Lee Foosball Peed on My Rug

But Lee Foosball didn’t JUST pee on my rug. This kid DOMINATED it with his urine, as well as a few couch cushions. Now it’s not like this rug really tied the room together or anything. In fact the rug isn’t even mine, it’s an old roommates. But the sheer amount of liquid left in my living room was astonishing. You would need a Super Soaker for this kinda job.

And not the cheap ass knockoffs the poor kids in town had. You know, the kind that never worked and leaked more water on their poor ass little hands than they got on anyone else. You would need a top of the line bazooka soaker. The kind that comes with a strap because it’s too big for your little body. It comes with four different nozzle settings and a fuggin backpack attatchment. The kind of watergun you only got if your parents really loved you.



Anyways, at least I got a few beers out of the ordeal, but let’s go back.


I met Lee Foosball at a party over a year ago. All my friends were passed out by 2am from an early start, but I wasn’t ready to quit just yet.

[Sidebar: Early start = 11am. This is opposed to my start at 11pm.]

Now normally I would have left when I realized all the females had evacuated the premises and my friends were incapacitated. But on this night I was determined to finish off the rest of a twelve pack people were supposed to help me with. This left me to hang out with their neighbor Lee for the rest of the night in a condition hardly capable of rational thought. The next day I had blurry memories of arguing about who was better at foosball with a guy I probably wouldn’t be able to recognize, confirmed by my recent call list featuring Lee Foosball, my newest entry.

Skip forward to present day. The plan was to hit the bars with Markley when out of nowhere I get a call from Lee Foosball. I was very surprised I still had his number, and it was Markley on the line telling me which bar to hit up. After meeting Lee Foosball for what I assumed was the second time he tells a vaguely familiar story of seeing me out and exchanging numbers again, and the fact that in his phone I am Jerry Foosball. After a year in the making epic night of foosball and drinking the three of us left our group and walked back to my house. Convenient since I live only a few minutes from the campus bars, especially since it was raining.

At this point Markley is too drunk to make decisions, but needs to be up and on his way to work at 7:30 in the morning. Despite wanting to walk home it is pouring rain at this point so they decide to crash in the living room. For some peculiar reason I find Lee setting up to sleep on the floor. I try to convince him we have two couches but he insists. Too drunk to care at this point, I figure if he wants to sleep on the dirty floor that bad then who was I to stand in his way.

Waking up a few hours later to make sure Markley will get to work on time I open my door to find Lee sprawled out on my floor in his underwear with his pants around his ankles lying on a body sized backing cushion and a seat cushion. Confused, I slowly close my door and go back to bed. The last thing I wanted to see at that point was a half naked grown man dryhump in his sleep. The next time I wake up Lee and Markley are gone, but the cushions on the floor look a little bit darker. My sleuthing skills quickly confirm that it is definitely piss, but the sheer amount of it was unholy.

This was no ordinary piss. It seemed inhuman that this amount of liquid be expunged from just one person. The rug itself should have been more than enough, but to soak through two giant cushions as well? I swear the kid must have pissed himself multiple times throughout the night.

Txt to Markley: Im pretty sure Lee wet himself last night

Markley: hahahaha ha I know! u goin 2 pennies?

Txt from Lee Foosball two days later at 5:46am: Sry bout floor gdttin all pissed up, but thtas why I dint want to slep on the couch and that jazz

According to Markley this guy is a known Whiz Kid. I’ve known a few people like this in fact. When they drink too much anything and everything can become a toilet, and their inebriated consciousness often makes the most bizarre choices on how to take care of this bodily function. No harm done since it wasn’t my couch or rug, and I will be moving out soon. Plus Lee Foosball bought my beers pretty much all night last time we were out. Certainly not the strangest case I know of someone completely shitfaced not knowing how to use a bathroom, but it sure was an interesting second impression of Lee Foosball.

The Bird and the Bee

The Bird and the Bee have a new CD being released today! Here is a small sample of their talent. The video was directed by Eric Wareheim from Adult Swims Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job. This explains the oddly hilarious nature of the video.





Inara George’s vocals bring something fresh and unique to the electronic pop scene. I find her solo work also extremely interesting.

Sidebar: As a music major I am tired of people incessantly trying to recommend their favorite bands. Certain songs or artists strike people a certain way, and this just happens to be exactly what I wanted right now. So I’ll skip the pitch and hyped up description of their music and let you figure it out for yourself. Check ‘em out if you're interested.


The Bird and the Bee

Inara George (Recommend ‘Fools Work’ ‘Turn On/Off’)

Alman – Robert Johnson

Here’s a short clip of me practicing the piece Alman by Robert Johnson in the spring of ’06 for an upcoming recital.





Not great, mostly just adequate. The best part was finishing classical guitar study and not having to take lessons or perform recitals anymore. To be a music major at Ball State you need to have a primary instrument. They don’t offer electric guitar or even jazz guitar so classical is the only option.

I have a lot of respect for the classical guitar as an instrument, and even more for those who dedicate themselves to the discipline. It is one of the most naked instruments in my opinion, and demands a high level of proficiency. The attention to detail regarding technique in every day practice is often extremely subtle, and it really takes a great teacher to learn how to properly play the instrument.

Classical guitar study was more a means to a degree in audio engineering, curiously combined with the school of music. I was never passionate about classical guitar or the literature. There was never much dedication to practice and put the amount of time it takes to truly perform the instrument. I did however do well enough to pass my guitar jury and achieve junior standing.

What I did take away from classical study was a deeper understanding of how to practice an instrument. With a greater understanding of the attention to detail regarding technique I am poised to apply what I learned to electric guitar technique, which is actually completely different. Fortunately the musical study of the instrument is the same so all the scales, arpeggios, and chords I spent hours learning still apply!

Guitar and Music Theory Lessons

There have been a few requests from family, friends, and students to post guitar lessons on this blog and on YouTube. I teach guitar lessons at Ball State, but also have friends and cousins that are trying to learn as well. My credentials are that I have been playing guitar for about a decade now, and guitar was my primary instrument in the Ball State school of music. I am also the Ball State music theory tutor at the Learning Center.

In the future I will be posting basic guitar lessons for the beginner and build up from there. Hopefully this will turn into a handy reference for future students as well as anyone who runs across it via the interwebs.

Teaching guitar is very unique to the individual. Whereas some just want to learn how to play chords and read TABS to cover songs, others want to learn about music to be able to improv solos and write their own material. These lesson posts will most likely represent a retrospective philosophy on the proper way to learn guitar.

I was self-taught throughout high school and would often fall into ruts or hit roadblocks in my development. As a teacher I see many hitting the same walls I did. The most common problem I see is people learning to play the guitar based on shapes, patterns, and labels. Although I got quite far this way, it is eventually a dead end for many. What is often lacking is knowledge of the basic theory behind the shapes and patterns. This blog will be mindful to teach basic music theory and apply it to the guitar as well as justify why it is important to know and how to use it.

Keep in mind these lessons won’t include the very basics of the guitar, and it will be assumed that the beginner has at least some knowledge. Things like tuning the guitar or a description of the parts won’t be found here, but there are many books and websites explaining these things. Proper technique will also be glossed over since the topic and issues are different for everyone. Private lessons in this case are always more beneficial and comprehensive. But if you want to learn more about music and how it relates to playing the guitar then this is the place for you.

Check back for more posts coming in ’09, or check out the music label in the labels section for a full list in the future.

Disarming Anger

I hope you enjoy my Ball State iCOM 375 video project. iCOM 375 is a digital storytelling class where we are developing a class website on a theme our teacher selected. The theme is healthy communication, and covers nine areas of communication. My topic was Disarming Anger. I first had to write a script, and then direct/edit the video. Here is our rough draft:





Since it was just myself and my partner Kevin doing this late the night before we thought it was due the video did not turn out so well. It had been a few years since I took the video design class, and Kevin had just started it. Our lighting looked like Ray Charles was in charge of it, and our video is riddled with continuity errors. I tried to white balance and color correct some of the darker scenes, but there wasn’t a whole lot that could be done about the other continuity errors. Did you notice them all?

This was our re-shoot to fix the continuity problems. Also, the video was only supposed to be two minutes so we had to cut it down quite a bit, but overall it’s the same. Same scene, same setting, same terrible acting! Enjoy!





This was our original correct version on how to disarm anger. We split up editing the videos and Kevin did a good job on this one.





Interestingly, the teacher seemed to be very fond of the ending, and all the cursing! She literally circled the word douchefag in the original script twice and wrote ‘good!’ with a smiley face next to it. My main inspiration was It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia which is my favorite show, as well as Arrested Development, my other favorite show. I felt like we did the best we could while staying within the parameters of the topic and the course. If you enjoyed this, stay tuned for our next video: Conversation Skills…