Good God I ate a lot over the last few days, and I’m still eating left-overs. I hope everyone had a really great Thanksgiving. Mine was fantastic. I must say I probably ate about 10 plates of food over the last 3 days and I actually feel bigger. No worry however, because this gives me the perfect excuse to finally get off my ass and exercise a little.

So today I’m pretty excited. Why, you ask? Is it the fact that I have a CyberEthics final tomorrow that I’m not quite prepared for? maybe… but I’d bet all of my chips that I’m excited because Jayme is coming home today to spend a day here before she heads back home to Florida for winter break. I guess I forgot to mention that earlier. She’s an art student here at the Savannah College of Art & Design (majoring in Graphic Design w00t) and their semesters end much earlier than ours. Kind of strange how it works really… I meet quite possibly the most amazing girl I’ve ever been lucky enough to find, and a week later she has to leave for over a month. She went up north for Thanksgiving, and even going 5 days without seeing her seemed like an eternity. However, I look at it as a good thing… it’s not so much missing her as really really wanting to see her again as soon as possible.

I mentioned a while back that I get paid to take online surveys when I’m bored. I’m sure you’ve seen some kind of advertisements that go something along the lines of “Get Paid to Try Products!” or “Which is better Coke or Pepsi?” type deals, but it’s true. I will reiterate that there is a lot of crap out there that doesn’t actually pay you and instead spams the hell out of you, but with a little guidance and once you learn the ropes and know what you’re doing, you actually can make money doing this. Depending on how much time and effort you put into it, you can make anywhere from $50-$500 a month. I myself probably do surveys on average 5 hours a week (usually when I’m bored at home or work) and I probably pull in around $200 a month. It’s essentially free money and I think every one of us could use a little extra cash. Well friends and family have been asking me exactly where to start for doing this, and I’ve decided to throw together a page where people can find all the information they need to get started. I’ll try and have it up in the next couple of days. Basically, I will be showing you the ropes of how online survey panels work. What to look for and what to trash. They all generally work the same and if you know what you’re doing, you can pick out the surveys that pay cash and know exactly how to keep them coming. I probably get on average around $40 a day of survey offers. Depending on whether or not I’m checking my email enough, if I have time to do them, or if I meet the screener criteria, I can generally pull $10 - $15 a day taking surveys (which is usually 30 minutes to an hour worth of work). Anyways, I’m not trying to sell you all on this or anything, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say there wasn’t a little something in it for me, basically I’m going to link you to these panels with my referal id, which I get a little incentive for those who sign up and the subseq quent surveys they take. However, I’m really making this easy on all of you by weeding out all of the crap survey sites, and only pointing you to the legitimate survey panels (with basic explanations of how they operate). All I ask is for you to use my referal links in signing up. Another thing that I highly reccomend is that you create a separate email account for your survey-taking purposes. I highly reccomend using Gmail because of it’s awesome sorting/searching functions. If anyone needs a gmail account, feel free to let me know, and I’ll send you an invitation. Enough of that however, I’ll let you all know when I get the page up (there will probably be a link on the right side).

So Christmas break is right around the corner. It’s going to be a long cold winter for me with Jayme gone, but fortunately I’m going to have a lot going on this December. I previously mentioned that we were looking into some rehearsal space. Well we found it, and we got it! Our space is in a section of an old meat packing plant. I’m telling you the place gives me the…

- - - upate - - -

So yeah, in the middle of writing this post she calls. She was in town with her mom and grandmother and her grandmother just decided she wants to go ahead and drive back to Florida now… so my mood just completely fucking flipped around. I wish I could have seen her for just five minutes. God dammit. Oh well, I guess I can try and look at the bright side of things, the fact that I’m this bummed out about not seeing her for only a short time must mean there’s something really special going on here. …January 9th isn’t that far away is it? And with that I’m closing this post before I get some sort of phone call saying I’ve been dead for the last two weeks and this is all just a dream or something…

Until next time,

“There’s oceans in between us, but that’s not very far.” - Puddle of Mud : Blurry

<</J.\W/>>

That’s right. I actually did something constructive on my first day off!

Jeff Wichman - Blurry (cover)

The idea for this cover kinda came to me on one of those restless nights. I’ve been playing it live for a few weeks now and figured I’d go ahead and record it. Feel free to let me know what you think. Time for me to get out of the house.

I hope everyone has an excellent Thanksgiving… mmm gravy and stuffing *drools*

Until next time,

“All that I am, all that I ever was, is here in your perfect eyes. They’re all i can see.”
- Snow Patrol : Chasing Cars

<</J.\W/>>

It’s like a lucid dream. One of those great ones where where everything is so real and amazing- and you’re just waiting to wake up and face reality. I’m still deep asleep.

I’ve got two more days of classes and then it’s time for Fall Break woohoo! I hesitate to say break because my professors happen to see Thanksgiving break as “work your ass off and eat some turkey when you get a second… break”.

I’m going to talk to the guy today about our rehearsal space. I’ve already seen it and I like it alot. Beyond the rats that you see running across pipes and what have you, the place is perfect (although a little spooky). It’s cool though, because there’s also a few other artists in there as well. Anyways, I’ve got to finish this art project that’s due in… 2 hours.

Until next time,

“There goes the fear again.” - The Doves : There Goes the Fear

<</J.\W/>>

The best way I can describe it is that I’m head over heals right now. I can’t even begin to describe how awesome she is, and we’ve just met. I’m almost afraid to believe I actually feel this way… that giggly, fuzzy feeling that will make you smile out of nowhere at the very thought of someone. My mind is telling me to procede with caution, but every bone in my body wants me to throw everything down and call her just to talk about everything and nothing. We just met, yet I know that there is even more to it; beyond her gorgeous allurement and our similarities. I’ve never been so amazed at every aspect (as early as it is) about her. Remain calm. This is too good to be true.

Until next time,

“It’s always the fallen ones I think are always going to save me.” - Third Eye Blind : Faster

<</J.\W/>>

So, what do you think of the new design? Took me a while to tweak it. I guess after being out of the web-design loop for a few years, I fell back behind everyone else. This was the first time I’ve really had to mess with a dynamic design (css, etc).

Anyways, the image above was drawn by a friend of mine. She is one of the most amazing artists I’ve ever met (in both her writing, and her drawing). I highly reccomend visiting her deviant art site : Burn Your Oleander and browsing her gallery. The girl never ceases to amaze me. The logo was then painted and manipulated into a badass form by my friend Danny over at Waking Ideas. I wish I had his Photoshop skills.

I’ve been busy as hell lately. It’s the last stretch in this semester so naturally things get hectic with school. I’m definately looking forward to a break soon. I’m going to try and get a new song recorded over Thanksgiving break. That’s about all I’ve got right now.
Until next time,

“There goes the world off of my shoulders.” - Lifehouse : Quasimodo

<</J.\W/>>

Not sure how I missed this in Fight Club, but my friend Danny from Waking Ideas reiterated it to me today.

“I see in [us] the strongest and smartest men [and women] who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see us squandering it. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.” - Fight Club

I’m working on installing a good RSS plugin for this site so hopefully soon those of you with RSS clients will be able to add me

Until next time,

“I walked the world for her, she couldn’t walk me a mile.”
- Greenwheel : I Don’t Believe

<</J.\W/>>

Sorry about the last couple of days (if you noticed the old design re-appear), somehow a backup got thrown on my server or something and my old index was up…

So we (Aaron, Cail, Chris, and I) played downtown last night. This is pretty much the group of guys I’ve been working with over the last few weeks at putting something solid together, and I gotta tell you, it’s looking really promising. We got some really good response from the place we played, but better than that, was the fact it was the first time we’d all actually performed as a group (always someone missing due to work schedules, being sick, etc) and even though we barely had time to practice, we pulled it off. On top of that, we had amazing energy… and like I said, this was just a little thrown together at the last minute ordeal. We’ve been practicing but it’s always just me and Cail or me and Aaron, so I was extremely pleased with the chemistry. It’s the energy that a well-working group creates that allows that group to really perform at their best. I felt like I sang better than I normally do, I actually had stage presence without forcing it… and people were responding.

After we played, we ended up hanging out at the place for a while, and I ended up having quite a few drinks, met some slammin hotties, and all-in-all had a kickass late night.Which made my morning art appreciation class absolute hell. Sitting there in a state of being that I can only describe as a delightful blend of nausea, splitting headache, and drowsiness, I thought I was going to die. On top of that I had to work this afternoon (I work on campus for what’s basically the University’s IT department). When I got to work, I realized if I didn’t have a CocaCola immediately, I was surely doomed. I checked my wallet for cash, but apparently I had spent it all on various concoctions of liquor and … liquor. So I run out to my car to scrounge for change. Ten minutes later I had amassed a fortune of one dollar and five cents. So I went inside to the nearest coke machine and started slammin the coins in as fast as possible. I hit the button and nothing happened… I hit it again… nothing. “No biggie” I think to myself… I’ll just take my coins to another machine. Of course, the change dispenser button had the same effect as my “Please God give me a Coke” button… nothing. I leaned down to see what the deal was with the change tray, and a little piece of paper (most likley purposely) had gotten jammed up in there. So like a desperate ho-bum, I reach my hand up there and start fumbling around to try and get my change back.

It was like winning a slot machine (I can only assume because I never win those sonsabitches), quarters starting pouring out. It was at that moment that I realized I was having a good day, but I digress.

Another reason we haven’t been able to practice as much is that we don’t really have a place. Most of us live in communities or apartments that aren’t very keen to loud music late at night (about the only time all of us are actually available). Well… as I was sitting there with my ice cold Coca-Cola, I had a conversation with someone who is in another band. It’s not official yet, but it looks like I’ve finally found a place for us to practice. It’s perfect: industrial (but still within distance) area, play as loud as you want-kinda place. Hopefully we’re going to be able to split the bill with the band that it currently renting it out and set up there.

Point being, it’s finally happening. A serious attempt, and I’ve never been so excited in my life… to top it all off… we’re good. Hopefully you’ll be able to hear for yourself soon.

“We are the possibilities
As endless as our imagination” - Sister Hazel : One Love

Okay so I’ve been a little busy lately, I’ll explain later, there is a more important issue at hand.

My friend Derrick McKee is being considered for “Unsigned Artist of the Month” over at Alternative Addiction (one of my favorite music-news sites by the way). He is up against a few other artists. The way they determine the artist of the month is via a vote. You can vote once a day. Derrick is a very talented musician and I’ve been a fan of his songs for quite some time now. Help support Derrick by bookmarking the following page and voting for him every day! Check out his song “Lift me Up Again” while you vote. He is the first artist on the list.

http://www.alternativeaddiction.com/unknownbands/nextbigthing/

You can check out more of Derrick’s music at his website and at MySpace.

“Some crazy conception in the back of my mind
Kept shouting and screaming to see light
Pushed it way down deep and tried a little too hard
To keep the damn thing locked up inside” - Derrick McKee

Until next time,

~Jeff

So yeah, I’ve installed WordPress. It’s awesome. I’m currently adding to my database every blog I’ve ever written (including shit from cousin-kevin.com/rant and everythingwhatsoever.com). I should have everything live in a few days.

“Open up the windows, let your skin burn. It makes you feel alive.” - Kevin Cadogan

~Jeff

Never really noticed this, but I’ve always been a little worried about my vision and its relationship with my frequent staring at computer monitors. I’m 20/20 and I still like to keep the option open for my lifelong dream of being a fighter pilot in the Air Force.

Anyways tonight: