My New Guitar

That's a Gretsch G5120 in Black. I'll probably swap out the cheap pickups for some TV Jones "TV Classic" or "Power'Tron" pickups, which are standard nowadays on Gretsch guitars, but were one of the things cut when they put this guitar together to cut the price. It's a good starter Gretsch, but I can't sacrifice sound quality. Perhaps later I'll go with a Nashville, but I know I'm definitely getting one or more of their solid bodies, like the Corvette. Goddamn they can design a guitar. Beautiful.

A little history about TV Jones pickups: They went into a '59 Gretsch, whose pickups are called "Filter'Tron", fully analyzed all the electronics, and made their TV Classic after it. They seem like a sweet company, plus they have an upgrade guide made specifically for the guitar I got, the Electromatic. That's here. I'll probably keep in the original humbuckers for at least a little while though. Pictures of mine to come soon!

Quitting Smoking, Take 734

Still going strong from Sunday at around 3pm. Still fighting off monster urges at the pace of about 3 daily. Usually in the morning, sometimes right after lunch or not until about an hour before it's time to leave work (usually because I'm antsy just to get out of there too), and usually one as I'm going to bed.

They are monster urges, like the song "What I Got" by Sublime, I'm gonna die if I don't get a cigarette. These are monster in every sense of the word. I tried with just willpower and mind diversion (thinking of something else), but the nerves in my body still say "Will you just go get a f@#%ing pack of smokes already, a@#%hole?" No, f@#%#@er! :P I don't like my body so you'd think I'd fill it with bad stuff like cigarettes, but I'm not smoking just to spite it. Mofo.

Craving a cigarette is brutal. You can't concentrate, sit still, or really think about anything else. When you're thirsty, really thirsty, you have to get a drink right now. You notice, "Goddamn I'm thirsty", and rather than trying to think of something else or ignore the need, you just go get water. It's the same when you're addicted to smoking. Only slightly worse for you.

It's really the hardest thing to do ever. Even if you manage to quit, you'll remember how good it was to smoke. I know a guy who smoked for 20 years, that quit 30 years ago and still has dreams about smoking. That's my fate, probably. It's so good, but my will power is pretty good this time. My thinking (and I would recommend this thinking to anyone) is that if I smoke now, I'll feel really good but then I'll be smoking again and will feel like crap in a few days. And if I keep off of them, I'll feel really good for a long time, but a slightly different kind of good. I can't smoke anymore, either. I never feel like doing anything. It blows.

During those monster urges, I'll hold off on doing anything about them for a bit because I like feeling my heart beating really hard, begging for a cigarette :P Then, I'll just breath really deep for a while, and if it's not gone then I know it's a monster urge. So then I'll pop in a nicotine lozenge. I can't even describe how bad nicotine urges are, so you just have to take my word for it.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to keep this up. I'm going to the Eagles game on Sunday, maybe I'll be off of the lozenges and not craving cigs at all, and can drink and not smoke all day long :) That would be the best. Wish me luck!

What's a gamer to do

It's been a few weeks since my last confession. McNabb sucks. I watched a documentary called "Maxed Out" that I think should be part of High School education (of course, it'll never be if the banks still have all the money). I bought about 8 games in the past two weeks and have spent the most time playing Civilization IV. Can't help it. I'm finally quitting smoking. Tonight, after two days, I've had major urges, but unlike previous attempts in the past month or so where I just went out and bought smokes, I haven't caved and still haven't popped in a nicotine pill to rid the craving. But I'm not craving anymore. That's a step. Still can't drink and not smoke, so no drinking for me anymore. Maybe I'll exercise. I was at the St. Joe's game tonight. They played Ball State, and on average, everyone on St. Joe's was about 6 inches taller than the guy they were defending. Ball State was a small team, but they looked really good. Small, quick, of course, good shooters, great passers, pesky defenders. St. Joe's won though, coach Martelli learned a few tricks from watching me on the playground. You're welcome. That and god damn his team can shoot three pointers. 74 points total, about 54 from 3 pointers, and around 6 from two pointers, the rest free throws. Gotta check the stats, but that can't be too far off. Here's Ball State's coverage. And SJU's.