Shpoogen's Xanga

I'm stay'n at the Super Spaght!

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:00:55 GMT

hello everybody. I'm making this blog entry in the city of Austin Textas. I caravan'd here with david, josh, sammy and the NWA kids. All of them just left for Fun Fun Fun Fest, I decided to sleep in instead LOLZ. I just didn't think the line-up warranted throw'n down 80 bones, especially since I'm moving soon. I figure I could come down with them, hang out with everybody, and go to all the after parties. I think my friend Mandy Spivey is gonna pick me up and weez gonna get some lunch. I surfed her couch last SXSW but it looks like she's homeless too! Hopefully when I get my own place in colorado I'll have a space to let people crash at so I can return the favor.. to the world.
It's look'n like this weekend is gonna be pretty rad all in all. I'm still gonna see lotsa rad band and lotsa rad d00des and d00dienies. +Nate & Emily are in town too. thats double rad! Let's hang out!

we're coming home alive.

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:59:30 GMT

So I've just moved out of the picker house. In about five minutes we're gonna have a picker party down by the river in Gays Mills. After I get my bonus check and some soom good foodstuffs, I'm off to Arkansas once again. I've got no job but lots of plans. I've got no dates pinned down but my eyes are narrowed. I guess all I can say is, I'll see you soon.

I used to hate cell phones, now I luv 2 txt!

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:19:05 GMT

It would appear that everything is up in the air. I've known this but, I feel as thougg I like to tack down the things in my life like stakes on a tent only to watch it get carried away by the wind. [At this point, Heisenberg says "I told ya so!"]. I thought tomorrow was gonna be the last day of apples but for some unknown reason it seems like its gonna justtt.... draggg onnnn.( sounds eeriely familiar) till most of this week. ugh. I know there can only be so many apples in an orchard but I'm ready for a day when the only thing I pick is my nose. I've had a great time here and will prolly do it next year but right now I just wanna vamanos!
I'm excited and stoked about my victorious return to R & D town(s) respectivly. plans within plans. There is so much for me to, so many people to kick it with, so many tattoos to get.. I kinda feel like I'm at the starting line of a race and the dude forgot to load his fake pistol thingy... hokey religions and ancient race starter guns are no match for a good blaster by your side.

P.S. - I just got off the phone with Mary Batchelor. the Peace Corps program in Gueaea has been suspended indefinatly due to politcal unrest, she now has to decided to jump into an already going program to finish her 18 months or start a fresh program and do another 2 years. please send her some emails and send her some positive energy! (her email is maryelor@hotmail.com)

Picking apples for kings and queens of things I have never seen

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:54:45 GMT

I've got roughly twenty more days here in Wisconsin. I think I'd like to go to Chicago once more before I leave and hang out with Johnny Raines and perhaps go to the Buddhist Temple. I'm making pretty good money and I'm trying not to dream all my money away before I even make it. When I make money I just think about all the tattoos I want, all the places I want to go, but I gotta stay focused. I don't wanna be broke in Colorado, dumpstering out of necessity, not out of pleasure. I guess even If I was completely broke, as long as I was in the beautiful city of Denver, It wouldn't be so bad.
Thanks for all the letters everyone has sent me, It really means alot. I love to be all sore and grumpy from clambering up and down ladders and to see that someone has sent me a little treat. They make me smile real big :D .
Today was especially brutal. It was crew pick all day, that means instead of getting a copse of trees that are yours, and you get paid for how well/fast you can pick them, Its a constant milling about were everyone just picks and dumps into the bins together until the entire block of trees is finished and the money is divided amongst the crew. You have to do alot more walking around with half-full bags of apples for less money, plus you don't want to take pee/text breaks because everyone is working so you feel compelled to work constantly with no stops. ugh.
I would attest that it feels good for everyone working together, despite the language barrier (I'm the only rookie gringo) so it's nice when sometimes the Hispanic men attempt to have conversation with me, even though its mostly....

him : "¿Cómo estás?[how are you]"

me: "good! umm uhh oh yeah bueno! bueno!"

him: "humo mota?[smoke weed?]"

me: "umm not really.."

I have five minutes to post this xanga entry.

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:52:47 GMT

hello everyone. I'm on day 9 of my first apple season. It's going pretty well actually. there hasn't been a cloud in the sky and the days have been going pretty quickly. I wake up in the morning and cook breakfast for Andrew and I, most of the time it's two eggs, toast and some green tea (sometimes oatmeal as well) and then we're off to another day in the orchard. Often times they have us doing the same thing all day long, so the hours just fly by, since I spend most of the time living in my own head. I often think about new tattoos, Denver, what I would do if I won the lottery, how happy I am to be in wisconsin, the perfect pokemon party or how this job could be worse. My favorite so far is eight to ten applebee's employees perpetually convinced it's your birthday, singing the birthday song to you all day out in the orchard. Another one is if they flooded the orchard and you had to bob for all the apples, that would also suck. People ask me alot how I stay so positive, and most of the time I just think about this job is key to my future endevours, and how its another great little facet to the diamond of life. Well, the lady said I have just a few more minutes so I'm just gonna sew it up right now. Things in wisconsin are pretty great. I've just been playing alot of chess, alot of Call of Cthulu ( a card game) and eating lots of free apples. Its great to have a job where you can eat the product you are working with, any time.

crapples.

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:26:52 GMT

Day 2 in my apple pick'n. Just got off of working a HARRRDD day. lemme tell ya. This apple business is sweet. everyone is chill, there's a lunch whistle. ya get off work at 5 every day. PLUS I got a house to live it. ++sweet hang outs with rad kids! I love having a kitchen too. It seems to make the whole day easier when you had eggs and toast in the moan-in. Its hard work on your back and shoulders and arms and stuff but fuckkk it!
ok I know this isn't my most eliquent of entries but my brain is all a-scrabble. I'm ready to eat some rice and watch Doctor Who!

To Our Friends in the Great White North

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:34:31 GMT

so I left Russellville for realreal yesterday. It was weird. last time I left (for Texas, Colorado, Iowa) I was so stoked to bounce. This time it was different, I've been hesitant to leave, in fact I still havn't left, I'm just two hours west of the damn town. I guess in some ways I feel like I've got unfinished business there. Situations that, if I'd stuck around, things would be different. That said, I know myself, and I know that my life is to be on the road, and home is anywhere I lay my head. staying in russellkill isn't even a choice for me at this point. A man can eat a fish but ya can't make him swim.

I'm gonna drive to wisconsin today, first.. I've gotta get over this gnarly hangover then I'll be ready to be behind the wheel. I'm stoked about apple picking and I know I'll have some lots of funsies (I hate that word by the way) but I guess sometimes right before I leave for something awesome I have a tiny existential pickle in which everything turns on it's head. I see all the people I'm leaving behind, everyone I care about and love and know that I'm not going to be in their lives for too much longer. The fact that me leaving now is just a precursor to when I REALLY leave later and the pain of separation is already burning a hole in heart. . But I always come to my senses, I know that if Russellville had a Food not Bombs, and a buddhist temple I wouldn't leave, I'm just going where those places are. There is nothing permanent in my departure just as there is nothing permanent in life. I'm lost in the wilderness, blind as can be. I'm cool with it.

apples?

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:14:16 GMT

Ok so I got a call the other day that a couple'a dudes couldn't make it for the early season of apples (thats when you scan the trees for apples that have ripened early before most of the other apples have gotten there) which means they need me to come up as soon as possible. This means I'm planning on leaving monday sometime. I might get delayed a day or two cuz I'm still working out my car situation. I'm pretty excited about being able to leave earlier. I'm just wasting money hang'n around here, and the sooner I get there, the sooner I can get into the work and get an eye for apples. My friend Andrew gave me a list of things I needed. Work boots, rubber covers, rain jacket, and he also told me to bring some dvds cuz there is a tv at the bunk house we are staying at. So I'm currently downloading:

The Venture Bros Season 1 and 2
Supernatural Season 1 and 2
Doctor Who series 1 and 2 (starting with the 9th and 10th doctor)

any other suggestions? I'm thinking of bringing Firefly cuz I was so blown away by it. Maybe dollhouse, since its another Joss Whedon creation.

so I've got a few days left before I bounce. If you wanna hang out make your time. cuz I've got clothes shopping to do, some songs to record, OH! I've still got a box of books and other junk I'm trying to get rid of so the move to Denver will be as smooth of a transition as possible.

so maybe I'm bad at bolgs

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 22:37:02 GMT

I've been in russellville for like, maybe a week and a half? People are still texting me saijin "you back in town?"and I'm oh like.. crap! So.. Yeah I sneak'd in through the dog door, but I didn't mean it! I've just been on cloud nine, kinda bumbl'n about doing stuff without my head in the clouds. I havn't written any letters or postcards or any of the stuff I usually do. Just gogogogogogo. But that's not a bad thing.
QUICK UPDATE:
- Corn was good. Made more money than last year. Had some good time with friends
- Am currently at the Pleasure Dome, for a little bit
- On September 7th I'm leaving for Gays Mills, Wisconsin to work the Apple Harvest time around the middle of October
- Then I'm either gonna get some more temporary work, work on one of those Skill trade farms, where you work for food and board, or just go straight to Denver for the the forseeable future

that's sort of my life right now.
kinda want to get a DSlite, and an R4 Chip. Kinda want to get more tattoos. Kinda wanna record some songs I've been working on.

My head is filled up with stuff.
there's cars. and people.

Bless the Vodka, Kiss the Pizza

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:56:00 GMT

More than halfway done with the season, Hang'n out at the Onawa D.Q. I've got a few easy days and then a day off. I'm pretty stoked. This season has been pretty brutal all in all though. The days have been long, the tassles have been aplenty and I never got my game guide for Mouse Guard! ARG!! I've been taking it pretty easy this year, not trying to make a catrillion dollars, but I've been having a pretty good time. There is a really great crew this year and we've all been hang'n out alot. Lotsa volleyball, lotsa guitar play'n and lots lots lots of whiskey. The end of the week is gonna be pretty tough I think, toward the end I think we're gonna have a long buncha long hard days but I'm prepared for it. I'm ready to wrassle them tassles.
In other noobs ...I'm thinking really hard about moving to Denver. The week I spent there, I really enjoyed the people I met, the Food Not Bombs I volunteered at, and even if I didn't get a chance to attend the service at the Buddhist temple, I'm really excited about being about to check it out. Boulder has alot of Buddhist activity going on as well. It just seems like a good first place to move out of Arkansas. I love Russellville and all the people there but sometimes my life is like a snowglobe and ya gotta shake up the flakes to watch it sparkle!