Christian Rock Hard

I saw these dudes in a huge church downtown with a couple buddies in Grade Nine. I wondered what the hell they were doing performing in a church, then my friend explained to me they're a Christian Rock band. Crazy, my idea of Christian Rock back then was using "Jesus" every two words in a song.

There's a lot of pretty good Christian Rock bands actually, some might surprise you that that's what they identify themselves as.

Anyways, we saw these dudes in a church after suffering through a good hour of prayers and all that jazz (that may have also been the last time I voluntarily stepped into a church too) and after sitting through some shitty opening bands (yes Christian Rock also has the all too familiar crappy opening bands) we finally got to see the trio known as Thousand Foot Krutch, who were actually pretty awesome.



We even got to meet the band after the show. They were some pretty chill, cool guys.

A few years later when they released their album "The Art of Breaking", I heard their song "Move" on WEDG (The Edge in Buffalo), pretty big deal.

Then they had their song "Fire It Up" featured in NHL 10.

In other words, these guys got pretty popular and for good reason, always good to see a good Canadian band make a name for themselves.

So you might be thinking this is just to toot my horn for "knowing them before they got popular", (never understood that either, shouldn't you be happy if one of your favorite bands becomes more successful?) but I guess I'm just reiterating that tired old saying:

Don't judge a book by its cover.

I've been guilty of that countless times whether it's people, music, or whatever but I can honestly say I'm trying to work on that.

I guess the first reaction for most people when they hear "Christian Rock" is bible thumping conservative music but that's not really the case.

I'm not a religious person at all, despite being raised in a religious family but I can honestly say Christian Rock is pretty dope.

Although the episode of South Park with "Faith +1" is pretty dope too.



/useless post

Dub Pistols - Back to Daylight

Yup.

Shenanigans!

So a few weeks ago I attended the Pickering Ribfest. I didn't actually get any ribs because they were about 25 bones a rack and I'm really cheap/broke.

Instead me and a buddy dropped 6 bucks each on these giant steel mugs of root beer.



I've never had so much pop in one sitting in my life but it was definitely worth it.



Anyways, sometime during our stay, we passed by this booth selling energy drinks where people were filling out little sheets of paper and putting them into a box.

The girl told us that they were running some contest where you can win iPods, boats, vacations, typical contest prizes.

We both entered and left after she tried to sell us some random energy drink I had never heard of. I told her "we'll come back when we're thirsty". Then proceeded to avoid that booth every time we passed by it.

Flash forward two weeks later and I get a call from some long ass number. We have caller ID so I don't pick up the phone when I see a number that's longer than your regular 9 digits because it's always some dude asking if I want to subscribe to the Toronto Star, if I need windows, etc. (What the fuck happened to that National Do-Not-Call list anyway?)

This number has been calling for a good week now and I ignore it, but my mom picks up. She hands me the phone mentioning something about the ribfest and I take the phone.

Lady on the line named Barbie (who the fuck names their kid after a doll?) tells me I've won some vacation to Florida.

I've won quite a few things in the past that were actually legit so I figure I'll hear her out since I actually remember entering this thing.

She goes over the details of the trip, blah blah blah, then at the end of this 10 minute long explanation she nonchalantly mentions a promotional fee of 480 something bucks and moves on to her next point.

You sly little bitch.

"Sorry, you said there's a promotional fee?"

"Of course!"

"Uhh..."

"It's a $5000 dollar trip!"

"Uhh...not interested..."

"Are you sure? If you don't claim it now I'll have to give this amazing opportunity to the next person on the list!"

"Sorry."

*more details on trip* (At this point I stopped listening)

At this point I could have called her some really mean names like I wanted to but I didn't and just hung up the phone.

What a fucking scam, and what's sad is some people actually fall for this and end up with nothing but a lighter wallet.

Now if you'll excuse me, a Nigerian prince is offering me $800 000 if I just give him my credit card number and lend him $20 000.

What a sucker this guy is...

UPDATE:

Why I hate the Portly Piper.

Anyone living in this town knows exactly how fucking boring it is. The title for most exciting thing is an epic battle between the Wal-Mart and the Cineplex (If I'm wrong, please let me know...PLEASE).

It's pretty well known that if you want to something that's mildly entertaining (sorry Tim Horton's parking lot), that you have to go elsewhere to do it.

I guess if you're a "fun" or "interesting person", your weekends consist of heading to some club downtown and "partying like a rockstar" (or insert non-out of date popular dance/hip-hop song), or going the other way, east to slightly classier bars that have some type of dance floor to blow your entire paycheque on 4-5 overpriced alcoholic beverages.

I can't dance, I'm broke and my nicest outfit is a pair of ripped jeans (they didn't come that way either), and a hoodie with some team on it.

So yeah, that option doesn't apply to me.

My weekends usually consist of sitting in a friend's basement while we collectively vow to "do something". We usually end up doing just that, but "something" is almost always "watching TV" or "playing Madden".

It looks a lot like this:



If you live in this town, and aren't away for school, and these two situations aren't a regular occurrence to you I'll tell you what is. You're a regular at this place:



Ahh...the good old Portly right? Where you're guaranteed to see someone you know.

That's part of why I hate going to this place.

Don't get me wrong, I don't really hate anyone and it is really nice catching up with people you haven't seen since elementary school/high school/that old job.

But once you start going every week, the nostalgia wears off.

"I haven't seen you since (insert one of the options above here)" turns into "I haven't seen you since...last week."

I'm not an interesting person, I'm actually pretty boring so all I really have when I haven't seen someone in a while are stuff along the lines of "What have you been up to? What school are you at? What program are you taking?"

It's a great conversation the first time, but when I see the same person the very next week, I'm out of ammunition. I really have nothing to say to you.

"What have you been up to?" is answered with "The same thing I was doing last week when you asked me".

Another reason I hate the Portly, and really pubs/bars/clubs in general is how expensive alcohol is. I don't like spending money on a beer that I could have got 6 of with the same price at the LCBO.

Next reason also applies to all places that serve alcohol. Shitty bands. I've been to maybe two bars in my life that had a half decent band. I'd rather have the ability to hear my friends and have my friends hear me than your butchered version of "Mr. Jones".

My final reason is something that happens on at least one Saturday of every month.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship.

I actually like the UFC, it doesn't hold a candle to boxing in my mind, but it's still pretty entertaining.

What I DON'T like about the UFC are the douchebags.

These guys:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I would rather spend 70 bucks to order the PPV at home and watch it myself then watch it in a packed bar listening to assholes in Affliction tees screaming at every TV to "kill that nigger".

I've heard worse, trust me.

So the next time you see me there, I had no say in the matter, and I most definitely will not be there for a while after that.

Count Your Blessings

Smarties box

Very true.



Hmm...

/useless post