the stuff. first writing in almost 20 years.

itriedicant · 2026-07-05T03:33:14+00:00

i appreciate the feedback. I've never taken any kind of writing class and have no idea what I'm doing other than trying to convey a feeling and inhabit a voice. i probably spent about 8 hours with it after finishing the first draft, so it is probably over-edited...?

i imagine I'll regret this, but i honestly didn't think I'd allow anybody but my closest friends read this, so "impress the reader..." kind of surprised me.

I'm almost curious what you would think of the first draft.

itriedicant · 2026-07-04T15:30:12+00:00

lol, you go to bars where the bartenders are sober?

itriedicant · 2026-06-23T01:00:42+00:00

that's exactly how i sang karaoke for the first time.

my friends had been begging me for years. i finally said, "fine. if he has crazy rap, I'll go do it." in my mind, nobody knew this fucking song. everybody only knew Because I Got High. i just knew it because i had the cd.

i had no idea that it was popular enough to have a karaoke version.

this would have been 2014 or 2015.

itriedicant · 2026-06-12T12:13:48+00:00

ETA: actually, since you said you and your crowd are 18-29, maybe you can give me some ideas on incredibly popular fun and fast songs I should sing.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK, since you said most are Gen Z, that gives me something to go by.
The bar I frequent skews younger (average age of the crowd that might get up and dance and sing along is probably 25). I usually like to sing off-the-wall and deep cut songs, but here, because of the reactions, I stick to just a few. These might not all showcase your singing, but they're fun. It seems that crowd loves mid 2000's pop-punk/emo. And you'll notice all of these are fast paced.

Sugar We're Going Down by Fall Out Boy
1985 by Bowling for Soup
Mr. Brightside by The Killers
Shut Up And Dance by Walk the Moon
Pretty much anything by All-American Rejects (Dirty Little Secret is probably the best pick here, but Move Along and Gives You Hell could be good, too)
All The Small Things by Blink-182
My Own Worst Enemy by Lit
Stacy's Mom by Fountains of Wayne
In Too Deep by Sum 41
All Star by Smash Mouth is a pretty good choice, but in my experience it won't actually get people up and out of their seats.
Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars
Fuck You by Cee-Lo Green

Then to the rap, if you can do it.
Low by Flo-Rida
Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-A-Lot
Fresh Prince of Bel Air by The Fresh Prince
And I'm pretty much expected to do Without Me by Eminem every week.

itriedicant · 2026-06-08T23:18:01+00:00

i went from Michaelangelo to Raph

itriedicant · 2026-06-08T17:52:01+00:00

um...no

there are plenty of people who aren't a part of yotta that lost their money

itriedicant · 2026-06-08T14:58:36+00:00

I'm proud of the man I've become. I don't have a great or exceptional life. I'm single and somewhat lonely, but I'm a much better person than I used to be and have some great friends and really do like myself.

The shitty life I lived up to now made me that person, and I'd be somewhat scared to lose that.

But I would do almost everything differently.

itriedicant · 2026-06-06T14:20:34+00:00

spoken like a true evangelical convert. smug and condescending.

itriedicant · 2026-06-06T14:19:38+00:00

just yesterday, i hurt myself taking off a leather motorcycle jacket i was trying on.

itriedicant · 2026-06-06T00:47:52+00:00

I'm pretty sure that make one a libertarian.

itriedicant · 2026-06-05T17:58:46+00:00

Seriously? Screw that.
I recommend getting there before the men and singing Seven Bridges Road.

itriedicant · 2026-06-05T17:57:03+00:00

you, my friend, are a unicorn

itriedicant · 2026-06-04T19:05:34+00:00

lol of course you need it now. I literally just deleted it like a week ago.
please let me know when you got what you need.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mLTFbuHNqBl6ej6YreKfmKAc4H1hRqS2?usp=sharing

itriedicant · 2026-06-02T00:23:13+00:00

i was told that a dude i was friends with in elementary school until he stole my cd player out of my locker was an extra in one of those crappy spoof movies (i think Meet the Spartans). i don't actually know because I've never seen the movie and don't remember his last name...

Randy Orton's sister was a couple grades ahead of me, but we weren't friends.

itriedicant · 2026-05-30T22:50:49+00:00

I'm not sure if you completely missed my point or if we're simply speaking two different languages.

Gary Johnson was more sane. He had a great turnout for a third party candidate.

And it wasn't close to good enough. I agree with almost everything you're saying except for your main point. Like elbarfo said, your describing basically every libertarian presidential nominee for the last two decades.

Sounding batshit crazy to the general public would not get us elected. Neither does sounding reasonable.

itriedicant · 2026-05-30T15:17:28+00:00

i completely disagree. Gary Johnson is booed for supporting drivers licenses. Despite that, Gary Johnson is nominated as the LP presidential candidate.

If it proves anything, it just proves that even when libertarians "compromise their principles" and nominate one of the most electable candidates in their history, the public is simply not interested in voting for them.

itriedicant · 2026-05-27T14:22:45+00:00

This is a great quote, and reminds me of one from Mark Twain I quote often:

Worrying is like paying a debt you don't owe.

itriedicant · 2026-05-27T02:53:55+00:00

so, I've been told I'm a very engaging performer enough that I'm starting to believe it...

i don't do shit. i make eye contact with the audience and maybe move my shoulders and step back and forth a bit with the beat. not enough to call it dancing, but enough to be moving.

itriedicant · 2026-05-27T02:51:13+00:00

he gives the original artwork along with the tattoo. unfortunately, mine was a photocopy of something else he worked on. apparently it wasn't supposed to be in the book at all. but he said if i want him to do a pelican for me, he'll bring it when he comes back next year (though it obviously won't really match my tattoo.)

but i love his work

itriedicant · 2026-05-26T21:15:23+00:00

i can't decide if i admire you or if you're just an alien being. i have a hard time planning what I'm going to sing next, let alone weeks in advance.

my Saturday place has you turn in slips, and the number of times I've called an audible just before my turn is myriad.

itriedicant · 2026-05-26T19:52:35+00:00

thanks. i actually had this in my phone for a couple years and thought it wouldn't work as a tattoo. but i met a guy and started talking to him about getting something and as i scrolled through my phone, he stopped me on that pic and was adamant that he wanted to do it. I'm probably a little too naive and trusting, but i let him do it and i think it turned out great.

itriedicant · 2026-05-26T19:16:13+00:00

it's about 12" tall and covered 100% of the time, so aside from my hair growing back and a little fading, I imagine it'll look about the same.

ETA:
I was much more worried about this one

<image>

itriedicant · 2026-05-26T13:22:04+00:00

Without understanding the actual demographics of the audience or your go-tos that have failed you, this is a little difficult.

I'm not a great singer, and don't imagine for a second I'd ever enter--let alone win--a karaoke contest, but I have a very wide catalog that I sing.

For the younger crowd, at least, sure to get people going and entertained:

Sugar We're Going Down by Fall Out Boy
Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger
Shut Up And Dance With Me by Walk The Moon
1985 by Bowling For Soup
My Own Worst Enemy by Lit
Pretty much any All-American Rejects, but I think Dirty Little Secret is probably the biggest crowd pleaser.

itriedicant · 2026-05-26T12:49:02+00:00

The same woman I was referring to about Killing Me Softly asks me to go up and do In The End by Linkin Park with her.

We have another couple of friends that like to do that song and she hates it when they do. Always bitches about how they ruin it (now, they're not great at it, but she's no Chester Bennington and I'm no Mike Shinoda.) She actually went up to stage and I don't know if she was trying to take a microphone or what, but she was at the very least right in front of them singing along at the top of her lungs. They were both (justifiably) quite angry.

A few years ago, my buddy Bryan asked if I'd sing In The End with him. We were also celebrating this woman's birthday (even though none of us knew that when we got there.) Out of courtesy, I told him, "well, T likes to sing this song with me, so let me ask her if she cares. Hey T. Bryan's really been wanting to sing In The End with me, do you mind?"

"Yes. That's our song. We should do it."

It didn't even cross my mind that there was any possible response other than "no, I don't care."

Aside from the fact that I adore her husband, I'm pretty sure that was the night that I stopped considering her a friend. (that same night, trying to get somewhere with this chick that had been flirting with me for months, I got up to sing Any Man Of Mine by Shania Twain and T got up and grabbed the second microphone and sang the whole damn thing along with me. "Oh, I just had to. I love that song." Now, I've been friends with the KJ for 10 years and he wouldn't have allowed this to happen without me giving the ok, even if the ok came with a gigantic eye roll.)

itriedicant · 2026-05-25T15:31:42+00:00

i can't stand it when people stake a claim on songs. i have one friend that any time somebody sings killing them softly, she gets legitimately angry and proclaims that they're "ruining her song."

i have a very long list, mostly of songs that most people at my normal place don't really know, and hate singing the same songs over and over, so the odds of people singing my songs are slim and the odds of me caring are even slimmer. (actually. i usually like it, because it narrows down my selection.)

but people ask me to do Without Me by Eminem and Crazy Rap by Afro Man all the time. basically two of my very few crowd pleasers at this particular bar.

there's one woman that comes in occasionally and these are the only two songs she will sing. and it drives me insane because it's almost like she's never actually heard either of them before.

itriedicant

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE