kcjonez.com

Was just looking at my site to see if it was even still here! lol My hosting service has changed ownership (again!), and I haven't even checked out their site yet, to see if there have been any major changes. Fortunately, my site is still up...<br /> <br /> Not really much for new news. I don't recall mentioning about going to see Dream Theater, back in March. My tickets were rad! Front row seats, stage right! I was just a little off center from Petrucci the entire time! It was an awesome show, but I wasn't able to fully enjoy it...<br /> <br /> I had met my nephew there, and we hadn't seen each other in years! He gets so excited to see me, and he gave me this bear hug, not realizing how bad my back was. It wasn't his fault, whatsoever. I'm a hugger as well! He's just a big boy, and doesn't know his strength! Plus, we used to wrestle like crazy kids when he was a teen, and I was much younger and healthier! lol Anyway, his squeezing realigned my spine (literally!), and I was in literal agony the entire night. The metal chairs didn't help, and they would have caused me much pain without being injured!<br /> <br /> Ya gotsta love the kid, though! He turned out to be such a good father, hard worker, smart, and just a good person all around!<br /> <br /> I had purchased the VIP upgrade for the show, which I had hoped would give me access to the meet and greet. Unfortunately, the platinum package, that included the M&G, was sold out. I tried to sneak in anyway! I brought my new Ibanez Prestige 7-String for them to sing! Got to the door, and was turned away! BAH!!! A lot of old fuckers like me in line, though, and a dude I had been talking to in line told me he would take it in for me and have it signed! I was a bit leery, however. The guitar cost $3,500.00!!! I didn't want to just hand it to a stranger, ffs! But, my trust issues (meaning I trust far too much) kicked in and I handed it over to him. Terribly nice dude! He gave me his phone number, and said he would keep me posted on when they're coming out. Long story long, he got my guitar signed by the band!!! (I'll attempt to add the picture below...I need to add a pic upload feature!)<br /> <br /> <center><em> <img src="uploads/thumbs/IbeyPrestige-sm.jpg" height="400" width="211" border="0"><br /> View: <a href="uploads/IbeyPrestige.jpg" target="_blank">medium</a> - <a href="uploads/IbeyPrestige.png" target="_blank">large</a> </em></center> <br /> Besides all of that, I have really gotten into my Geology roots and prospecting! My father was a Geologist, which pretty much made me a Geologist! He had me collecting rocks since I was 5, and I never stopped! So, I started making it official, and taking a college Geology 101 course! I live in an old mining town that was established in the 1870's, and there are gold and silver mines everywhere around me! Literally hundreds in a 20 mile radius! My neighbor works in the mines to this day, and he's into it as well! We started heading up to the old gold mines nearby, and it has been a blast! Even with the roads being shit and knocking us around so much that I'm wrecked by the time we arrive...lol Still, it's a lot of fun, and it gets me outdoors! Someplace I need to be a LOT more!<br /> <br /> That's it for now! Just wanted to make an appearance for those who actually read these things (both of you! haha).<br /> <br /> Until next time...

Doing some site maintenance as I was having some issues with the script.<br /><br />For some reason, session values weren't being passed between pages like they're supposed to. I went over, and over the script, trying to find out what the hell could be happening, but I wasn't able to find a thing!<br /><br />So, I contacted my hosting service to see if they had changed my version of PHP. They hadn't.<br /> <br />I started searching the forums to see if there was some sort of new issue with the version of PHP I use. Didn't find any...I did find about 8 different ways to start the sessions though! Tried them all and nothing worked.<br /><br />I was about ready to give up on it, when all of the sudden, it began to work! And I have no clue what dafug happened! The only thing I can come closet guessing, is that the tech I spoke with, at my hosting service, sent the issue up to the higher level techs, or he left the right notes (for a change), and the higher techs read them and fixed it.<br /><br />Whatever. It works now! ;)<br /><br /> Other than that, no real updates from the last one. My doc is putting me on a med that should help me to lose weight!!! It's a med that reduces the amount of glucose intake and production; meant for people with pre-diabetes and/or diabetes. Last time we did a blood test, I was pre-diabetic. So, this should be a good thing!<br /><br />I have been trying to get back on testosterone treatment, so that I have enough energy to get off of my zero-energy, lazy, good for nothing ass! But some of my levels are too high, and I would basically be committing suicide. I am already at a very high risk of having a heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, or aneurysm. My extremely low T-levels are the only thing keeping me alive! Not that I care either way, but that's a story for another place and time.<br /><br />I'm going to see <a href="https://dreamtheater.net" target="_blank">Dream Theater</a> on Thursday!!! Yay fucking ME!!! I bought two tickets, and have been having a hell of a time finding someone to go with me! I refuse to take anyone who doesn't know who DT is, and who doesn't love the band! I really don't have friends these days, since I don't ever leave my home, so the picking have been slim! BUT! I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier, but my Nephew has been trying to get me to spend time with him for YEARS! And he knows DT! My damn nephew had BETTER know who DT is!! So, I'm taking him with me, and it should be a blast and a half!! I can't wait!!! I'll definitely share the experience on here after the show!!!<br /><br />That's about it for today...this month. Check back this coming Friday and read about the show! I might even post some killer vid of Petrooch, since my seats are front row and directly in front of where he stands!!!!! It's gonna be awesome!!!

That little spark that I see, on occasion, wasn't a cataract after all! It was coming from my guitars I have hanging on my wall!<br /> <br /> I've been wanting to play so, SO bad lately, but when I look at one of them, I get this sort of ill feeling. It's hard to describe, sort of like an anxiety/dread feeling that makes me want to curl up in a fetal position and suck my thumb while crying for my mommy! Apparently I have some serious PTSD from the druggie days, being forced to play all the time. I'm 16 years clean & sober, and I have no issue with the drug part of the ordeal. But, the things that happened while I was on drugs is what seems to haunt me.<br /> <br /> I have been seeing a therapist ever since I lost my amazingly beautiful little Erin, and he has helped me get through some seriously difficult times. It looks as if I need to bring this one up to him as well. Music was my life! It was my salvation! All I wanted to do was play my guitar and write music! Any problems I ever had (and I had far too many for one person to handle), I would just...play! Or write a song. It all seems to be gone now, and when I want to pick it up again, I have panic attacks! All because some very evil fucker decided he was going to own me, like some show-off object! I mean, I liked the guy to an extent, and he always tried being cool with me. But, deep down, I hated the dude with a passion! I felt so trapped, though. I was so embarrassed to be doing drugs at the time, and I had this fear of the world! I could have just ran to my parent's place to get away and sober up, but I was mortified of them finding out I was on drugs again! Thank God I had the strength to escape when I did!<br /> <br /> However, the three to four years I spent destroying my brain cell has stuck with me, and I have nightmares to this day; 16 years later! I have just never had the ability to just let things go! Erin taught me how to not hold on to grudges, but I don't forget.<br /> <br /> Anyway, I finally got the nerve to pick up my 7-string today for a few! YAY ME! Well, not really yay me...I'm SOOO sloppy!!! It's all still there, I don't thin that will ever go away! It would just take me a month of playing every day to get my picking back in shape again so that I can play clean. That may never happen again, unfortunately. I may be too damaged to ever play again on a regular basis.<br /> <br /> I did make a promise to myself, many moons ago, to never get rid of my music gear, and I have held true to that promise! I still have a crapload of equipment at my apartment, and about an apartment's worth of gear in storage! I'll most likely take it all to my grave and leave it to my kids when I croak. Hopefully I'll be able to teach them how to play the different instruments so they can form their own little Brady Bunch! lol I don't have much, but at least I'll have <em>SOMETHING</em> to give them before I croak!<br /> <br /> That's it. I really just wanted to mention that I picked up a guitar today for the first time in who knows how long, but the older I get, the more difficult it becomes to shut me the hayall up! haha<br /> <br /> Till next time...

Boy oh boy! Do I have some good news!<br /> <br /> Anyone who has been reading my updates knows that I've had a LOT of troubles with my health over the years! Taking opiates for my pain management has quite literally broken me! My testosterone levels plummeted to almost zero, causing my desire to do anything, as well as my energy levels, to drop to nothing! I literally gained 100 pounds, and my blood levels became horrible! I've been on the verge of having diabetes, developed a heart condition, among many others! I have literally been at risk of having either a heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, and/or aneurism at any given time. I could be walking around mindin my own affair and drop dead at any time! It hasn't been a fun journey, to say the least!<br /> <br /> However, I am on a bunch of different medications and vitamin supplements for many moons as well. Some get changed around here and there, but for the most part, they have been the same meds. Last week, I forgot to refill a couple of them on time, and I wound up running out of them. One of them I had been taking for over 10 years now, but it didn't have any weird withdrawal or side effect when missing a dose. The other was fairly new, but I had still been taking it for some time.<br /> <br /> The day I ran out (I take them in the AM when I wake up), I was up early, went out to play with my cat three times that day, and was getting things done around the house! WTF!? I didn't really notice it the first day, as I occasionally have pretty good days. But, when it happened again the following day, it peaked my curiosity! This has been two days now that I have had energy and didn't spend the entire day sleeping! The next day, same thing! I'm liking this pattern!<br /> <br /> I finally get my meds in, and I test the theory. I took both of my missed meds and within an hour, I was right back to sleep! The whole day was shot from sleeping! So, apparently my lack of energy, besides the lack of testosterone, has had a LOT to do with this med knocking my ass out!<br /> <br /> Whoda-thunk-it?!?<br /> <br /> I decided to stop taking that med altogether. It was just an antihistamine they were giving me for anxiety, so no biggie. I have felt great every day since! Which is a beautiful thing, seeing as how I have been eyeballing my guitars hanging on my walls a lot more! ;)<br /> <br /> Keep your fingers crossed! I might be back in the saddle soon!!!

I'm in the process of moving my domains over to a new hosting service that I've been using for other sites for some time now. My current host has changed ownership, and they have more than doubled the prices on me, not to mention the user interface is probably the worst I've seen.<br /> <br /> I've been using my current host for 25 years and have sworn by them! It's sad to see them go and sell their company to some douchey company!<br /> <br /> As a result, my sites may be down for a short period of time while I move files over and go through the annoying process of transferring my domain names. Ugh! I have like 10 of them, so it can be time consuming.<br /> <br /> I'll be saving the kcjonez.com till last to try and keep the site up as long as possible. The first one to be transferred is jones.co, which points to the same site, along with thejonezter.com.<br /> <br /> So, be prepared for that. I'm hoping it won't be a long process, but I'll have to take the jump I mentioned in a previous update and learn the new version of PHP. Yay me!<br /> <br /> I'll post updates as they happen!

I'm trying to update this site and another site of mine as much as I can. My energy levels are still crap, so it may be a little slow going, but I am actually working on it here and there.<br /> <br /> I just added a comment button to my updates. I haven't yet made any sort of administration for it yet, but it is working for those who want to comment on my updates. It's located at the bottom of every update, and if there is a number next to it, that is the number of comments that have been made on that particular update.<br /> <br /> I haven't yet started working on writing a blog script, as my site doesn't get very much traffic. I just don't see the need for one at the moment. If for some reason people start <em>flocking</em> to this site, I will add one at that point. I thought of adding a prewritten script, but I like to keep all of the script written by myself. That way, there aren't any issues down the road.<br /> <br /> I will be starting a script to control what images are on this site, along with stories, or descriptions for the images. It shouldn't take me too long...hopefully! I'll need to be working with file access within the script (uploading/downloading/etc.), and it hasn't always been my strong suit writing PHP Script. I'm great with content management, but accessing files and working with graphics are still a tad alien to me. Which brings me to another point...<br /> <br /> I'm still using PHP version 5.6 for all of my sites. Unfortunately, it isn't supported anymore. So, I'm eventually going to have to upgrade to at least PHP 7.0. Also unfortunately, PHP 7.0 decided to change the language a bit! Once I upgrade, all of my sites that I have ever written will be full of errors! Funny; the script is basically the same, they just changed the wording of the functions and classes a bit. Enough to cause me to have to relearn the script! Ugh!<br /> <br /> There's more coming as well. If anyone would like to see something specific, feel free to comment on this update, or send me an email (listed at the bottom of the page). I will do my best to oblige. I already have a bunch of things in mind, like my equipment explained, my influences, projects I have been a part of, and more. I may even add a subscription type ordeal, so that you can be notified when new features become available!<br /> <br /> So, keep coming back to see what I've added!

My life has been pretty shit for the most part. Like I’ve been dealt aces and eights every hand, losing to the dealer’s royal flush! Every time I turn around, there seems to be a brand new shadow on the horizon.<br /> <br /> I am so ready for it to just be over! Don’t worry, I’m not going to off myself anytime soon! You just get to a point to where you say: “Fuck it!” and you’re ready to take whatever nature has to offer. While I’m still here though…<br /> <br /> I have dealt with ADHD my entire life! Between that, depression, and anxiety, I have always been a recipe for disaster. I had been previously treated for ADHD, and very successfully! Unfortunately, I stopped taking those meds back in 2020 for some reason. Since then, I had been on those nasty opiates, and my depressions took over as my evil source. Now add to that a handful of meds every morning to treat all of my ailments, and everything went downhill from there. To make matters worse, I couldn’t concentrate, or focus, on anything. I’d think of something that needed to be done, and would start getting up to do it. While getting up, 12 more things that need to be done would pop into my head, overwhelming me to the point of saying fuck it again, and I’d lay right back down, getting absolutely nothing done! My med doc put me on Modafinil to try and keep me awake during the day, but it did nothing unless I actually got up and started moving around!<br /> <br /> I doubt anyone is actually reading all of this, but I’m typing it anyway! lol<br /> <br /> I recently was FINALLY able to talk my med doc into putting me back on ADHD medication, but it didn’t come easy. Apparently, science still doesn’t recognize ADHD as a valid condition. Add to that my last psych eval stated that my ADHD was most likely due to underlying issues; such as my medications I was on. It didn’t matter that I’ve had the condition since I was a very young child and wasn’t on medications! I swear, my mother must have gotten high af every day while pregnant with me!<br /> <br /> Long story long, I talked him into prescribing it to me, again, and it has been an enormous help in my every day life! My depression has gone down (it will never go away) after stopping the opiates, my testosterone levels are rising, and I can fucking concentrate again! My energy levels are still shit, but YOU try laying in bed for 4 years and see if you can hop up all motivated and shit! lol<br /> <br /> I have actually been picking up my guitar again, nearly every day for about an hour! Yay me! Aaaaaand there’s a problem there as well! (*rolls eyes*) My gut got so fat, that my guitar sticks out so far, that I can’t reach half the shit I used to be able to! The playing has come right back, cept for my picking. That will take me building strength again! I just need to lose this weight first and foremost! I hate being a fat-ass-fatty-fuck!<br /> <br /> Anyway, keep your fingers crossed that I’ll be able to lose this weight and get back to it again! Lord knows, I need to do something! What does it say in the Bible? Shit or get off the pot? Something like that…

I had been on opiates for major chronic pain for about 7 years. It worked, but it also came with a ton of side effects that weren't so cool.<br /> <br /> One of the side effects was that it lowered my Testosterone levels. A LOT! Like, I went down to 17, when a person my age should be between 300 and 700! Some of the fun things about low Testosterone (in men), is that it greatly reduces your energy levels, desires, and passions. It causes depression to become worse, anxiety levels to rise, and it just LOVES your belly!<br /> <br /> I gained over 80lbs in my gut alone! And I look like I'm carrying around a full term manatee! All of that added weight, especially where it is, puts a lot more pressure on my spine. Mainly where my pain comes from. So I haven't been able to stand for more than 30 seconds without being in excruciating pain. Being able to exercise in order to lose weight has been impossible.<br /> <br /> Welp, I had been tapering off the opiates for about a year, and I have been opiate free for over a month now! Yay me! I had blood tests done a couple weeks ago, and my Testosterone levels have already jumped into the 120's! My energy levels are rising, passions on the rise, and I'm feeling better mentally. My doc says it will take about 6 months to start noticing my weight going back down, but I'm on the right path! I have actually picked up my guitar(s) a couple times in the past week!<br /> <br /> SO, keep your fingers crossed. Or your eyes. Whatever works for you!

For some reason, I have lost every ounce of energy I had left! I can’t seem to get out of bed any longer than it takes me to go to the bathroom, or feed my kiddo. I haven’t even eaten much of anything other than Ritz Crackers and these Welch (real) Fruit Gunny things.<br /> <br /> My Mac has become a butt-warmer for my kiddo, and she has also found that sitting between my double bass pedal on my kit keeps me from playing it! lol Every time I play it, she runs under the bed terrified of it. :(<br /> <br /> I’m not sure what has changed with my health since this started on Friday of last week. I had a seriously rough day! I was fine most of the morning, but I got wrapped up in a new PS4 game, and didn’t even have my breakfast till around 12:30 when I usually eat around 5:00am! I popped in the shower around 11:00, ate at around 12:30, and it all went to hell! I got so nauseous that I almost cancelled my 1:00pm appointment! As of today, it hasn’t changed! Absolutely zero energy!<br /> <br /> Anyway, not sure why I’m explaining all of this in an update, but it is the reason all of the site updates I had planned have come to a halt! I’m hoping it starts coming back soon as my legs feel as if they’re beginning to atrophy!<br /> <br /> That’s it for this week. My brain is so lazy that I can’t think of anything else to update…

Welp again...<br /> <br /> The dude who was supposed to buy the recording setup bailed on me. He told me to consider it a done deal, then stopped responding when I had the setup in my Bronco, ready to go! So, I'm still sitting on the setup, and it's still for sale.<br /> <br /> <em>On a brighter note</em>;<br /> <br /> I <em>REALLY</em> wasn't happy with the drum sounds on my new e-kit! And it was one of the many reasons I wasn't playing it. It just sounded...electronic.<br /> <br /> So I went ahead and ordered the Drum Module for the Alesis Command Mesh Kit SE, and Holy Haysoos! The sounds are 150% better! And it has twice as many sounds as my Surge Mesh Module did! It's still limited in certain areas, but I'm still learning how to configure everything. I can also import drum kits, and hoping I can get a Portnoy Kit! His sound has always hit home with me, and that's what I want damnit! lol<br /> <br /> Still working on the site, and it's beginning to come along! I've had the same site for 5+ years, and it still had a lot of original content from the template. I just didn't care about updating it. It did bother me though.<br /> <br /> So, keep checking back for new features! And don't forget to register an account! Member stuff will be coming soon!!!