O Captain, She's Sinking!

My body's taken a beating these past weeks. Currently, I am having trouble hearing out of my right ear, that I may even have to go to the doctor for. I'll stubbornly wait a few more days... dangerous business for a musician. Too much fun at the beach and it feels like I got water in my ear. It's been 4 days now. I believe I've torn my shoulder, rotator cuff some way some how. I'm having trouble lifting my right shoulder. I've been straight battling these plantar warts on the bottom of my right foot that are mega-embarrassing when I tow the tourists around for the surf job. I've been working at the surf school almost every single day. On top of that my neighbors have once again leaked water into my bedroom, so I've been sleeping on the couch for the past few nights. Needless to say, I've been a little grumpy as a result of all those things.

I've always viewed times like these in my life; where life doesn't stop, like my body is this battered b-17. Still, some way, flying. Nothing short of a miracle. And yet with life, there is hope. I am at a very unsecure time in my life, to where I've put so much faith in "the quest." It's as if I am so convinced that this one path I've chosen at this time, is the right one. But, this is tragedy in life. There's no going back to replay as a different character. The stats you have, are the stats you have. You only get more of them, you can't get rid of them. Well, maybe in a few years they can just upload my brain into another, new, b-17. Come on stem cells!

#NoShaveNovember has come to a close early this year. I had a head-start with the growing of the beard for my contest-winning (repeat) 'Man Without a Name' costume. My prize? $500 worth of tattooing from friend and co-worker Little Chris of Hale Nui Tattoos. I met this really cool chick there, at the part-contest, and apparently she's a lesbian. I thought we shared a connection, but perhaps it was just the love of women haha. She's still way cool though. Note to self: look into growing one's hair out again as guise of female.

So now, I have returned to facial boyhood, just weeks before my 27th birthday. I haven't really felt any particular way towards aging really, I actually kind of preferred it. 27 though is kind of ominous at this point. I wonder how much longer will I enjoy being a man-boy?

B.R.G.A. currently has a low enrollment of 5 students, many of them (3) are bi-weekly and 1 is a freebie. I've been hustling to get more students, spamming craigslist twice a week, every week. I only have one lead right now. If things continue this way, I may have to drop my rates, lest I starve, or have to run back to the restaurant with my tail between my legs. I think my product is more than deserving of its fee, but whatever.

School is almost finished, and as you can see from my overall grade in black. I've been doing quite well. I have decided to continue, and signed myself up and payed for the next installment of Japanese. This time, having it tie up only two afternoons for two hours, as opposed to four afternoons for one hour. Anki has been my secret weapon. I really have come a long way as a smart phone advocate. It is the future. Technology man.

That's all for now. I'll return with more updates in two weeks. Hopefully I'm hearing by then!

The Odyssey Continues

Sometimes, you get an onion ring in your basket of fries. Sometimes, you get some beef in your chicken curry. For some, this is an insult, for others, this is a bonus. It's all about perspective.

Many things have happened since my last full-on entry 2014/04/02, today is 2014/11/12 (that's year, month, day f.y.i. -- it's how I write dates naturally), pretty much half a year. I've had guitar students come and go, I've been to Vegas three times, been back to Kaua'i twice -- once for a wedding, once for a couple gigs SWEET, met Asa Akira, my bass player from Leviathan Hawaii has returned thus rounding out Leviathan 2.0., I've been constantly upgrading my guitar lessons, and enrolled in school taking Japanese. Needless to say, I've been busy. I've been, I've been, I've been. I've been doesn't really matter, that's come and gone. What now?

I now work at the restaurant ≤ 2 shifts a week. It is quite literally a sinking ship and due to my (lack of) availability, I've gotten the shaft as far as getting promoted to "Varsity" from "JV," my jokingly but accurate portrayal of the section division. It's very one sided, refer to figure A.

Figure A

Two employees (at bottom) get the lion's share of tables, versus the 4 up top.

In many ways though this has been a blessing. If I actually made money at this place, I'd probably be less inclined to hustle in other aspects of my life, such as music. If I made more money working at the restaurant than I did doing guitar lessons, I might be reluctant to give up the restaurant time, which normally would be the case, but in this instance, it is not. Blessing in disguise?

#ShittyTips & #FatTips have been going well. Whenever I get a ludicrous tip, I post it to my Instagram @brianroberts30 with a short demographic and story behind it. A < 10% warrants a #ShittyTip entry, and a < 30% warrants a #FatTip entry. I'm sure you can imagine that regardless of level of skill of service, one would statistically get more #ShittyTips than #FatTips see figure B.

Figure B

#ServerLife nearly illegible numerology. Could of been mistaken for a #FatTip but sadly, no... Demographic: family of 6; 2 children, a middle aged white couple and a semi-elderly white couple. Did the "Oh and... [item name]" running through hoops later in service. Celebrating military promotion. Used 10% off military card. Used GB promo card. Semi-elderly man paid. Tip<10% = #ShittyTips happy Sunday! #DayJob of a #StarvingMusician

Met Asa Akira, that was rad. Figure C.

Figure C

@AsaAkira #939 award winning #DP #DA and author, very nice to meet you! I hope you liked my rose. What a wonderful person!! @asahole @asahole3@ja3farmanyak

I was invited to a distant friends bachelor party that wounded up being a front for a pseudo-class reunion. Way fun. So, I decided to implement the martingale blackjack system during this adventure. I trained with this blackjack app that I had downloaded to my phone; and every night before bed I'd play a quick half hour session and win $1000 fake dollars or so. In theory, it should work right? Figure D.

Figure D

Portable access to all your gambling addiction needs

And it fucking worked! So I went again a few months later just to gamble, and it worked again! But, such is the nature of gambling, and Vegas is the city with only one story; I was winning, then I lost it all. So the last time I went (about a week ago) I had lost some of my previous winnings. I blame it partially on luck, and partially from deviating from my logical strategy, adopting more of a mainstream (basic strategy) due to over-research. Maybe 2015 will be the full realization of the professional gambler? Or... I'll be a bum in no time.

The Brian Roberts Guitar Academy. B.R.G.A. one word. Yelp: Figure E

Figure E

No. 7 baby for guitar lessons in Honolulu, HI hell yeah

I also have a promo video that I can't seem to find through this blog searcher... so here's the link: http://youtu.be/kwfByAT-AWI

Been doing the BJJ but still a white belt. Figure F:

Figure F

No-Shave-November in full swing

Finally got a real tube amp, and I love it. Figure G:

Figure G

The Carvin V3, extremely versatile -- perfect for me (for now)

And I'm back in school, which has been pretty neat. It's a trip, I actually want to be there and actually want to learn. Way different than when I was last in school which was... 2007. I think also, that because I'm only taking the one Japanese class, I'm not getting too buried in the scholastic work load. These past few months have been a little meager however due to the fact that this one class takes up 4 of my afternoons during the week. Missing out on a lot of chances to work! But, soon will be Christmas aka service workers gold rush aka no day off for 40 days. I embrace the work though, as cliche and cheesy at it sounds; if you actually like what you do, it's not really work.

I (am trying to) get paid to do whatever the fuck I want.

More later

*trying to do these bi-weekly (once every two weeks), like my flag-ship guitar package -- bi-weekly. No, I'm serious; it's on my calendar, which means it shall be done. Figure H

Figure H

This thing rules my life

Update

Have been busy, and now I'm shaving some unimportant things out of my life like over-working at the restaurant.

I ought to be getting to bed now, and I feel like I will -- shortly -- but I feel like I must update the eWorld, if not just briefly.

I'm alive! Doing good, making money, about to go fishing tomorrow. More later.

My Photo Went Viral

So my photo went viral, and not to any of my own recognition or glory. Woe is me. I was riding along with my drummer on our way to rehearsal when we were stopped at a traffic light in front of the quirky Hawaiian Rent-All sign. I saw the caption "Don't worry HPD still ok to rent hoes from us" and was elated! In conjunction with the recent media attention to the law that enables police officers to purchase the services of prostitutes here in Hawai'i to secure criminal conviction (talk about perks, where do I sign up!?), this was by far the funniest caption I had ever seen at this sign. I had to take a picture and share with my instagram fans/friends. A couple re-posts and less than 24 hours later, I find my picture all over FaceBook via Hawaii News Now.

Apparently the city didn't share my appreciation of Hawaiian Rent-All's humor and ordered the facility to remove their suggestive sign. Bummer. Short lived and yet so funny. With that being the case, if "sign guy" or anyone who knows or works with "sign guy" of Hawaiian Rent-All, I am deeply sorry for any trouble or inconvenience that I may have caused you by taking this would-be viral picture. The response to the city's complaints was pretty funny as well. Keep up the good work!

Frogs Theme from Chrono Trigger Instrumental Guitar Cover

I'm trying to continue with the instrumental guitar covers weekly, so expect to see/hear more of these.

Still working at the desolate restaurant, desperately seeking other places of employment to replace that insufferable place of employment. Hard to balance the career(s) I like with a restaurant job...

Still seeking a bass player for proto-Leviathan 2.0.

Still surfing.

Still jamming with Shar.

More later! Enjoy.

Microgenerationism

I have this theory -- or belief rather -- that with the advent of information's accessibility, the exponential growth and speed of technology, and instantaneous inter-connectivity, that the era or typical span of time allotted to a "generation" will become smaller and smaller.

According to Wikipedia, the generations of the Western world are as follows.

The Lost Generation born between 1883-1900. A span of 17 years.
The Greatest Generation born between 1901-1924. A span of 23 years.
The Silent Generation born between 1925-1942. A span of 17 years.
The Baby Boomers born between 1943-1960's. A span of about 17 years.
Generation X born between the 1960's-1980's. A span of about 20 years.
Generation Y born between the 1980's-2000's. A span of about 20 years.
Generation Z born in the 2000's.

After the Baby Boomers, what we have Generation X, Y, and Z which have rough timeline parameters as to what constitutes falling into X, Y, or Z and is no longer definitively spanned by a set amount of years.

If you were to take all the generations excluding Y and Z and casually look at the significance of each generation's circumstances and what occurrences or technologies sculpted that generation, there isn't too much difference in my opinion, in comparison to the Y's and Z's. Up until gen Y, which is about 100 years of time, lifestyle hasn't changed much in comparison to the last 30 years or so. I can only theorize on "how life was lived then" however, because to truly form an opinion I'd have to have lived 7 lives, each of which living through each generation.

I believe we are now living a generational Moore's law, where the ingredients and parameters that define a generation will no longer be determined by a linear set of 20 years or so, but will begin to shrink and become smaller and smaller. Eventually there will be a terminal velocity to where flesh will stifle steel. I want to say that this new apex generational window will be a 5-8 year span, rather than the 20 year span in place now. I would even go on to say that even now, within these Y and Z generations, there should be "micro-generations" to properly illustrate the significant difference between the nuanced years within the 20 year mark.

Example.

Take a 25 year old and an 18 year old today, a difference of 7 years of age. I believe difference in how the 18 year old today lives his/her life as to opposed to the 25 year old lived his/her's 7 years prior as an 18 year old is significantly more different than if were were to take the same age span at a not-so-distant time in the past. Like if you were to take the difference in the teenage/young adult life of a 55 year old and a 48 year old, it probably wouldn't be as different in comparison to the difference of the 25 year old and 18 year old today.

I am already living this theory. I call my generation the dial up generation, and it's a window of about 10 years. Those born between 1980-1990. Maybe this window can even be smaller or skewed earlier or later, I don't know, but the significance of this generation is the onset of in-home internet and affordable mobile phone through the pre-teen and teenage years. As a result I can type 140 W.P.M. because to communicate via the internet then, you had to type. Voice was not practical, and webcam wasn't even fathomable. Take someone a few years younger than me or my generation, chances are their typing skills will not be quite as fast as ours/mine, etc. etc. I believe we're the last generation where showing up to someones house unannounced to see them was completely normal. We're the generation that calls AND texts, where those before or after us do one or the other predominantly.

I can only imagine how life will be living through the advent of the smart phone and the essentially free access to anything is. Crazy.

Anyway, just some food for thought. Maybe you have your own ideas on the significant traits and elements of the microgeneration you belong to?