There is a fundamental flaw with blogging for me. I actually have to do it. I know it seems obvious but sometimes that is my biggest problem. I always think to myself, "hey I should blog about such and such," but then there is this disconnect that happens and the gap between thinking it and doing it becomes this uncrossable divide.

     So I have to just accept the fact that I blog for a few days, and then stop for a few months, and then finally talk myself into blogging again, and then give up again. So for now, I guess I am officially "back on" the train. 

    For many years now I have been aware of something that has slowly but surely been creeping up on me. It has tried to hide itself, camouflaging its appearance to throw me off, but all the while moving in permanently. It has attached itself to my life and refuses to let go. I tried to fight it for the longest time but I have finally come to the conclusion that I am on the losing end of this battle, and have decided to let it win.

    I am of course talking about my graying hair. I don't exactly remember when it starting to move into my sideburns, but I would guess that it was somewhere around the age of twenty. It seemed to keep itself housed in just my sideburns for a few years. In fact I pretty much forgot about it as I would dye my hair, and not because of the gray, every time that I got a haircut. Then only a few short months ago that all changed. All of a sudden my beautiful woman would run her hands through my hair and say "Wow, so much gray." I was never really one for physical appearances, doing my hair, worrying about zits, etc, but all of a sudden I started to be self conscious about it and it honestly started to bother me. I thought that was strange as I really don't care about gray hair. Luckily that only lasted for a short time as I got back to my "I don't care, as long as you love me." way of thinking. She does love me so I am good to go and my gray hair now makes me look more "sophisticated," or so I was told.

     Ever since I started blogging I always thought it was for me. A way to get my thoughts down in some sort of organized fashion. I also thought it was up to me to decide, if, when, why, and about what I blogged...After all it is called "Will's World." That was until I was told by my significant other that I had not blogged today or yesterday and that it "was time" for me to blog again. Here I was thinking I could blog if I wanted to, and if I didn't really feel like it, I didn't have to. How selfish was I in thinking that huh? I forgot that it was about someone else, the reader, who gets to decide if, when and for what reasons I blog.

     Obviously as I first wrote that first paragraph it was meant to be sarcastic. However, after spending a few minutes thinking of a few other ways to show my sarcasm and deepest annoyance at being told, by the woman who loves me more than any other save my mother no less, that it was time to blog, I realized that maybe I was wrong. Maybe it's not really up to me. Sure I have to decide what to write about, but if no one reads my words (and I am pretty sure no one does) then I am just writing a journal. So it comes down to a situation where I have to name my game. Either I am writing a journal, which would be to and for myself, or I am writing a blog, which of course is more for the audience I am trying to build.

     Since I call this my "blog" and not my "journal," and also because I am not the type of guy that writes in a journal, I guess I leave it up to my readers to decide if, when, and how I present my thoughts on whatever topics, even the less intelligent ones like this, I choose. So to you, the readers...ok probably more like to you hunny, I write this blog! Enjoy.

     For over ten years of my life I have been consumed by music, and have worked in the music business. From playing drums to running sound, planning events, booking, writing, producing, management, tour manager, production manager, and even roadie, I have done just about everything there is to do in music. That was until this January when I took a break from music. Since then I have enjoyed myself, moved to California, and really gotten more serious about my photography. It is truly my new hobby that I would love to call my job. I spend a great amount of time each week reading and studying lighting, composition, and most other parts of photography. I have started to eat, sleep, and dream photography and I now look for pictures constantly. Even when I am not carrying my camera if I see something I think would make a good picture I make a mental note or "click" my brains shutter. The problem is that for now I do not call photography my profession.

     That led me to new task...finding a job. The problem for me is that I have done only music, never graduated college so I have no degree, and really have no real job experience as I was my own boss for almost the entire time I worked in music. Those things combined have made my job search a great deal more difficult. Luckily for me I met a guy in my first few days in Visalia who does music here locally and offered me my first "gig" for tomorrow night. Needless to say I am very excited to get back in the saddle, so to speak, and stand behind the board once more and work my magic. The best part is that if I do a good job, there is a great chance that I may find a job doing it more often which would be amazing as it is what I know, and what I love, and would mean I wouldn't have to 'expand' the truth on anymore resumes. Plus, if I am lucky, I might even get some good shots of the band too for my photography practice.

My photography work thus far: Will's Photography

      ...is somewhere that I would currently like to be. It was up to 95 degree's today in the Central Valley of California and that is mild compared to the 105 - 110 degree temperatures that the folks here are used to. Luckily for a guy like me, being all southern and "redneck," the heat here is "dry" heat...even if my sweaty clothes disagree. You see, back in the Southeast the heat is far from dry. The humidity makes even moderate heat feel heavy and unbearable. It is by far one of the worst parts of living in the Southeast, aside from mosquitos.

     The good news for a guy like me who is dealing with the dry heat of a 95 degree day in sunny California is that there is no shortage of folks with pools out here. Unfortunately I do not know most of them yet so I am left with two options...sneak over the fence and risk big dogs, shotguns, or any number of other painful results, or go to the one pool whose owner I do know. The best part is that the owners are relatives of my lovely lady and so they either never say no, or we just don't listen. So for the last few days I have spent many hours in the pool, most of that with four year old Aiden. Needless to say he keeps me busy and leaves me tired and ready for ice cream after I finally retreat from the pool each day.

     So while the weather outside is frightful in a hot as heck kind of a way, the pool is cool as the other side of the pillow...plus, at the end of the day I can always escape to where the sun don't shine...indoors with the Wii.

     As part of my new home and new side of the country, I decided that I should probably check out the ocean on my "new side." Luckily my lady wanted to go to the beach, Pismo Beach to be exact, as soon as we got here. That meant that on Saturday June 13th, we packed up Aiden, her four year old son, and Desiree, her nine year old sister and headed west to the pacific ocean and Pismo Beach. 

    After a 'short' three hour drive through some wonderful scenery the coast came into view. As we got into town, we headed down towards the pier to try and find parking, which was by far the hardest part of the trip. After several trips up down and around the town we found a spot and finally got out of the car to stretch our legs. After a quick phone call we learned that some family was also in town visiting so we decided to meet up for lunch Chele's. That was the first mistake made that day, and in fact, the only mistake of the day. The food was less than amazing, the service was fairly terrible, and the pricetag was way higher than it deserved to be when you combined the value of the food and the service. No matter how many times I may return to Pismo I will not be returning to Chele's.

    From there things got much better as we grabbed some chocolate covered strawberries, sand toys, and headed to the beach. After finding some space for our stuff, we settled in, broke out the toys and went to work building a sand castle. It only took a few minutes to see that we were not alone on the beach, and I don't mean the thousands of other people. Everywhere we looked, in the water and on the beach, were jellyfish. The jellyfish shared the beach with millions of hermit crabs who were almost as numerous as the grains of sand it seemed. We spent a few hours playing in the sand, playing with the hermit crabs and jellyfish, and I got my first "feel" of my feet in the pacific ocean. Not to bad if you don't mind the seaweed and other gross looking sea plants.

     All and all it was a great trip and a great first time with the pacific ocean and I greatly look forward to heading back to Pismo Beach in the near future.

     Anyone who has spent five minutes with me knows that a big part of my life, and one of my favorite things, is eating. Though I am known to be a picky eater I have found in recent months that I am growing more bold in my approach to choosing a restaurant as well as picking my meal at that restaurant. I cannot say for sure, but this is most likely caused by two major factors. My girlfriend of two years who loves spicy, worldly, foods...as well as Andrew Zimmern who makes even the most disgusting looking meals, at least sound tempting. He also has this great way of saying he doesn't like something that is more politically correct than almost anyone's response to anything that I have ever seen...ever. You can see it on his face and just know that he would like nothing more than to spit it out and take a huge swig of coke a cola, but he toughs it out and says something sneaky and kind like, "This is awfully earthy, and the texture is a bit odd," which roughly translates to "gross." But I digest...on to the reason for this blog.

     One of the great things about my many years spent traveling and my new home in Visalia, CA, is a great chance to dine at new places. In the short week (technically six days as I write this) that I have been here, I have already found the time to escape into downtown Visalia to try some of the local cuisine...sort of.

     On my third day in town I ventured out, with my lady and her two younger sisters in tow, to a Thai restaurant called Thai Basil, on East Noble Avenue. Upon entering I could smell the aroma of asian food and my mouth began to water. I fell in love with thai food a few months back and until Wednesday had only eaten at one thai restaurant, which was in South Carolina, and which I had grown to love immensly. We were greeted and seated quickly and I grabbed the menu to search for one of my favorite dishes, crab rangoon. Now before you get ready to jump in and tell me that crab rangoon is not a thai dish, I already know, but many of the thai restaurants have added it to their menu. Unfortunately for me Thai Basil has yet to do that and I was immediately disappointed. Luckily however that feeling of disappointement was soon replaced as we decided on a different appetizer, a chicken satay with peanut sauce. The chicken was amazing and cooked to perfection and the peanut sauce was wonderful as well. It quickly made its way up towards the top of my list of 'dipping sauces." After licking the plate clean in a matter of minutes our main dishes were brought out in a timely manner. The main course was cashew nut chicken with white rice and steamed vegetables, which just happens to be my favorite. It was wonderfully cooked and seasoned just right. It was served with a very sweet, sweet sauce, which would most likely have been good on just about anything.

     The portions were just right. It made me full but not overly stuffed and satisifed, but looking forward to the next time. The meal was wonderful, though a bit pricey, but overall the experience was great and I am looking forward to dining at Thai Basil again. 

     Well, after twenty-seven years of living in South Carolina (excluding a few short stints in Atlanta, GA and Nashville, TN) I have moved...officially...for good...or at least for a good while. After four days of driving I have found myself nestled in the Central Valley of California in a town called Visalia. The best part of the move is that I love where I am in both location, and in my life. So like any new beginning, it had to come from some other beginnings end...and thus, my old blog is officially gone. Not to worry, this blog will be full of fun and hilarity that you are sure to skim over and not really laugh at. That is except for Sabrina who swears I am pretty funny and promised that she actually reads the entire post AND laughs. So a special thank you to her for making me feel like I have a reason to blog.

     Anyway, I have been very busy since I got here and am very excited about the coming weeks and months as I settle in with my new state and learn the lay of the land. I have already had my camera out and have already made my first in state trip down to Pismo Beach for a day of sun and sand, and surprisingly jelly-fish. I have also already headed out to "The Cellar Door," which is an awesome music venue/restaraunt that has live music on a good many nights. I have made time to stop in at some local favorites for mexican, american, thai, and even fastfood and I will be posting allot about my eats while here, since food is one of my favorite subjects.

     There is so much to do here it seems, though maybe that is because I have never really been here, so I am excited to get out and do it all. I will no doubt have lots to write about and hopefully lots to take photos of, which you can see on my flickr site, and hopefully on my own website at some point in the near future. For now though I will retire to my sofa bed with the giant metal bar in my back and try and get some sleep. I am looking forward to what tomorrow holds.