The cube of Rubik.

February 2nd, 2010

On the rare occasion I’m sitting at my girlfriend’s house, and a group of us are watching television, I find myself far more interested in her family’s Rubik cube that sits ignored next to the TV. At first, I tend to try ignoring it, and focusing on whatever show is on, but eventually, it overcomes me. My urge to rotate those squares into an ever-challenging and frustrating color unity is too strong for me. I tend to block out the rest of the room for however long we planned on being in the living room, and I just play with the puzzle.

Her father took note of my subtle obsession, and gave me a Rubik’s Cube for my 21st birthday last month. Most of the people that hadn’t seen me play with one previously thought it was an absurd present, but I was delighted to have it.

The next day, we had some friends over. I had rotated it in three spots, and I knew how to get it back to perfect. I left our dining room for a few minutes, and some of our guests had taken turns trying to solve what I had done, and just made everything worse. I learned my lesson, and now keep the cube in my room.

I think life is a lot like a Rubik’s cube. When you start out, everything seems balanced. Everything feels like it’s where it belongs. But then something small changes. Whether it’s your fault or not, and you find yourself with a green/white/orange corner piece in your yellow/blue/red corner.
And because it’s small, you think you can handle this issue. You got yourself into this mess, you can get yourself out. So you rotate the cube a few more times, and now an entire stripe across the entire thing is wrong.
So you try to take it all back, but you can’t. You forgot steps 2 and 3 out of 5, and now nothing is right! You have no choice but to keep fighting this STUPID toy until you magically get everything right again. It’s frustrating and it makes you miserable.
And eventually, you think you start getting the hang of it. You have all the White squares on the White side, so you move onto Orange. But as you get the Orange cross solved, you notice that you’ve DESTROYED white! It’s a delicate balance and you CANNOT solve it on your own!

I went on youtube and found several incredibly polite and educated men that explain these crazy little things called algorithms to people as if it were something simple, like boiling water. An algorithm is basically a pattern, and when applied to Rubik’s cubes, knowing them is key to solving the toy. More importantly, it’s youtube, so it’s not like you test their patience if you don’t understand the first time. You just watch it again until it makes sense.

Typically this last month the band was home, my Rubik cube sits maybe 2 feet from my laptop, keeper of youtube’s secrets. I could go online, find someone that has the answers for my frustrations, and seek help. I could have this entire cube solved in maybe 15 minutes.

The problem is that I’m stubborn. I made it this far on my own, I can get the rest!

Keep in mind, I’ve gotten TWO SOLID ROWS around the thing solved, TWICE. I mean, I have gotten pretty far on my own. I’m not saying I’m a genius or anything, rather the opposite, so this is really an accomplishment for me.

I have the answers right in front of me, and I’m too stubborn and lazy to go get them. I’ll post a picture or something when I solve it.

The Idols are Finally Among us!

January 16th, 2010

After years of waiting to have a hard copy of our album, ‘The Idols Among Us’, it was released to the general public tuesday, January 12, 2010. I’m so excited to have our music available to share again. It seems like ages since we had a new cd to be proud of.

Being part of the band, Joey was kind enough to give me a FREE cd, and digital download card. I could keep the cd and give someone else a free listen, if I felt so inclined.

I barely got the seal of my cd before my parents asked if they could buy a copy from me. They arn’t young hipsters, and naturally wanted the disc version over the download card. They paid me what I would charge at the table (a mere $15) and our transaction was done.

Here’s my dilemma: I liked having our new album, but I’m not sure I liked it more than I do like have $15. My initial plan was to replace my copy the next time I was around our merch, but now I’m not so sure. Fifteen bucks can go a long way, and it’s not like I ‘need’ to listen to my own music. I mean, I wrote it! I know how the songs go.

What do you think, internet? Should I pocket the money, or get a copy of my hard work that I can look at in 30 years with pride and satisfaction?

Coming to completion in Susanville.

October 31st, 2009

This morning, I woke up on a mattress on the floor, Joey snoring, and a breathtaking view outside my window. Everything seemed so tranquil at the ranch house we stayed at.

We stayed with a lady named Rebecca, and like 5 other people from her church. We stayed up last night having pool tournaments. I called it quits for the night right before everyone started playing a riveting game of ‘Ninja’.

Our show is tonight. A few youth groups in the area are coming together to see us ROCK, then there is some form of a scavenger hunt. Our stage looks pretty legit, so I’m looking forward to playing.

This will be our last show for this trip. After church Sunday, we drive home. Just like normal, we all can’t wait to get home and take care of stuff. Joey’s immediately heading out to visit some family, and Lu and I both have some things we need to get home and wrap up. I am personally really looking forward to being home.

Our first real show this tour was at another church, about 4,500 miles ago in the beginning of September. We were exhausted from joshuafest, and were eager to tackle a tour that left California. Since then, we’ve been to Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Nevada and Utah. It’s been a fun, full couple months I wouldn’t have traded for anything.