#mikeblog

[curiousquail]

Hack the Multiverse was a blast - got to do a fun set of some songs we’ve not done in ages, some stuff from the new album and I threw together the most barebones chiptune + guitar / vocals cover of Die Anywhere Else from the Night in the Woods soundtrack! For right now though, it’s nice to be back at the Desert Art Colony to get back to work on finishing Empty Victories. 

We’re heading back to LA on July 13th, full band this time, and we have a bunch more west coast shows that we’ll hopefully get to announce on Monday. Have a great weekend everyone! 

[curiousquail]

Meet The Fuzzles

For those of you following the band for music stuff you may have missed our accidental cat antics over the last year. On March 27th of 2016 we found 5 newborn kittens in our backyard - a second litter of 3 with different parents was born a few weeks later, followed by 5 more, followed by, followed by, etc. Our house seems to be built atop a Kitten Portal - a seeming perpetual rift between our world and one populated entirely by Kittens, as the total tally as of last week stands at 24 arrivals. 

We’ve done our best to take in the kittens and nurse them till their old enough for adoption, as well as trap and fix the moms; San José has a free trap and release program for ferals which has been super helpful. 

This newest batch (The Fuzzles - each litter has an identifying name so we can keep track - Kitters, Soot Sprites, Floofs, etc) were born two days before we caught their respective mom, unbeknownst to us - and since I was too sick to take her in that day and the following day the shelter was closed, we still had her with us when we heard the mewing coming from under the house. Keep in mind, most of the litters have been born in the yard proper - in a bush, in an old woodpile, etc - but this time the sounds were UNDER the house. So I had to pop open the crawlspace and spelunk the length of the house to find these six lil critters, sad, alone, and hungry. 

We’ve reunited them with their mom who is becoming surprisingly less feral as a result of the whole thing and is even letting us pet her. I got a purr from her last night, so she clearly understands we aren’t going to harm her or the little ones. 

ANYWAY we’re supplemental bottle feeding these critters because they were alone for so long but they’re growing healthy, and once she’s done nursing them we’re going to get her fixed and all the little ones adopted out. 

UNRELATED: We’ve been taking a hiatus from playing live because we’re working pretty hard on Empty Victories; I’m not sure we’ve made an announcement here on the site officially but a few months ago we decided to expand the 5 song EP into a full-length album to be released later this year. It’ll be worth the wait, I promise. In the meantime we’re releasing more content on our YouTube (covers, etc) so make sure to subscribe there! 

Photos / Blog by Mike S-D

[mikeandjavi]

NFL Super Bowl XLVIII

The Super Bowl is the only reason why Americans learn how to read roman numerals. On February 2nd, 2014; the Denver Broncos will meet the Seattle Seahawks in the 48th Super Bowl. Being that this is the biggest sporting event in the United States, I thought I would talk about it in my next video.

[mikeandjavi]

Happy New Year!

I want to wish everyone a happy 2014. I am very excited to see how MikeandJavi.com develops over the course of this year. Javi and I have been working hard and have a few things "up our sleeves" this year. We will continue to push ourselves to create new and exciting content to achieve our goal of connecting the "Spanish learning" and "English learning" communities. Stay tuned... -Mike

[mikeandjavi]

The Holiday Season

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is the abundance of local festivals. Every city has some sort of seasonal celebration. In the USA, It is common for larger cities to have a tree lighting festival. This week, I will take you to Lakewood, Ohio to see a tree lighting festival. This will also give me a chance to show you around the downtown area. If we're lucky, we might even see some interesting holiday characters.

[mikeandjavi]

Entrepreneurship

What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? I've asked myself this question for more than 10 years. Merriam-Webster defines the word as follows: Entrepreneur: A person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money. While this may be the technical definition of the word, I feel like it is an oversimplified definition: It defines the result, but not the process. What fascinates me is the entrepreneurial mindset. An entrepreneur has a "can do", problem solving, mentality. Yes, entrepreneurs are "risk takers", but we are also opportunity seekers. I would like to share some of my insights into the Entrepreneurial mindset, in future videos, because I feel like everyone can benefit from the entrepreneur's way of thinking about things. -Mike

[mikeandjavi]

Running during the winter

I've been hiking for many years, but I recently started running. When I do go for a run, I prefer to run outdoors. The only problem is that, in Ohio, we have very cold winters. This mean that I often have to go running in snow gear. Next week, I will talk all about what it's like to run in the cold weather. -Mike

[mikeandjavi]

Charlie the cat

Hi, I'm Charlie. Mike has been really busy with "Thanksgiving", "Black Friday" and other family events. So, next week, I thought I would grab his camera and tell you all about the life of a modern American cat. My cat paws are kind of clumsy on this human keyboard, so I hope I uploaded the video right. It should show up sometime around Tuesday. Unless the mice have sabotaged the computer again. -Charlie the cat