It’s been almost 11 months since my last blog post, so I figured maybe it was about time I reappeared from under the cloak of silence. I still haven’t graduated from college. I still work at East Side Church of God. I still play in two country bands. So basically, not a whole lot has changed. I do live in a new house with a new roommate, however. Still only a block from campus, though.

Blogging effectively is tough for me. Maybe that’s why I haven’t attempted it in a while. Honestly, I’m not convinced anyone really cares about the chronicle of my life anyway. Plus, I’d rather experience life with people than tell them about it on my blog. That being said, I would like to come up with a purpose for this blog, rather than it just being a “here’s what I did today.” I suppose I could review music, but honestly I don’t get new stuff very often. I could share pictures, but normally that requires a camera. I could share interesting articles, links, and tidbits that I find on the web, but that sort of thing is better suited to Twitter or Tumblr, both of which I have. Am I at a loss for ideas? So far, yes. Now’s where you leave me a comment with your ideas for a purpose for this blog. Go!

Well, everyone…exciting news.  I got tags working.  I’m not sure what this means for either of us, but at least my Wordpress theme is that much more up to date.

Well, according to my blog stats, I haven’t had a visitor to my actual blog site in quite a while, which makes me a bit sad. But maybe, just maybe, people are reading my blog on other sites like Facebook or Virb, which are set to import posts from this blog. Anyway, I recently got back from a trip to Florida with Cook and Belle. We played at the South Florida Fair…15 shows in 5 days. On the return trip, we detoured to Missouri where we played a show at the Missouri Association of Fairs and Festivals convention in hopes of booking summer gigs at Missouri county fairs. I’m pretty sure we’ve already got a pretty significant amount of summer gigs booked with a number of others in progress. In other related news, I’ve begun to play for another young female country artist. Her name is Casey Jamerson, and she’s from Pendleton. We’ve played a couple gigs at the Moon Dog Tavern on 96th Street in Indy, and there are at least a few more shows coming up in the next few months. It would be nice if her shows started to pick up in the fall, about the same time as Cook and Belle’s start to dwindle. That way, I could have a pretty solid few months of playing regularly. Anyway, I should probably get going. I’m hanging out with my friend Amy tonight (hopefully), and I’d like to run to Castleton and hit up Guitar Center as well as Best Buy. I need to replace a keyboard pedal at GC, and Best Buy has a great deal on an external hard drive.

For those of you reading this at blog.mattulrich.com, you may notice a few minor updates. I finally figured out how to get the archives to display with a drop-down box rather than a lengthy list of every month of posts since this blog opened. I also finally updated to 2.2.3 from 2.0.7. 2.3 will be out soon, so hopefully that’ll come shortly. I think if I ever get some time, I want to do a complete redo of my entire website, basing it primarily around this blog, and using Wordpress’ page creation ability for any other content I desire to add. But let us be honest…you don’t really care about the technical jargon. You just want a good end-user experience. Well, let me tell you: that’s what I’m aiming at.

First of all, I am appalled by this, but I wanted to share it in case you were unaware people like this exist:

CLICK HERE

These people are from Westboro Baptist Church. I am sad that I even had to type that URL, but I wanted to share it with you. Click around on the site, and you’ll find more and more outrageous claims. Man, that saddens me.

On a lighter note, I want to work at Google:

CLICK HERE

That is all.

= Like MySpace, but WAY cooler. You should check it out. It’s now open to the public. You can find me on Virb at:

virb.com/mattulrich
virb.com/melonhead616

I don’t really feel like getting into all the reasons why Virb is better than MySpace, but a few include: looks cooler, much more streamlined (doesn’t slow down my browser nearly as much), way fewer and less annoying ads, much more customizable and more easily so, etc and etc.

Ok, that’s it. I just wanted to share. Bye now.

I had a scare a bit ago.  I tried to upgrade this blog from version 2.0.6 to 2.1, but apparently the MySQL server didn’t like it.  I thought I was stuck.  Anyway, long story short, I downgraded back to 2.0.7, and now we’re back to normal.  Maybe when I get a chance, I’ll try again, but for now, enjoy 2.0.7.

Yes, I know I am. I have been quite unfaithful to you, my readers; and it feels like every time I write, I am only coming up with a different and more creative way to express that sentiment. Once again, I humbly come before you with an apologetic heart and a meek spirit to ask your kindest forgiveness for my absence. Anyway, I find myself pretty bored as this Christmas break continues on. I’m hanging out with the fam at our new pad in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Yes friends, I no longer call Holland, Michigan home, although I will still claim it as my hometown since it’s where I learned about Jesus, it’s where I learned about love, it’s where I learned about working hard, and having a little was just enough. For those of you without country roots, that was a reference to “Boondocks” by Little Big Town.

Anywho, next semester is almost here, and not only is it the only thing standing between me and summer break (aka warm weather), it is the only thing standing between me and real life. Yes, folks, that’s right. It’s my LAST semester of college, and very likely my last semester of school ever. I’m not closed to the thought of going farther in my education if necessary someday, but for now, I think I’ll be done.

As I mentioned in my last post, a number of my friends will be marrying soon, and since the writing of said post, I’ve thought of a number of more friends who find themselves victims of the same fate. Forgive my terminology; maybe I’m just bitter at my state of singleness. Anyway, I’ll be playing for a few of these weddings and receptions, and probably attending most or all of them, so that will be one feature of my summer. Also, I hope to be touring and playing music so I don’t have to get a real job.

If you get a chance, you should check out my website www.mattulrich.com. If you’ve ever visited it before, you will probably notice that nothing major has changed. Oh, but that’s just what you notice at first glance. If you’ll recall, clicking a link would simply take you to the desired website. Well, now you get the pleasure of a new experience. Click a link. It’s sweet. You’ll like it. I promise.

I’m a nerd…

Lately, I’ve had a strong desire to start a podcast. You laugh and think that if I don’t update my blog, why would I ever update my podcast. You’re probably right. Plus, I don’t have a ton of hard drive space left, nor do I have very good equipment with which to make a podcast with any semblance of professionalism. Plus, who would care anyway? So on to other pursuits…

I’ve also had a realization that I might really like to get into scoring films or television shows. I just finished watching the 5th season of 24 on DVD (my Christmas present to myself), and one of the bonus features was a featurette about the guy who does the music and how he does it. I was very intrigued, but also quite sad that apparently you need to be rich to do something like this, because I could never afford the hardware and software with which scores for shows of that magnitude are produced. I suppose I could work my way up. It’s another option for “real life” I guess…

Well, I’ve officially covered topics that allow me to file this post under every category, so I guess that means there’s not much left to say. It’s getting late, and I need to get out of the habit of sleeping in past noon. My Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes once again start at 9am next semester, and sleeping through them isn’t really an option. Friends, thank you for your listening ear (or in the case of this blog, your reading eye). Happy new year, and God bless America!

Matt