raising heller

i used to be in this band, sir jackson and the long ride, and while i’m not trying to boast, we were pretty good. if you click here and then click on “Music” at the top of the page you can download all 5 glorious tracks of our E.P., “from now on, you answer to me”. sir jackson was one of those bands that, not unlike buddy holly or richie valens, was extinguished much too young. to this day nate and i will call each other up with a new sir jackson tune that the world needs to hear. alas, it can never happen. well, a couple months ago, nate called me up with a tune that he wrote called “death word”. we both agreed that it needed to be recorded so that the masses could once again hear the fury that was sir jackson and the long ride. so, over the last couple months, here in the heller studios (or, lucky laboratories, as i call them) i’ve been putting nate’s vision to digital “tape” as it were. and with his ear on board, we’ve created another tune that we’re proud to add to the sir jackson and the long ride catalogue. enjoy the tune below.

p.s. – for those of you unfamiliar with sir jackson, i should tell you that our sound was what i like to call garage/surf rock (though we were definitely moving more towards a garage/surf/metal sound). everything was instrumental. no vocals minus the occasional screams (i can take credit for those) and between song banter/rock talk at live shows. so, if you’re waiting for the lyrics to kick in, you’ll be waiting a while. we didn’t just forget them.

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download here.

p.p.s. – bonus points if you can tell me what song i sampled that opening bell from.

music of the week, steven's side project

asher’s always been a curious boy. if he sees something that he deems interesting, he’s quick to dive in. not really a “look before you leap” kind of kid. the other day i was home alone with him while jana was out with lily and jack. he was watching a show while i was on the computer. he quietly snuck upstairs. i (incorrectly) assumed that he was just playing in his room. turns out, he was playing in our bathroom with some hair stuff. surf hair, if you’re curious. i walked in on him trying to wipe it all off with a towel. it was pretty awesome. then this morning, the kids were playing downstairs while we were still in bed. asher found some lipstick (i still have no clue where he got it as jana doesn’t really wear lipstick) and tried to make like a clown. check it all out:

[View with PicLens]

 

words

so, i’ve known for quite some time now that i need to start working out (holiday lbs, desk job lbs, etc…). because of some recent changes in my schedule, i now have the time and desire (read: jana’s subtle encouragement) to get the job done. i’ve decided to do P90X. for those of you unfamiliar with P90X, it’s pretty much the system that really kicks your a**. there’s no shortcuts or tricks. you just do the system the best that you can for 90 days and reap the rewards. i’ve also decided that for me to really be successful with this thing, i need to blog about it so that everyone will know about it and help hold me accountable. i will be posting an accounting of my week every friday with a short, day-by-day report of how the week went. so, without further ado…

monday, jan, 11th – day 01 – core synergistics – this workout is supposed to work your core. it did. i hurt. and if i hurt now, i can’t imagine what it will feel like tomorrow. P.S. – opening weight before starting the program: 215.5 lbs.  ughhhhhhh.

tuesday, jan, 12th – day 02 – cardio x -i’m sweating bad. or good. i guess it depends on your perspective.

wednesday, jan, 13th – day 03 – shoulders & arms – this one felt good. typing this is difficult right now as my arms feel like jelly, but it hurts good.

thursday, jan, 14th – day 04 – yoga x -by far, the hardest workout so far. unfortunately, it was a lot longer than i had anticipated (90 minutes!) and i had to cut it short since i had work to do. i’m not sure i could have finished it anyway.

friday, jan, 15th – day 05 – legs & back -this one was a fun one. it hurt, but i didn’t feel totally wasted at the end. don’t get me wrong, i was sore in all the right places but, once again, it hurt good.

so, there we have it. my first week with P90X. well, i still have to workout tomorrow, but i’ll include that in next week’s report. wish me luck!

words

so, i’ve been a pretty devout user of dropbox for quite sometime now and felt like i wanted to write about it since it’s quite easily one of the best services i’ve used in a LONG time. dropbox is an online storage solution that lets you store your data in the cloud. but the really cool feature i9s it’s ability tro sync with multiple machines. if you have 2 machines and they’re both running dropbox, you can easily set it up so that folderts between the 2 stay in sync. so if you put a file in your dropbox folder in machine 1, it will immediately show up on machine 2, and vice versa. there’s also a public folder. you can drop files in the public folder and if you want to send them to anybody, just right-click on the flder and choose “copy public link”. you will now have a link that you can email to somebody and they can just click on it to download the file from the dropbox server. this makes it SO much easier to send files to people. no more annoying email attachments.

the dropbox account is free and gives you 2 gig of space to use for your personal storage. check it out by clicking in the link below. plus, yoiu can always upgrade to more space if you want for a small fee. alos, you get an extra 250meg of space for every person that you refer. so, when you click on the link below, you’re also helping me grow a little bit. in all sincerity,  i’ve been using it for a long time and have found it invaluable.

https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTMwMjE2Nzk

words

as some of you may know, jana and i have been working on recording a bunch of  songs for an upcoming E.P. well, in preparation of that, we’ve decided to release two, 2-track “micro e.p.’s” available for free download. i wanted to hand out all the relevant download information to all of you, first, the points of contact:

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cedars/284695565553

myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thecedars

twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wearethecedars

last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/%28We+Are%29+The+Cedars

And now, the music. I’ll post it here as individual mp3’s that you can both stream and download, as well as 2 zipped files for both the micro e.p.’s.

micro e.p. #1 – download here as .zip file

i hope you’re home tonight – download

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the best lover she never knew she had or the clock as my best friend/worst enemy – download

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micro e.p. #2 – download here as .zip file

go to sleep – download

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tiptoe through the tulips – download

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thanks for listening!

the cedars

conan o’brien had a “song for the mormons” on the tonight show. check it out, it’s pretty funny. be warned, you may have to watch an ad beforehand. also, keep an eye out for the mormon “tapper-nacal” choir. via @jaydmcferson.

words

(lame pic of me but it is the most recent one i have)

so my friend carrie did this on her blog a while ago and i was inspired to do the same and started this narrative (poem) but couldn’t finish it until tonight. maybe it was the glow of the christmas tree that got me going i’m not sure but here it is:

jana's journal

my friend trish (thanks) gave me this really cute fabric and i thought i would make a dress for lily. i think it turned out pretty cute. i used one of my patterns that is usually a tank dress and added a sleeve pattern from a different dress. lily wasn’t very happy with me when i took these pictures because she had to go to school while me and the boys were going to hang out with my mom, thus the no smiling in the picture. this was the happiest i could get her to look, at least she wasn’t crying in this one. i know the fabric is a bit 70’s with the huge flower print but i thought it worked.

i thought the back was really cute with the random yellow button i happened to have laying around.

jana's journal

lily was invited to a birthday party for twins in her class that she was also in preschool with last year. they are really cute and lily was really excited to go until we realized that the party was on sunday and that she couldn’t go. she was sad but when i told her that i would make them dolls she got really excited. she decided which print should go where and how the face should look. i am not sure if the girls have green eyes or not but lily insisted that they did. one of the twins has brown hair and one has blond which is why i gave them different hair. i thought they turned out pretty cute.

jackson drew this the other day then grabbed a piece of tape and put it on the wall. he then turned to me and said, “mommy, i just wanted to decorate!” i thought it was really cute.

i made this dress for lily and i actually liked how it turned out.

jana's journal

i have to say that i have been very grateful lately for how much these two love eachother. sure, they fight but they are also best friends. now that lily is gone at school every afternoon jackson and asher are having more time to spend with eachother and even though i know it makes jack a little sad to drop her off, he and asher are starting to really have fun together. the boys are starting to be a little more interested in boys things instead of always trying to do what lily wants. it is cute seeing my baby acting like a big boy doing puzzles, playing with light sabers and doing just about everything that jackson is. where does the time go???? so here is to my children loving eachother.

jana's journal