Ritz’s Rants (Catchy, Eh?)

My computer’s back home!  Yes, you heard read correctly!  After being computer-less at home since the evening of June 11th (some perfect timing there, what with my graduation having been on that day), I now have a pc at home again!  *Applause*  Albeit, the only thing about it that’s from my original computer is a cleaned-out hard drive.  And now it’s a Dell.  Dude!  I got a Dell!  This also translates into good news for you readers!  No more day-late Goosfabas!  Yay you! xD

~Ritz

P.S.: I’m currently at the office, using their computer…>.>  <.<

About the effects of greasy pizza on my heart.  My poor arteries.

~Ritz

After writing what some consider to be my best blog thus far, let me return to the norm with a belated Sunday Goosfaba.

But first, I have to tell you guys about the most amazing movie since “300″!  On Thursday night (technically Friday morning) Zech, Victor, Mike and I went over to the Flagship, not for church, but to catch the midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight.”  Christian Bale is arguably the best Batman thus far, but, of course, Heath Ledger as the Joker stole the movie.  Ask anyone I bothered on Sunday.  I was going around saying “why so serious?” and “wanna know how I got these scars?” all day.  I’d love to see it again, and I rarely say that about movies.  The directing is great.  The acting is great.  The violence is not overdone; you don’t need tons of blood and gore to get the message that a person’s dead.  Language is pretty good, little cursing.  Best of all, you don’t need any prior Batman knowledge to get what’s going on.  I say go see it.  Again, and again, and again…

Onto my Goosfaba.  Sunday was once again a day of dueling drummers.  Mike took the reins on the acoustic set while I, once again, managed the electric set.  We have plans to stop using the electric altogether.  ((If they don’t want it, I’ll gladly take it home! ))  Anyhoo, I didn’t get to hear Travis’s message on exhaustion because yesterday was The Cure’s monthly youth service.  So I’ll tell you all about that.  We kept the songs pretty acoustic, using only acoustic guitars which Alex and Jesse manned, vocals, which Mike took care of, and shakers and a tambourine, which I played.  Alex wanted to keep the service very personal and spiritual after the events of Wednesday’s bible study.  And it went as planned.  It’s nice to see even the most annoying, bratty kids (don’t come down hard on me for being honest ) have a spiritual awakening and break down in tears in the presense of the Spirit.  Can’t wait for camp!  I can feel it…At camp, I’m going to cry like a little kid…You can only not cry for so many years. ;P

Be strong Ritz, be strong.
~Ritz

Still studying psych notes.  I’m researching defense mechanisms now. =]

Let me just say something right quick here; never compare yourself to other people.  Do that, and you’ll always find faults in yourself.  Be happy with who you are, what you are, and how you look.  God made you the way you are on purpose.  And God don’t make no junk.  I’ve decided to stop caring about the way I look.  I mean, I’m not going to start going places looking like a bum (although some people would argue that I already do =P), but I’m just going to stop freaking out if my hair looks bad, or whether I’m impressing this person or stuff like that.  All my life I’ve tried to get everyone I meet to like me.  And I’ve succeeded.  But that’s more because I’m afraid of rejection by anybody.  I’m going to stop that today.  I’m going to stop worrying about how I look while I’m eating, or how I walk, or how I sound when I speak.  I’m not going to care anymore.  I’m the way I am for a reason, and I’m not going to change for anybody.  So go ahead, form your opinions of me, I won’t let it get to me.  I was never the “cool” guy growing up, and I never had many friends until I got high school.  Maybe that’s why I care about the comments people make about me.  Maybe that’s why I get so attatched to people I meet.  I care about them, even if they don’t seem to return the favor.  Sometimes that hurts, but you know what?  I’m not going to care anymore.  I’m giving that all up to God.  If you’re dealing with similar problems, I suggest you do the same.  People will always judge you, but God won’t.  He doesn’t care if you’re fat or skinny, whether you’re illiterate or literate, whether you’re Mexican, or black, or Cuban, or white, or Asian, He doesn’t care if your teeth are messed up, or whether you have acne, or whether you struggle with assortments of crap on a daily basis.  This is life, and we have to press on, even when things get rough.  But God’s always there to help us through our junk (in the trunk?).  Don’t forget that.

Thanks for your time,
~Ritz

P.S.:  all of our computers have mustaches. @_@

FIRST ON THE SCENE WITH YOUR “GOT FUNK” VIDEO NEWS!
As I type, we’re setting up the set to shoot this week’s video.  I don’t know if I’m going to keep this on for the video, but I’m currently wearing a trucker cap with all of my hair hidden under it.  Alex and Jesse say I look like a redneck.  My ears and neck are so cold…

Otherwise, I’m just taking extra psych notes off of Wikipedia. 

Thanks for reading,
~Ritz

Hello my faithful readers, and welcome to another (late-because-my-computer’s-still-broken) edition of my Sunday Goosfaba.  I’ll get into my Warped Tour details in a bit, just bear with me.

Yesterday was an all-around good Sunday for me.  Got up early in the morning and headed over to the church where Alex later brought his own drumset.  That’s right guys, if you weren’t there, you missed duel drummers.  We got compliments that it was really cool and that it sounded great.  Basically, Alex did all the hard stuff while I kept time for him and hit the crash cymbal.  At the end of our set we did a little hip-hp stuff that the crowd really seemed to like.  Gotta hand it to our musicians.  They is be a talented bunch.  Then came the video…I’ve gotten rave reviews.  “Some of your best acting” says Phil.  “You were the best actor!” raves Ela.  “You sound like Michael Buffer” claim Alex and Travis.  They all agree!  “The Funk In Conflict” is my best performance yet!  But, as you know, I’m very humble…which is why I offered a free autograph to anyone who donated $5 or more at the Cure bake sale.  But enough about me, let’s talk about me.  That mustache really was a bit uncomfortable. O_o  Note to self: wear mustache LOWER next time so that the hairs don’t get in my nose…
On to the actual service.  After the video made its debut in the first service, Travis proceeded to make a little fun of us…Especially Jesse, who looked like Waldo from the “Where’s Waldo?” books…Nice jacket Jess.  Anyhoo, Travis lead his usual never-boring-because-he’s-an-ADD-pastor-which-is-why-he-can-keep-my-attention sermon.  It was pretty informative and, as always, spiritually awakening.  Whether we try to be or not, some of us ARE “Sunday Christians”.  We ignore God all week long until we get to church on Sunday.  It can get to be a pretty bad habit.  I’m guilty of it as well.  But nonetheless, going to Life Pointe on Sunday mornings is always a much-needed spiritual wake-up, so to speak.  Second service went just as well, except (apparantly a frist-timer) texted in the question “why do you say the ‘b’ word?”, reffering to “booyah!” which is the LPC version of “amen”.  Trav was kind of freaking out.  He said “oh!  ‘Booyah’!  I was already thinking ‘oh crap, what did I say?’”.  Never a dull moment at Life Pointe. =]

SATURDAY

Saturday was Warped Tour guys!  For those who aren’t familiar with it, Warped Tour is an annual travelling concert tour composed of many popular rock bands.  They come to Bicentennial Park in Miami every year, but I’ve never gotten to go…Until now.  I went mainly to see As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wears Prada, Norma Jean, Relient K, and Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster.  We got there a little late, so I missed Relient K, but that’s okay, I’ve seen them before.  Instead, the first band I ended up seeing was Reel Big Fish, a ska-type band who claim to be “Masters of all types of music”.  And they proved it.  They even did a country and western sample, and kids started square-dancing (including some random girl I’d never met before in my life who asked me to dosey-do =O).  But mostly, kids were just circle-pitting during RBF.  Fun fun fun right off the bat.  I crowd-surfed too, but I got dropped. =P  But I cowd surfed many times that day.  I did n’t get dropped except for that one time, so that was good.  I got to get autographs from Relient K and As I Lay Dying, so I now have three more prized album booklets at home. =]  I went a bit early to get a good place for The Devil Wears Prada, but even getting there a half hour before they came on was only good enough to get roughly about the fifth row.  When they came out, the crowd went INSANE.  The MOST insane crowd I’d seen all day.  I actually had to crowd surf just to get out of the crowd.  But it was FUNNNNNN!!!!! x]  Then came As I Lay Dying.  I got there early enough to secure a place in the second row where I could easily hang onto the railing so I wouldn’t lose my place.  AILD was AMAZING.  Most circle and mosh pits of any band I’d seen all day.  The guys of AILD are a very talented bunch, and I got some screaming practice in, seeing as I screamed every word to every song they played.  Yay me. =]  I came away from that show drenched in sweat.  I’ve never worn a shirt that was so soaked in sweat.  I felt like a real rock star (and smelled like one too).  Side story: Family Force 5 (my favorite band personality-wise [AILD is my favorite band musically]) wasn’t playing the Miami date on Warped Tour…They were in Virginia for some kind of Christian Festival.  Boo.  But, much to my surprise, they had a table set up at Warped Tour.  Needless to say, I RAN to that table to see what was up.  Even though they were in VA, they have a Warped Tour intern (whom they’ve had since last year when they played their first Warped Tour…They accurately dubbed him “Intern”) who represents them all tour long, even if they’re not playing that date.  Not one to pass up an FF5-related opportunity, I taook a picture with Intern.  Yay me. =]

The End,
~Ritz

So, I’ve mentioned before that I like to call in and win tickets from our best Christian radio station, 91.9 The Call.  Well, this morning I woke up a little earlier to win some tickets to see the band Red in concert next Thursday in Miami.  So I called in and won the tickets, but Kelly, the music director and host the morning show at Call Fm wanted to hear how excited I was…At first I replied with a “yes!”, but it was “pathetic” according to Kelly, so I tried again with a “whoo-hoo!”, but noooooooooo!  She happily showed me how to properly act, ended the call, and then played the entire thing on the air, adding me to the morning show’s “People We Don’t Want To Act Like” segment.  I called back and told how cold that was and that I would bump her down on my Top Friends on MySpace.  She played THAT clip on the air too and enticed the listeners to call in and “vote” on who had more reason in the argument.  Man…I really hope Call Fm listeners don’t find out that I’m the David from this morning…

In other news, our amazing Life Pointe Acting Staff filmed yet another soon-to-be smash hit video yesterday.  I can’t give out too much info about it, but I will let you know that it involves Joe Porter getting the snot beat out of him, and that I’m in a mustache and shades…

~Ritz

We’ll all get old and die.  Until then, let’s live it up.  Scare the neighbors with loud music.  Grab a skateboard and an umbrella and go outside during a hurricane.  Enjoy yourself.  =]

 

((And “darn skippy” is like a more modern version of “darn tootin’!” for SOME PEOPLE who don’t know. ;))

~Ritz

Yes, my computer is still getting worked on, but I do have internet access here at the LPC office.  I figured I should blog since I’m internet-accessible.

So check it out, I played drums yesterday! =O  I was too slow first service, but second service was much better.  I’m glad that I didn’t lose the beat with the kick…That was my biggest problem.  But counting out loud helps a lot, so let’s see how much better I get in the months to come.  But enough about me, the rest of worship was great.  Jesse and Alex, the Santoyo brothers, lead worship on guitars and vocals.  Alex actually does a good job on vocals.  Meanwhile, Bill did his bass thang, Longtemps sang from the keyboard, and Reina, Julie, and Kyle (aka ‘Kanye East’) did their usual great job doing back-up vocals.

The videos were fun.  It’s always great being part of a video, let alone two (yes, I filmed Jesse’s announcement video).  I had my usual crying role in this week’s ‘Got Funk’ video…Thanks to Jesse, that role will haunt me forever. =P

Travis, as per usual, did a crackerjack job with the message, even though he almost lost his journal twice in the same day (he knows what I’m talking about).

Guys, this is important!  If you’re a youth, or you know some youth, The Cure is holding its Summer Camp from July 31st until August 3rd.  There is a $25 deposit necessary, and the full cost is $80.  If you can’t afford that, never fear!  The Cure is here to help you ease that pain in your wallet.  We’re raising money by doing car washes and having bake sales.  So buy a brownie or two from us on Sundays.  It’s for a good cause.

Peace guys!
~Ritz