#

#

Artist: Saves The Day

Album: Stay What You Are

Release Date: July 10, 2001

This is my first post where I’m doing a re-review of an album which, I feel, has held up well over the years. I’ve mentioned doing this in an earlier post and chose this album to start this series off. When this album came out, it polarized a lot of their existing fans. Through Being Cool was a lot harder and more upbeat than this one, but that doesn’t mean this album is slow and boring. I have more respect for bands/artists who experiment with different styles and musical influences. It’s real easy to write songs that are about the same subject matter, just change a few arrangements, release the album and call it a day. It’s not so easy to try out new ideas and have your fans like what you release. I feel the band successfully changed their sound with this album while keeping their old fans and gaining new ones.

Stay What You Are is widely considered Saves The Day’s breakout album. They got some radio play with their first single “At Your Funeral”. While it’s a great song, the rest of the album deserves recognition. Their second single, “Freakish”, also got some airplay but isn’t one of my favorites. “Nightingale” is a hidden gem on this album. It’s a hopeful song that can be looked at on different levels. I’m sure everyone can relate to this one line in the song, “I’ll do everything I can, to keep you by my side.”

“This Is Not An Exit” is probably one of my top 3 favorite songs of all time. It has all the criteria that, for me, make a song great; a catchy melody and thoughtful lyrics that anyone who’s been in a relationship can relate to. The last verse of the song best describes the most hopeful and bittersweet way anyone would want a relationship to end.

…the actor in this play.
And you walk across the stage,
Take a bow, hear the applause,
And as the curtain falls,
Just know you did it all
The best that you knew how
And you can hear them cheering now.
So let a smile out and show your teeth
cause you know you lived it well.

Stand Out Tracks: At Your Funeral, Nightingale, This Is Not An Exit (iTunes links)

Enjoyed Best: While driving by yourself on a summer Sunday afternoon.

As a fun little experiment, I posted a 3 hour time lapse video of me applying the stickers. Enjoy.

Conan O’Brien gave the commencement speech in 2000 at his alma mater, Harvard. The quality of the video isn’t great, but he talks about his years at Harvard, his early years in LA and gives the graduates overall great advice.

And this 3rd clip shows Conan backstage during a show rehearsal. It looks like they’re in between segments and it seems like they’re going over some bit they plan to do on a show but I don’t know if he knows he’s being filmed. I like this clip because it shows Conan in a natural setting. Enjoy.

The earliest we’ll see him back is September of 2010. As a fan of his since The Simpsons, I can’t wait.

Pizza, Starbucks and laptop. The new way to spend your Saturday nights.

January
My 2007 started out on a high note. I spent NYE in Vegas with a “date” but ended up kissing someone else at midnight (More on that later). I spent most of this month trying not to fall for someone 3,000 miles away. For the most part it worked, but I did feel pretty crappy for about a week.

February
My first Valentines date in…3 years? Well technically it was an anti-Valentines date but hey, we had dinner on February 14. That counts right?

March
After Mike got engaged, Crystal lost one of her best roll dogs. Guess who she had lined up as a replacement?

April
Looking back at my April posts from earlier this year, I see that i was in another one of my yearly April funks. This was sure to change after a weekend of fortunate events. And I have Ronald and my roommates to thank. If it weren’t for my roommates working on the house without telling me, I wouldn’t have called Joe to hang out with him and Ronald in LA to get away. If it weren’t for Ronald wanting to sleep at Mary’s, I wouldn’t have dropped him off in Monterey Park after a night at Busby’s. Then I wouldn’t have needed a place to crash because it was too late, and I was too drunk, to drive home. Then I wouldn’t have called Crystal. And I wouldn’t have spent the whole weekend with her ending with a late night happy hour run where we ended up crossing the friend line. My life has changed from that weekend on.

May
According to Flickr, I did a lot this month. I was thoroughly surprised when Crystal planned a surprise birthday dinner with my roommates and close friends. Went to Disneyland and got season passes. I went to Chicago with Joe and Mira to watch Karen graduate from Optometry school. Crystal and I went on our first trip together. Vegas during Memorial Day weekend.

June/July
A huge bomb was dropped at work when our owners announced that Carrier Corporation tried to buy the company out. We were surpised even more when we were dropping the Carrier line and were now distributing the York brand. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. This move forced some older employees to retire. And guess who my boss had in mind to replace one of them? The promotion I was looking towards finally came into fruition.

August
Transition period at work. Got a new laptop. Got a new office. My first bachelor party experience.

September
Crystal’s birthday week. I planned a impromptu surprise happy hour, took her to the JT concert and to top it all off, a weekend in a huge house in Rosarito. My best friend got married. The first of my close friends.

October
Halloween. New iPhone.

November
Struggling with the new position…struggling with other things.

December
I didn’t let it show, but December was a pretty damn stressful month. Not only was I struggling at work, but also in my relationships. Oh yeah, and there’s that holiday called Christmas thrown in there as well. Work was stressful in two ways; one, I was starting off as a sales engineer, getting to know my accounts and building relationships with my clients. That is hard by itself but I also had to deal with our transition from Carrier to York. Had we stayed with Carrier, my job would be a LOT easier than it is now. But no one ever said life was easy. If I can stick it through this transition, there’s no limit as to how successful I can be with this company. Only I will know how my relationships almost suffered during the period from November to December. I’m grateful that nothing suffered to the point where I lost a relationship. It was a real growing and maturing part of my life and one that will continue throughout 2008. And with that, here’s to another year of looking back.

As a side note, I resolve to post more to this as the days, weeks go by in 2008. This website has served as a valuable record of my life and I can’t let life pass without documenting it like I did before…

Chicago

For my mini vacation this year, I went out to Chicago to watch Karen graduate from optometry school. This being my 2nd time in 2 years out to visit her, I wasn’t rushing around trying to do all the tourist things. This time around I was able to do things that only locals would know about. I also didn’t mind going since Karen would be moving back home to San Diego and this would be my last chance to visit her while she still lived out there.

Promotion

After almost three years at my company, I was finally promoted to Outside Sales Engineer. There were times where I was discouraged and thought I would never make my way out of the TA pool. I would slack off at work only to whip myself back into shape knowing what was waiting at the end of the tunnel. Certain things fell into place at work and now I’m my own boss with my own list of accounts working as a commissioned salesman. It feels good to have finally started my career.

Lola Pacing

On July 20th, 2007, our Lola Pacing passed away. As with the passing of my other grandma, I will forever remember that day. I was just getting off work when I got a phone call from my Dad. He had a sense of urgency in his quivering voice. He told me that I come home right away because Lola had passed. It was the first time I had ever heard my Dad cry. I immediately packed a weekend full of clothes and raced down to my cousin Tiff’s house. When I showed up, everyone was there acting like nothing had happened, like we were at a normal family get together.

In the week between her passing and her burial, I had to juggle transitioning into my new position and driving back and forth from LA to SD for the viewings. Although it was very sad to see my Lola go, it was also very inspiring and comforting knowing that my Lola could bring together her entire family from all over the world. Cousins flew in from the Bay Area, the east coast and even as far away as England to be with her before we said goodbye. Even though it was a very sad to say goodbye, spending time with my family made me appreciate and be proud of my family.

In a Relationship

It’s taken me two and a half years but I finally found someone worth settling down with. And as they always say, it happens when you least expect it. After being friends and then close friends for over the past year, my girlfriend and I both acknowledged that spending all this time together led to feelings of more than just friendship. This being my first relationship that developed from a friendship, this is a totally new experience and one that I’m enjoying with everyday that goes by.

Miami

And as I type this, I’m on a plane bound for Miami. My best friend Joe is getting married in 2 weeks and we are out here for his bachelor party. This is my first time out in Miami and my first real bachelor party. From what I hear, we have over 100 beers and 5 handles of liquor to get through before the weekend is over. Let’s hope I survive the weekend and am able to continue updating this website.

unfortunate placement of yahoo ad

You’re my friend if you find this funny.