Wonderful World O' Magic

NOTE THIS CONTENT IS TAKE FROM A BLOG THAT I WROTE CALLED THE WONDERFUL WORLD O’ MAGIC FROM FEBRUARY 2005 TO SEPTEMBER 2005 WHEN I FIRST LIVED IN PORTLAND, OREGON. IN ORDER TO PRESERVE IT I HAVE TAKEN ALL THE POSTS AND DISSEMINATED ON A VARIETY OF PLATFORMS INCLUDING A LIVING BLOG AND WELL AS IN A PDF FILE. IT IN WAS ORIGINALLY HOSTED ON CLIFFORDEIFFLER.COM AND PUBLISHED THROUGH BLOGGER.COM. SINCE THAT TIME I HAVE LET THE CLAIM ON THE DOMAIN CLIFFORDEIFFLER.COM LAPSE AND SOME OF THE MULTIMEDIA CONTENT INCLUDING PICTURES, MUSIC, AND VIDEOS HAS BEEN LOST TO THE ANNALS OF THE INTERNET. FOR THAT REASON SOME OF THE POSTS HAVE BEEN DELETED INCLUDING A FEATURE THAT I CALLED “THE THOUGHT OF THE DAY”. OTHERWISE EVERYTHING REMAINS INTACT.
-Clifford
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Looking for some help...
Hey so i've got some lyrics with no music.... any takers who can write the music for it. XC was alrighty, I think it's going to a lot easier than track. The kids are very cooperative and listen for the most part. Now it's about keeping the A group and B group always occupied.
posted by Clifford @ 11:35 PM
Monday, September 19, 2005
Why?
One hour is 60 minutes. 60 minutes is 3,600 seconds. 3,600 seconds is 360,000 milliseconds. I've spent that much time updating my blog on myspace. Why?????? It's like a darkness that is creeping inside of me. Little by little i've got to check myspace more frequently. Then i've got to update my blog. Check the friend requests. Update the bands I like because of this new band I found. It's taking over my life like i've seen it take over the rest of the population. Ughhhhhhhh... must go take two hour shower. Two hours is a 120 minute shower. 120 minutes is 7,200 seconds. 7,200 seconds is 720,000 milliseconds which I will spend by my self sobbing at the sorry state that i've put myself in.
posted by Clifford @ 12:57 PM
Friday, September 16, 2005
Lame wad
Well i've done it... i've joined myspace. The darkness that is spreading throughout the whole world has infected me... I joined it because I needed to. In organizing the now defunct "Rock for Relief" effort I found that for many bands the only way to contact was through the dreaded myspace. Umm so yeah i'm on there... i'll check when my life is really dragging and there is absolutely nothing for me to do.

Back in Portland. Yay! It's what I do and I got to say i love the city. Because I can walk down the street and I don't feel like I have answer to anyone. Now what this means psychologically, I don't know... but it's sweet. Maybe I have an inferiority complex, dunno, but Portland is where I love to be.

Writing more music. Actually Archie and I put a song together but when we saw the Jaymars last they had a very similar chord progression, so it's back to the drawing board with the music. As for the lyrics they are done. It's about lying. The name of the song is "Living the lie".

I'm obviously bummed out about the whole fact that the concert didn't get off it's feet but hey what can you do. I know... organize another! But this time i'm laying down some ground rules. First, no outside concert. Second, no SIP. Third, it won't be a benefit concert so i'll pick who I want. As good old Monty has said on occasion... "excellent".

Well my amigos, keep it real.
posted by Clifford @ 6:25 PM 0 comments
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Last time...
Sorry to get back on again and fill your mailboxes with crap but the URL i sent was wrong. Hopefully the one below is right. Once again to fill you in... we are looking for a sponsor for Rock for Relief. In order to raise some money to stage the concert at the capitol we're holding an auction to get that sponsor. We ran in to trouble initially because apparently you they are certain rules regarding non-profits and auctions and by flaunting our connection to the Red Cross without the proper documentation the auction, with bids already in place, was pulled. I have since gone back and revised the text and pictures in order to come into compliance. Once again if you can help in any way whether bidding or spreading the word about the auction and show, it would be greatly appreciated. As for the right link you can find that below.

Hopefully the right eBay link.

Thanks!

-Clifford

P.S. If you have trouble with the URL go ahead and do a search of eBay using the term, "sponsor rock for relief" and you should find it that way.

posted by Clifford @ 12:32 AM 0 comments
New eBay listing
Well we got pulled of ebay. Apparently with all the Red Cross stuff up we violated certain rules regarding non-profits, so they pulled us. So i went back and redid everything in order to bring us up to code per se. Thanks to those of you who did bid. Also spread the word, it will be great to get as may bids as possible so that we can put together this concert. The listing is below.

NEW EBAY LISTING FOR "ROCK FOR RELIEF"

Thanks and have a great night.

-Clifford
posted by Clifford @ 12:22 AM
Friday, July 29, 2005
Ok chumps
The phrase of the day is, " DIY Home Projector". That's what i'm after and that's what i'll get. The thing is the price quotes for such a project is a tidy 300 bucks aka one month of rent. Craaaap.

Some things I want to do before summer is over.

Melon party in the park. Buy a couple of watermelons and just have al ittle fiesta in the park with my friends. Simple enough.

Karaoke night. I was watching "Lost in Translation" and after that Karaoke scene I was inspired to sing, and sing badly. You know what... we could even have karaoke night at the same time as the melon party.

Going to Portland tomorrow. Yay

Saw DIG!... it was less than I expected, although Anton (lead singer of the Brian Jonestown Massacre) is one crazy mother trucker, hands down. "Spirited Away"... crazy... the japanese are crazy. But i liked it...
posted by Clifford @ 4:23 PM
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
An update my friends
I'll be coming up to Portland this weekend for Emily's cocktail party. Yay yay yay. It'll be good to be back in my apartment that I pay 300 bucks a month for. But good news, got a call from Pizzacato (the new place in the Ione) and I never submitted an application like the lady told me to, so they must be desperate. If I get a job in Portland, i'll finally be able to be there 24/7 studs and studdettes.

Salem has been eh... I didn't go to sleep last night so i'm running a bit ragged right now. There was supposed to be a cool concert with french rapping but it turned out to be a lame show in another Salem coffee shop/drink place that people just hang out in and act snooty. Seriously, when I walk into the places I just don't feel cool enough. Yet when i'm Portland which is probably 100 times worse I don't care... maybe it's just because it's more noticeable in Salem because of the rare instances that I encounter it rather than the normal daily life of P-town. Well that is all for now... ciao.

-Clifford
posted by Clifford @ 2:42 PM
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Not that anyone reads this anymore
Well i've decided to update. The thing is i've had a lack of access to a computer and internet on an alternating basis which of course means it's a bit harder to sit down and really emote about one thing or another. That and the s*** has hit the fan several times over the past week.

Rent troubles, I for see, job I continue to seek. I'm juggling between options right now, looking for the best opportunity/way to get paid the fastest. Yesterday I settled on selling satellites because I knew that if I could pull off a couple sales that maybe I could take care of rent and then concentrate on getting another job. I really was desperate but it appears there is another opportunity on the way in the form of interviewing migrant workers at 25 bucks a pop. It will involve travel and hotels but I just need a way to pay bills and maybe go to California. Although I already said no, I of course want to. Fact is i've never been south of the border and if I could have a chance to travel there with my best buds then what a trip it will be. Meanwhile i'm still here in Salem, slaving away in hopes of finding my client a job. I really want the best for him.

Well that is all for now as I have little library time left to spend gabbing but give me a call here to hang in old S-Town. I await your call
posted by Clifford @ 4:18 PM
Si i've been a little busy...
Well i'm pretty much work for Emily's dad Gregg nowadays which somewhat explains my missing tons of days from posting. You see my pops has a crappy computer that he wont give up for the life of him, plus my family has opted out of internet since he's not there often enough to justify paying 40 bucks a month for it. My mom's friend has a crappy computer but a broadband line is connected to it so i go there from time to time to check e-mail. Then i'm in Salem where nothing happens, where i live on a diet of VH1 and lays chips which is always is fun to read about. Well anyways those are my excuses and i'm sticking by them. but here's an idea

WALLBALL
WALLBALL
WALLBALL
8:30 pm
8:30 pm
8:30 pm
Portland State Community Field
Portland State Community Field
Portland State Community Field
Be There
Be There
Be There

For those of you who don't know where the community field is here's a refresher: It's behind the library and by the Stott Center.

Any questions, call 971-222-4918 or 503-715-3458
posted by Clifford @ 4:37 PM
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Here's the deal.
Well Salem nearly sucked the will out of me. I mean I love Salem and all but with no one being there it is a bit depressing. Spent a lot of my free time doing chores that I didn't want to to do and watching TV. Add that to the fact that I had to deal with my dad's crustacular computer which wouldn't even play Civ II, not to mention the fact that I couldn't log onto the internet because my parents now have given up on high speed internet. Dangyou can see how crappy it was. My sister's graduation was nice and a lot shorter that I remember mine being.

Anyways the reason for this post is for those who live in Portland.

Tonight being a mundane Wednesday we're trying to get a massive game of capture the flag going. So meet at 10pm, on community field at PSU by the Stott Center and behind the library. Now you may be thinking, "Ooooh no one will be there" and then decide not to go... but then you yourself are defeating the cause by not showing up. So just show up, I guarantee people will be there

It'll be loads of fun and I don't see any drawbacks for you just showing up ready to have some fun. Ciao peeps.
posted by Clifford @ 11:30 AM
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Let me just die now
I am a happy man today... my request got filled on Tinymixtapes.com. The concept is simple really. You send a request in for a mix tape and the subject can be on just about anything ie "I just broke up with my girlfriend and I need music to let me know it's going to be ok" or "I'm having a mid-life crisis and I want to just leave the country" and what they do is make a mix tape based on your situation. Sometimes the titles of the song relate sometimes is the it's the content of the song itself. Well anyways i've submitted about a hundred requests for just about everything until yesterday when my request got filled. You see one day my brain went into overdrive for about 4 seconds and I thought of this wonderful idea called, "Take a mix tape, leave a mix tape" based upon the 7-11 "take a penny, leave a penny" tray. Thing is you have this at a bunch of record shops around town and it would be a great way for people to listen to music for free, experience something new, and participate in something weird and exciting. So I asked tiny mix tapes to make a mix tape of what they thought should be on the first mix tape so that it would just completely floor whoever listened to it. And they responded!!!!!! Now i'm going to literally pee my pants while I make these tapes. Now begs the question what would you put as the inaugural mix? Well i'm going to put up one of the songs that they recommended. Elliot Smith's "Wouldn't mama be proud". Enjoy.

P.S. Going to Salem for the weekend to watch my sister graduamanate from da' HIGH skool.
posted by Clifford @ 11:19 AM
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Shazam
I have posted in a while and i'm sure due. I bought a Super 8mm camera the other day during my quest to find myself a hammock (which is a whole other story). But this new (in ownership terms) camera may become the thing that spurns the realization of my dream to become a filmmaker. Thing is i've run through millions of ideas for things (never writing them down of course) but what's held me back is the fact that i've never owned a camera. It's just something our family never got into (we had one when I was younger but it broke... hopefully it wasn't me) so whenever I would go over to friends house and get to mess around with the camera it was a treat. But now it my time to shine. Coincidently I had talked to Dana (Emily's older sister) and she has experience in writing grants and she said movie ones are really easy to write. Especially for equipment. Which is a bonus as the film I plan to use (Kodachrome, which is btw going out of style according to Kodak) costs a pretty penny. I the end my real goals for the whole filmmaking thing is the hope that with a camera I can travel around for as free as possible, through grants or people I meet (I don't know how this end of the plan works out other than in the tiny perfect world inside my head).

Still looking for a hammock and I think i'm going to make it myself. I went around Hawthorne and Belmont and I could never find anything cheaper than 60 bucks. A lot of the import shops kept trying to hawk me a variety of natural made ones that would cost more than 100 bucks... so question is how does one go about making a hammock? I don't know.

posted by Clifford @ 5:09 PM
Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Hey hey. I may not have brought my camera to Sasquatch but someone else sure did. Here is one of I hope many (this one website said they had 700 pics from Saturday and were going to post them soon). I added handy dandy arrows to help you with the action.
posted by Clifford @ 9:58 PM 0 comments
Monday, May 30, 2005
Longest two weeks of your life.
Well it's happened. I hit the blogging wall of no return. It's been a whole two weeks since i've updated in which stuff has actually happened to me and yet it's taken that long for me to finally update.

Let's start with the coolest news. Sasquatch Music Festival 2005. A-W-E-S-O-M-E. There are really no other words to describe it... well actually there are many but my mind has been blown and I want more just like your favorite drug of choice. First of all I ended up paying only 25 bucks for a 65 dollar ticket as I sold the extra one I had. Thing is I bought them from ebay in a dutch auction which as I understand it is when you bid on one of many of the same items. Such as one out of two tickets to Saquatch. But maybe I was bidding on lots of two tickets or somethign because when I opened the envelope i had two tickets. So i sold the other one for 30 bucks (I didn't care about the money). Pretty great as I almost didn't go because of the extrodainary price of the ticket. Getting there was torture, only a 6 hour drive to the middle of bumpuck Washigton. But nonetheless a very beautiful scenic area to have a concert. what I can't udnerstand is paying 35 bucks to see a Jack Johnson cocnert there. But people do. But overall this was something i'd never regret.In fact let's run the gamut of how cool everyone was.

Bloc Party - They were the reason we got up at 6 am to start the 6 hour trek to the Gorge Amphitheater. But alas we missed most of their set. But it was ok as from what i saw they were really tight and just knew their stuff. Plus i did get to hear "Modern Love" which is my favorite track off the album.

The Dears - These guys are from Canada, and they put on the best rock best show of the day. Now that may sound crazy but i was pulled in by the music and for my reward i got to bask in the warm sounds of this band. The things they did, the backup vocals, everything just clicked.

AC Newman - The lead singer from the New Pornographers side project. Pretty lame... don't want to talk about him. Also crappy banter... and may be bitter and thought saying "F*** the mainstage" was funny, well there is a reason you're not on there...

Arcade Fire - Talk about movers and shakers. It may have been 95 degrees out there but in their button down shirts and ties they went mad crazy. I wasn't up next to the stage for this one but man they did a great job.

Wilco - The Masters. I was excited to see them because they are just so goooood. Pick up any album and instantly you just get transported in the lyrical world of Jeff Tweedy. Add the music and it's a real exercise in exploring your musical boundaries. Now imagine that live. Best song by far was their rendition of "At least that's what you said". The buildup was so tense, awaiting the guitar to kick in... man. And the chemistry that they demonstrated was outstanding. They all seemed happy to be there, rocking out, making sonic perfection which made watching them all the more enjoyable. But surprisingly this wasn't the best performance of the day... that came a little later. But this easily was up there at the top.

Kayne West - I don't know what took so long for him to get set up and start. It's just a DJ and him so there couldn't be much difficulty compound that to the fact that Nathan and I had decided (prior to Wilco's performance) to stand in the pit right in front of the main stage for about eight and half hours (Wilco, Kanye, Modest Mouse, and the Pixies, which would bring us to the end of the festival) so the longer we were without music to entertain us the more agitated we got. Then bam in our face Kanye throws out the best performance of the day. This from a rapper who was at an alternative festival. Thing is we were right up front (2 1/2 people deep) so we got the best of Kayne. The gestures, the eye contact, the energy he put into his performance. I have his albums, I know a few of his songs, but it didn't matter how little I knew his charisma and huge ego just was intoxicating. Plus some tasty tricks he pulled out made everything better. Before his song "Slow Jamz" he went on this spiel about how he and his uncle would debate on what music was best and then he played some songs including Al Green's "Let's stay together" and "Love and Happiness". What was great about this was (apart from my love of Al Green's music) was that everyone in the pit sang along which made the performance just belong to us. Ahhh so great.

Modest Mouse - I was a bit disappointed. The music was right on, but they played all of "Good news" (sans "Blame it on the Tetons") which is awesome but i'd much rather hear a lot more of the older stuff. Now i'm not saying it was a bad performance but left more to be desired. But the highlight definitely had to be when the played "Tiny cities made of ashes" when the whole crowd seemed to swell with anticipation with every note the cello played leading up to the very loud, very thrash-about chorus. It was seriously an explosion when Isaac started in with the yelling. People swaying, jumping, crushing everyone... yeah... a bit crazy.

Pixies - The headliners lived up to their legendary name. I'm not a big Pixies fan myself but after seeing them i'm definitely going to get to know more of their stuff. Frank Black and wail and is a bit funny as he guitars in a power position (knees bent, shoulders straight, ready to make a tackle). What was cool was how much the audience knew the songs so you would have something like half the crowd singing along with Black and the other half "ooooing" with Kim. Quite the sight to see. They also did an encore with "Debaser" which was an appropriate way to end such an unforgettable day.

After it all was said and done I couldn't bend my knees properly for a while. But it was worth every ounce of pain (elbows, kicks, scratching) that i endured from the pushy people trying to get to the front and unbearable heat that hit about 90, with no shade in sight. This was my concert and i'll cherish it forever. Now as for pictures i've been scouring the web for other people's because I didn't think to bring a camera. Flickr has been a good place to go though I cannot find any of Modest Mouse. But that's ok because come Wednesday i know this website that will be a goldmine with about 700 pictures of what I got to see live.

I promise i'll update more later on tonight but for now enjoy the pictures and the song of the day from the Deats, "22: The death of all romance".
posted by Clifford @ 5:03 PM
Monday, May 16, 2005
A coldplay day in hell
Hey loyal readers. I'm back for another round of of gossip about my own life.

I'm sure you're eagerly anticipating of the culminating chapter of the crazy Portland story but alas i'm a wee bit sick of telling the story right now so i'm going to take a break. But have no fear i'm positive that in the boredom i'm sure to face to tonight i'll finish recording my opus. In fact i've told the story enough that it's become a refined piece of folk history so my delivery will most definitely come out totally kick a. Or at least much better than the first part. Man i'm rambling...

Emily's party was one crazy shin dig. The party picked up (for me at least) when the music started playing. Before that it was the whole stand in the corner and make polite chit chat with people, so any other thing has to be an improvement. It's too bad people have to drink away their inhibitions to dance, it's just so fun to cut loose. The party was pretty huge, Joe counted some 50 people in 2 rooms, luckily people discovered the balcony which lead to some prized space for my big birthing hips.

Noah finally made it back from his trek to Eugene. He got left there by Marcus and Dane on Friday, he seemed to have enjoyed it for the most part. Which is very mint.

Just got done reading an article in Blender about the woes of Coldplay and the numerous reasons on the delays of the new albums. Personally I don't care but the article definitely pumped me up for the release of the new album. I downloaded a couple of live tracks they performed and they sound pretty much like Coldplay and definitely will sound a whole lot better coming off the actual album. They do have their lead single out, "Speed of Sound", which you of course can download from here as today's song of the day.

Went to the Saturday market. You know those record bowls that I was making last year? This lady is painting them and trying to sell them for 50 bucks! First of all good job to the lady of doing something I dreamed of... but come on... those records cost you a good 10 cents at most. Most of the time you can go to a garage sale and they'll give you records. Anyways this really makes me want to go and undercut her, sell the bowls for maybe 5 to 10 bucks. That is the thing about the Saturday Market, art is hard, art is life, art is overpriced. But i guess if you make a few sales you're in the black making all that sitting worth it. Another thing I hate is that they make so much of one thing making me feel that whatever I buy like one of many. Now I know individuals don't have the sheer production capacity of major corporations, but still... make me feel special. I saw a guy who makes his own long boards and sells them. Which is easily the most original booth i've seen in a while. In fact I talked to him and from what I understand eh puts on Randall trucks on them which is something i've heard Dane mention, making this guy somewhat legit. I'll have the terrible twosome check him out before buying my board from him.

Not much else to report, except i'm dirt poor and I want my check from THPRD. Throw me a line today as I live a life of boredom, we'll talk no big whoop. Also big ups to my first international visitor, from Saudi Arabia, we're taking over worldwide baby and there is nothing you can do to stop us!

"There is no great achievement that is not the result of patient working and waiting."

- J. G. Holland
posted by Clifford @ 4:01 PM
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Oh baby
Well yours truly is now 2-1-1 on the season. I'm keeping track of myself as I have been on a different team every week, but as the goalie I have a job that's pretty key to every team. Not to brag or anything. What was pretty sweet about today is exacting revenge on the only team to defeat me and oh did we spank them. and good 4-2 trouncing thanks to my fantastic strikers and stalwart D. That and some decisions that worked out in my favor.

My track team is obnoxious. They are easily the most ill mannered, rich, stuck up, lazy kids i've ever met. Track shouldn't have to be run by a whistle. I shouldn't have to fight to get everyone's attention when I talk. Our workouts should be running like clockwork by now as they know what to expect from Emily and I. Yet every since the track meet they have been wild! There is one girl who is hurt and consistently coming to practice with a re-injury, yet when she shows up, she goes off for a make out session with her boyfriend. Class act. Then they gossip about each other yet are all nice when it comes to talking with the person, best buds of course. I don't know what to do as Emily and I have run out of patience for this bunch. Thing is i've worked with this age group, and they can be nice and polite most of the time, it's not like i've all sudden grown old and irritable. I'm an easy going guy, I wear practically the same stuff as these kids, i love having fun... i'm not yet 20!

Doesn't look like zoobombing is going to go down tonight. For those of you not in the know last Wed. we took the max all the way up to the zoo and rode our bikes and longboards down... bombing the hills. It's not as intense on a bike, but exhilarating nonetheless. There are parts where you can barely see the road turn into sharply into a hair pin curve. The wind just blows by... I don't know. It's rad. And to think the real Zoobombers do this on tiny little kids bikes, drunk, and the what not. Those people have some real gumption. Here's the story on the real Zoobombers. And a pic below of the crew midway through it last week, courtesy of Amanda...



Got my new phone today courtesy of Sunrocket. I have embarked on a strange new journey called VoIP (Voice over IP) aka using the my DSL line to make phone calls. Thing is for $25 bucks a month I get 2 phone numbers in any area code I want, all the calling features that you would need, 2 free handsets that cost 50 bucks (they claimed it's worth $120, obviously they haven't heard of froogle.com), the ability to call long distance as much as I want... so much more. I have disconnected from the man and i'm loving it. If you want to get my new number send me an e-mail and i'll hook you up. If you want to check out the service head on over to Sunrocket and if you decide to join... well you know... let them know who sent you by entering my phone number.

Now I know i'm a bit late for Mother's Day but i've been sitting on this video for a while trying to find a place where I could download it from.... well I found it and so I present it to you.... Mr. T's rendition of "Mother"
Well that is it for all. The song of the day is also the Mr. T song ripped for the video.
posted by Clifford @ 8:46 PM
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Sweet child of mine
My rep is on the line today. I have to make two t-shirts for the winners of the king of the hill competition on my track team or face the untimely demise of my respectability. Yes. I did pinky swear that I would have the shirts in by today or else... in other middle school kids news, i lost my whistle playing capture the flag on Friday. No whistle means no power. Knowing these kids, it's going to be scaaaary. We get the results today from the track meet where we totally beasted the other teams. I'm excited. I want to be a good coach and help them plan there next race better so that the beasting may continue unabated.

I'm making amix tape for Katie. A video mix tape. Has anyone ever done that? The idea essentially was born (in my mind at least) from the whole "i'm watching this and i know she loves this show." Shows you how much tv i watch a day. I need a life.

You know I could always update more. Sorry I've been so slow in the turnaround but between the massive social functions i've been going to and visits to Salem and the sheer laziness that is programmed into me it's been hard to type down a few words to let you know what is going on.

Mother's day was a bust. I got to see my mom before she went to work but I didn't even get to see her after as I fell asleep before she got home around 8 (I had been up for a good 36 hours by that time). Sucks. We did celebrate with my aunt and grandma, went bowling, where the guys were complete bungholes about everything. They told us that we'd have to be off at 5:30 for league so around 5 I went up to the counter for one reason or another and he told me we wouldn't be able to start another game. When I relayed this to my aunt and dad they said we could squeeze one in. Plus one of my cousins didn't want to play anymore so that would speed it up. Anyways dude totally comes up in a rager and starts pointing me out telling them that he had told me they couldn't start another game cause there was no time and that our last game had taken and hour. Woa, PMS dude. So in spite of this we continued bowling. And they turn off the lanes!!!!! Thing is we're on the 9th frame and the monitor with our scores is telling us we had 5 minutes.... we had managed 8 frames in 25 minutes but they all had to be pricks about it because they had to re wax the lanes.... hmmm couldn't they start at the other end and work towards us??? Just a thought... stupid firebird. Plus they charge 3.50 for shoes and 3 bucks for a games or something like that. WTF? PSU, .50 cents for shoes, 2 bucks for a game. Bowling shouldn't cost the same as a movie.

My room is a mess. I hate having to constantly clean it. Stuff sucks in general. It 's just there to clutter up the place and has no real use other than to annoy you.

Thought of the day, let's make it about stuff.

"You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy."

-Eric Hoffer

Annelisa made me a cool mix cd... anyone else interested into adding to my ridiculous amount of music that I have? I'll even reciprocate the thought so that you aren't just giving to a black hole. It'll be like Christmas except with none of the sentiment and pogo sticks. Well let me know. In the meantime i'll put up a cover of the song "Independent Women pt.1" done by Elbow. Have fun.
posted by Clifford @ 11:14 AM


Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Look both ways before crossing....


This guy used a filter on his camera to create this shot. It's wicked awesome. Which leads me into a quote.

"The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

Marcel Proust
posted by Clifford @ 11:03 AM
Time to switch!!!
While last week could not have been any worse this week has started out with a bang.

Now i've had my concerns about my track team and the stuff we were teaching them because aside from the grueling running workouts we had, everything else we taught was learned by reading guides from a book or the internet. Not exactly the best coaching in the world. But as of late our boss has been getting calls from parents concerning the organization of the practices and on how young we are, just a bunch of stupid phone calls from idiot parents. I mean wht does it matter that we are younger than them? You have to start somewhere and I don't exactly plan to start coaching when i'm 50. o anyways i really felt that last night's track meet (our very first one, and oly one of three) was a proving ground to see what these kids could do under our tutelage. Results: We "beasted" them (those were the immortal words of my girls 8th grade 4x100, I don't know what it means but the girls have free reign to do whatever they need to get motivated even if it means going around saying that your are going to "beast" the other teams). Therefore exonerating us. Emily and I dressed up in some slick dud while the other coaches put on the team t-shirts, and watched as we dominated the running events and some of the field events as well. Booyah. You can take that to the bank, my co-workers and parents. There was this one team that had four coaches and one of them was really hardcore in the infield walking around the field as the races taking split times, I enjoyed it as he saw red (as we dominated). Although his kids did take the 100m... as they were huge, my size even. Man I wish we had one more coach. Because I want to be able to give kids the chance to do field events everyday. As opposed to once a week.

I got a cell phone for work. It's a old one as one of my kids so graciously pointed out. But it has snake and in the world of cell phones that is all that matters for me. I don't see why that is not a mandatory game for every cell phone ever made. It's so simple and brilliant. That and tetris. Those two should always have a place in cell phones. For comparisons sake my cell phone is twice as huge as Katie's. I swear my battery is probably bigger than hers.

Ahhh time for the song of the day. I was going to put the song from an old VW commercial, the one that goes "Da, da, da" for about 3 minutes, but just as I was about to upload it the best song to express my feelings for this week's event (aka the track meet). The song being Warren G's "Regulators". Such a classic song, and I remember the video. Memories... "Reguuuuuuuuuuuulators, mount up." Well enjoy fools.

Won five bucks with a scratch it. Sweet. Pot o' gold is the way to play. The seasonal ones often pay out the best.

Noah's birthday party is Saturday, noice.
posted by Clifford @ 10:31 AM
Monday, May 02, 2005
I guess i'll post
Ahh it's been so long since i've took a dip in this pool. It's been that kind of week, full of the wild and sordid affairs of men and not a drop of time to record them down except in the vast network that is human memory. That and i'm a skosh lazy sucka foo'.

Let's start with the bad or sad. My main hombre Archie is now long and gone towards sunny California. That is the guy I could count on and now he has the pleasure of trying to convince the peons down there to buy his wares, namely pesticide. Not my choice of work (he extended an invitation for me to come along) but a person has to do whatever is in their power to bag the bones.

Good thing was I got to go the beach with him before he headed off yonder. We spent the day in good old Pacific City and hung out there and at Michelle's beach house. Climbed the sand dunes, filmed for Johnathan's documentary, and cooked way too much rice (tried 5 cups, took out 2, and burnt maybe 1/3 cup) for some 11 people. Hanging out was awesome except for the fact that the only grocery store in town likes to rip you off. 30 cents for a pack of ramen, four dollars for a 10 pound of potatoes, 20 bucks a pound for some clams (weren't we at the beach, shouldn't they be cheaper or something), it was regular whorefest.

So in honor of the Archman's departure (he'll be back in August, we're also going to try to put our papers in together) the song of the day is the one and only that he and I wrote together (and by that I mean I played a few nonsensical notes on the keyboard and he the wrote all the music from that, but hey i'm a heck of a sound engineer... maybe... not really). For most of you i've had the pleasure of sharing it with you before but for everyone else I hope you enjoy this unfinished ode (it has words and an ending, just need to record it at some point).

There is a darkside in everyone (yes i'm aware that using this right around the time Episode III is coming out seems so... "original") but i've had a chance to dwell with my last week. I like everyone else in the known world have my bad moods. My sad moods. Just times when everything in the world is not clicking on all four cylinders. It's part of life. But last week I found out that one of the kids on my track team is being abused by their father. One of my kids. This was absolutely the worse news that I had ever processed. It's something that pulls you away from the normal world because my whole demeanor changed. For the longest time that i've been in Parks and Recreation i've been in a position of authority and i've kind of been naive to the fact that these kids go home, have families, and have real life problems. And some go home only to face probably the worst facet of the human experience. I hate the man who is doing this. I hate him. He no longer an idea when they train us about reporting abuse to the school but a real person who has so little power and faith in himself that he needs to hurt one another person to compensate. And now I don't know where this child is, I don't know how they are feeling, and what I can do. Right now I myself feel powerless to maybe help out. This is all just coming out now because it has to. I've mentioned it in passing to others because I don't know how to properly express it all in a cohesive matter. I still don't and this is something i'm going to have to deal with. I just hope the kid is ok. That is all I want.

On Friday I went to Amanda's little get together (I was promised a bbq) and it was cool for the most part. I myself enjoyed the cool and refreshing taste of Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider courtesy of the host and it was tres bien. Got into a good talk about religion and what it means to an individual which is cool. Because it means different things to everyone and that is awesome. We had a incredibly intelligent discussion. The night then got a little madder. Things didn't really pick up until Marcus, Katie, and Misty showed up. Things were of a lighter mood, dancing like mad dancing machines, soul train lines it just got stone cold crazy. But the night effectively ended when alcohol started influencing the actions of people. I don't feel like going into what happened but the incident just bothered me tremendously. It's been a hard road to hoe but when it comes to drinking i've come to a point where I can hang around with my friends while they drink. It didn't use to be like that and i'll be the first one to admit it. But the thing is it's all about people making their own decisions and I have no right to make them for anyone but myself. The only hang up I have is when alcohol begins to become such an influence that it impairs your judgment enough for a person to hurt others mentally, physically, and emotionally. That's about it.

Annelisa got into town. Yay! We (Amanda, Annelisa, Misty, Noah, and myself) went out for sushi where I ate nothing. I've had sushi (from Safeway, which I know is not at all like the real deal Holyfield) before and it isn't my thing. That and seafood. Add to the fact that's it's raw. Compounded by the fact they like to use lots of avocados which although native to Puerto Rico, loved by it's people, and a staple at my house... I hate the stuff. One last thing, I AM CLOSE MINDED! When it comes to things I don't like, I just don't eat them and then all is well with the world. Take eggs, I tried some when I was in Provo... still nasty, best eggs i've ever had, but they still sat heavy in my stomach... and uggh, bad memory. Thing is I want to learn how to make sushi, just because I like to learn how to cook things, it makes me very proud when things go well, such as my rice and beans and tostones that I had for my dinner party. Anyways this week's project, marshmallows. What will I do with them? Make rice krispies treats of course, which I have never done. But no matter what I know everything I make henceforth will be better than the chocolate cookies I tried making junior year. It was the one and only time i've ever attempted such an endeavour and it ended up in a big flaming disaster. Instead of tasting yummy and good they ended up tasting like dried sea water because instead of putting teaspoons of the ingredients I had put tablespoons which apparently is a huuuuuuuuuuuge difference. But hey you live and you learn, then you get puffs.

Not much else to report about my big grand weekend other than I signed up for a Voice over IP service and soon will be getting a new phone number. I'll let you know what it is once the service stuff gets here.

Until then I remain the studliest, manliest, hairiest, guy in the world.

Sorry for the whole incoherent rambling today. 17 days until Episode III.
posted by Clifford @ 8:14 PM
Saturday, April 30, 2005

The crap really hit the fan these past couple of days. I'll inform you about it after I finish cleaning. For now enjoy the comic.
posted by Clifford @ 2:05 PM
Monday, April 25, 2005
Manly man hair
Now if you haven't seen me in a while (which is the case for many) you have not been able to see my progress of teenage metamorphosis. I am becoming a man which means a lot of new and crazy things are occurring to me including the strange and exciting development of hair growth. For the longest time I've been able to grow hair on my head but as of late i've had the steady appearance tiny little black follicles on the chiny chin chin. Meaning that someday, I will be able to grow a big bushy beard to accompany the bird's nest that is my tangled hair. But the thing is I won't let you go without hard evidence. So I took a picture and yes... wait for it... made a movie. Muhahahaha this really proves that I have reached a new low on my lack of things to do. P.S. Feel free to laugh and send it around, then I will achieve my life goal (as of two minutes ago) of becoming an underground internet sensation. Think about it, it become a conversation piece at parties...

Boris: "Did you see that idiot kid on the web, he was excited for a hair... what a poophead."
Natasha: "Yes I did. He is funny. Ha ha ha."

P.s. Some notes on the video; the video is in a compressed format (.wmv) so make sure you open it with Windows Media, sound is crappy and can be loud at times, and unlike the Paris Hilton video you can't see jack squat. Zing! Someone put me on Conan!
posted by Clifford @ 9:40 PM
Running, ughhh...


My old school ghetto shoes. They are worn and torn with huge holes on top of the shoe (visible) and on the big toe of the same shoe. I've had them since junior year and I only got them because Malatesta told me to go get new shoes and get rid of my other ghetto ones. The reason I subject you to candid photos of these old dogs is because today I went running, voluntarily, with the Niketown Running Club. As most of you know running is something that I sincerely abhor (Me fail english? That's unpossible!) and since I came to that realization of this (around senior year) i've done the best I can to avoid it. In fact the last sustained run I had was about a year ago in my fitness class. But the thing is the lure of free stuff will always trump the will of a lazy man. The thing about the Niketown running clubs is that they are legit, free to join, and backed by a huge corparation. It's so good to be a Niketown club runner that they have raffles for free stuff every month, provide free food, will even give you a free shirt for running a 100 miles with the club. And is what lured me back into the running game. I'm guaranteed a shirt for just some effort over 10 weeks (a fancy one at that one that would probably cost more than my next paycheck) and then I could win a new pair of shoes or 20 bucks every month just by showing up. And it's really cool because all the people are down to earth. Even before we left I had talked to about 5 different people who just saying hi and offering me encouragement. So I ran five miles today.... good story... I think i'll tell it at parties. You can join the club, Mondays and Fridays at Niketown in downtown Portland, 5:45. Runs of 3, 5, and 7 miles. Please come hang out with me... I have no running friends.
posted by Clifford @ 8:47 PM
Pink sky... Pink moon


A pink sky shot that I took on our balcony. It's one of those things that you had to be there. It turned out better than I thought it would, especially with the whole contrasting dark world, a slice of heaven...

Today's song of the day in honor of the pink sky that appeared over Portland oh so long ago is "Pink moon" by Nick Drake. It's a pretty famous tune for those of you not familiar with it, having appeared in many movies, tv shows, and I even think a car commercial. Download it, 'cause I love spreading the love.
posted by Clifford @ 8:39 PM
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Who the frick is Ryan Seacrest?
Ok so I took a little nap today in preparation for Fox's Sunday night lineup which includes my precious Simpsons and when I wake up I find fricking Ryan Seacrest hosting some America's Top 40 show in the same time slot that Homer and the gang are supposed to be. What the heck? Thing is I know that the Simpsons are quite up to snuff and I usually don't mind missing them. But the fact that today I am not given the choice to watch them made me very perturbed. And who the heck is Ryan Seacrest? Why is he so famous? He just got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame all because he hosted American Idol!!! So basically he's a nobody, someone who's lucked out to be on a singing talent show (which aren't at all new to tv...) and an annoying part of it at that. I thought fans hated this dude?! Oh well i'm getting fraklempt and I know in a couple of years this shmuck will be gone anyways... even right now I hate him with every bone of my body because he dares mess with the Simpson's time slot.

Time for an idea. As you loyal readers already know that in a severe narcissistic state I made a soundtrack of my life. In fact you as a reader were encouraged to download it in order to see what you thought of it and if you could pick out moments of my life and the song that corresponded about it (even though I vow that I won't tell you whether you're right or not). Now I think it's your turn. I want to start a whole new CD (or tape exchange), the theme being the soundtrack of your lives. You don't have to go all crazy like me and spend hours on it or you can, whatever you want. It can be songs that you love and that would make your day no matter the mood, or songs that illicit certain memories, maybe the song tells a story very similar to yours. It doesn't matter. In fact if you want I can host it on my servers and have others listen to it as well (only an offer, if you want to keep it private then I will totally respect your wishes, you are my friend). It will be fun.

Also an update on people sending me pictures for the collage on my wall (which is only half full)... no one has sent me anything! Come on I love you guys and I want pictures to fill my wall so that when anyone new comes over they can be impressed on what good looking friends I have, because as you all know the world judges you on how good looking your friends are and nothing else. NOTHING ELSE!

Sad news in the world of cartoons. Cartoon Fridge, a site that I recommended for viewing cartoons on demand (my personal favorite was Looney Tunes in the morning while I ate cereal but they had 12 seasons of the Simpsons and Rocko's Modern life, if you were into that kind of cartoon) has vanished, for the time being. First of all they got mentioned on Metafilter which increased their hits to about 15,000 a day. The site then became slow and unresponsive. You add to the fact that with the increased exposure they were getting, the question about the legality of it all started plaguing the site administrators so they decided to suspend activities for the time being. Which is too bad. More and more I am becoming to unrealistic and idealistic. I want things for free and I expect them to be which of course contradicts the whole established capitalist model. Not that there is anything wrong with it as I expect to one day benefit from it from a well played lotto ticket bearing my birthday and another secret combination of numbers that I have yet to conceive. Muhahahaha I will be rich with my castle house up in Portland's west hills. I wish life was much simpler.

I think i'm going to start adding pictures onto the site again. But i'm not going with a certain motif. One day it may be record covers the next could be a group photo, i'm just that spontaneous. For today i'll be putting up an old picture of a very stupid game of 500 that I was cheated against. Stupid cheats that can't handle the playing with the king of 500.

I've been thinking about the old adage "those who can't do, teach." And it's so true. I hated running track soooooo much and here I am coaching it to a bunch of middle school kids. Not to mention it get's funnier as I try to teach them field events in which I have never even tried myself. The funniest would have to be when I was teaching the shot put to them. It just got ridiculous with the humor degrading itself to bathroom humor. "Hey don't touch my ball!" "Put those balls down." "Leave the girl's balls alone!" "Omigosh you guys are killing me, my heart murmur is growing as we speak..." Oh man. Note to self, call balls by their proper name, shot put.

It's good to get stuff out every once and a while. Tomorrow I have a very special surprise for you all. I have penned my second song of my life and I will unveil it right here as this is the internet's premier place to be. So be prepared to be amazed... at how crappy the song is. But it's ok, we don't all become Bob Dylan's overnight.

Until tomorrow. Peace out my people.
posted by Clifford @ 8:08 PM
Keeping the little people down...
Dancing should be free. There is something that seems wrong when you need to pay for the right to move your body to the beat (well kind of to the beat... ok not so much to the beat... alright I admit it I have no rhythm and hear no beat.) But some of Noah's friends came over and they wanted to dance. Which I have no objection... and I don't have problem going to a club either but when I found out they charge a 10 dollar cover charge I nearly poo'd my pants. That ended the night for me right there and there. And it's not even an issue of money because for once in my life I do have the money and Katie even offered to loan me the dough... but man 10 bucks to listen to crappy music (probably the same stuff they play on 95.5, and right as of this moment i'm trying to recall the last time I listened to that station...), being on the same place with people who are too preoccupied trying to impress someone to really cut loose dance and have fun, and the biggest reason of all... it cost 10 bucks. I could go to a 94.7 concert for that. Now I may sound like a grumpy guss because I didn't go but let me assure you that i'm not, it was a choice and in fact right now I just finished building a 55 song (coincidentally the length of my life's soundtrack) dance mix which I will dance to for apparently the next 3 hours 43 minutes and 12 seconds or until my heart gives out, which ever comes first.

I don't know if you've been to the movies lately but I have thanks to Noah. Now I don't often go out to movies but when I do I expect to be entertained. The movie doesn't have to be a Oscar contender but I should think that for paying my bus fare (since Noah gets us in for free) i'm entitled for a show. I was let down on Thursday. The movie: "Sahara", the result? One of the biggest pieces of crap ever. Serious... good thing we had a pie to keep me entertained for the first part of the movie otherwise something horrible might've happened. It was so bad that in the first 20 minutes or so I wanted many of the characters just to die. Even the funny guy from "That thing you do" couldn't do it for me. I don't want to talk about this anymore. But whatever you do when this comes out on TV, DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND WATCH IT!
That bad.

No thought of the day... maybe later. Because I must conserve energy for my 3 hour dance-alone-a-thon.

Buh Bye!
posted by Clifford @ 12:33 AM
Friday, April 22, 2005
I can sum up my life in about 4 hours
So i took me 3 hours of my life to put down the story of my life into a huge playlist. I don't know it's something i've been toying with for some time. I really set out (today) to make a soundtrack for a movie but since I haven't made a movie...

I like it for the most part, the selection process wasn't scientific in any way. Some songs are part of a period, some you have to read into the lyrics, others are homages and allusions to certain things.

Now there isn't much more to tell other than for the most part the whole thing is in chronological order, but not necessarily. Some periods of my life got more songs than others and it all starts at my birth. P.S. Not going to tell you what events i choose as it's kind of personal but you are more than welcome to send in your guesses.


-clifford
posted by Clifford @ 4:10 PM
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Ohhhhhh who lives in a....
Yaaaargh, you be reading the blog of a true blue pirate of the 21st century. I have my piraty tentacles in downloading and distributing music, tv shows, and a couple of old games, and now have printed out the whole Beatles songbook for a friend. Muhahaha no form of media is safe thanks from the help of the internet. Although I do have to comment that the Beatles songbook was sort of open source as it wasn't copied from something they printed but compiled from various internet sources. Like guitartabs.com and what not. So maybe i'm not a true pirate of the print age... but close enough.

Ate some Ben and Jerry's ice cream which was pretty awesome, especially since it was free. Tuesday was free cone day and Katie and I took advantage. I tried Phish Food for the fist time as it was the closest thing they had to good ol' Rocky Road. It was pretty good including the chunks of chocolate fish, but it could never topple my love for the old girl. I am also amazed at the shop we went to. It works in collaboration with a youth on the streets organization and gives troubled kids jobs. They said that in a given year they would give 30 kids training and a job in order to help hopefully get them some experience for another better job and a place to go which hopefully help them keep straight. Plus all proceeds from that partner shop would go back into the organization that it was partner with. Amazing. That is probably the coolest company i've ever heard of. Very cool.

Tuesday was the worst practice ever. It was an off site practice at some high school with 2 other of the parks and rec programs. So stressful. Emily and I tried to set a plan out to taking advantage of a a real track and have them run relays. Well aside of the kids being confused as where to start the other coaches from the other schools were being pricks. P-R-I-C-K-S. One was taking all the lanes up in the last 100 meters and kept shooing my kids away. Finally my kids came back and started complaining that she wouldn't let them take their starting positions so I told them to run anyone over who doesn't clear the track but they wouldn't (i haven't instilled enough meanness yet) so i went over there and in a very curt manner informed the other coach that I was taking lanes 5 through 8. I hate the fact that because the other coaches are teachers/adults they seem to hold this authority and disregard for me and Emily as coaches just because we're young. Seriously it makes me angry. It's kind of a problem with this whole parks program. I miss the weekly meeting of Salem P&R because then you get to connect with you peers and stay in touch with your bosses. It's an open dialogue which is very comforting. Here, the only time we hear from our boss Julie is when we apparently have been working too many hours. 'Cause staying until 5:30 with kids who haven't been picked up and then charging for it is bad. A-holes.

I think I have a new neighbor. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth when I heard a sneeze. The thing is in the bathroom there is this air shaft that runs throughout the building so you can hear a lot of stuff. But the thing is this sneeze was super close. So to investigate I went into my closest where there is a grate where you can into the top of the other closet. I saw hangers. New life in this building perhaps? Hopefully we become friends unlike my neighbor to south of me who probably hates me for the two times she has had to come up here and tell me to shut up (both times when I was fighting Katie... in fact i think i'll get her for ruining my relationship with the one who made yummy croissants for me, spring ensemble be damned).

The song of the day is "New York, New York" by Ghosts of Pasha. I found them through Metafilter who had an article about a group of people who go around making people feel good. This project involving Ghosts of Pasha involved going to their concerts and giving them the best fans ever. I'll link you to the article. It's a really good song live (I downloaded their other stuff, this time legally as it's free) which is better than it's recorded stuff (which is so so) but maybe the people in the audience brought out the best in the group. Hey do you guys like the shiny new song a day button? I personally like it and thought it would make it easier. Plus it's a huge button.

O-mi-gosh. I have found the greatest websites ever and I almost forgot to tell you about them. Shame on me. It's this trio of websites that stream video of your favorite TV shows. They have the Simpsons, Futurama, Rocko's Modern Life, Seinfeld, The Office, Chappelle show, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and more. And it's all free and yummy goodness. All you have to do is download winamp and the script for it to run in Firefox (don't worry about finding it, they provide it there) and then you're golden. I recommend hitting Cartoon Fridge first because their videos are on demand which basically means whatever Simpsons episode you want (first 12 seasons), you can have. You can find the links on my de.li.cious page.

Ok time for the thought of the day and it's concerning the kindness and compassion. Man I want more croissants.

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."

The Dalai Lama

Well until next time plebs...

-Clifford

P.S. New neighbor plays good music, i stood and listened in the bathroom... yes, i know how creepy I am.
posted by Clifford @ 12:38 PM
Monday, April 18, 2005
Today is possibly one of the greatest...
June 2nd, Las Vegas will be turning 100 and sin city is throwing a big honking bash. To celebrate they gave away 50,000 free tickets to a concert headlined by none other than the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Oh wait... they have this one band opening for them... I think their name is Weezer, never heard of them personally but i'v heard good things. Anyways I tried to get tickets because i fyou could get on the website in time you could snag up to 4... but by the time I had got to the ticketmaster website it had crashed from the overload. To bad, because I was really looking forward to going with 3 others. As it stands now I WILL BE GOING WITH ONE OTHER PERSON!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I was able to get on pretty early and for some reason it didn't let me get 4 but man I was lucky and grabbed two. So someway, somehow i'm going to get to Vegas and soak in quite possibly one of the best concerts of a lifetime. It's freaking awesome. Yes, yes, yes, dancing in the library but I don't care.

In other great news I got "Spongebob Squarepants the movie" and "The Neverending story" and I used my mysterious powers to make copies. I love the "Neverending story" it is quite possibly one of the best childhood movies ever. Apparently Jack Black is in the third one. I should read the book and see how it stacks up which is always interesting because then you get to know how faithful the producers were to the literature.

Well i'm going to cut it short for right now because i'm at the library on a crappy mac keyboard which is killing me.
posted by Clifford @ 8:33 PM
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Hey yo
Yes, yes, I know it's time for another post.

First off I am glad that people are actually coming to the site which means I am not only doing this for myself. Which is comforting considering the changes in the works. First off I plan to move the site off PSU's servers pretty soon as I am no longer a student and I don't know how long they let give you before having to move your crap. I'll be moving them to my domain www.clifford-eiffler.com for those of you who are curious. It'll be real nice considering that right now I only have 50mb of space on the PSU server while I am just maintaining 500mb of the other one Which means a whole lot more stuff for you to download, and pictures.... up the wazoo! Right now i'm just hosting movies and music on there (that's where the song of the day is stored) for a select few to download. I'll open it up when I can afford (click on ads, to bottom left) to upgrade to a gig or so.

I have a girlfriend. Her name is Eileen. And she is a hand. A mannequin hand. I had requested her a few weeks ago and she just now arrived all the way from Seattle, Washington... home of Nintendo of America. It's all about their new ad campaign for the Nintendo DS and i'ts phrase "touching is good". They want people to take pictures or film short movies (can't since I have no camera) involving the hand and it's a whole big contest thing where you win stuff. I just wanted a hand. A free hand at that. I love free stuff, especially if it comes through the mail. Since I moved in, I've started to receive 4 free magazine subscriptions, a hand, soy sauce, DuWop Lip venom (for Katie), and 10 bucks. All thanks to good ol' slickdeals.net, which is by far the best website on the internet. I'm checking that sucker constantly, as often as I check my e-mail. Ahhh free stuff, how great life is.

Went to church, nothing much to report there except that multi cultural night is on Saturday for those of you who live in Portland. From what I remember non-members are welcome to come... there will be a massive amount of food from Chinese to Brazilian (actually i think that those are the two kinds of food) and entertainment. I also talked to someone and pretty soon I will be taking Priesthood advancement classes that will make me an Elder... it's all getting realer now.

The FilipinoBuddha rules. Hey man if you're reading this... cupcakes... giggles... hahaha.

Hey so I was checking out the web for some new music and apparently the Gorillaz are coming out with a new album, and i've already got it. It's a whole lot better than the last one. I listened to new single that is being circulated called "Feel Good, Inc." and it's pretty steady. I love the bass in it and the part where De La Soul raps stands out much like when they had Del the Funkee Homosapien rap on "Clint Eastwood" and "Rock the spot" (which was by far the best song on their last album).

And so far from what i've heard of the rest of the album it's going to much better than the first one, which got a little too weird for me. I bought it still... crap.

So in honor of the Gorillaz new album i'm going to make a different version of the song "Clint Eastwood" off their b-sides album entitled "G-Sides" (good one guys) the song of the day. Download it, share it, also watch the video for "Rock it" at Gorillaz.com if you're bored enough to.

Ugggh I need a dishwasher. All the dishes from the party are still in the kitchen. I started soaking them but took one look and lost hope. I haven't eaten anything other than cereal for the past two days. Sooooo hungry. In fact i think i'm going to go to sleep to ward off the intense hunger.

Ok has anyone heard of del.icio.us.com? Basically it's this site where links are posted. what you do is post a link on a site you found that piques your interest such as my site. Then you add keywords so that it can be searched for. Eventually different links get linked by other people and it moves up the chart becomes it become more relevant to different people. Now the reason i'm going on about this is I have my own del.icio.us page which can be found at: http://del.icio.us/cpeiffler so whenever I talk about a site I think is important you can go over there. Right now I have a funny video of Samuel L. Jackson, a site that has 622 music videos, my site (of course), the Spike Jonez Adidas commercial, and many others. It's very cool way to see what other people are looking at. Plus it's a easy way to access your bookmarks from anywhere you have internet access.

Well kids this is the end but not without the thought of the day.

"There is no joy in possession without sharing."

- Erasmo da Rotterdam

Adios!
posted by Clifford @ 1:40 PM
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Oh man....
Giggles. That is all I have to say. For those of you in the know, then feel free to giggle along with me. For the rest of you, it's right in front of you but you're too blind to see it. I am giggly right now... making cupcakes... heh heh.

Let's talk about "Ray". It lives up to the hype. First off... the music as expected, was fantastic. I don't know I think i'm a whole lot more receptive to visual music (also known in the modern age as "music videos"), so the music I already love becomes that much better. Jamie Foxx deserves whatever accolades he received for that role (I don't know if he won the Oscar or not because I don't follow that b.s. as it's not worth my time because I won't even remember it the following week). The hype is true, you have to own or at least watch "Ray".

Had my dinner party tonight. Let me tell you that is the hardest work ever. I had to clean my room, and cook for 12 people that were scheduled to make a appearance. Thing is I started preparing around 3:30 for a dinner that started at 7:30 (more like 8:00 for those who don't understand the concept of time, haha making cupcakes). 3:30!! I woke up at 12! Not to mention I was shopping before then and the what not. What's worse is that I ended spending 30 bucks on crap that is now gone. But it all turned out so very well. Even my cooking wasn't half bad considering that I had never cooked my native dishes of rice & beans, and the appetizer of tostones (basically fried plantains). Learned that make it yourself burritos are the big winner because people get to eat what they want to eat. Plus it was so easy to make. Big props to Marcus for coming at 10:30 and being a trooper and eating everything in sight. He just put gobs of the rice and beans on his plate which will make it easier for me to clean tomorrow. I was kind of disappointed in the people who didn't show up. The whole reason for the dinner party was to get all my homies together so that we can spend the limited time together. Because I am now positive that I want to be out before my birthday so each day is another day I won't get to spend with you.

I'm stretching out Katie's pea coat right now. Muhahahahaha. It's really rides up on the armpits. But you should've seen Archie in it. He couldn't put his hands down. He was constantly "raising the roof". Funniest sight in the world. It was so bad he couldn't even partake in a little game of Mariokart Doubledash (which once again proves that SNES version was perfect, I mean I like the subsequent sequels but they just don't quite do it for me, you just can't beat the simplicity and beauty of the original) so he had to take it off and now it's up to me for good old fashioned rambunctiousness.

Dancing with your friends is the best thing ever. It was by far the best part of the evening. Katie, Misty and I just doing out own "Soul Train" line. If you ever need to get a party going with some cool people just put on Marvin Gaye's "Got to give it up" which is by far the most pleasurable 11 minutes of my life. And noooo, it's not the Sparkling Apple Cider talking. Just get your shoulders dropping, drop your hips, and sliiiiide. Kick it back in time, in the club, and just groove baby. In fact... it's time for the song of the day! It's a little bigger than usual (17mb) but worth every second of it. Once you get it's time to start the party.

Well I don't think I should type anymore as I am not very cognitive of what I write. It's 3:00 in the morning i'll fill you guys in tomorrow. As for me... well I think i'll giggle myself to sleep as I think of cupcakes.
posted by Clifford @ 3:04 AM
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Bastard.
Oh yeah. I just got the new Ben Folds album, "Songs for Silverman". I'm listening to the first song which is called "Bastard". And i'm liking what i'm hearing. So while we're at it let's make this the song of the day. I found out about this album the other day while I was record shopping at Jackpot... didn't know old Benny had another in him which is good that i'm wrong.

I'm taking advantage of that Blockbuster.com thing. 4 movies added to my growing library for the price of the blank DVD. Yes...! It's really a great deal. And if you head over to slickdeals.net they have a code for one month free instead of the two-week free trial I got. You lucky ducks.

Need to get out more though. I've been humping it around looking for another job but alas no work to be found yet. Emily and I made a trek in the cold, cold rain to find out that her mom's lead about the YMCA was a bust. It's ok. Didn't want to work there anyway... stupid YMCA. Work on the other hand is going alright. I want to get paid my measly money but haven't seen a check come in the mail. Dag. I really do need that money. Got to pay back old Noah and have some cash for a dinner party (a high class pair o' words considering the menu of rice & beans complemented by DIY burritos) I intend to throw on Friday's eve. Dang, got to get on writing out the invites.

Archie is a coming up Friday. I think we might record some of his new music which i'm excited to hear. In sad news he blew out his new amp which has got to suck. Thank heavens for warranties. Also Archie since I know you read this I need you stop by and pick up my rice cooker from home as it will make everything much easier in my life.

My mom and dad are in Idaho! Apparently when we were on our way back from Utah and passing through Boise my dad was either in or taking off from the airport on his way back from Michigan because his car had broken down somewhere in that region. He left it with some farmer and they are on their way to go pick it up. My mom had me call my sister for some weird reason but no one told us why we needed to talk. Ah well it's good to hear the old dummy. She was getting her prom dress all ready. You know come to think of it she will be graduating pretty soon. Crazy.

Going to start playing intramural soccer tonight. I miss it. Apparently my old roommate/teammate has gone crazy because our team has gone through so much turnover that we split up. He's calling everyone traitors and what not... what a funny guy he is. Crazy old Jesse. Hopefully I land on a good team, or at least a competitive team.

Quote of the day...

"Friendship needs no words..."
-- Dag Hammarskjold.

I'm trying to fill my wall with pictures. If you have any digital ones send them to me and i'll get them printed. I have about half the wall filled... will you be there to help?

Later chumps.
posted by Clifford @ 5:28 PM
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Monster truck rally
The Cookie Monster has been put on a diet... WTF, mate?! I'm not on one side or the other on the issue for political correctness but I know when things are taken too far, and this is one of those time. I mean come on he's named the cookie monster, not the "i'll eat some cookies from time to time as a treat monster"! I don't know if i've been able to put a coherent sentence in the past few minutes. Also a side note on Sesame Street and how the show is run. Basically you need to get rid of Elmo, by any means necessary. I never loved Elmo to begin with but when he began to become the star that he now is, he ruined a perfectly good balance they had going there (yes I do watch Sesame Street from time to time, I have many good memories tied to that show.) by monopolizing the show with his very high pitched annoying voice. If anyone should be the star it should be Grover. Now that blue thingy is the man.

Katie and I got into an intense fight yesterday, with Noah, Archie, and Isaac all in the apartment. I think they were a little shocked (well maybe not Noah) but it's something we have a problem controlling. We're like 7 year olds. I ended up throwing Katie on Isaac, that was funny... until the neighbor came up and complained. I hadn't seen her in months (when she came up to complain the last time) but she had brought croissants when we first met (she goes to Western Culinary)... man I wish I was on her good side. And I felt sooo bad when she came up because the words she used "try to be more considerate next time." That is a zinger if i've ever heard one. Next time i'll send Noah to the door so that I won't feel so bad.

Isaac and Archie came up yesterday, it was cool. I walked up to building to find two strays just standing there... apparently they had just come up because Katie was going to take them clothes shopping, which is a perfect excuse for me to tag along and go record shopping. We journeyed to Hawthorne and as they scoured Buffalo Exchange and Red Light (where they sell 12 dollar used t-shirts, if you're into that kind of thing, but i'll stick to my Goodwill and Value Village) I hit CD Exchange. It's such a great store. they have this huge wall poster of "Kill Bill" for only $12.99. I would've have bought it if not for my mission to find a Modest Mouse record. Man to get one of those would be terrific. And i'll admit it, but I started off being a fan of "Good News for People who Love Bad News" because you've got to start somewhere. Now I drool when thinking of obtaining "Lonesome Crowded West" on vinyl or even the "Moon and Antarctica". The thing about vinyl is that it makes you listen to the music, forget the whole sounds better argument because i'm probably tone deaf and wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But you just sit there (laying on a bean bag or in a nest of your own blankets is preferable) and you just let the music seep in through you ears and let it travel through your whole body. I want to die this way, just laying down one last time, listening to the music I love. You can't go wrong with that. But anyways we finally go to Jackpot records and I can't find any Modest Mouse records. Yet I did not go away empty handed. I was able to pick up Interpol's "Antics" for 10 bucks. Which is cheaper than the CD... and albums often are which is weird but at the same time cool. Although they are instances where this is not the case... aka Wilco's "A ghost is born" which cost a pretty penny at $25 buckaroos. Unfortunate but you can't win them all.

There are some things that just need a computer. Record shopping is one of them. There is so much out there that I miss because either A) I'm blind or B) Am looking at the wrong section. But it would be heaven if I could go into jackpot and look up their inventory at a computer terminal. Just like the library. They could also know what they have, access it easier, and price accordingly. That would be heaven. Or maybe my idea of being able to input what you have in your refrigerator and getting what recipes you could make based on what you have. Because I often times look on the Internet to learn a new recipe so that I could do something new and cool, and I don't have half the stuff the recipe asks for. And i don't want to go out at that time and buy the stuff because i'm hungry then. I usually end up eating the staple food of my life... top ramen. I used to be able to whip up some rice for some variety but my rice cooker broke and I have to go to Salem and get my other one. Crap Why don't I whine some more... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

OK time for the song of the day. In honor of my new Interpol record, i'll put one my favorite songs from their first album "Turn on the Bright Lights". This one is called "Roland". It's my new favorite after dethroning "Leif Erickson".

Well this is this and this is that, what happens then when I bid you adieu again? <--- After that, there will be no more artsy fartsy writing 'cause that was craaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.

Maybe look for another post later on today as I have withheld the much beloved quote of the day.
posted by Clifford @ 12:23 PM
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Stay cool my babies
Sunday, bloody Sunday.

Much news to report, if I had a life! But I got some stuff for you so stayed tuned for after the jump...

Jump

I have finally set a goal on when I would like to blow this popsicle stand to go on my mission. As I let him know I would like things sewn up before my birthday in order to leave while i'm still 19. So go ahead and put away those balloons, and streamers, no wild party this year.

Still on the mission beat, I finally told my dad. It wasn't what I expected as I envisioned us sitting down, calmly talking while people served us grapes and fanned us. Unfortunately instead there was three cousins tagging along, it was slightly raining, and we had to get to our car before the venerable Portland Popo gave us a ticket. Ah well. He took it pretty well considering and we'll definitely have more time to talk about it.

Music is hard. Meaning to write. Because you don't want to write the cheese and you have to constantly check the lyrics to see if they aren't just from a song you just heard... aka one of my songs... that sounded a lot like Cheap Trick's "I want you to want me". But I trudge along, writing my secret songs, because I must. As I have given up playing music. That's alrighty though because I hope to one day create that one song... the one that everyone is stoked about. And that I'm stoked about.

Heads up for everyone. Blockbuster.com is running a two week free trial for their Netflix type service. Thing is you also get two free in-store rentals. Get my drift?? You sign up, print off the coupons, rent the movies and then cancel the account. Score: Blockbuster 0 You 2 free movies. I also recommend canceling the online account as soon as possible because the recommendation system is horrible, and they have real crappy selection. Netflix on the other hand has been around longer, know's what they're doing and actually has a warehouse in Salem so you can get most movies in around a day even if you live in Portland. For all this you can thank me later.... with food.

The song of the day is one of my favorites. By Wilco, it's called "How to fight the loneliness". Once you listen to it you can't not but like the song. There is something special about it, so mellow, so poignant. It's one of those I will listen to when I feel like just being my lonely, brooding self.

Noah and I have decided to lay sod on our balcony. I'll get you a picture of it so you can understand. The thing about living downtown in good old Portland, Oregon is that you don't have a lawn. There are parks of course, trees in a lot of place, but that's not the same. To be in your own private green space, free of dog crap (which not all Portlanders DO NOT PICKUP), and free to walk barefooted on is something that is priceless. I would seriously give up the Internet to have my own lawn. Especially in the spring and summer roll on up. Also more improvements we're thinking of are a BBQ and a hammock all out on the balcony. It'll be worth it if we pull it off.

But of course you can always help by sending a little somethin', somethin', if you now what I mean. Or then again you can click through on the Google ads to the bottom left. I've made .35 cents so far. Enough for some gum or a lollipop. By the way what do you see on the ads? I see ads for Utah real estate That is kind of why I have been name dropping Portland, Oregon or Salem, Oregon.

We moved Katie out of the building today. Gonna miss my heart murmur buddy. You see we both have a condition in which we have a literal hole in our hearts and at any second of the day... BAAAM! We could drop. Basically I wouldn't recommend upsetting us to much unless you want to be responsible for killing your friends. Ok.. well it's not quite so dramatic but if it was... you'd be in so much trouble. I don't say this much but I love my friends. I really mean love. You complete me. And lemme tell you something about the breakup of the fellowship (this is what I have started calling the two apartments and their inhabitants; Me, Noah, Katie, Amanda, Misty... also note on the picture, I am Gandalf because i'm the most bad A) I am deeply saddened that we are all moving away from each toher. The fact is other than Noah (as we live together and I can't stand the guy... haha) but we haven't hung out as much and connected the way we did last year. Damn is all I say, damn. Now I know this is all about growing up and what not but still I am going to whine, moan, and complain. And I miss all of my friends abroad for you are the real reason I write this, so that I can let you know how i'm doing... so if you read this feel free to drop me a line, either at cpeiffler@gmail.com or 503-796-6872, I would love to hear your voice.

The thought of the day is about nature and it's relation to man. Nature is so very beautiful, scary, and awe inspiring, it has the power make you happy (even when it rains as you walk 10 blocks to dinner) but yet we blatantly destroy the earth with our careless actions. Be cool, be nice.

"Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us."

Henrik Tikkanen

Well that's all from the pulpit. You have a nice day you hear!
posted by Clifford @ 10:26 PM

Friday, April 08, 2005
Shada Shada
Starting to write music again. And what I mean by write music is random phrases pop into my head and I write them down. But someday... and maybe today is that day i'm going to flesh them out and produce hits that include more cowbell. Or not. I seriously do want to write music because i've given up on my career as a singer which was a huge blow, and now i'm looking for the next big thing. Thing is i'm so self critical of these phrases that come out of my head because they sound so corny. Maybe I can sing country or something and let the corniness flow.

I have no clue what i'm doing in track other than running. Yesterday we tried to field events and relay practice. Basically I've run the 4X400 twice in my life and that is a bit different that the 4X100. So basically i'm stuttering through the whole practice trying to explain everything to kids who know less than me. And the thing is I can envision this whole thing going on for the rest of the season. "Ok kids... this is a shot put... it's heavy... yeah... ummm go do a Indian Run... and you can pass the shot put around." I think it's time to track down the T. He'll know what to do.

The site is going to go another minor format change. Instead of having a separate post for "stuff of the day" or "thought of the day" i'm just going to include everything in one big fat post. First it make me look good as it looks like i'm updating with mega content everyday, second it means I have some killer filler for those very lean post days.

Met some interesting people last night. Survivors of my old dorm, the Ondine. One of them happens to be Amanda's new roommate the others friends at an informal get together last night that happened to be a party... i guess. Marcus, Noah, and I got there around 12:30 and most people were already a bit tipsy, so that is quite a first impression. I don't know I felt uncomfortable because the whole thing was kind of a clique thing from the beginning so we couldn't really get to know anyone. But Noah, Marcus, and I talked books and that was really productive. Note to self: finish "on the Road", re-read "Perks of being a wallflower", find "Me talk pretty one day". oh if any of you want to buy a book my family has 38 bucks in credit at Reader's Guide in West Salem which translates everything being half off. Just send me the money and i'll pick it up for you. I love going to that place because it' so cozy and endless. The many rooms of Reader's Guide... reminds me of Bilbo's house because I always feel a bit big for the place.

Thought of the day. It's on meeting new people.

"Meeting people unlike oneself does not enlarge one's outlook; it only confirms one's idea that one is unique."
- Elizabeth Bowen

Today's song of the day is Midlake. I don't know who exactly they are but i've got a cd that I borrowed from Emily and it has 3 great songs from them. She said something about them being featured in Jason Lee's (of Mallrats, Dogma, and a variety of other movies) skate videos.
posted by Clifford @ 1:43 PM

Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Stuff of the day Wed. April 7
Well there are 8 days for you to file your taxes. Have you done it yet? The song of the day was going to be the song "Older" by They Might Be Giants but I was just listening to the Kinds of Convenience and decided to put upload their song "Playing live in a room" because it's so purty.

Update: i've been accepted into Google's adsense program so look for those at the bottom left side of the screen. I'm not sure what it is but what I imagine it to be are some form of the ads you see on Google searches. What i think it does is crawl over my blog looking for words and projects ads accordingly. Like maybe when i mention the band of the song of the day it will make an ad to buy the cd at Amazon. Well in short you should click through so I can make dough, 'cause i'm poor.

The quote of the day relates to exploring who you are because that whole teenage kids sex thing is freaking me out. I just want them to live out fun and exciting lives. Is that so much to ask by someone who was only been with them for a period of 6 hours in their lives?

"Explore your mind, discover yourself, then give the best that is in you to your age and to your world. There are heroic possibilities waiting to be discovered in every person."

-- Wilferd A. Peterson

No picture of the day though. I'm just too lazy
posted by Clifford @ 3:17 PM

Back with a mother truckin' vengeance!
Hey my beautiful people... i'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Now I know you were probably freaking out thinking that I had abandoned you or this site but that's just secret and lies built on a nest of hateful slander. The truth is I took off to Utah on a spur of the moment decision. Now it is true i've been back since Monday but the thing is a person needs time to get back into the groove of things, especially because of the whole daylight savings time/jet lag factor. And yeah it's true I didn't actually fly but drive 14 to 18 hours very uncomfortable hours but it's still the same. In fact i think driving is worse. So back off.

As i said I went to Utah. Lemme tell you that is a gorgeous place. When were descending into Salt Lake at night you could see the city, and then you could see the temple in a blazing glory of lights from miles out, and then you could see the mountains providing a picturesque backdrop. Now when I say you could see the mountains I don't mean the way we do in Oregon. when we see them it's on a very clear nice day and we can see Mt. Hood or Mt. Saint Helens. When you see the mountains in Provo and Salt Lake you see a huge range of mountains that in the night look very much like a huge clouds, but rather are what you envision when you drew mountains as a kid.

The visit with Annelisa and all the people in Utah was good. I was really disappointed because we were there for one day of relaxation and chilling (Saturday) because by Sunday we had to be on the road again. It was so short of a trip and I blew all of my money on it. In fact I lost 20 bucks so that's even worse because for the latter half of the trip I was not contributing anything to gas and what not so i felt horrible. No matter, 'cause I got me a job to pay, so I can pay people back.

Sunday was a terrific day because I got to spend the day In Salt Lake, more specifically Temple Square, listening to our churches General Conference. It truly is a marvelous space, with architecture that makes your jaw drop. It also was such a diverse group of people that populated Temple Square. So many people from so many nations that made the trip just to be near the prophet. It made me want to go on my mission more and more.

I literally mean just pick up my things and go preach for the two years. I also think it's a symptom of the anxiety I feel just waiting here, working to earn the money to go. Two years is going to be a long time to be gone. I'll miss out on so much including one of my favorite things, music. But most importantly i'm going to miss my family and my friends, who are my extended family. This is something i'm always thinking about because right now I have it sooooo good because whenever I want I can connect with my friends in one of many ways. I can be involved with their lives and they with mine. And it feels like once I got it will be totally different, like the cord has been unplugged. For two years they will flourish and grow and lead fruitful lives; graduate from college, get houses, maybe get married, and who knows what else and the thing is I will lose out on being there. Let me tell you that I don't regret what I've decided for I know without any hesitation that it's right. In the time since I had my feeling I have my decision confirmed in many ways. I wonder if this is something that all people who have gone and will go on a mission feel. It's the twin face of fear and certainty. It reminds me of the drama mask that has the happy/sad face.

Well one thing, I want all of you who read this to make a promise you'll write me. Or by jove I will pee my pants otherwise. P.S. I'm not going immediately and I have no idea when i'll be going even though I hope it will be this year.

My job is going moderately well. They canceled soccer which is a major bummer because it's such a fun sport and I really enjoy coaching the kids. It's something I would love to do long term, maybe even run a parks program, perhaps in glorious and warm Puerto Rico (even though I do recall spending my time in my grandmother's air conditioned room whenever we weren't doing something or going somewhere, at a chill 65 degrees.) Now it means I'm going to have to find another job to provide the dinero as i'm pretty sure i've lost my financial aid for this term as i've elected not to go. The thing is it's mostly loan money which is a bonus because if I don't use it then I don't put myself more in debt. Now i just have to go talk to the financial aid counselors to see about getting a exemption to having to pay for the loan while on my mission. I'm aware they may do this for peace corps volunteers and man i sure hope they do it for me 'cause right now trying to save up 10 bucks is hard enough.

Had a shocker at work yesterday. Apparently middle schoolers are very much aware of sex, drugs, and rock and/or roll. Well maybe not so much the rock and roll, because they do listen to some very crappy music and some very new and expensive Ipods (stupids rich Beaverton kids) but the other stuff is so surprising. Let me think back to my middle school days... skipping school to watch the baseball playoffs and then deciding that building a popsicle replica of Yankee stadium would be rad also, getting my video game magazines taken away, eating pizza below my desk because food wasn't allowed.... hmmm no sex or drugs to my recollection.

What is this world coming to? It's so crazy because when I say these kids know of sex i mean they have done something... maybe not the deed itself but something. Now you may say i'm crazy but seriously if you had been there you would have just... poo'd your pants. Either these kids are the best liars in the world or they are involved in something that I don't think they are emotionally and mentally developed for. And it strikes fear in me because I don't think they understand the consequences of a broken condom, or std's (which i sure hope they are not getting at 13 and 14), and a variety of emotional trauma that could haunt them in the future. When I told them that condoms are fallible one kid said he would take his chances. Man, could you imagine being a 14 year old father? I mean I hope it doesn't come to that but personally I can't see myself as a 25 year old father. There is so much to do in this world that having a baby so young (i'm talking about 18, 19 years old too) with so many responsibilities attached is crazy. Now i'm not putting down having a baby at all because it is a beautiful thing, the creation of a new life is wonderful, but I think people should be more responsible about what they are doing. So crazy.

This mini culture shock got me feeling old. Older than yesterday when I found out that all my kids were born in the 90's. Right when I was watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters. In fact as the last kids were picked up (the ones I was talking to about all this stuff) one of them rolled down the window and flashed a peace sign and said "See you later 80's" like i'm some crazy old dirty hippy. Do i look like and old hippy? I sure hope not. Man but i can't believe i feel so old at 19. And the thing is i'm just going to get older. Damn.

All in all i'm the glad the kids feel like talking to someone about this. It just seems like if they go this alone it will spell serious trouble if they don't get help.

Ok we've reached the end and to sum up everything; Utah, Big mountains, driving in a car sucks, Annelisa very cool, next time caves, kids scary, popsicle stick Yankee stadium, i'm old. Till next time folks.
posted by Clifford @ 1:40 PM

Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Art is art until people find something they like
Alrighty then. Time for the thought of the day:

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach."
--Anne Morrow Lindbergh

In lieu of the typical picture of the day, I put up a link to this because of an amazing commercial I saw directed by Spike Jonze. Just today I was just spacing out as usual, when it popped up on TV and really struck a nerve. Something about it struck me as a rare form of beauty... maybe the breathtaking music (sung by Karen O. of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) helped a little too. Too bad it was sort of ruined by the fact that they were selling a shoe with a computer inside. Now it's weird thinking that a commercial is a medium of art but then again art can be anywhere or anything. I'm not up for much of debate on what is art because this is not my field of expertise per se, although I think art is kind of the thing that if you like a certain piece then you care about it, if not you shouldn't spend two more seconds thinking anymore about it because there is better things to do in life than put down someone's work. Just my two and a half cents.

Spectacular Adidas Commerical

Now after you've seen that aren't you just pining to get that song. Well I had a heck of time finding it but luckily I tracked it down just for you my loyal fans. As I mentioned before the song is sung by Karen O. of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, written by Squeak E. Clean, and is called "Hello Tomorrow". The quality is so so as it is probably ripped from the commercial itself. Enjoy!
posted by Clifford @ 4:07 PM

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Now for a closer look at what caught the guy's eye. Which reminds me of a very great night last night. As I alluded to in an earlier post we had some crazy things go on at the Ye Ol' Imperial Arms. Now it all started simply enough, Noah and I playing mover while Katie stood around and watched us bring up her new couch. But then Noah got all snarky about the length of his hair. So to illustrate how much there was Katie put him in pigtails. Oh but it didn't stop there. She then put on a whole lotta makeup including some very bright red lipstick, mascara, and other crap. Wish I had pictures to show you but alas we couldn't do that to poor Noah. Plus you're just going to have to believe me he looks like a very respectable man/woman/thing in one of Katie's blue summery dresses. Haha good times. I guess this isn't a good post as you had to be there. Maybe some other time we can convince him to do it again. Best thing was that we didn't even have to bribe him or anything... perhaps he leads a secret life and enjoys the putting on lipstick ala Steve Buscemi in Billy Madison.
posted by Clifford @ 1:31 PM

Well time for the thought of the day, which will be short and sweet as I just woke up and have no capacity for typing. Now starts a series of interesting record sleeves.
posted by Clifford @ 1:29 PM

Monday, March 28, 2005
Thought of the day - Mon. 3/28
Well I bring you the thought of the day. It's by one good ol' Billy Shakespeare because I know how much you missed me.

"How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen, What old December's bareness everywhere!"

And to further exploit the whole Christmas theme I give you the song of the day... "A town called Malice" by Jam off the Billy Elliot soundtrack. Confession... I lied. This song has nothing to do with Christmas but what the hey, Clinton got off with waaaaaaay worse so i'm sure you can forgive me. Ok so not a very good joke. I'll just stop now before I pull something.
posted by Clifford @ 11:54 PM

I'm back!!!!!!!!
And with a mother truckin vengeance! Things have been happening today and some stuff happened last week so time to fill you in my babies.

Had an alright spring break, all spent in Salem. For the most part it was uneventful because that is of course the m.o. of our fair city. I'm used to that and so is everyone raised there and if you expect something to happen when then you're in for a whole lot of jack crap. But I was disappointed because some of our friends weren't really in the spirit of doing things which makes Salem tolerable. But one night we (Katie, Archie, Issac, and myself) ambled up to Best Rd. on one of the rare nights that is was raining and cold. We sure did have a great time because it was windy, wet, muddy, hay... just good times and hot chocolate at 5:30 in the morning.

I also watched "The Incredibles", "Dave", "Finding" Neverland", and part of "Fried Green Tomatoes" all fine movies. I love movies but more and more I realize I that I may be spending too much time vegging out to them. If you think about the countless hours you spend sitting watching a screen for two hours without much human interaction it will astound you. I also may have stumbled on the thought that i spend too much time thinking about how much time i spend watching movies.

Started work today... sort of. We just had a meeting, filled out paperwork, and talked about the forthcoming track season. As expected our bosses put Emily and I together so you can expect North Salem to represent!!! We're brining the ghetto to Beaverton, Oregon... at twelve dollars an hour. Although I did get news that the soccer program may be in trouble as no one signed up!!! Argggh that's what I'm looking forward to the most. I'll be the first one to admit that soccer is a million times better than track because IT'S A GAME!

Well this quite the lengthy update and there is more to tell but one is about Noah, haircut, and Katie's dress.
posted by Clifford @ 11:39 PM

Friday, March 25, 2005
Portland
Well kiddies I am back to Portland for a short while just taking a
break while Katie goes around and looks for an apartment. I think we
have found one btw, a studio real close to Safeway. It's much bigger
than the Paladin studio and well worth the price considering it's on
the park blocks. But Katie doesn't want to rush into it though as this
is a big decision. Anyways it's good to be back for whatever time I am
here. Nice and fast computer.... I enjoy it. Well back to having fun.
Later goobers.
-Clifford
P.S. Won a buck in Poker last night... woooo!
posted by Clifford @ 1:26 PM

Sunday, March 20, 2005
Hey citizens
Well as you may venture by the vast changes to my website i'm still in
Salem. Not much ado here but hey that is the way life rolls sometimes.
Did get a mixtape done so that was a good 2 hours spent. Now back to
the couch for some fine TV.
-clifford
posted by Clifford @ 6:30 PM

Friday, March 18, 2005
Hey all you in la-la land
Well i'm in Salem for now so there aren’t going to be many updates...
maybe a few e-mail ones here in there. But hopefully something fun and
exciting will happen so that i can fill you in.
-clifford
posted by Clifford @ 2:10 PM

Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Super Yeah!
An update on my spring break... I just ate a Strawberry Charleston Chew. It was good, i thought you might want to know.
posted by Clifford @ 1:34 PM

My big and wonderful spring break...
Finally... spriiiiiiiiiinnnng breeeeeeak. I can now get around to doing more what I do most... sitting around on my BIG FAT BUTT. Yeah I said it... B-U-T-T. Although things are looking up. Noah is doing some movie or what not and he asked me to be an extra for it today so i'm waiting for his call. I get to be a goon which is cool because it combines my love of fighting and my love of... goonery? Tomorrow the film is coming to me as they will be filming some scenes in both my and noah's room. I think my room will be a hotel or something (big stretch seeing as the building used to be a hotel) and noah's will be the detective's office. After that my spring break will be pretty much devoid of activity. So if anyone has money you are more than welcome to fly me out to wherever you live so I can party with you like it's 1999. And check this out... I even have like 10 bucks so that when we go out and eat I can pay for like 2 meals... maybe, because i'm a big tipper. Well stay tuned for more on exciting developments of this fab spring break of '05 as they come.
posted by Clifford @ 1:33 PM

Thought of the day - 3/16 - Wed.

Well today is the day. I've run out of sticky note comics and must unfortunately move on. But fear not peons, i've got plenty of art to share with the world. Today will be the beginning of a series of traditional art from Russian fairytales. Methinks they're puuuurty. Here's a quote about art; "Why do you try to understand art? Do you try to understand the song of a bird?" -Pablo Picasso

And on that note today's song of the day is by The Coral, "Dreaming of you."
posted by Clifford @ 1:13 PM

Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Thought of the day - 3/15 - Tuesday

Missed a day but it's not the end of the world, as good old Conan would say, "Be cool my babies."

Update on the stuff I talked about the other day I want you to read this quote and think about it... "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." - Mother Teresa. Sometimes i'm too quick to judge which is a flaw about being human but the thing isit's best to give friends the benefit of the doubt because there are no others like them in the world. Feeling the zen right now.

If you hadn't noticed but the song of the day for today is the classic Biz Markie tune "Just a friend". Peace out amigos!
posted by Clifford @ 9:39 PM

Sunday, March 13, 2005
Thought of the day - Sunday 3/13

Ok time to annouce some changes with the whole thought/song of the day feature here at the Wonderful world o' magic. First off as you may already have seen I am now adding the day and date of the thought of the day to make it easier to find later when you are searching through the archives. I will also start adding qoutes that may or may not be relavent to the picture. I don't art is subjective and these are doodles but i'm jus trying to give this stuff a wee bit more substance. Also usually the song of the day is a newer song that you may or may not have heard but know that in the future i'm going to switch it up a little bit and give some oldies but goodies. The thing is the reason i've had the song of the day is so that you can get a peek into what i like to listen to. Even maybe build a playlist so that anytime i visit you can play me my music as opposed to that disco crap i still hear that you are spinning. Disco is dead my friends. But seriously go visit www.tinymixtapes.com because you can look at other people's ultimate mixtapes for all sorts of occasions. Which is the reason for this whole rant. As for today's song it's "End of the movie" by Cake off their album "Pressure Chief".
posted by Clifford @ 2:31 PM

Blogging and the sorts.
My what a busy end of the week. Things happen and happen and I just ignore informing you about it but that is ok. I see a pattern developing much like the previous time i blogged. I GET LAZY! Then i just kind of give up on the site. But for now I can promise you a t least one more entry. Tomorrow is a day and who know i may have found something cooler to do by then.

As for what is going on en mi vida. Let's start with the cooking expo i went to last night. My sister has been a busy bee recently. She's on the lacrosse team, was just in a play, and has been preparing for months for this cook off. Well yesterday was the big day where some 30 high schools showed up at the Oregon Convention center ready to wow the judges. Unfortunately problems arose. My poor sister who had been cooking the same cheesecake for the past 17 days, once a day, everyday has some problems arise with it. Now from what I saw it looked cool but apparently it was not or something. But then again i like to cook ramen for breakfast, lunch, and dinner so what do I know. I still think my sister's is the best and i'll sock anyone in th mouth who says otherwise. (p.s. I don't like cheesecake)

Then we were treated to a superb banquet where they served both chicken and salmon. Yessssss! Except for the salmon. I traded my mom for her chicken which i wolfed down after spending a couple minutes trying to figure out which fork i should use. Ooooo and they had some awesome mashed potatoes to go with it. Good eating even though we had to sit through an award ceremony which interrupted my gorging every two seconds. But don't worry I managed to get all down.

Some other highlights from the event... I saw Ms. Scialo and the North kids. I only recognized one of them, the buggy eyed redhead... you can never forget a face like that. As for North they tied for the best entree... wooo wooo! Our guv (who Marcus and I have met even though we did not know each other) Teddy K gave a speech. And last but not least we sat at the table with the Student of the Year... Ms. What's Her face. But she got a nice set of knives. I was more interested in the metal briefcase ti came in. But anyhoo.

Then my sister and me mam's stayed the night and I took my sister for a night out on the town with Noah, aka we went to Voodoo Doughnuts. As we got there we were approached by a one eyed man who told us where we got our shoes and ever more impressive what city and what street we got them on. All he wanted was some help to buy some generic cleaner from Safeway for his fake eye. Now i thought this would be a great experience for Audrey who lives in Salem and never sees anything like this. Well after going through all the hub bub of trying to make us promise to give him money he takes a couple looks at Audrey's and finally says "You got your shoes on your feet, on 3rd St., and in the City of Portland." My jaw dropped the guy because it was true. Anyways Noah and I each gave him 2 dollars but we both admitted later that we didn't want to give the guy any money. My theory is the fact that he had one eye and I couldn't stop staring. The thing is about something like that is it's on the fact so i'm not being rude or anything because i'm looking him in the fae when he talks. You could even say i'm looking him in the eye... socket. Ok enough of that. Onto Voodoo... my sister liked it... 'nuff said about that. Although interesting note we went to Safeway later that evening where we bumped into Ira but did not see Mr. One Eye... hmmm...

Our plans to move into the house fell apart. Noah had called it a while ago. I really wanted the house and all this time with everyone waffling i never thought it would come and breakdown like this. To say the least i'm very disappointed. Thing is since then I haven't been one to really talk to anyone (save one person) because this was going to be so coolest thing ever and it's hard to belive that friends would bail like this. In thie defense i haven't given them a fair shake to the others because i haven't talked to them, so Amanda (cause i know you'll read this) I want to talk and everyone else, but ill let you know when.

i had a real deep talk with my branch president today. We've discussed going on a mission and what i need to do to prepare for it. But finally i'm getting some action on it as he is going to talk with someone about me. Also we went more in-depth about everything about me and today i really felt the spirit and the lord's purpose working. plus my eyes got watery... it's truly allergy season. The thing is it's one of the few times i've bared my inner thoughts and feelings with someone and it's just such an overwhelming thing to do so.

now i don't know who exactly reads this or what not and i'm not trying to convert anyone but the thing is i've been blessed to have a taste of both worlds so to speak. there is the world of religion, god, and the church and there is the world of man, desire, real life. i've been blessed on many occasions with the the knowledge of god . that there is a purpose and that there is a god. i've seen it in his works such as the book of Mormon which i believe is a true testament. i've seen it in the spirit of those who are really humble and truly follow the lord. i've seen it in the comfort and reassurance that came over me when i chose to go on a mission to serving god and his people. there is so much i want to say right now but i find no words for them.

I leave you with the fact that i know the truth is out there (ala X-Files) is some form or another and it comes in many different shapes and forms for everyone. Keep searching and someday somehow you'll find it. The only thing that will stop you is fear.

And I quote "Life is about fear. The way you handle it is how you define yourself as a person." -Clifford Eiffler-Rodriguez

You'll come back now you hear!
posted by Clifford @ 1:19 PM

Saturday, March 12, 2005
Thought of the day - Saturday 3/12

You know the drill. This is the thought of the day... and as for the song of the day we've got the Stills and their song "Retour Vega"
posted by Clifford @ 9:22 PM

Friday, March 11, 2005
Thought of the day. Yeah so I downloaded the trailer to "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" last night. Frickin' awesome. And the ending!!! With Darth Vader in all his glory... ahhhh. Yes I admit it... I AM A NERD
posted by Clifford @ 4:32 PM

Thursday, March 10, 2005
Some rambling...
If you read the one comment I have, someone asks whether I understand the thought of the day pictures myself. Well I don't really put those up for any thought. I put them up for mainly some filler, because they are neat, little whimsical pictures that I came across. But for the sake of killing some time let's try to interpret some of them. Today's, with the person floating away is about not getting to carried away with your thoughts... get it? Then the mountain one is appropriate because we need to fear and respect the awesome force that we live by and that is Mt. Saint Helens, which has killed before and may very well kill again. The tree one is about the relation of humans and nature and the pain that nature experiences, and the tree is screaming out to vent some frustration... which is perfectly normal for a tree. Ok I need to get a life. Basically I just sat here trying to kill time in my pathetic life... and I succeeded for about... 5 minutes. Yay
posted by Clifford @ 11:56 AM

Incidentally the song of the day is "Send me on my way" by Rusted Root. And for those of you in the know it was featured on the Matilda soundtrack... good song.
posted by Clifford @ 9:55 AM

Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Song of the day is "Unconditional" by the Bravery. If you have forgotten where to find the song of the day just look to your left <--- Under my name and where I live. Last time i'll remind you... I swear.
posted by Clifford @ 10:46 AM

Shut up your butt
Well, well, if you haven't already heard Mt. Saint Helens erupted last night spewing ash 36,000 feet in the air (WARNING: you are now learning). According to the geologists that kept getting on the news last night this is actually a small explosion compared to the 1908 eruption but in relative terms to what has been happening since the fall it is bigger in scale. The last eruption could only make it 13,000 feet in the air...

As for what it was like here, I was going to my soccer tournament and it was a nice clear day, then bam this gorgeous cloud, I almost ran in to tell the girls because it was so cool then I noticed all the people on the bridge just staring. this was big and then I recalled that it was the Saint Helens on a clear day such as it was was in that direction.... Anyways suffice to say that i got the girls and Amanda was able to to take some decent pictures.

Portland State lost last night... dang. But there is a chance that we can make it to the NIT which is the tournament for those who aren't good enough to be included in the NCAA tournament field of 65 teams. Oregon and Oregon St are going to be there... they should be embarrassed but as for us, it's a big step up considering we play in a gym that is a lot like North's size.

We won our playoff game last night. 17 to 4. It was no contest really as even I scored twice and assisted on another. But we lost our semifinal game at 8 by the score of 6 to 8. I'm no so disappointed for the game as i am for the fact that my team kind of broke down at the end. Some of the guys were looking for whistles from the ref, and just kind of stop playing as hard as they had been. An example was Colin got fouled, muttered a WTF, but kept dribbling and playing. He got the call he was looking for. But there were numerous instances where players would stand around and complain and the Persian team took advantage and scored. Ah well pretty good end to my soccer career.... I guess.

My piano final is on Friday and my recital on the following Thursday... must cram... piano... crap...
posted by Clifford @ 10:23 AM

Life Poster
I made a life poster. As I said yesterday it only cost me 75 cents to make it in black and white at Kinko's It kinda sucks and kinda rules at the same time. First the fact that I made it, actually more the fact that I can make it is cool. But with black and white posters they print it on butcher paper, albeit nice butcher paper. Plus some of the photos don't quite come out in black and white, which would be ok if it was glossy, oh how I wish it was a glossy poster. But then again for a 3 square foot poster (which is the size of mine) it would have cost a cool 30 dollars to make had I chose color... yeah black and white is good enough for now.

The Portland State Vikings play tonight, take that you hookers of other colleges who's teams are not playing for a chance to go to the NCAA Final Four tourney.

Yesterday was such a nice day, as today seems to be think I may venture to the other side of the highway to see what house accommodations they have available, 'cause I'm feeling lucky today.

Song of the day, a request by a certain someone; The Stills, "Yesterday never knows tomorrow". Be sure to remember to rename the mp3 file if you are *gasp* downloading it for keeps.
posted by Clifford @ 9:58 AM

Monday, March 07, 2005
Song of the day
Today we have Modest Mouse's "Bankrupt on selling" which is a moving song. Apparently Marcus used to play this little ditty at parties, go Marcus!

P.S. Just word to the wise, when you click on the song of the day it will open up a box for you to either download it or just open it, then it will launch your favorite music player. I'll work on maybe making a variety of songs available to download with one click.
posted by Clifford @ 11:10 AM

Sunday, March 06, 2005
Arrested Development
Ohhh you show where have you gone? I love Arrested Development but ever since winter break where I consumed the first season and the beginning of the second one it just hasn't been the same. I still like it but I don't adore it. So that is what's going on with my life. I slave away at the mighty keyboard, pondering my connection with a TV show, yay me.
I'm working on writing music. By the way, Annelisa, Archie said that he may come up some day, so that bodes well for your song.
Ciao amigos.
posted by Clifford @ 11:11 PM

Musak is the window to the soul...
Isn't it annoying to spell the word, music, as musak. I'm a butthole.
I've decided to add music in the background of the site, i don't know if i'll have a song a day or a song a week. It's not too hard to add a song a day but I suppose it could get annoying because everything else about this site is hands off. If I wanna post I can send it through an e-mail, if I want a picture I press a button.
Let's vote on it. I wouldn't mind putting on a different song a day, so now the ball is in your court. P.S. The music only works on Internet Explorer, which blows because everyone I know uses Firefox, well except for Noah (I hear he has communist sympathies and ties to Red Russia), but we'll get it up and running soon enough. I did get it to work in Firefox by making it a downloadable...
Also I missed church today dang nab it. Stayed up until 4 something because I couldn't sleep and neither could bubblebutt so We watched "Animal House" and about 20 minutes of a informercial hosted by Roger Daltry of the Who... good music I just wish he would shut his yapper and let the music just play man. I have soccer Tuesday, it's the playoffs, we got to win. We aren't the cohesive team we were last term, but it think we can pull it off. Although if we win Tuesday it'll mean I'll miss a chance to PSU stick it to the man and go to the NCAA Final Four tourney.
posted by Clifford @ 12:19 PM

Saturday, March 05, 2005
Ok so...
I am bored... yeah that's it. Wadda you expect. I'm going to take a
nap now. Siento abandonado.
posted by Clifford @ 8:55 PM

Archie
Probably the awesomest guy in the world... although he is a weiner for not coming to Portland like everyday. Archie's musak is also inspired. Look for his new album to drop; whenever he feels like it. Yeah, it's like that.
posted by Clifford @ 5:55 PM