PLAY CATCH UP: I've been in Albuquerque for some time now, and it's had its ups and downs. School is decent. It's soooooo expensive, but the quilty of work and education is top notch. I had a break in at my casa--i don't want to talk about it, but i'll have you know that we are getting bars on the windows. I'm still single, which according to Disney sucks. Speaking of Diseny i've ordered two books about Michael Esiner, and all the negative shits that went down in the Disney camp over the past 10 or so years. On top of that I've been reading loads of serial killer books. I read mostly at work. I just got a job at RELAY NEW MEXICO where I act as a middleman between the deaf and .... people who are not deaf or ..... it gets complicated so i'll leave it at that. The job is amazing. I sit, and assist the deaf. As you can imagine it's interesting.

Let's talk about Warped Tour. It's a question some are already asking me, and, no, i'm not going on warped tour with Fueled By Ramen. FBR and I talked about the tour a month ago. They weighed their options, and deiceded to do a a Versa Emerge/FBR tent, and have their merch guy do it. This makes sense for FBR because this year is not a typical WT year. It's more punk and screamo than it is poppy bands as well as less stages. The investment didn't weigh up to forseen return. This is no problem for me; however, it will be weird not doing the tour for them after doing it for four years--each year they've been on it with their own tent.

I will be on VWT 09 one way or another. It's just a matter of time before I figure out who i'm going with.

I'm in the midst of finishing up my second successful semster at animation school. My semester actually ends on the 8th, and to be honest it can't come any sooner. I'm going to be there for two or three more semesters. Probably no longer than that because it's just too expensive to keep going, and waiting for the classes that arn't going to teach me FLASH.

I've been watching tons of LOST, DEXTER, X FILES, EXO SQUAD, HE-MAN, and SLACKER CATS.

Who plays StarCraft?

PS I want to marry Irene Montero.

My best friend, Jason, came to the Garage that night for the mustache party. We hung and talked about everything that was on his mind. He misses me a lot. Actually, he misses having friends around. All of us, meaning his friends,  have moved away from him. This is rough, and a fact about growing up. I wish I could be there for him. We talked about a lot of things of interest. Most importantly his upcoming wedding, which I'm extremely excited for, and my life changes.

Since tour has started I've contemplated not going to animation school and continueing to tour. I'm good at what I do, I can boldly say that I'm the best, but no one can determine that. This job makes me happy, I'm paid well, and there is always money in touring. What kept me back before was school and potentially my exgf, which at one point I didn't want to leave to wait for me to come back. Without both, I should grab the road and go. Yeah? Or No? I think I'd get burned out on it; however, warped last year and this year have been great, which means I'm indifferent about it ending.  

Hangs with the Bronx have been getting better and better. I was scared coming into this that I would end up not liking or even hating them as people. It's turned out the opposite--they are the coolest guys ever. I mean ever. I don't mean to nerd out, but it's like a dream hanging out with one of the nicest, most rocking bands ever.   

To my surprise, a few people were really into it, and actually wanted to volunteer. Now, don't get me wrong, I do have connections. I like to consider myself hooked-up (whatever that means); however, how the fuck could I get GWAR? They are expensive and you can't have just any stage for them. It has to be special. They need power and water hoses. What I'm trying to say is that if you saw my flyer, and believed it was happening you're an idiot. On the other hand, thank you for believing in me.

As the day went on in Orlando, production called me. They wanted to talk about this stage. I saw scared about it. When I got there I explained that it's a joke and they were like, "okay, cool." Some thought it was funny, others did not. Hopefully Kevin will steal my party stage idea and bring it to life.

The fourth of July was legendary. We had the day off in Austin, TX, where the Bronx had a joint show at Emo's with the Pink Spiders, and ANDREW W.K! Long story short, the Bronx were amazing with both their punk, and mariachi sets. For ANDREW, I whipped out the mankini and wrestler mask again. He was like, "Hey, you're from new york!" I was like, "Andrew, you are my favorite singer!" It was too amazing. I lost it. The next day's show was shitty, but good. Texas is the man.

There's a member of Against Me who gives me funny looks. I'm not sure which one he is. He's not the drummer or the bass player. He is a smaller, heavy set guy with a small beard. He seems nice, and his band is really awesome. You see, working for Fueled By Ramen means you hang out with a lot of kids, which can be frowned upon when you're on a tour with bands that are punk-as-fuck. I mean, AM is not that punk-as-fuck, but they come from that old school crew of punks that think what I do is not punk, when being punk means not giving a shit and doing what you want, which is what I do. Whatever: So he sees me wearing like nothing with young kids around, and he gives me these looks as if I was Michael Jackson or someone who's a sexual predator. In Orlando I was promoting outside my tent and he walked by. I didn't mean to try to promote/yell at him--I thought he was a patron, but I did and he just shook his head negatively. It is a bum out a little, but you cannot please them all. In the words of Bob Wiley, "people are like phone booths, sometimes they are just out of order. All you can do is keep trying."

We had a day off in New Orleans. I have not been there since 2003 when I won 60 dollars in nickels with Ryan's (Ernie Ball) money. You could see water damage and such. It was kind of startling. Whatever: We woke up to find a Mexican taco truck right outside the bus. My Torta was amazing. I finally had Mexican Coca-Cola in a bottle--it's sweeter than any kiss I've ever had with a woman.  We showered and rolled into NOLA. We took a cab from where we were to where we thought a Bank Of America was. Apparently, BOA never moved back into their location after Katrina. We were then poised with staying in one of the shaddiest cities in the world with a backpack filled with $10,000. Scary, right? We decided to go after walking and eating instead of going to the Norma Jean show at the HOB there. We hung out by the bus, and watched the Bronx get really shit faced. On this night, the Bronx really accepted us in their home and in their lives. They seem to understand us as people and how we do our thing during the day. It's hard being a band that's not use to pushing themselves at kids and asking for a handout, and in all respects they still don't do that. They don't tell kids to jump or do things while they are playing, and they don't beg kids to buy their CDs like all the bands out here. They have a level of respect in themselves, which I appreciate; however, this tour, to most bands, is about hustling and making dough. It's a matter of numbers. If you don't sell a grand a day in merch, and you have a bus, you're not breaking even. They call us the "queens" I guess because Chad and I come off as gay dudes to make money. At first they thought it was weird, and they probably still do, but they see how it works. We entertain people and they dig it. Whatever: I love that band too much.

The day off in Alabama kind of sucked. There was nothing to do and I ate two times at Taco Bell. Since then my shit has been pretty liquidy.

On our day off in New Mexico I bought Mario Kart for Wii and three wheels for it. We've unlocked just about every course, car, and character. I've been trying to get more people on the bus to play it with me. That's going okay. I just want to play games all the time and hang out. The Bronx played a bit, but video games are not their thing.

I wanted to grind on Jeffery Star at the Warped After Party in Denver. It would have been a riot.

Paramore were fantastic when they were here on the tour. Aaron their merch guy is a sweetheart I hope to talk to him soon.

Tour is almost half over and that's not cool.