What's Been Passing Through...

definition of :(

2009-12-23T06:05:18Z

I feel so terrible.
I was not cut from the cloth of success.

Destined to be nothing more than mediocre.

mattgetsit @ 2009-12-14T13:50:00

2009-12-14T18:50:17Z

I had an exam today.
Today I found out said exam took place last Friday.
Fuck.

Ho-ho-shit

2009-12-11T03:51:43Z

My gut reaction tells me to complain about my five-hour shift tomorrow.
My proper brains tells me that at least it is work. Work=money. Money=CDs. That math is fun.
Also also also, my Christmas(s) shopping is going terribly. Like wtf is with the mall? It fucking sucks.
Today my dad and I went to the rogers store because he wanted to show me a phone case he wanted to get my mom. The sales dude like rapes us as we walk in and goes:
"oh no get this shell, it's better and only $2711287318923. Hey! You went to Notre Dame right?"
"yes, I did..."
"yeah I recognized you! I went there too. Now I go to Ryerson. So yeah I can get you a deal on this case, I mean you did go to ND and all"

Firstly, YOU RECOGNIZE ME!? You don't even know my name, I have no fucking shit idea who you are but you recognize me!? Secondly, I don't give a shit that you go to Ryerson. We didn't buy the fucking thing he was selling anyway.

I also found out I hate shopping with my dad. Not that it isn't fun or whatever, but it's like, I'm young so sales people don't bother me. My dad is old and getting grey. So everyone fucking comes up to him the moment he walks into a store. He is a magnet for shady salesmen!

This post was way longer than it should have been. If it went the way I wanted it would have gone like this:
I have to work. I have yet to study. School is kicking me in the ass. Complaints.

Anyway! Best of luck everybody with everything!

Ah just a bit today

2009-11-22T20:50:20Z

Why do I feel it appropriate to sleep in until ungodly hours on the weekend?

I am hoping productivity finds me well today.

I feel money slip through my fingers on a daily basis. Fuck shit here we go again.

mhmm

2009-11-11T01:07:00Z

Today whilst eating my dinner I decided to grab a table close to a television set. On this particular channel at this particular time, a movie was playing. It was a movie from the 70's that involved surfers. At first I thought it was just a commercial, but it kept going on so I realized it wasn't. It would show clips of 70's men surfing, then talking on the beach, then more surfing, then some 70's sand dunes, followed by more surfing and talking. It looked like a cheesy vintage porno. I half expected this 70's surfers to get naked and start doing the dirty with one another. Alas, they did not.
It then got me thinking about a surfer's mentality. What their drive is to just go out into the water day after day after day and just surf. Just surf upon the water. All day, everyday. Why would they do this? What is their reason?
Then it hit me. I have to be a wave. I have to have fluidity. I've been a brick for so long, just in one place, a structural matter. I have to be a wave. I have to let things flow around me.

mattgetsit @ 2009-11-03T19:56:00

2009-11-04T00:57:10Z

Well this is just great.

Oh wait, no it isn't. Not at all.

math really

2009-11-03T06:06:52Z

crazy ass weekend+overwhelming sensation=unproductive

seriously, WHAT

2009-10-29T03:58:14Z

So after I get back from dinner last night (with amazing awesome peoples) I had to work on my vector graphics project that was due in my tutorial today. So after about an hour I finally figured out how to place photos in a grid using Adobe Illustrator. THEN after writing a "brief" description about the rhythm, balance, scale, colour, and foreground relationship of thirty photos, and writing a paragraph about a single photo I was done. I was happy and ready to hand my work today.

So today in tutorial, I'm firing up my computer and my TA comes by and says "do you have yours" and I said "yes, it's loading up now" and she goes "no I needed it printed". I was like "oh er, oops" and this girl looked at my quizzically. So I turn another girl sitting beside me and was like "I didn't know we needed it printed" the girl then says "I did mine like this morning" and pointed to her name tag". I was like "I thought she meant we needed our project printed...I didn't know anything about a nametag" and she was like "no she meant our nametag". THEN my TA taught us how to make a grid of our photos in photoshop. For a project that our prof said was due in tutorail TODAY that I had struggled with loads on the night before.

Like WHAT THE FUCK

some days happen

2009-10-21T23:03:59Z

So I'm going to do a little chronical of both yesterday and today.

So yesterday (tuesday) was a pretty decent day. I woke up at around 7 to make it to my 8:30 class. I get to class and we're talking about the music industry. Which is pretty sweet because like, that shit's awesome. I get back to res and the two Dead Weather 7"s I ordered a month ago (that were supposed to take 4-5 days to arrive) came in the mail for me! Yay! What a great start to my day! Then blahblahblah I had to write a test on typography. The test went okay. Anyway, as I go to hand it in, my prof is says "can you send me your project in an e-mail as a pdf?" and I'm thinking 'oh shit! I totally did the project wrong and need to re-submit it because it went wrong oh fuckshitcrap'. BUT then she says "I want it because I want to show the class some works that I think were really good and I want to show yours-is that okay?". I told her it was fine and was really happy that she thought I was good enough to show the class! YAY!
Anyway uhm. That was the best part of yesterday. I also found out I STILL haven't been paid from Old Navy. Like what the shit?

So today I was all "fuck crap I cannot spend anymore money because I need to save for concerts and haircuts and Christmas". EXCEPT today The Dead Weather made their latest 7" available for pre-order. I bought it. BUT this is my rationale: I had ordered a 7" from Beggars Group but was refunded because apparently the said 7" was sold out. So I got $9 back. I was going to put that $9 into my bank account but PayPal will only let you put back a minimum of $15. SO I paid for The Dead Weather 7" with the $9 I had anyway. So lose a 7", gain a 7" really. So I do not feel as bad about that.

Now I need to write a paper.  Ugh.

mattgetsit @ 2009-10-14T18:08:00

2009-10-14T22:09:47Z

Motivation where are you?

I've finally balanced money and spending. At least I think I have.

Can I master my grade point average now? I'm done with mediocrity.

mattgetsit @ 2009-09-27T19:23:00

2009-09-27T23:26:19Z

The following is my dream from last night:

I dreamt I was on "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila". Only instead of it being a shot at love it was some kind of cooking competition. And 12pack from "I Love New York" was on it. And then I was talking to Tila and telling her about all this shit that the constestants were doing. Somehow the contestants heard this and then were all "we're gonna get him" and they started like harassing me on MSN.

Er.

My eyes are all itchy and I can't tell which way to walk down the street

2009-09-21T20:34:37Z

My head is still a cloudy mess.
Where the fuck am I?
I certainly am earthsick.

I still have this weird tunnel feeling. What is going on? This void. What is it? I just walk around and abuse coffee.

No complaints, I love coffee.

concrete cave

2009-09-14T22:06:37Z

My head is all cave-like.
or under-watery. Like I'm drowning already.

I'm fucking drowning in school already and I've only been to three whole classes. What the fuck IS this shit!?

I need a mousepad with a coushioned wrist. I need $8.99 to buy said mousepad.

I need to stop drinking so much coffee that it gives me the shakes.

Ugh ugh la la.

sooner than later

2009-09-06T00:57:22Z

Hamilton is so close I can smell it.

Things have been going pretty well for me! I got another grant in my bank which means I'm not in trouble for spending the last one! Plus I still have the last one to use for saving (spending) as of now. So that's pretty cool.

Also Old Navy asked me to work with them full-time! Hurray! They told me they'd ask Hamilton Old Navy if they need people, but I can still work in Ajax at Christmas. So that's pretty rad. I love money so much. I was worried Old Navy would be like Casa Verde in that you have to do things super quickly and super correctly and would get in shit for like a tiny mistake, but they're actually super relaxed and stuff it's such a calm work environment. Super great.

I've been getting closer to a lot of Ajax friends, except the timing for it is so shit because I move in a day bascially. Ugh life, you're so fickle. I also have tons of packing to do, and although I'd normally be super excited to leave this crap-hole town and move far away because my feet itch non-stop, I'm secretly gonna miss it here. I also think about all the stress that comes with the fall. UGH.

Also, pick up the book "Dear Diary" by Lesley Arfin. It's kind of the best.

ALSO, I'm so pissed that the Zwipes agenda I've used for the past two years is no longer in production. It pisses me off. But I got a great sea-foam green agenda to replace it. And sea-foam is such a great shade of green because it really is the shitiest one.

Anyway, I gotta go shove some clothes in a bag and get my ass back to Steel Town. See you soon!

Hello LJ, goodbye summer

2009-08-07T22:08:49Z

GUESS WHAT.
I work at Old Navy!
I'm a retail drone and I get to fold shirts. YAY!
It's also a seasonal job, which means I probably won't work after the 6th of September.

Finally! Some money!

<<

2009-07-20T02:55:51Z

I discovered everything about myself too late in life and now I'm in rewind with nothing to show for it.

Why was I not smarter when the money came pouring in? Why did more than a building go up in flames?

I don't know what I'm doing.

mattgetsit @ 2009-07-19T22:37:00

2009-07-20T02:38:49Z

I have an addiction to buying things when I don't have suffcient funds to actually buy them.

I have another problem with the inability to find employment. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

mattgetsit @ 2009-07-12T21:48:00

2009-07-13T01:51:27Z

I am finally seeing Yeah Yeah Yeahs in August.
I have been waiting to see them since 2003.
The times they've come to Cananda they shows have all been 19+.
I am finally able to attend 19+ shows, and their first show here in years is all-ages.
But it does not matter, because they are the best band on earth.
Happy oh happy.

mattgetsit @ 2009-07-09T00:24:00

2009-07-09T04:27:15Z

After much contemplation, complaining, and rejectedness I have figured it out. I am too white for MTV. The only people from my audition that MTV put on air were: a brown guy (with white pants btw, puke-fest), a black woman, and a black guy. The black girl was actually super nice and funny, and a McMaster alum, so I'm glad they put her on.
SO BASICALLY, MTV needed to up their ethnics. Which means I do not feel as bad anymore.

I may or may not start a job tomorrow. I don't want to jinx it though.
That is all.

Also, www.dniwer.bandcamp.com

NXNE: Day 4

2009-07-07T04:44:49Z

Hey guys! Here's part 4/4 of my NXNE adventure! YAYYYY!

Okay so today wasn't too bad, except I had to be downtown by noon, which meant little sleep from Matty. I was only working until 5, so that wasn't horrible. Anyway today was hip-hop day at Yongue & Dundas and GZA was headlining, so people were either super stoked or just not in the know.

I had to work the booth at Yongue St., so not only was my back facing the stage, I also got all the crazy asking me questions. My favourite was the guy in the glasses whose conversation with me went like this:
"What is this?"
"This is NXNE, it's a week-long music festival in Toronto and today is the last day"
"What music is playing today?"
"It's urban and hip-hop stuff"
"I don't like urban or hip-hop"
"well then you won't like the bands playing today"
"I really only like, like, Japanese rock or punk and stuff"
"oh well, none of those types of bands are playing here today, sorry"
*glasses man then reaches for his iPod and begins scrolling through it*
"do any of the bands sound like *insert band name here*?"
"Uhm. I'm not sure"
"Well what about *insert other band name here*?"
"Uhm. I don't think so"
"Oh Okay"
Then he left to get a free rainbow flag from homsense.

So throughout the day I mainly yelled "FREE CONCERT TODAY. GZA." and gave away all the free leaflets I could. I was also in charge of selling t-shirts, but no one was buying.
So at around 4ish this girl came and was all "hey I'm doing stuff here tonight for when you leave". She was pretty pleasent to talk to, so I mean no complaints.
Oh I also got free energy drink and hot sauce because the energy drink and hot sauce people were giving away shit at the square as well.
Anyway at 5, this girl was all "k well we're leaving but the guy to replace us hasn't showed up". So, in my brilliance, I was all "okay well I'll just go over there and wait cuz I'm awesome and nice like that".
So I go over to the booth to wait for Chris (from night prior) to show up. Anyway he finally shows up but then the guy in charge of Yongue & Dundas gave Chris the job to MC the rest of the show, so I had to stay an extra hour to wait for another volunteer and blah blah it was so confusing.
Anyway! While I'm on my way out, at one of the tents, my new fav band Lioness were selling merch. And the woman selling the merch was the lead singer Vanessa!!! So I obviously said stuff like "Oh my god I bought your EP the day it came out because I was a super huge fan of Ronnie's old band and you guys are just awesome and when is your full-length coming out because I'll get it and it's so nice to meet you I can't wait to see you sometime or something". Anyway, she was alright and gave me a free button and introduced herself and I wished her well and introduced myself and thanked her for the button and was on my way.

Okay, so anyway at around 5, NXNE people were having a shin-dig at Wrongbar for all the volunteers. So anyway the MMVA's were going on at this time which meant, no running streetcars. Which was pretty lame. So I had to hike down queen a good trillion blokes before I could catch a streetcar to the bar. So I get there and I am STARVING. The free food was only so-so. Uhm I ran into a bunch of people I had met previous nights and chatted and stuff so that was pretty alright too. Anyway it was pretty dull when I see the girl from Oshawa from two night before! So I asked her if she wanted to cab it back to Union whenever cuz streetcars were awol. She said yes, so that worked out.

Anyway the rest of the night was making awkward conversation with this girl on a train, and then I slept for days on end.

YAY.

NXNE: Day 3

2009-07-01T06:21:34Z

Part 3 of my NXNE adventure! YAY!

Okay so on day three I was schedualed to work at Yongue & Dundas Square from 5pm to 11pm. Which was was pretty rad because I got to be outside all night long. Despite the rain, being outside after two nights of noisy thrashy clubs, this was nice. Ahhhh.

Anyway so I get to this tent with this girl. Who was pretty friendly and sarcastic so that was fine. And then this clipboard girl is like "yeah so tell Chris to get this board" and I'm all "okay yeah for sure". So then this Chris guy finally gets to the tent, I turn around, and it's my buddy Chris Cvar from highschool! I mean he didn't go to my highschool, but I knew him through other friends in like, grade 10 and 11 and stuff. So I mean, that was pretty rad.

The first band to play (when I got there anyway) were Japanther, whom I really liked, but not a lot of others didn't. The whole night was basically giving people guide books and hearing complaints about how the bands played earlier than they were supposed to. Some guy talked to me for hours about how sad he was that he missed Japanther.

So during the course of the evening, a lot of weirds popped on by because after all, it was a free concert, so of course all the odd-balls were coming out of their den. Anyway this one guy comes up to the tent, and then started flashing gang signs at us. So that was pleasant. We notified security right away.
This other man came up at one point too, he had tattoos on his face and told us he was a "tattoo artist" but we were pretty sure he was a heroin addict. ANYWAY he kept asking us that he "felt he didn't deserve to pay $20 for a t-shirt". We kept telling him we couldn't sell them for less than $20. He eventually went away.

So for dinner Chris and I went to this burrito place and I got a fucking awesome burriot and organic lemonade! Fuck it was SO good! I've been so obsessed with lemonade all summer. It's so so so fucking delicious. Mmmmmm.

SO the headlining band of the night was a band called The Sonics. Anyway, apparently they were some super influential band and a huge, HUGE crowd gathered to see them. BUT THEY WERE FUCKING SHIT. They did all these covers and they were like some shitty old dad band. And mainly dads liked them. But yeah they sucked and the people whom I was working with were all jaw-dropped too.

Anywayyyyy at 11 I was finally able to head home. I made it to union, gave a homeless lady a bag of doritos I got for free, bought some lemonade, rain into some friends, and made it home at a decent hour!

Yussss. 3/4.

NXNE: Day 2

2009-06-28T23:21:20Z

So last Friday was my second day being a NXNE volunteer.

Same ol same ol; down a coffee from Second Cup @ Union, then haul my ass to the Hyatt regency.

I get to the basement and see this list of places I could potentially go to. My friend's band The Organ Thieves are playing at the Bovine, one of the places on the list. So I'm all "well I'm not going back to The Silver Dollar, but I could do the Bovine!" but then List Lady is all "no, the person who's doing that venue just showed up".
So as we're getting our bags of cash/gig posters/wristbands and the like, I'm all "hey Bovine that's cool, my friend's band is playing there tonight" then she's all "who" and I'm all "The Organ Thieves" and then she goes on this HUGE rant about how she's from Oshawa and how she's them live a bunch of times in the Shwa and all this stuff. And I'm just like "a) don't brag about being from Oshawa...like...it's oshawa. and b) I have a friend, actually in the band. I've hung out with him on numerous occasions, like, I KNOW him". But whatever, so it was off to the El Mocambo upstairs for me!

So I get to the El Mocambo and meet the team of stage people and door girl. All of them were super nice and super funny. So I mean, it wasn't as mundane as it could have been. Everyone was coming for downstairs show, and a lot of people didn't realize that the El Mocambo Upstairs and the El Mocambo Downstairs were two different venues. Anyway at one point during the night two members of the Zoobombs showed up! They fully remembered me and were all "hey how goes" and I was all "oh hey" and uhm yeah. They then left a few seconds later because all the bands that night sort of were bad (except one).

So after a long day of handling money and seeing crazy-ass-intimidating hardcore looking people, I collect my belongings and head downstairs to wait for my ride. As I'm waiting I'm all "well I may as well check out some of the Melissa Auf der Maur merch" because she was playing there that night. Anyway, I'm at the merch table and just sort of looking around, when my eye catches this maine of curly red hair. The curly red haired woman turns around and it's FUCKING MELISSA AUF DER MAUR!!!! At first I didn't know if it was her so I was like "Oh my god-HI" and then she was like "oh my god HEY" in like a mimicky tone. Anyway I said something like "how are you" and then she was like "I'm good, how are you 'Matthew Tobin'?" (my name was on my badge and she fully touched it with her hand and read it). Anyway I asked how her set was and was sorry I missed it because I was upstairs and that I loved her website then she leans in to talk into my ear and says "have you seen the film? We have a film, but you'll see it soon in another format" she then leans away and goes "here take one of these" and hands me a promotional postcard for the film. I said thank you very much and then some guy comes up who knew her I guess was all "Hey Melissa" and she was all "oh heyyy!" and so I like, walked away to the front of the club. She was all smiles and stuff while she was talking to me and I was fully starstruck the rest of the night.

ANYWAY, van guy finally shows up and we make our way back to the Hyatt. As all the float team people are sitting in the hallway waiting to cash out, the Oshawa girl comes back and instantly starts complaining about waiting and all this shit was just super unecessary.

So I cash out and that's all fine, then I meet my rents in the parking lot upstairs and don't get home until 4:30am. But that's okay because I MET MELISSA AUF DER MAUR!!!!!

NXNE: Day 1

2009-06-25T05:29:19Z

Okay, so this year I volunteered to be an active participant for NXNE. I applied online and was able to do it. I'mma do a runthrough of what went down.

So the first day, er night rather, I get to the Hyatt Regency on King. So that's cool and all. I pick up my free badge and t-shirt and then await for where they would place me. I signed up to be a member of their "float team", which means I would basically be doing either door, cash, or stage-hand stuff to fill in for people who didn't show, or for venues who needed more hands.

So this first night I was placed at The Silver Dollar. Which is a pretty shitty venue because it's tiny. And smells like butt. Anyway I get there and the door person and security guard were super nice and funny. The security guy bought us french fries at the end of the night! Anyway, the stage people were kind of annoying. There were two girls and this one guy, and they were idk, just kind of flakey I suppose. Anyway most of the bands were like shitty, thrash, metal, hardcore bands. Which was super annoying, because I had to spend all night listening to that. One of the bands, Zoobombs, were alright. They were also super nice and I helped them load their gear into a taxi at the end of the night.

So I was pretty bored all night, because I basically had to sit on a stool and charge people $15 to get in, and then give them their change.
Sometime towards the end of the night, Diego, one of the NXNE volunteer leaders showed up and told me one of the stage hand people had been cought by an official NXNE corporate guy drinking a beer! Drinking is sort of a big no-no on the job. He told me to keep an eye out for anymore drinking. I never saw him drink anything because he was in the venue and I was at the entrance. Stationed. At the entrance. For hours.

So at the end of the night Dan, a promoter, had asked me something about a cheque for some band. I'm not sure how the conversation went because he smelt of booze and drugs, so I figured he'd just forget. ANYWAY, at the end of the night he asked about this cheque and I told him I only had two cheques for these two bands and he went FUCKING BALISTIC. He fucking yelled SO loudly and was cursing his head off. I walked away and gave him the finger.

Then it was finally time for me to get back to the Hyatt to cash out. When I got back, the woman who was counting my cash asked if I had run into problems with Dan. I said I had and she told me not to worry because he's like a ragin alcoholic who has a crack problem and used to do a lot of heroin and always has weird antics.

My mom had come to pick me up, and I was super tired when I got home. Luckily for me it was around 4am, so birds were chirping outside my window and I couldn't get to sleep. YAY!

it's raining, it's pouring, I soon will be snoring

2009-06-09T05:22:48Z

Okay so I found out MTV doesn't start taping until the 15th.
Which is balls because I have NXNE stuff all that week.
I've just been so fucking anxious lately.

My annual first-week-of-June cold has just about passed (knock on wood) and Idk. I still feel broke. And stupid because school is kinda all being "wtf" to me. And the rents don't help because they're just all, down my neck about shit.

It's also lightning city in Ajax tonight! It's seriously monsoon season.

Just. Can a job just work out for me?

I had two interviews from advertising people that I found on monster.ca. Neither of them hired me. I'm loosing my fucking mind. I think this "recession" is just a load of crap and I should just move to Europe or something.

Anyway, I guess that's it for now. A change of scenery would be nice

mattgetsit @ 2009-06-05T21:22:00

2009-06-06T01:38:24Z

Here's the deal
It's how I feel:

Got up at 7 today. YES (not). In doing so I made my way to McMaster for 9:45. At 9:45 I pleaded with academic advisor (D.) to let me do a Communication Studies B.A. Honors degree on probation. She told me her boss was on the phone and alas would have to wait two hours to do so. She asked if she could leave a voicemail message on my voicemail; I told her that was fine. She then preceeded to tell me a B.A. Honors in English would be stupid, because my marks were too shitty. I then devoured a bagel and made my way home.

On said way home, my mom bought my father and I a birthday cake from Oakville. It looks decadent.

Then, upon arriving home, alas a blinking red light on my telephone. It is a message from D. D. tells me she will let me do a B.A. Honors in Communication studies! OH HAPPY MIRACULOUS DAY!

Fastforward to 3 o'clock. I had just finished remixing the song "Lisztomania" by Phoenix and had to go to a job interview in Whitby. In said job interview the interviewer told us group of interviewees that the position called for a door-to-door type who would work on salary and not commision. They were to get back to me tonight. They have not, so I don't care, because door-to-door would suck major asshole.

I am now staying in on Friday to choices I made Tuesday that apparently were not the right choices according to my parents.