raising heller

hello. my name is steven, and i’m an early adopter.

if you haven’t seen the most recent episode of modern family, do yourself a favor and check it out. check out this scene, it’s one of my favorites (it will probably be up for a limited time so check it out while you can).

words

this is a sad post for me. let me first start off by way of explanation. we have 2 dogs that have been part of our family since shortly after jana and i were married. the first dog we got was a white chihuahua/jack russell terrier mix. that’s roxy quiksilver. a couple months later, we were worried that roxy was lonely so we bought a black chihuahua. morgan le fay. fast forward about 8 or 9 years later. roxy is a pretty normal dog, while morgan has a lot of quirks. she has snaggly teeth, she’s gone blind, she has a propensity for escaping the back yard and she’s extremely frightened of high pitched noises. she’s escaped several times but she usually just goes around to the front yard and hangs out by the front door. a few times we’ve found her wandering up the street, but we live in a pretty quiet neighborhood and she always comes back.

Read more…

words

i haven’t felt the desire to blog lately but since i saw this today, i thought i would share it. I can’t wait! enjoy!

jana's journal

i haven’t felt the desire to blog lately but since i saw this today, i thought i would share it. I can’t wait! enjoy!

jana's journal

warning to parents: you can probably tune this one out…

musically speaking, i’ve had 2 experiences that fundamentally changed my life (once again, musically speaking). the 2nd was sitting in melissa garriott’s car. she told me she had an album that i just HAD to hear. i can’t tell you the number of times that i’ve heard that only to be met with some crap that i knew i would soon forget. she threw in fevers and mirrors by bright eyes. after getting over the shock of just how good this music was, i remember thinking, ‘oh man, this changes everything.’ and it did. for a while, at least, until bright eyes (and conor oberst) went to crap.

the first experience occurred about 12 or so years ago. a fairly new found friend of mine, ethan smith, introduced me to pedro the lion. well, he told me about pedro the lion. i never actually heard them. but he swore that i would like it. ethan seemed to have some musical creditability so based on his suggestion i bought their debut album, it’s hard to find a friend. once again, after a couple of listenings i was hooked in a BIG way. i knew that this album was going to be in my personal rotation for years to come. the band continued to release albums (and i’ve loved each one) but recently disbanded. the singer, david bazan, continued to release solo material. this wasn’t a big deal as bazan wrote all of the music for the band (which was just a constant rotation of his friends) anyway.

i’ve been heavily into his newest release, curse your branches. thematically, it’s pretty heavy as it’s about bazan becoming disenfranchised with modern Christianity and questioning all that he was brought up to believe. that having been said, it’s a GREAT album. in support of the album he’s been touring, but in between tours he’s been playing these small house shows. they sell a max of 40 tickets and it’s usually in a large living room or some other very intimate setting. well, i saw that one of his upcoming house shows was in renton, wa, our town. i knew i couldn’t resist seeing him on home turf so i bought tickets for jana and i. apparently not a lot of people like to make the trip to renton as we were among about 14 other people that were there at the show. i set up a camera (Canon 5D Mark II) and shot another angle with a hand held camera (Canon T1i) and managed to catch the whole show. i’m really happy with how it turned out. i’m posting it here for your enjoyment (or curiosity).

videos, words

so, to those unaware, i was in a band called sir jackson and the long ride for a while. we were incredible. below are several videos (10 in total) from a house party that we played.

this is the band that we played with at that party called the loose. these guys are AMAZING.

videos

just sing it and feel it. you know you want to…

not sure if this is an official music video or not, but it should be. i’m sure it’s not, but i want to give props to whoever did this and the fact that they chose the perfect font for this video.

music of the week, videos

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.

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:

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!

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