I have not posted a new blog in a long time. Maybe I should change that... but who knows.

Wow, was it really July since I last posted... show's how much time i've spent sitting bored in front of the computer.
Four months, how things can change. Some things have gotten better, others worse, haha these things in general never change really.

HOWEVER

I DO believe in something. And it's deceptivly simple, we overlook it far too much. Our forefathers wrote that first and formost we have a right to life, the only threat to that being death, which i'm cool with. Liberty, an idea i can't really grasp yet, gimmie another 4 months perhaps.. and now the kicker... the Pursuit of Happiness. Ahh, now there is the one I really believe in. The Right to pursue that which will make us happy. I believe (there it is, belief) that everyone should be able to find what makes them happy. And provided it doesn't do ill unto others, they should be able to pursue it full heartedly.

I'm bored clean off my rocker. Lately i've been teaching lessons at a (semi) Local music store. It's a rather nice environment, and I have slowly been building a nice clientel of students. but sometimes I have monotanously long breaks and no where to go.
Teaching has been fine. But Musicially I feel very frustrated. Minus writing half a piano piece I just have no motivation. Actually life in general has (for the most part) just been tiring lately.
I think a lot of what has me run down is that i'm a very jaded person. Because of this, it's dawning on me, that I really don't believe in much. I have faith in just about nothing. This is actually a problem. I think faith is important. Not even religious faith nessisarily, but that is certainly one kind.
I feel like i don't truely believe in anything anymore. How horridly depressing is that? What's worse, is I really have no clue what to do about it. I could try just blindly putting my all into something. But chances are it would feel fake, and that would be worse than maybe where I am now. Just pretending that is.. that everything is hunky dory. But what do you do.

Danny

So I had my first dissapointing (and in my opinion kinda sad) experience on this trip yesterday. We visited the "Cave of the Winds" here in Colorado. First the tour was dull, as our group was guided by teenagers who really didn't know anything more than the absolute basics about caves. And relyed more on stupid jokes than on information. This I expect at a tourist attraction. What I didn't expect was what had been done to this cave over the years. Since being made a tourist attaction the cave has been near to completly killed (in that no formations inside are growing. Be it from having a staircase built in one chamber, to putting words on this wall. At one point someone on the tour asked if a certain formation was still growing, the guide said "ohh, no, minus the one we showed you, everything in here is dead. The blasting and digging that was done killed all the moisture, and any that could build up again and bring some of this back to life is absorbed by the skin of tourists.

Basically, this natural wonder, has been blown up, bastardized, and destroyed, all with the end result to make sure they can jam more people down, and make more money. As a bit of a naturalist, I can't help but feel revulsion at the whole place. If you are ever in Colorado. Visit Pikes Peak, it's absolutely breathtaking (both figuritivly, and litterally, at 15,000 or so feet above sea level, breathing is really freakin hard) and Visit Garden of the Gods, it's free! thanks to a generous owner at one point in it's history, and really beautilful. But if you think about seeing the Cave of the Winds, don't waste your time, all you'd get is a tour of a grave site.

Danny

Well, this is how it is. Life is either A) too cheerful to blog or B) too depressing to blog... and honestly, lately it's been B far more than A, but i guess this is life. We are currently on day 4 of our family vacation. We are way up in the hills in Colorado. The campground is nice enough, but really in the middle of god forsaken nowhere. The trip has been fun, and the days have been going by very very slowly. So far my favorite bit was most likely the Asia art exhibit I drug the family too back in kansas city (which is not in Kansas). In fact, I think they made kansas city not be in kansas, because there is NOTHING in kansas. Apperently it's a state so devoid of life, that even wal-mart didn't bother to try and take it over. I've gotten lots of great photos, but most will likely not be up till I get back (around the 30th). I'm hoping to wait and dump them all to my own computer. I have two gigs of memory, we'll see if it lasts.
I may update more on the trip. But maybe not. We'll see.
Dan

So, The Ravishing, my new band... see below post for show info... has finally found a drummer. After a 6 hour writing session friday night. Aaron and I met with a potential drummer and in 3 hours this morning churned out 9 solid tunes.. more than enough for our show. The music is new, it's tight, and fun as hell. I'll keep you updated as the band developes and we start playing more shows.

Danny