ve found someone more qualified. The thing that really bugs me are these assholes that don’t ever acknowledge that they have even received my resume. Hey just let me know you got it for crying out loud. WHEW!…. Hold on one second. Let me get a hold of myself. You know it’s probably not a good idea to call possible future employers assholes is it? I am just so gosh darn tired of being a poor unemployed looser. Alright Noodle, quit being a cry baby.

Hey the new fall season has started on television! Have you guys been tuning in? Tonight is the season premiere of Smallville. K and I are looking forward to that one. That Superman is SO cute. I can’t think of any others that we’re that excited about seeing. Oh I guess we’re interested in seeing the Alias season opener. Oh and of course the Simpsons. I wish we had cable so we could see the Sopranos. Having the Summer off of TV viewing makes you forget the routine of what you normally tuned into. Which is fine actually I guess because TV rots your brain.

So the handsome Martin brought some recording equipment over the other day to hook up to the computer. One of the things he also brought was some different speakers. Man! I can’t believe how much better music sounds now coming out of the computer. I’ve been listening to more new music now. One site that G reminded me of again was Epitonic. I know I don’t usually have links in the midst of the journal, but you kids should check this one. I like how you can stream the whole page or listen to transmissions of a certain genre.

Today I’ve got to get the bills organized maybe mail some off, and fill out some paperwork. Pretty boring. I’ll continue on with the music making. That has been pretty fun. I’ve got to go take the puppy for a long walk today. I don’t think he’s been getting enough exercise lately. Me neither actually.

Good morning all. Gosh I don’t think I slept very well last night. Too much on my feeble little mind I guess. You know, one of those nights where you can’t turn your brain off. I should go back to bed. Hold on one second, let me go microwave some coffee. Today feels like a Monday. I guess that’s because all day yesterday I thought it was Sunday. Things will turn back around for me I’m sure once I wake up here. Gosh, my right eye is itching like crazy. Maybe I have something in it.

We rented and watched the movie last night called “CQ”. It was pretty good. I knew at the video store that someone had recommended it to me but I couldn’t remember who. It was the story about this director guy in 1969 that who was working on a Barbarella type sci-fi movie. The sci-fi clips were excellent. Awesome 70’s style computers and ships. The music sound track for the movie was good also.

Well shoot. I don’t have much planned for today. Just farting around I guess. I finally got the proper cords for G’s keyboard, so I will probably hook that up to the computer and make some music today. I need to get to work on making some hit singles. I’ve posted some stuff up on MP3.com so everyone will be able to groove to the Noodle stylings. I’ll give you guys the link in a day or two so you all can check it.

This week absolutely just flew by didn’t it? On with the weekend! It looks really nice outside right now. The Sun is shining brightly for us this morning. It’s a little bit cooler though, just like I noticed the other day. Folks I will totally call the furnace guy on Monday I swear. Hmmm… Hold on. I’ve got a pot of coffee brewing right now and it smells marvelous. One second.

So what’s been going on? Anything happening? It seemed like this last week was pretty mellow and not much was going down. I didn’t really do anything. Except for the concert on Monday that was cool. Oh wait that was Sunday. I worked on the graphic design, layout and packaging for the Fantastic Idea Project CD this week. That was way cool. Everything has been sent off to Spain where their record label is and where they are producing the CD. Popchild Records is the name of the label. Super cool. You all should check the CD out when it gets released. It’s great. Hopefully we’ll be able to find it here in the states.

I finished my first hit single yesterday. I recorded it with my new band of one I formed this week. I’m still trying to keep the whole project under wraps for now, so I won’t tell you the name of my band. The song is up on the transmission now so if you listened for a while you’d probably be able to pick me out. Yeah the whole day went by with me sitting in front of the computer, all for just a minute and a half song. It’s all samples and clips now. I borrowed a keyboard from G but haven’t got the right cord to plug it in to the computer yet. I decided this morning that I wasn’t going to rush things with my new band. For now I will just learn how to use the software, learn how to play music and experiment. I don’t need to hurry into a recording studio and make an album right away. I should practice a bit first. The songs I’m doing now will be learning experiences that could go together as a collection on an experimental album, but I really shouldn’t worry about that now.

We’ve got birthdays this weekend! Mr. Baptist is another year older this weekend and the eldest Noodle nephew is turning 3. Those kids! They just grow up so fast. K and I got him a pretty cool toy yesterday. Buying stuff for kids is fun. My Mom’s birthday is next week. Lots of September babies.

Wednesday is here! Hooray! It’s hump day. Almost the weekend. The sun is shining right now and it’s fairly cool outside. Actually it’s fairly cool inside also. I need to call the furnace people, I really do. I’m sporting the microwaved coffee this morning. Tasty! So what are you guys up to out there? I don’t think I have much planned for today. I probably will just try to do my chores. Wash some dishes vacuum and maybe attempt to clean up this laboratory. God it is starting to get so messy that the mess is starting to look organized. The lab has one of those Hollywood movie set looks of the crazed, quirky, genius rooms. There’s no rotten food or anything sticky in here, just papers, notes, drawings, books, computers, skateboards, the cover to the escort’s hatch back, two kitchen stools used as separate desks, CDs stacked up everywhere, comic book boxes, and clothes on the floor.

We finished watching the Sopranos Season 2 the other night. Great stuff! We need to keep going though. Gosh those season finales really leave you hanging. Things really pick up heading towards the last few episodes, and bodies start piling up.

I acquired Cool Edit Pro the other day for my computer. It’s music editing, recording software stuff. Pretty fun. Watch out everybody Jack’s got the music bug again! I don’t know why but I keep coming back to the idea of making music every few months. Kind of like the whole “I want to make a comic book faze”. The music started up again I think because of working with Geoffrey on the multimedia project. Boy though, if any of my fazes ever went anywhere that would be so freaking cool. For now I will make infectious dance grooves. Well after I finish my chores.

We’ve got rain out there right now kids! At last. The yard and gardens really needed it here at the Noodle compound. I hope it rains all day. Gosh, I am really going to have to get that furnace fixed soon.

We had a superb weekend. So much fun. Yesterday was K and I’s 2nd year wedding anniversary! 2 years of heavenly bliss. We celebrated the moment down at the coast camping. We went back to Newport. I really like that area of the coast. Phillip, Martin and Lianne went with us. It was really hot here so we thought that It would be 20 degrees cooler at the coast. Which it was and then some. When we drove into town a huge bank of fog creeped in from the ocean and blanketed everything. It looked so cool.

The camping was good. We only got sprinkled on a little bit the very last evening. We stayed at the Beverly Beach state park. It was okay as parks go. There was a lot of characters populating the campground. The raccoons came after us a couple of times in the night and we lost a carton of eggs in the battle. The beach and ocean were as beautiful as ever. We went and saw the tide pools during low tide.

I checked out a few of the galleries while I was down there this time. Moving to the coast and painting pictures of the ocean and making drift wood sculptures is something I have been toying around with for some time now. I went to a few of the ocean oriented galleries and saw some of that stuff. Most of which was surprisingly pretty good. When I got to the Triad gallery in Waldport just outside of Newport, I was floored. They had some amazing stuff. Robert Nelson’s work was great. It had nothing to do with the beach either. Cool drawings and painting of fantastical machines, figures and animals. Some future primitive, steam punk looking stuff. Turns out that Robert is a art professor in his 70’s who had moved to the Oregon coast to retire. His resume of work and places he has shown was pages and pages long. So cool. See, exactly. That’s what I’m talking about.

The fun doesn’t stop there! Last night after getting back from the beach, I went and saw my new favorite band, “Interpol” play at the Black Bird. Holy cow! Those boys were awesome. This is the first time I’m sure of many to come, when I was surprised at how young they were. For some reason, their music gives the impression of a little bit of age. It was cool. The place was absolutely crammed tight with people. It was so crowded. The music was excellent. If you haven’t heard them yet run out and get their album immediately! It kind of felt like we were witnessing a band right on the edge of becoming a major World power. “Yeah I saw Interpol when they were just coming up back in 02.” I hung with my buddies G and Matt. Martin was suppose to show up but I didn’t see him. It was so crowded though that he could have been and I missed him. K stayed home and prepared for her early Monday morning school day.

See, God that’s great! Two little bursts of inspiration and I’m pulled back up out of the pit. The Robert Nelson paintings and the Interpol concert is all it took to fill me back up with energy and desire! Now I feel like I have enough strength to fight the evils of Monday dreariness. I have got to hang up here and get to work before the moment passes.

Good morning everybody! How are you this lovely day? You know, I think I may be up a little too early today. I’m still a little sleepy. Maybe I should go back to bed for another hour or so. Nah! Shake it off Noodle! I have a bit of a headache this morning. Oh my goodness, it is quite gorgeous outside. This week sure did turn out to be pretty nice weather wise. Yes I think my lovely lady friend and I need to go to the beach or something. It’s suppose to get raining starting Sunday. We really need the rain so that’s good.

I had quite a funny dream last night. I dreamt that K and I were walking around downtown. I think we had just been to a wedding or some sort of formal event because we were wearing really nice clothes. Suddenly K lets out this crazy mix of a honk and a squeak. I thought that was pretty funny at first and we kept walking. She keeps doing it as we walk. HONK SQUEAK HONK. She thinks it’s so funny. Then I start to get annoyed and I’m like “Hey alright already, enough honking, that’s really funny, ha ha”. She keeps on doing it and I get even more angry. When I finally wake up from the dream I can still hear the HONK squeaking! Low and behold it was Phillip snoring really loud HONK SQUEAK. I had heard him in my sleep!

Today I think I am going to try to do some reading and creative writing. Two things that I enjoy doing but don’t spend enough time with. I am still reading “House of Leaves”. It’s really good but it’s not going as fast as I thought it would. Mat and Nikki said it went really fast for them. Perhaps they read faster than me. Writing wise, I sure would love to write a novel. I don’t have enough patience for that right now. It would be pretty fun though I bet.