Date Written: April 24th, 2013

Hey Andy, it’s you 17 years in the future!!

There’s so much that I want to tell you about the future, man! Technology’s come a long ways!! Imagine watching every TV show ever made on something the size of a wallet! Crazy, huh?! Also, video game graphics have improved A LOT, but sadly the games have not.  Enjoy these next 5 years or so, as your interest in current video games will have petered out by then.

Let’s see, if memory serves, you’re finishing up 5th grade & going onto 6th, right? I hope I’m right. Your math skills don’t get any better in the future I’m afraid.

This new guy that Mom’s dating, Roger, is a real asshole, isn’t he? Yeah, I said asshole. I’m a grown-ass man in 2013, so deal with it, hehe!!

You’re probably starting to feel frustrated at all these changes lately, but you won’t start to rebel until you hit 6th grade. You’ll get sent to alternative school for a couple of weeks and begin to openly rebel less.

Are you seeing Dad every other weekend at this point? I have a lot to tell you about him that I’ll get to in a minute.

What’s on TV during this time? Power Rangers? Beast Wars? Batman? Spider-Man? God, I miss TV during your time! TV in the future is both good and bad, you just have to find the right stuff to watch.

Jon should be finishing up kindergarten at this point, right? He has a real bad time when he gets older that involves you, which he’s not willing to forgive you or himself for even during my time.

I suppose I should start talking about Dad at this point since he seems to be the root of most if not all of your inner problems.

He probably seems to be a totally changed man from the drunk sack of shit that he was almost a year ago. He’s showering you and Jon with gifts and is thinking about going back to college to get a double-doctorate so people can call him Doc-Doc, hehe!!

Don’t believe the hype. It’s just a facade. The fact of the matter is that Dad has mental health issues. Paranoia, manic-depressive, bipolar, schizophrenia; whatever the head doctors & social workers wanna call it that day. They pretend to know what’s going on, but let’s be honest, mental health is still a relatively new concept for small-town Ohio.

If you only get one thing from this letter, it’s this: none of this is your fault. No matter how many times and how many people say it is, it’s not. You’ll spend much of your adult life running What If… scenarios through your head. Don’t do that to yourself. Nothing good will come of it and you’ll just end up feeling even more miserable about yourself and where you are that you won’t be able to enjoy the now.

I’d like to say that the you in 2013 is a completely healed person, always happy and loving life. I’ve certainly come a long way, but I’m far from perfect. You can only get better or worse, and I choose to get better. Anyway, back to Dad.

Just a heads-up, all this nice-guy behavior is gonna start going sour when he meets Nancy. Don’t worry, she’s a nice person; but she does cause Dad to start drinking again, and sadly he won’t ever stop. Her kids are a mixed bag of nuts, but you get along with them just fine.  You even manage to kick her oldest son Michael’s ass at Mortal Kombat Gold, which will be coming out in a few years.

Dad and Nancy start dating after her then-husband Scott dies in a motorcycle accident, and then his side of the family raids their house and takes everything. This is when things really start to go downhill. You notice Dad drinking more and him spending more sober time with Nancy than you or Jon.

Despite all this, you do manage to have some father-son bonding time with him. He would record shows all the time throughout the week and during the weekends you and Jon were there, all three of you would watch them. You would watch wrestling matches from the WWF and WCW together, as well as a show called DragonBall-Z. I still hold those memories close to my heart.

There were a lot of times when Mom wouldn’t understand how you were feeling about all these changes in your life, and Dad would be there to listen to you and he would totally understand everything. After you guys move, you would go to a pay phone & call him everyday after school and tell him about your day & any problems that you had.

While we get along with Mom, Dad understood our thought process the best. These are the things I miss the most about him.

We’re pretty deep into the letter now, so I think it’s about time I drop the bombshell on you. Dad dies of liver failure due to excessive drinking only a month after you graduate high school in 2004. Let me back up a bit, because this is where Jon’s current problems that involve you come from too.

During the summer vacation in 2002, you get to spend a good portion of your summer with Dad, and he’s pretty much drunk 24/7 at that point. You eventually get fed up with it, and you take Jon & have him write a letter saying that you both don’t want to see Dad until he cleans up his act. It’s this letter that Jon holds against you, but we’ll get to that in a sec.

Sadly, you don’t hear from Dad again until two years later when he goes to St. Rita’s hospital because his liver is failing and he’s dying. The doctors say that he has 6 months to live, but he’ll be taken to this place called Briarwood where you’ll be able to visit him again to say your goodbyes and make your peace. When Dad’s in the hospital, Roger (yeah, he’s still dating Mom, and they’ll get married a year later) will offer to drive you and Jon up to the hospital to visit him.

Visit him. As horrifying as it may be to see Dad all hooked up with tubes and whatnot, looking already half-dead with gray skin and long, dirty & greasy hair, man up and go. Take Jon with you. This will be your last chance to see him alive. Make your peace with him and get out of there. You don’t have time to be angry or mad at him for what he put you through; you only have time for forgiveness.

When you are at his funeral, Rick Barr, an old friend of his, will ask you and Jon if you inherited any of Dad’s musical talent or ear. You won’t have an answer for him, but that along with Mom’s encouragement will bring the guitar back into your life again.

For the love of God, practice and get good at the damn thing!! No half-assing it, mister! Also, try to form a band with some of your friends to help you get better.

Jon in 2013 is seriously not living up to what he could be. Admittedly, he’s way smarter than you and got better grades in school, but after barely graduating his senior year due to having a massive breakdown, his life has been one emotional roller-coaster after another. You suspect that the same mental illness that plagued Dad is also plaguing him, but because he doesn’t want to get help, you won’t know if he just has issues or if there’s something more to it.

As much as you have reached out to him and told him to get his shit straightened out and go to college, the only thing you can do is just be there for him when he needs his big brother. He keeps himself impossibly busy these days with a dead-end minimum-wage job, so he doesn’t talk to you or Mom much, which makes me feel really sad and alone.

I could tell you more about your life and your friends of the future, but honestly man, I don’t wanna ruin the surprise for ya!

Let’s just say that your current job in 2013 lets you travel all over the world, and while it may be  a pain in the ass at times and you get homesick frequently, you make a lot of new friends and you become someone who inspires others around the world to do what you do. Also, you’re going to Japan in 2013; over 20 years after Terry & Terri moved out there!

Just remember to follow your own path and don’t be afraid to ask for advise from your friends and family, but don’t let others direct your life for you.

Make the most of today. Time waits for no man. Yesterday is history, Tomorrow a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present. It may not always be gift-wrapped, but enjoy the present nonetheless.

I love you with all my heart,

Future You.

P.S: Lay off the damn junk food and eat right when you get to college, otherwise you’ll end up getting fat. Seriously.

Hey gang!

Well, like the title says, it’s certainly been a long time since I posted anything here.

I know I promised to get this blog back up to speed, but I failed miserably :p

So just in case you were wondering what I’ve been up to for the past year, here’s a quick recap:

- I went on my first deployment onboard the USS Curts (FFG-38), which was also her final deployment before getting decommissioned.

- I made STG2 (E-5).

- I’m currently back at ASW going through AV-15 OPS.

- After graduating on May 10th, I go back home on leave for 2 weeks.

- After that, I report to my new ship, the USS Lassen (DDG-82), stationed at Yokosuka Japan.

So while I still do want to bring this blog back up to speed, considering the MASSIVE back catalog of videos and stuff, it will take me a bit.

Please be patient as I bring everything up to current. There may be days when there’ll be a shit-ton of posts and then days where there’s nothing posted.

Also, after I get that taken care of, I plan on redesigning the site. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know in the comments below!

As always, I look forward to writing again as well as continuing to vlog.

If you wanna keep on the up-and-up with what I’m up to, please follow me on Twitter or watch my main channel on the YouTube-z0rz!

See ya next time!

TheAndySan

Navy Dress Whites

I recorded this video after my Dress Whites inspection to show some changes in my uniform from the last video I did in my Whites (most notably, the E-4 patch).

Enjoy and please comment, although try to be civil!

TheAndySan

First up, I’m really enjoying my time back home on transfer leave. I’m really excited to be going to my first ship, the USS Curts (FFG-38) when I get back. However, this means that my updates will be a lot fewer & farther between since I’ll have a pretty demanding workload ahead of me, so don’t be surprised if I drop off the radar from time to time.

What I’m working on right now is uploading all my old videos that got recorded and forgotten about for various reasons, mostly due to a lack of time in editing/rendering them. Lots of old Riff Ideas are slowly cropping up on my YouTube page, and I’m looking to get my trip to Convoy Street and some unboxing videos out this week as well.

While that’s going on, I’ll also be playing catch-up on my blog with all the videos I missed. Because of that, there’s gonna be a ton of frequent updates on here, so don’t get scared away & think I’m spamming you guys or something.

Well, that’s all I have for now. Deuces!!

TheAndySan

May 2012 Update – Vlog 107 

GET YOUR PONY

In this short update video, I talk about getting orders to the USS Curts (FFG-38) out here in San Diego!!

As time allows, I’ll be editing & releasing even more stuff!!

TheAndySan

BOSS BR-80 Unbox – Unboxing (Part 1-2)

BUY BOSS BR-80

I unbox my new BOSS BR-80 micro recorder!

BOSS BR-80 Unbox – Demo (Part 2-2)

BUY BOSS BR-80

I go over some of the essential features of my new BOSS BR-80 micro recorder!

Feel free to rate, comment, and subscribe to get on the up-and-up with my upcoming videos!

TheAndySan

KORG Pitchclip Tuner Unbox & Demo

BUY KORG Pitchclip Tuner

I unbox my new KORG Pitchclip Guitar/Bass Tuner, show what else is in the box, show how to install the battery, and demonstrate how to use it by tuning up my trans blue Dean Performer Quilt Ash acoustic!

Feel free to rate, comment, and subscribe to get on the up-and-up with my upcoming videos!

TheAndySan

Riff Idea #19 (Rough Draft) – Chrome Sparks

I’m playing this new Riff Idea on my blueburst Dean ML 79 that’s plugged into my Boss BR-80 hooked into my Jet City 20w combo.

Keep in mind that this is just a rough draft so my playing’s not 100%.

Enjoy and please comment!!

TheAndySan

April 2012 Update – Vlog 106

In this long-ass update video, I talk about a lot of stuff.

First off, I want to thank you guys for helping support my friend Sean aka SecludedOtaku by buying his handmade Ponies on eBay. At this time, he doesn’t have any ready-made, but if you want your own custom Pony, be sure to talk to him via the link above and he’ll draw up a commission for you!

I’m thinking about starting up Twitter again & creating a Facebook fan page. What do you guys think?

Over this weekend, I’ve uploaded the rest of the Eric Johnson set so be sure to check out my Playlists for that! With that said, I’m now working on some of my older projects that have been on the backburner for awhile, such as my BOSS BR-80 & Korg Pitchclip unboxing videos and a Life In Video where Sam and I go to the San Diego Zoo & a car exhibit in the Gaslamp District.

As far as Love Hina Abridged goes, I’m still searching for a replacement voice actress for Shinobu. If you want to audition, send me a 1-2 minute audition video of you acting as Shinobu. You can use lines from the show or the first episode of LHA if you want to. If you have any questions about auditioning, feel free to send me a personal message on YouTube!

Once my tax return comes in, aside from paying my parents back for helping me pay off one of my debts, I’ll be trading in my Jet City 20w combo for a Blackstar HT-5R combo, so look forward to that unboxing/demo!!

Finally, I reveal how I’m holding up after Sam left for Norfolk, my new diet, and discuss the future of my videos & the relevency of my website.

I know there’s loads that I talk about, but I hope you watch all of it! Please subscribe and leave me a comment below!

TheAndySan

Riff Idea #18 – Chrome Sparks

Here’s a new Riff Idea I came up with while in Guitar Center today! I’m playing a Schecter Synyster Gates Custom in SYN Black w/Silver Stripes through a Peavey Vyper 30w combo on XXX Green with Slap Back and Analog Phaser enabled.

Enjoy and please comment!!

TheAndySan