California's Calling and Greentruck Records

About a month ago, I made a fun trip to Chico, CA and recorded one of my songs at Heirloom Studio. Chris Keene from Surrogate performed on guitar, and bass, plus he was the engineer (click the above picture to watch a video from the studio!). My brother Cayle from Armed for Apocalypse performed on drums and also assisted in producing the track. I'm really happy with how it turned out!


Click on the album cover that Julia Warren designed (thank you!!) for me to go to my music page and listen to "California's Calling"!

NEXT!

Cayle, Sarah, and I have officially started a new record label: "Greentruck Records" and we are now taking submissions from unsigned bands and artists! You can visit our myspace page, our blogspot (http://greentruckrecords.blogspot.com) or email us at greentruckrecords@gmail.com for more information!


Happy 19th Birthday Alex!!

A Chunk of Emazing History

Some fun fluff to get my bloggin ball rolling.


10 years ago...
How old was I? 11? HAH! I must have just entered Sequoia Middle School and become the shyest individual known to man. Also I learned how to be a truly terrible student. I played drums in beginning band and I would go to orchestra before school every day with my sister Natalie, and then take the bus to school. That bus ride SUCKED.
5 years ago...
Again...remind me how old I was? 16..ahhh. I didn't get my license until I was 19, so that right of passage wasn't taken advantage of. I was a junior in high school! So that means I was in the musical "Hello Dolly" and I made a couple of friends because I learned how to talk. I payed more attention to choir then I did school, of course. I was in A Capella and we went to LA and I saw Ty Pennington from "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" as well as a few other designers. I'm not one of those people who can act normal and cool in front of people from TV....I was a moron.


5 months ago...
I had just recently been hired as an Optech in my store! The transition was interesting, but rewarding. It's been a challenging experience and I'm very fortunate to be given such a neat learning opportunity. I'm learning about glasses and such of course, but I'm also learning a lot about business and sales. I never thought I would be a sales person in this form. It's truly a CHALLENGING job which is good for me, since I tend to go for things that take little to no effort..and this is ALL effort. It's hard work and I've made a ton of mistakes that make me feel like an idiot..but I hope to become GOOD at that line of work before leaving, so I can take fully developed skills with me.


5 things on my to-do list tomorrow:
1. Wake up before the double digits. It's harder for me then it should be.
2. Dress in Hawaiian attire because we like to have fun at work sometimes.
3. Work
4. Work on a song
5. I don't have 5 whole things to do

5 things people don't know about me...
1. I can't stand being barefoot. I actually freak out when I walk.
2. I would rather be really buff then really skinny
3. In my mind I have played every part there is to play on Broadway...and I've excelled.
4. In reference to Sarah's dislike of chess...I get verbally abusive when playing that game. I SUCK at it, and when I play against my younger brother, I threaten him with murder and I'm DEAD serious...because without even thinking about it, he beats me. He laughs at me, as I tell him I'm going to force the King through his eye socket.
5. I'm physically attracted to most musical instruments.
5 bad habits...
1. Spending too much time on the computer
2. Poor sleeping patterns
3. Eating like crap
4. I'm lazy
5. Texting when I really shouldn't be.

5 places I have lived...
1. In the Easter Egg room
2. In this room
3. Kew Gardens, NY
4. In the living room
5. YOUR MOM


AMANDA'S TAGGED

The Customer is Always Surly

Okay maybe ALWAYS is an overstatement. Maybe.."a lot of the time" would've been more accurate. Oh well.

As somebody who's worked in retail for about 2 years, I've enjoyed and loathed many parts of the experience! I have a lot to say about all of the positives and negatives regarding this line of work, so I'm going to focus on my current annoyance. This annoyance is those customers who come in to a store and take out their bad day on somebody who's already unhappy (they work in RETAIL!). There are some people who have to blame somebody for the poor day/life they've had, so why not blame some kid because a shirt they really like is out of stock? Sure it's annoying, but do you have to go out of their way to make them feel bad for something that is completely out of their control?

I work in the areas of my store that place orders for people, and that's impossible to always get right. The warehouse/lab where these orders come from can screw up, the delivery company can screw up, and in the end, I am the lucky person who gets to call these customers and report the news that their merchandise is delayed or out of stock! I understand that it's annoying and you have to express that, but there are some people who just take it too far.

Example: A lady came into my department looking for a pair of glasses, and since she paid for express she expected it to be there. The express service we have takes an estimated 2-3 business days, but the associate had told her "2" and so they HAD to be there. Of course the associate who had told her it would only take two days wasn't there that day, and so my other co-worker got to break the news that they hadn't arrived and there's honestly nothing we can do to fix that. We just get yelled at and accused my making excuses for saying "it really is a 2-3 business day service, I'm sorry you were mis-quoted.." I really do understand this womans frustration, she has a right to be upset with her glasses not coming in, but did she have to attack our integrity and make us feel bad for something we have zero control over? So most likely this woman will demand money back, even though the glasses did come the third business day. We're expected to take this attack with a smile, and to cut off our arm and give it to them. What else can you do, really? This is a very MILD example. I've been around when customers make people cry, and do everything in their power to get people fired. I don't feel like getting REALLY angry right now, so I'll just stick with bitter.

IT BOTHERS ME that any person can walk into a retail store and demean another person just because they work there. If you do everything in your power to do things the right way and it's not enough, they'll call a manager to give them a gift card for making their life so horrible, and if they DON'T they're going to tell everybody what horrible service they received! Maybe they'll write a blog about it?! Well here's my blog to customers who are JERKS and overly demanding just because they can be. Grow up, and treat people with respect! We're there to help you, we're not your slaves. I understand we should do our best to fulfill your needs because we wouldn't have a store without customers, but you're not royalty...sorry to break it to you. If you were royalty, you'd be shopping somewhere else.

Bars

I don't really like bars so far. I've actually only been to one, and we had a decent time just because of who I was with. Why couldn't we hang out somewhere that didn't have the music too loud, booze, and people who are too close for comfort? Oh right, because I'm 21 and it's the law. Who wants to dance with somebody who will only talk to you because they're cross-eyed drunk?? I honestly don't get the appeal, but I suppose it's difficult for somebody who doesn't drink to understand.

I'm perfectly fine with never understanding.

Random thoughts on dying

My 15 year old cat died the other night. It was surprisingly upsetting. I haven't had a pet of mine DIE in years. I've also been fortunate enough not to have many people I know pass away. It will happen though, and the death of my cat got me thinking about it more then I usually do.

Life isn't forever. If you're somebody who, like me, believes in an after life...you understand that life is just a TINY portion of our entire existence. Be proud of what you do in this small window of time. You will regret wasting too much of your time here on meaningless activities. I'm probably the biggest time waster I know, so I think I should take the time to accomplish more or love more or something.

It makes it a little easier when somebody leaves this earth and you're not seeing them around like you used to. They didn't stop existing, their spirit still lives...they're just not physically with us anymore. When we follow suit, we will see them again.

I'm too tired to actually make this sound meaningful.

Cloth Bags: Helping the Environment While Helping Shoplifters?

Lately, we've all been trying to do what we can to try and help the environment. So what if we waited until we were told the world is on the verge of destruction before we really started caring? Now we use energy efficient light bulbs, we turn off the water when we brush our teeth, and one of the most popular ways of "going green" is the use of re-usable cloth/hemp/recycled materials bags in grocery stores. Instead of the wasteful plastic grocery bags we used to use (which are starting be to outlawed), we now bring in our own bag to tote our groceries in. This way we're not overflowing the landfills with these plastic bags which are not biodegradable, and we save energy by not producing plastic bags. It really is an easy way to help out, and many times the grocery store will take a few cents off of your total if you use these bags!

I myself have several bags for several different stores, and I try to keep them in my car, otherwise I forget them and end up having to bring my purchases home in a one-use bag. They really are nice to have, and there aren't as many plastic bags balled-up on the floor of my car. However, while I'm shopping, I can't help but to think how easy it would be for somebody to come in the store with one of these bags and shoplift. Instead of using a basket I actually put the items I intend to buy inside my shopping bag. What if it was a busy day and I just walked out of the store with a bag full of items I didn't pay for? How easy would that be for somebody to either pretend they're just browsing and leave with small items hidden in their reusable bag, or to act as if they've already been rung up? This is against my nature personally, but we all know in the end, we end up paying for the dishonest people in the world. I predict that the loss prevention teams at these stores will be tightening things up quite a bit once they figure this out. I see more places checking receipts at the doors, and putting security tags (that cause the alarm to go off when leaving the store) will be put on more items. Also, more stores may have reusable bags that are net-like, in order to make it more difficult to hide items in the bags. Who knows what they'll resort to, but I'm sure they'll figure out some way to make suspects out of people just trying to be more efficient.

I'm definitely not trying to encourage criminal activity, but I'm just pointing out a crime waiting to happen. If you ARE somebody who takes advantage of re-usable bags in such a way, I think you're a loser.

Recycle!

Don't get stuck

It's too easy to get stuck in your current situation. It's too easy to go about life living in a way that just gets you by. It's too easy to go your whole life without even starting to reach your potential.

Many people I know, myself included, still choose to live life this way. Why? Maybe because it doesn't require as many risks or as much effort, though I know I personally use a tremendous amount of effort to constantly explain why I don't do anything special. Why not just go for it and make the effort to become somebody I'm proud of? It's a product of extreme laziness in my case, but it differs from person to person.

I have a friend who is an excellent example of somebody who works hard and takes risks. This is a girl who has worked her BUTT off her whole high school career with AP classes and extra curricular activities, and still ended up having to go to a local community college for financial reasons. She's wanted nothing more then to break out of the small town we live in and do something important and meaningful with her life, but she kept being weighed down by various set backs. FINALLY she had completed the classes she needed in order to transfer to a university, and she started slaving over the applications. This isn't a job application when you answer a few questions and fill in the blanks, these take an enormous amount of time to complete. She decided why not shoot for the stars and apply to some amazing schools? She had put a maximum amount of effort into her education, so she felt she may have a shot. She took a risk and applied to Harvard and NYU. These schools were like a fantasy, so ideal and out of reach. She had heard of a new financial aid initiative that Harvard had taken on, so she felt like it was a golden opportunity to only be judged by the hard work she's put forth and the grades she had earned. She spend weeks writing essays, and getting credits from her current schooling transferred, and financial information for these schools. She was so excited about the opportunity to do something huge.

When I saw her a week or so after she had submitted both applications, she looked gloomy. She told me that Harvard wasn't accepting transfers at this time, so the application she had slaved over and put her blood sweat and tears into wasn't even read. She felt defeated. Why had she worked so hard her whole life to end up in the same place as those who hadn't? Why was she going to have to settle on state college she didn't want to go to? I was asking the same questions in my head. It was discouraging to see somebody like her continue to be knocked down, when all she was trying to do was make something of herself. I knew no matter where she ended up she would thrive, and I told her that. I still felt saddened by the fact that she was stuck in the place of an average person, when she's clearly above average. I knew her hard work would pay off, but I wished it would've been in a way that proved to her that she's intelligent and a hard worker.

She and I hang out about once a month, and lately I've been helping her plan out her vacation to New York City with her sister. She's made a few trips there and she adores it, but she's never gone without meeting up with a friend or boyfriend who knew their way around. We were planning on going on a picnic tomorrow and discussing more details of her trip, so I was surprised to see her walk into my work earlier today. She works nearby, so I figured she must've just gotten off and maybe she wanted to check on our plans for tomorrow. After saying hello and all that good stuff, she smiled and said "I got into NYU." My heart almost lept out of my chest and I freaked out! Luckily there were no customers because I kept yelling "WHAT???!!!!! THAT'S SO AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!" FINALLY, after watching her struggle to find validation for her efforts, she had received it! Of course she immediately expressed worry about the cost, but even with the thought that she may not have financial aid, she was clearly beaming with pride that she'd been lacking. That look on her face, and the feeling she gave off, is worth all the setbacks she faced. She had earned a place in an extremely difficult school to get into, in a place that's like a dream land to her. I couldn't be happier for her.

I learned a lot from her experience. You can put forth 100% effort consistently, but your results may vary. It will always pay off in one way or another. At least you know you did your best during life to live up to your potential, which is more then many of us can say.