There comes a time in every man's life....

Nearly beaten
Originally uploaded by TheIndieKid.

...when he must face challenges set forth to him by God. Or something like that. A lot of people have been asking recently how I got so jacked. I think this picture accurately describes the bulking up process.

-Three years ago now, my family had several trees cut down in the woods behind our house. Instead of paying for somebody to take the remains away, my dad made them leave the cut sections of the trees in a huge pile behind our shed. And we left them there.....until two months ago, when I finally got around to making use of the logs. Using a sledgehammer and a wedge, I've been splitting these logs into smaller logs that will fit into our fireplace come winter.

But today something different happened. I inserted my favored wedge into the biggest log I could find.....when it was nearly all the way in and the log hadn't split, I began to worry. No matter how hard I hit the damn thing with the sledgehammer, I could not split the log. So I took out my other wedge. You can see how well that went for me; it's peeking out of the bottom of the log there. Of course, the happy ending is that I was eventually able to split the log into several manageable pieces. (Flickr for final result) This stuff is hard work...hence the muscular build-up.

It would be pretty boring, I imagine, and much more lumberjack-esque, if I didn't have my iPod with me when I do this stuff. Heck, even when I'm mowing the lawn, I listen to my music. This was my first chance to listen to the Canada-import of The Planet Smashers- Unstoppable, and I'm sad to say that I am very disappointed. They were billed as the next big thing in ska....and I should have heard that and ran. Every song is standard ska affair- trumpets, beer lyrics, rebellion....I don't know if it's because I already have Goldfinger and Reel Big Fish, but this stuff is boring. Ironically, the only non-ska song on the album, "Looking For a Cure," is by far the best song on it. If this was the corner-song of a niche Indie Rock band, I'd say they would go far. But, instead, it's the oddball piece on an altogether forgettable album. When this gets released Stateside on July 2nd....don't buy it.

EDIT- So I go into Cosco to check out some aviators for my glasses-less eyes, and as I try them on, my mom remarks to me "But James, they're so big." Cue cameo entrance of never-before-seen girl. Cue completely random comment: "Yeah, but they're so hot." Cue exit of now-seen-and-never-forgotten girl. If you're out there- sweet timing. You completely freaked my mom out.