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There are Places I Remember . . .
2007-01-09 16:19:40
Do you ever take the time to think back on your life and remember the people who have either inspired or helped you along the way?  It’s those people that have made your personality and success what it is today.  I can remember in junior college wayyy back in 1993 I had a drawing instructor who really helped me out in my college experience.  At the time I was in a band and playing clubs and parties on my off time.  I would draw pictures of our equipment and stage as well as guitars.  He gave me several good words that were nothing short of charitable!  Nonetheless, he took the time to let me know I had something special to offer the world. I have another memory of someone I work with standing up at a meeting and telling the room how grateful he was that I ran a talent show for the kids.  That was a much needed encouragement and I will never forget it as long as I live. If you run through your past, I am sure you can come up with a few if not dozens of memories like these.
Read more: Places , Remember

Puffins and People
2007-01-09 03:32:29
Puffins are cute little penguins.  In Iceland, there is a village that helps them survive each year, as a tradition.  You see, the babies take their first flight one night in April and many of them, instead of landing in the water as they hope to, crash land on the streets of the village.  Scientists believe they confuse the lights of the town for moon reflection on the ocean. The children love to pick them up and take them to the water.  If they didn’t the Puffins would die.  As I read about this in the children’s book “Night of the Pufflings,” I am moved by the way the people help the Puffins.


Cool, but Why?
2007-01-11 03:39:14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgrL21We3W0Everytime a new messenger software comes out, they call it “beta.”  This is because they are testing it on the public and in a way it is a warning that it might have some bugs.  Through time, sweat, and creativity, new technology emerges.  Sometimes it seems as if new betas come just for the sake of something new.  When I get used to all the features, a new beta comes along.  There’s a popup that says “There is a newer version available, would you like to update now?”  I hate that popup.  It usually means I can’t use it until the update installs.  But I digress . . . As I have said before on this and other blogs, much of our technology is unnecessary.  Like do we really need handheld ebook readers when we have books?  Do we really need Messenger when we have a phone?  Do we need Wikipedia when we have Britannica? These are all questions I leave up to the reader. I went to Youtube to stimulate my mu


Guitar . . . for life
2007-01-11 16:23:07
Start at a young age if you can.  Any room you enter carrying a case will fill with interest and enthusiasm.  If you’re in about 4th grade you’ll for sure get the girls interested if you can do a report in front of the class about your piece.  Or, better yet, you could play a song in the talent show and really wow the school. Your fingers will hurt at first, but keep on practicing, it will be worth it when you build up callousses.  Be patient and learn your chords and strums first.  Let the electric stuff stay on the back burner for now. You’ll have something to do with your days when there’s nothing on TV (or even when there is something on).  You’ll have a release and a way to connect with those “colors” inside all our psyches.  Only music can do that. You can clean the wood with Pledge or wood oil and a rag.  While it sounds odd, this is a very therapeutic experience bonding with the instrument. If you’re 16-22, or thereabouts,
Read more: Guitar

The Best Blog Space Providers
2007-01-12 04:56:10
This may be obvious to many of you, but I have just learned that: 1. MySpace blogs are interesting in that they have profiles, but content-wise they realllly suck. 2. Blogger.com blogs are mostly blurby in nature, though there are some that are quite interesting. 3. Yahoo! 360, msn live.spaces, ICQ, and AIM are blogs for the dark ages, really bad (though I have a blog at each place). last 4. The best blogs are those not connected to a service equipped with the ability to ping Technorati.  Oh, and I’m learning about digg, it seems very interesting.


The Trouble Was, He Wanted More
2007-01-12 18:45:16
Once there was a boy named George who wanted a skateboard . . . so he got one and he was happy. The trouble was he wanted more! Then that boy wanted a better skateboard with alloy “trucks” . . . so he got one and he was happy. The problem was he wanted more. The boy grew older, wanted and got a car  . . . a klunker, but it worked . . . and he was happy. The problem was he wanted more. Then he wanted a better car, so he financed one . . . an expensive one at that . . . and he was happy . . . before the bill came . . . but he was happy with the car. The problem was he wanted more. Things went of this way for the boy well into his later adult years until he had accumulated many things (to name a few)  1) His own baseball team, 2) a presitgious position in governement, 3) several ranches, 4) and victory in arresting and punishing his political foe . . . and he was pleased . . . The trouble was, he wanted more . . . and still does. There comes a time when we have to tell
Read more: Trouble

Kitsch Guitar Clock
2007-01-13 05:45:11
In the now classic “A Christmas Story” set in the 1940’s, the father character is overjoyed when he receives via freight mail his “Major Award” for winning a bowling tournament.  To his wife’s horror, it is a fishnet stockinged leg.  The narrator called it “electric sex” in the window.  I received a similar trinket as a gift this year from my sister-in-law and it’s received mixed reviews around the house.  My son laughed when he saw it lit up.  My daughter is still laughing at it while it buzzes in the kitchen.  My wife has already informed me it will not be hung anywhere INSIDE the house . . . lol.  I love those movie parallels to real life.  Only difference is, come to think of it, the dad in “A Christmas Story” got to keep his lamp in the house . . . that is until someone accidentally broke it.  Truth be told, I would hate to think what my home would look like if I were still a bachelor, but then again, IR
Read more: Kitsch , Guitar , Clock

50th Post: My 4 Best
2007-01-12 23:22:36
Well, I just noticed that I posted my 50th post today.  Wow! that was fast!  To celebrate, I’m posting links to what I feel are the 4 BEST blogs I’ve written so far: “How to Save an Inner City Child” http://rileycentral.net/wordpress/?p=46 “Writing with 2 Kids” http://rileycentral.net/wordpress/?p=37 “Blogging is a Fad, Good Writing Isn’t” http://rileycentral.net/wordpress/?p=32 “Boy on Bike” http://rileycentral.net/wordpress/?p=14  


Considering Audience in Blog Writing: My 2 cents
2007-01-14 01:09:59
Aristotle and Plato wrote of the importance of the audience in rhetoric.  If you want to communicate something, you ought to consider the receiver. In writing a college essay, the audience is clear: the professor.  In writing for a magazine, you have a focused idea of the demographic you are appealing to.  Most every writing situation has an audience you can imagine, outline, and write with respect to . . . Not so the blog. Writing a blog can be like a diary.  Looking around at blogs through Technorati and some interesting keywords, I have found MANY blogs of this nature at Live Journal.  That makes sense, it’s called a Journal, so no bad there.  But blogging can be a wide array of other types of writing.  The blogosphere contains diary blogs and blogs about bands and blogs about (insert blogs you know here).  Blogging, like all writing, will benefit when the blogger considers her/his audience when composing.  I’ll give you a few ways that good writers can do do t
Read more: Audience

A Silly and Somewhat Spicy Narrative
2007-01-14 23:16:45
  I was starving a minute ago. But I just read Scribbit’s post on Pizza and it made me even more starving.  Amazing what words and a picture can do to a guy!   I’m dedicating this post to spicy things.  Why?  Because we all love them, admit it, you do.  Whether it is shakin the crushed red pepper on a salty pizza, or tasting the bite of a chili pepper in your Mexican food, we love that flavor. They clear the sinuses, heal our malaise, and get us ready to roll in the direction of life.  Kun Pao Shrimp is like fire to the spirit.  I always wish mine was a little more spicier though.  It annoys my wife when I always ask them over at the “House of Joy” to make my Kun Pao extra spicy, but I always do it anyway.  Alas, it never is hot enough but oh well, it’s pretty good. A good hot chili is a great thing to eat.  I love it when you take a chance somewhere new and order the chili and you hit a winner!!!  Especially if it’s hot hot and you hav
Read more: Silly , Spicy

3 T-Shirts
2007-01-14 21:00:49
This is a stream-of-consciousness blog and I am tagging 3 people: Hot Coffee Girl, AllRileyedUp, and Nick . . .(and anyone else with some time on their hands!!!)  here goes Describe three meaningful T-Shirts you own 1. I have a black T-Shirt that reads on the front: “How do you keep an idiot busy? (See back of shirt)” and the back reads “How do you keep an idiot in suspense (See front of shirt)”  I love this shirt and the memory it holds for me is the day I was set to play my first gig up here in the high desert with my guitar and I asked my lovely wife to pick me up an interesting T-Shirt.  This is the one she brought home.  I get lots of compliments on it when out about town. 2. I have a Nashville Tennessee shirt my dad got me when he went there.  It feels guitarish. 3. I have a white shirt with a wildcat on it that I won at my job for volunteering at something (I can’t recall what but I love the shirt). Those are my 3, what are yours????


Chunking Ideas: Planning Elementary Student Lessons
2007-01-14 17:49:36
I thought I’d blog an an education subject this morning since I’ve been doing some research on it.  To begin, I’d like to acknowledge the fact that simple subjects, like division or dictionary skills, can feel daunting when teaching the upper elemenatry children (ages 7-11).  Don’t feel bad if you have felt baffled as to getting these things across.  I have one technique in planning and delivery that has proven effective every time I used it.  I call it “chunking.”  Chunking is dividing many small bits of new information into larger “chunks” or categories that are quickly visible and memorable by the children.  Once you have your lesson “chunked,” it’s much smoother to deliver and I have found the kids retain much more of the concept being taught.  Here’s how I do it: First, identify the standard(s) to be taught.  Nowadays, most California teachers have the standards virtually memorized if not bookmarked on
Read more: Elementary , Student , Lessons

Take a Look at the Punks
2007-01-16 01:29:36
Hi friends. I contributed some tracks to a Dave Sharp Tribute CD in 2005 entitled “Take a Look at the Punks.” Dave was guitarist for the 80’s arena band, The Alarm. Dave and the band had a powerful impact on my music and my life growing up. For that reason, it was an honor to record the songs for the album. It’s a very good album consisting of Dave Sharp Songs performed by his fans from all over the world. My brother’s band “Lower Wolves” also appears on the album. Check out the “Take a Look at the Punks”website for extensive bios, track samples, and history of the project. Today I’ve received notice they are running a final special with the remaining copies and donating proceeds to a cancer research fund. The cost is $12 USA. Check out their website by clicking on the album cover below. Thanks a lot for reading this bulletin, and be well in 2007! -Damien 1/15/07 Tags: Dave Sharp, Take a Look at the Punks


What is the Best Kind of Food?
2007-01-16 00:17:15
To begin, this post is up for strictly selfish reasons: I need your help deciding what to eat!!!  As you may have noticed from my spicy post yesterday, I like spicy food.  Today I find myself wondering where to go out for dinner.  I want spicy again, but I can’t decide which kid of spicy food is the best.  Let’s break it down . . . (stream-of-consciousness blog I know): Mexican Food.  Traditionally the kind one thinks of when hearing “spicy.”  This is ironic because in my experience there isn’t any Mexican dish that is very spicy, apart from chips and salsa.  Burritos can be hot if you put salsa on them, so can tacos soft or hard.  Still, I wonder if using this night out in search of spicy food on Mexican food is the best call. What is your favorite meican food?  I need some ideas here. Thai/Chinese/Japanese.  These foods are simple consisting of 2 parts: meat and rice.  The hotter the better I say!  There is nothing like a spicy shrimp.  Kun


Teacher, What Page?
2007-01-15 21:39:06
This is a short anecdote.  I told it to my mother-in-law and she suggested I blog it . . . so here goes, for Kathy’s sake: The other day I had a migraine at work.  I’m a 3rd grade public school teacher in California, and migraines are not 100% conducive to working with 30 kids.  Nonetheless, I walked through my morning in the usual way being surprisingly effective, I primly thought, at getting my lessons across to my students despite the nagging headache.  Then math time came . . . Moving into the math lesson, I knew we had to be on page 50.  I could also tell the group was a little boisterous that day and likely would not hear me the first time when I announced the page number. (It’s uncanny how they seem to get that way when and only when you are either feeling sick or have a headache, which luckily for me is not that often).  Anyway, to ensure that I wouldn’t have to repeat myself a second or even third time, because one hates to do that when ones hea
Read more: Teacher

Radio Hosts Fired after Woman's Death
2007-01-17 21:50:54
I was saddened to read today that a woman died as a result of a water drinking contest.  Apparently, a radio station was holding a contest for a Wii video game to see who could drink the most water without going to the bathroom . . . ingenious broadcasting have we here. The radio hosts along with a total of 10 employees were abruptly fired and the station is looking into the incident.  While the sherrif’s department is not investigating, this is a crime of a different color for sure.  We are seeing more and more accountability by media authorties in broadcasting.  Remember the OJ book?  It never made it to print and the publisher was fired.  In a similar way as the radio story, the powers in charge did the right thing. Growing up in a time where anything goes, children and teenagers nowadays get a solid message about society when media authorities fire people over things like this.  It says that though we may be wacked out as a world, we are still human and we will not a
Read more: Radio , Hosts , Fired

Plutoed
2007-01-18 18:37:19
This was reported “word of the year” in a monthly Ezine I subscribe to.  It is a very cool word indeed.  The passage about it is linked below: “PLUTOED” has been chosen the 2006 Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society at its annual meeting. “To ‘pluto’ is ‘to demote or devalue someone or something’ much like what happened to the former planet last year when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto did not meet its definition of a planet.”  Source: WRITERS.COM ========================== a monthly electronic publication from Writers On the Net http://www.writers.com Vol. 10, No. 1 January 2007 Tags: cool new words, language, Pluto, plutoed


Triangulated Life
2007-01-19 04:18:08
cell phone callers can be “triangulated” to determine their exact location on a map.  In a similar way, I wonder if I can bring any sense of clarity to where I am at by triangulating my location.  Like three towers, my three points of reference are: 1) my home, 2) my work, and 3) my leisure activities. 1) My home: A humble yet suburban successful abode.  We have 2 stories that keep the downstairs cold while the upstairs holds the heat like a sauna.  I have a gardener so I do no lawnwork.  My wife struggles to keep the house clean with my son, daughter and I being the “creative” types who always say we’ll pick it up later.  For the most part though, it is a clean well-lighted place.  It has that “lived-in” feeling to it.  By that I mean, my 2 year old has spilled on the carpet and tested pen skills on the couch.  Some might call it in need of replacement, i call it “lived in.” 2) My work: A small elementary school in the des


Shameless Promotion of my Next Show
2007-01-19 03:28:29
I’m not sure if many folks near the High Desert read this blog, but for posterity’s sake, I’m posting this flyer about my upcoming show in March: My next show is at Teazers Friday March 2nd, 2007 at 9pm. I’ll be playing some modern rock as well as acoustic classics from the Beatles to the Goo Goo Dolls. I’ll also be playing some of my original music. I hope you can make it out, it will be a good time. peace, damien  Tags: Damien Riley, Teazers, plays, Damien, acoustic music, live music, March 2
Read more: Shameless

I Finally Got What I Wanted
2007-01-20 08:17:08
Looking at my family room tonight, I realized I finally got exactly what I wanted: a play area for my kids.  Did you ever notice how some paths are abandoned and people walk on the grass?  You can tell when this is happening when the gras gets all jacked up.  Maybe they oughta let people make the paths first and then lay the concrete.  Just a thought I’ll get back to later.  Now, regarding what I wanted: When we moved into this house a year ago last February, it was large, spacious and empty.  We had minimal furniture and when we got our stuff moved in, it just seemed echoey (word?).  I recall wanting to see my daughter and son’s toys out in the family room revealing a family that “lived” in their home, not just occupied it.  Christmas and a couple birthdays came and went, and I can see now that under my nose, the living space has changed.  I guess life is relaible that way: you’ll always increase the amount of stuff in your home.  Tonight, tha
Read more: Finally

How to Get Hits on MySpace
2007-01-21 06:14:52
Do something original that interests people all over the globe in a focused way.  I started a MySpace page today for fun, and was amazed at how many hits I got in just the first hour.  The page is called: “Damien Brotherhood,” and its a site open only to friends named “Damien.”  So simple . . . yet so interesting if that’s your name!!!  I’m getting a real kick out of the different friends’ sites.  It reminds me of the Dr. Seuss story “Too Many Daves” only replace Dave with Damien.  A woman had like 50 kids and named them all “Dave.” I’ll keep you posted as to the evolution of this wacky “convention” site devoted to the best name in the world . . . too funny! http://www.myspace.com/damienbrotherhood Sincerely, Damien Tags: Damien at MySpace, Damien Brotherhood, MySpace, Original Idea


A Bit of Myself in a Folder
2007-01-21 02:03:54
Driving back from lunch today, my wife discovered a blank CD in her folder.  We put it in and literally went on a kaleidoscope ride back through 2004.  It was a CD I had made back then with songs we haven’t listened to much since then.  Song after song brought back photos in my mind of trips we took, dates we had, Sea World, Disneyland . . . Music has a hedonic component.  It can triggers memories like a scent or the feel of a beloved piece of clothing. I wouldn’t pick these somgs to put on a CD today.  One song is by a group I found when scouring Amazon for new bands (I was trying to get “hip” with the times).  It’s a song that never made the top 40, but it was special to our family because we played it over and over whenever we were in my Jeep.  Other songs included tunes I liked before we were married, ie: John Mayer’s “I’m Tired of Bein Alone,” and R.E.M.’s “Departure.”  As I listened I remembered how I
Read more: Folder

Riley Blessings for the Week
2007-01-22 06:10:01
I was raised in a Irish house. Irish Blessings are so cool.  Here’s a few for this week from me, JUST FOR YOU, my dear blog reader! Have a great week. May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face. And rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of His hand. May you live as long as you want, And never want as long as you live. Always remember to forget The things that made you sad. But never forget to remember The things that made you glad. Always remember to forget The friends that proved untrue. But never forget to remember Those that have stuck by you. Always remember to forget The troubles that passed away. But never forget to remember The blessings that come each day. May the saddest day of your future be no worse Than the happiest day of your past. May the roof above us never fall in. And may the friends gathered below it never fall out. May you have warm words on a co
Read more: Riley

Growing Into My Own Skin (Ruminating on my 30's)
2007-01-23 06:48:58
This blog post is dedicated to my friend Pat.  Whatever age you are, there are things you get to learn.  The 30’s, for me, have been a time where I have grown into my own skin so-to-speak.  I tried 2 different career paths through my 20’s and finally decided on teaching at age 32.  It was then I moved up the hill to the high desert and started teaching at a rural school in Adelanto.  The neighborhood has changed through the years, and so have I.  I recall at 32 being so optimistic about the future.  I felt that any child could be proficient in English and Math, and I even told my wife numerous times I was going to get every child in my class proficient and then write a book about how I did it.  Hmmm.  What I have learned through these nearly 6 years is that: It isn’t important how high you jump, but how straight you walk when you hit the ground again.  My 30’s have taught me that. Well, I’ve had 5 classrooms since 32, and I never wrote that book.
Read more: Growing

For those About to MySpace, I Salute You
2007-01-28 03:07:24
I was overwhelmed to find my myspace account deleted last Friday.  I worked for months gathering a network and fixing the style the way I liked it.  I discovered it was deleted when I couldn’t log in over and over.  When I went to the permalink, it read: “This account has been deleted or cancelled by the members request.”  I swallowed hard, I’d been using MySpace a lot recently and had lots of friends on my list.  I knew right away how it happened. I had a unique request for the HELP department at MySpace (Which by the way is very robotic and takes days to reply to emails).  Over a year ago, I had an account registered in an email name I couldn’t remember (right there makes me look like an idiot, . . but at the time I had 3 or 4 free email accounts and I could have used many).  MySpace sent me an answer to my problem.  They said to send them a “salute.”  This is a picture of my head and a paper with the Friend ID# of the account in que
Read more: Salute

Finding a Niche to Market My Music
2007-01-29 22:09:46
Did you ever find yourself taken aback and wondering: “Am I still young enough to do this?”  I have had this thought lately.  I think it is borne partly out of once being a very age-istic person in my younger years.  Socrates said that the 20’s should be the time of love and lust and having children while the 30’s were the time to raise your kids and the 40’s were the time to rest from having kids and the 50’s the time to teach.  He doesn’t mention anything beyond that, so I assumed people died about then. Everybody has their notions of what age is appropriate for what action.  Writing is sort of exempt, because people write at all ages and find success.  Music is a little different.  If you want to be a professional musician,  you need a niche to fit into.  That niche often carries with it an age “window.” My music is like John Mayer, Damien Rice, Jason Mraz,  to name a few sound-alikes, and I find that since I am only a
Read more: Market

Ambition . . . and other stupid notions
2007-01-30 03:48:50
Some thoughts on success and getting there . . . We all want the perfect house with the picket fence.  This metaphor can translate into so many other things in human life.  We live in a world inculcated with visual imagery.  The latest craze on the internet is Youtube, for example.  That which you can see, is real . . . or so we think in 2007. What’s more important then, image or substance?  We aspire to be perfect mothers, fathers, workers, and artists.  We have an image in our mind of what “success” looks like and we travel toward it.  But what if our image is false?  What if what we are striving for is an empty void?  What if when we finally reach the wizard, he tells us to nevermind the man behind the curtain?  In that case, we would be facce to face with ourselves. Aspiring to be great is an illusion.  Greatness is made one small choice at a time.  Let another person tell you when you’ve done something great, don’t notice it yourself.  O
Read more: Ambition

The American Dream 2007 . . . (doin your thang!)
2007-01-31 04:49:54
Assuming 80 years with luck or even less, we have a short time to dream.  What are we all striving for?  What’s the impetus?  For some people, the American dream is the same as its always been: wealth.  This explains the lines at the lotto machines.  But those who win the lotto are few and far between. For others, the dream is fame.  Like Andy Warhol said “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.”  To me, this classic phrase implies the emptiness of fame.  Nowadays we find “nobodies” becoming famous on reality television and American Idol.  It seems that anyone can be catapulted to the position of a household name through simple appearance on television.  Then there’s the internet, where so many people seek fame through websites, myspace, youtube, and blogs.  Thirsting for the American dream of fame, people craft their vehicles. 2007 might be seen as a very shallow year for the American dream.  I think it is.  Nonetheless,
Read more: Dream , thang

The Only Places on Earth that Truly Will Never Change . . .
2007-02-04 00:36:49
. . . are the ones we reminisce about.  A friend from high school recently contacted me online and reminded me of when we both worked at a Round Table pizza.  Wow.  What memories that invoked.  In a moment I was “in” the restaurant recalling the sunds, the smells, my co-workers, the customers.  I hadn’t recalled the place for years, and yet it was fresh as yesterday when Tim mentioned it in his email to me.  I got to thinking about that town it is in: “Mission Viejo, CA.”  The entire street there has been replaced with new stores and decor.  The fact is that those memories are all that’s left of that memorable place. The treasures we find in life will exist only in our minds.  For that reason, we should take good care of it and relish the memories we hold.  The instrument is fine and it houses the only places on Earth that will truly never change. Tags: memory, change
Read more: Change , Places

GroundHog Day . . . Did ya Miss it?
2007-02-04 19:39:19
Inspired by a groundhog day post by AllRileyedUp, I’m writing a few days that I would have liked to do over.  If it gets you thinking, I’d encourage you to do the same here in my comments or on your own blog, I think it’s a great idea.  Unfortunately, I didn’t read it until today!  Okay, here goes: Days I would like to have the opportunity to do over . . .  1) My teacher evaluation last year.  I was very affected about it because I had a new Principal.  This eval year I got luminous marks and it’s probably partly because I wasn’t nervous about the thing.  I have learned to look at reviews as a chance to learn how to become better. 2) My wedding day.  I wouldn’t have done it in Vegas, but given my wife a stylish and elegant wedding like my siblings have all had. 3) When Dave Sharp hinted at me coming back to the UK with him to play some shows, maybe a tour supporting him . . . I would have said “let’s do it!” But wha
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