Names

Spoiler alert. My name will be revealed!

When I was born, I was given a Korean name, as I was in South Korea. When I came to the US, my parents gave me a new name. They called me "Alex," but that's actually not my first name.

My mom really liked the name Christian but didn't like "Alexander Christian" so I became "Christian Alexander". My dad really liked the name Damien and kinda snuck it in at the last minute. The name comes from his cousin's son. So there it is. I have two middle names, and go by the first one in most cases. "Christian Alexander Damien". My last name isn't all that important to the story.

Now for the name I have assumed: Damien. You might be thinking, "Dude, it's just your middle name!" Well when it came to deciding on a pseudonym for myself, I suppose it started with the middle name my parents gave me. But I've come to think of it more as a little more sinister. For no other reason than I can. It's ok, I can do that, 'cause I'm a dork. Basically, I set out to find a cool name to call myself on stage. I settled on "Damien Blair" after an afternoon of pretty much nothing but thinking about stage names. I guess I was thinking, "Well Slash is really 'Saul Hudson' so why can't I have a cool name?"

It turns out that my parents didn't want to call me Damien because The Omen had just come out. I fully embrace the irony. Because I can.

short post about me.

It's weird talking about myself to other people. Not so much saying "I'm a musician" but more like saying that "I'm a songwriter" or "I play bass and sing". I never say I'm a singer either. It's always "I sing". Being in a band where I am a songwriter and I am a singer means I have to come to terms with my own shyness and timidness over not just performing but selling myself as well. I have to be able to say "I'm a musician. In a band where I'm the bassist and one of the lead singers. I also write some of our songs." Because I usually feel odd or ill at ease talking about me it's something I have to work on.

*Jams*

Interesting times are afoot.

The band has new jams that are becoming songs, I've got new guitars that are awesome. My job is giving me less hours which is a) sucky and b) kinda nice (but only 'cause I'm a lazy bastard). I'm really no closer to figuring out what I'm doing long term, but that's ok. I can deal.

I just finished Assassin's Creed II. Finally. It was a really fun adventure. Got a little repetitive by the end, but the story was so good that I didn't mind. The story of Ezio Auditore De Firenze was exciting and well told and the continuing story of Desmond Miles continues to escalate in scope and stakes. The conspiracy thing and the "origin story" thing are both pretty cool plot elements. The final scene as Desmond is one of my favorite parts of a video game in a while.

The band has a new song that came from some lyrics by Kendra called Smoke & Mirrors and music by me called S&M (which I think actually does stand for Smoke & Mirrors, not sadomasochism). We started playing it yesterday and after working through it once or twice, Jim started playing this tom based beat during the verses and I changed up the playing pattern and we had this awesome, explosive song.

Kendra and I also took some time and reworked Latin to better include her in the song. We've got a duet thing going on right now that I think sounds pretty sweet. We thought briefly about changing The End, but we both agreed that it's fine the way it is. Which is good, 'cause I really didn't want to change it.

I had my "New Hire" Orientation for Home Depot the other day. I've been working a month already, so none of it was particularly new, but it was a decent way to make four hours of pay.

Today I visit my folks in Seb and possibly see to getting my Bass head checked out.